All for the Greater Good

 

 

Thursday, February 6th

 

12-1pm        Registration

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1pm             Welcome

     Merit Janow, Dean, Columbia School of International & Public Affairs 

1:15-3:15pm     Case Studies on the Economic Future 

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                          I:  The Future of Agriculture | 1:15-1:55pm

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     Tom Vilsack, former USDA Secretary, CEO of the US Dairy Export Council.

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     Sara Menker, Founder & CEO, Gro-Intelligence

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     Moderator: Tracy Sefl, nationally recognized communications specialist with particular expertise in elite

     media and issue advocacy.

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     II:  The Future of Manufacturing | 1:55-2:35pm

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     Malcolm Frank, President, Cognizant Digital Business, co-author What To Do When Machines Do

     Everything.

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     Jim Davis, Vice Provost for IT at UCLA, co-founder Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition, 

     leader of US DOE’s Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute.

 

     Moderator: James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, co-author of Our Towns: A 100,000

     Mile Journey into the Heart of America. 

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                          III:  The Future of Health Care | 2:35-3:15pm

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     Andre Goy, M.D., M.S., an internationally renowned clinician and researcher of all types of

     lymphoma, has been co-chair of the Global Council on the Future of Health and Healthcare for the

     World Economic Forum since 2015. 

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     Ivan Wicksteed, Chief Marketing Officer of Oscar, a health-insurance start-up that is using technology,

     design, and data to help humanize and simplify healthcare.

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     Jay Angoff, former head of Obamacare implementation for US Department of Health & Human

     Services.

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     Moderator: Dr. Linda Rhodes, former Pennsylvania Cabinet Secretary, gerontologist, and author of the

     1199SEIU Training & Employment Fund report,"Technology's Impact on Health Care Jobs."

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3:15-3:30pm     Break

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3:30-4:45pm     Report from America:  The "Hackathons"

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     In the run-up to this year’s conference, we asked Americans across the country to participate in “policy 

     hackathons” to devise their own solutions to the economic challenges facing our country.  Attendees

     from each of these events will report the recommendations and look for common themes in how our

     country views the future – and the needed policies.  We’ll also have video highlights of these events.

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     Andrew Rich, Dean, Colin Powell Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, City College of 

     New York.

     Dave Baiocchi, Professor of Public Policy, Pardee RAND Graduate School of Public Policy, Los Angeles,

     California.

     Brad Best, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, Buena Vista University, Storm Lake,

     Iowa.

     Seth Andersen, John C. Culver Public Policy Center at Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa.

     Amber McNamara, Cedar Rapids Public Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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     Moderator: James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, co-author of Our Towns: A 100,000

     Mile Journey into the Heart of America.

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4:45-5:30pm     The Coming Storm

 

     George Friedman, geopolitical forecaster and strategist, founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures,

     author of the forthcoming, The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the

     2020s, and the Triumph Beyond.

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5:30-6:30pm     Reception

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Friday, February 7th

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8-9am           Registration | Breakfast Rolls, Bagels, Tea, Coffee & Juice

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9-10:15am    Community Engagement, Personal Data and Smart City Solutions for the Urban

                      Street Scape

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     Barbara Askins, President & CEO of the 125th Street Business Improvement District in Upper Manhattan      (Harlem), New York City, public involvement specialist on transportation, environmental and facility     

     planning projects in several cities that included reconstruction of highways and city streets, upgrading

     rail and bus systems, improving sewage-treatment facilities, creative public spaces, and sports and

     conventions center.

 

     Robin Chase, co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, co-founder of Veniam, author of Peers Inc: How

     People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism.

 

     Kathleen McKeown, Henry and Gertrude Rothschild Professor of Computer Science and director of the

     Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, Columbia University.

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     Andrew Rasiej, civic and social entrepreneur, technology strategist, and Founder of Civic Hall, a

     collaborative work center, and event space currently located in the Flatiron district of Manhattan

     supporting a growing community of people and organizations building technology solutions for the

     public good.

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     Moderator:  Ester Fuchs, Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science, Columbia University School of

     International and Public Affairs

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10:15-11:15am       New Industries & Opportunities:  The Case for Techno-optimism

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     Eric Horvitz, Technical Fellow and Director of Microsoft Research, Founder of the One Hundred Year

     Study on AI, Founding Chair of the Partnership on AI, Recipient of the Allen Newell Award and

     Feigenbaum Prize for advances in AI.

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     Brian Selander, President & COO, Ownable; former executive VP, Whistle Sports Network, Fast

     Company's #3 Most Innovative Company in the World in Video (Disney was #2).
 

     Peter Shanley, Co-Founder, CoverUS mobile healthcare-data app, has launched innovative products and

     services for Fortune 500’s, startups, and non-profits for over fifteen years.

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     Vijay Modi, Columbia University Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Director, Infrastructure Programs,

     UN Millennium Villages Project, developed “SharedSolar,” the first smartly managed pay-as-you-go solar

     minigrid project in Africa.

 

     Moderator: Rob Pegoraro, Contributing Writer to USA Today, Yahoo Finance, Wirecutter, Fast Company

     and others.

 

11:15am-12:30pm    Data and Disruption

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     Soroush Abbaspour, Program Director, Blockchain for Healthcare at IBM; director, Columbia-IBM Center

     for Blockchain & Data Transparency.

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     Dr. Laura DeNardis, Professor and Interim Dean of the School of Communication at American

     University, author of six books including the just-released The Internet in Everything: Freedom and

     Security in a World with No Off Switch.

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     Kalev Leetaru, one of Foreign Policy Magazine's Top 100 Global Thinkers, Google Developer Expert for

     Google Cloud Platform, Media Fellow at the RealClearFoundation and Senior Fellow at the George

     Washington University Center for Cyber & Homeland Security.

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     Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT professor and Director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, co-author of

     several books including Machine Platform Crowd: Harnessing our Digital Future and NYTimes best-

     seller The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies.

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     Moderator:  David Rotman, Editor at large, MIT Technology Review.

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12:30-1:15pm  Lunch Buffet

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1:15-2:30pm    The Future of Work and Workers

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     Amy Dean, Fellow at The Century Foundation, labor activist, social entrepreneur, and co-author of

     A New New Deal: How Regional Activism Will Reshape the American Labor Movement.

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     Angela Jackson, head of Future of Work Initiative at New Profit, Inc.

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     Lynn Barendsen, Project Director, the Good Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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     Dr. Linda Rhodes, former Pennsylvania Cabinet Secretary, gerontologist, and author of the

     1199SEIU Training & Employment Fund report,"Technology's Impact on Health Care Jobs."

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     Moderator: Steven Greenhouse, former labor and workplace writer for the New York Times, contributor

     to The American Prospect, and author, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of

     American Labor.

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2:30-2:45pm     Break

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2:45-4pm   A Completely New Kind of Economy?

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     Robin Chase, co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, co-founder of Veniam, author of Peers Inc: How

     People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism.

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     Marina Gorbis, executive director of Silicon Valley's Institute for the Future, author of The Nature of the

     Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World.

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     Barry C. Lynn, Director, Open Markets Institute; author, Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and

     the Economics of Destruction.

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     Daniel Araya, consultant and advisor to companies within tech industry, focusing on innovation, public

     policy, and business strategy. 

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     Moderator: Sree Sreenivasan, Visiting Professor of Digital Innovation and Audience Engagement at

     Stony Brook University School of Journalism; digital and social consultant for nonprofits, corporations,     

     startups and executives; former Chief Digital Officer for the City of New York, Columbia University, and

     the Metropolitan Museum of Art (keeping the 150-year-old institution relevant in the smartphone age);      named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business and the world's most influential     

     Chief Digital Officer.

 

4-5pm  Solutions:  Student Social Entrepreneurs

 

     A concluding panel with a leading social venture pioneer and a half-dozen student social entrepreneurs

     from Columbia University launching innovative solutions to the challenges facing the world.  Always a hit

     at the Greater Good Gathering.  This year's featured social entrepreneur:

 

     Kyle Zimmer, President, CEO, and Co-founder of First Book, a family of social enterprises addressing a

     spectrum of educational barriers faced by children in need. Kyle pioneered the organization’s

     sustainable, market-driven e-commerce model that provides educators with free and affordable, high-

     quality new books, educational resources, and basic needs items.  She serves on the boards of Dr. Seuss

     Enterprises, Ashoka, and Youth Venture and has been featured at the Clinton Global Initiative, World

     Economic Forum, University of Oxford and is a regular lecturer at the Wharton School of Business and

     Columbia Business School.  She was named Nonprofit Marketer of the Year and Outstanding Social

     Entrepreneur of the Year, and one of Fast Company’s 45 Social Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing the

     World, among numerous awards for public service. 

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     Student Social Entrepreneurs:

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     Pranav Ramkumar:  Ciclico, which makes technology allowing developers, investors

     and policymakers to browse heat islands on a visual interface and determine if green infrastructure

     intended at mitigating urban heat are having their intended effect.

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     Dustin Martelo: Alley Spot leverages data analytics, autonomous vehicles, and parking solution providers

     to create a more efficient urban traffic flow in an era of on-demand rides that contribute to congestion,

     wasteful consumption of energy, and deterioration of roads and municipal infrastructures.

 

     William McMillan Plews-Ogan: Offset is is a mobile app that allows daily individual users to donate a

     small sum to be invested in user-selected portfolios of carbon scrubbing companies and consumer

     products that are produced with net-zero emissions.  

 

     Edi Saputra and Lindi Anggraini: VocatiNest is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based online job platform that

     provides end-to-end services to empower 5 million Indonesian vocational students and 1.7 million

     graduates annually to consolidate their competencies or take necessary actions to improve themselves          to get fit in targeted jobs.

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     Shanna Crumley: Bitae Technologies is a technology platform for refugees and other vulnerable

     populations to carry their skills and experiences with them in a secure, verified portfolio — essentially a

     “digital CV” for the 21st century.

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     Allison Rogg:  Students like Allison in Columbia's Design for Social Innovation course are assisting the

     Harlem Children's Zone to apply design thinking to social innovation.

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     Moderator: Eric Schnurer, President, Public Works LLC, founder of the Greater Good Initiative.

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