John Harthorne, David Manfredi, Frank Moss Join Boston 2035 on 6/17

Boston 2035

We’re in the final stages of preparing for our biggest local event of the year: Boston 2035, a wide-ranging look at the future of New England innovation over the next 20 years. It’s all going down at Babson College this Wednesday.

I’m pleased to update you about a few additions to the program. John Harthorne, founder and CEO of MassChallenge, and Frank Moss, former director of the MIT Media Lab and chairman of Twine Health, will join a fascinating chat on the future of education and talent in our region. Facebook Boston’s Ryan Mack and moderator Jodi Goldstein from the Harvard i-lab will round out that group.

They’ll cover everything from how Boston companies can attract and retain top talent to what skills students and entrepreneurs need to be competitive in tomorrow’s global economy.

Also very excited to say that joining the program are David Manfredi from Elkus Manfredi Architects, Kishore Varanasi from CBT Architects, and Rodrigo Martinez from IDEO. They will present their ideas for designing Boston to be a more innovative city, in a special session moderated by Olin College’s Ben Linder, an expert in sustainable design. (Manfredi, by the way, is on the master planning advisory committee for the Boston 2024 Olympics bid. Not too much of a stretch to look 11 years further ahead, to 2035.)

Assaf Biderman from MIT and Superpedestrian and Abby Speicher from DARTdrones are helping us add fun, interactive elements to the program and networking sessions.

And in case I didn’t mention it before, Slater Victoroff, the CEO of Indico, will tell us the future of machine learning in five minutes (should be easy). Indico is an Olin startup that went through Techstars Boston last fall.

You can check out the full agenda for the day and register here. Did we mention drones and electric-hybrid bike rides? Yes, we did.

OK, bring your ideas and questions, and see you all Wednesday.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.