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Friday, February 9,  8  AM – 6 :30 PM
The Study at University City 
20 S 33rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19104

2024 Conference Agenda

Opens at 8 am | Prefunction

Breakfast & Check-in
 

9:00 am ET | Salon

Opening Remarks
 

9:00 - 9:50 am ET | Salon

Senior Executive Fireside Chat - Shaping Our Cities: In Conversation with Senior Leaders

By 2050, 2/3rds of the world will live in cities; in the U.S., nearly 90% of the population will. Bigger cities require bigger projects. How is technology expanding our ability to address this demand while building more resilient, inclusive, and livable cities? Executives manage a myriad of stakeholders while also inspiring teams to dream up a better future. How they choose to lead quite literally shapes our lives.

Panelists:
Leah Johnson, EVP, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor of Operations, City of New York
Thabo Lenneiye, Managing Director, Penn Praxis
 

9:55 - 11:10 am ET | Salon

Panel I: The ROI of Experimenting on an Urban Scale

Experimenting at the urban scale is equally necessary and risky. Grafting technologies onto existing infrastructures is critical to prototyping and building successful urban tech. Cities are also wary of inadvertently permitting tech graveyards all around town. How are technologies that need urban scale pilots to demonstrate product and market feasibility funded? What are the challenges to determining metrics of success, and when do experiments need to pivot? 

Panelists:
Matthew Britt, Global GM Smart Cities, Honeywell
Isabelle Granahan-Field, Investor, Camber Creek
John Means, Partner, McKinsey & Company
Andrew Staniforth, CEO, Assembly OSM
 

9:55 - 10:25 am ET | Drafting Room

Demo I: itselectric
Nathan King, Co-Founder
 

10:30 - 11:10 am ET | Drafting Room

Demo II: Spatial Pixel
Violet Whitney, Co-Founder
William Martin, Co-Founder
 

11:10 - 11:20 am ET | Prefunction

Coffee Break
 

11:20 - 12:30 pm ET | Salon

Panel II: Nature as Technology in Building Urban Resilience

Unofficially, we are in the Anthropocene era. Officially, human activity is the most dominant influence on climate change. Biodiverse landscapes are dramatically transforming into urban environments, reducing their natural resilience to climate stressors. However, on the other side of the same coin, urban biodiversity offers crucial ecosystem services like heat island reduction, stormwater management, pollination, and carbon sequestration. How can we leverage the nexus of the built and natural worlds to build cities truly ready to withstand the test of time? What nature-based solutions are working to keep us and our planet safe?

Panelists:
Andrew Rudd, Urban Environment Officer, UN-Habitat
Erica Smith-Fichman, Community Forestry Manager, Phl Parks & Rec
Gena Wirth, Design Principal, SCAPE Landscape Architecture
Catherine Seavitt, Chair, Weitzman School of Design, Penn
 

11:20 - 11:45 am ET | Drafting Room

Lightning Lecture
James Pokluda, Federal Government Account Manager, Honeywell 
 

12:30 - 1:40 pm ET | Prefunction

Lunch 
 

1:45 - 3:00 pm ET | Salon

Panel III: Advancing Mobility Through Collaborative Technology
 
In 2021, only 2.5% of U.S. commuters traveled with public transit. Enhancing our commutes, from work to concerts and everywhere in between, is critical to catalyzing an interconnected, equitable, and sustainable urban future. What are the emerging strategies, visionary policies, and inspiring success stories? How do technologies, from electric bikes to synthetic data, make these innovations possible?

Panelists:
Arthur Getman, Senior Engineer, Replica, Alphabet Inc.
Pamela Jennings, White House Presidential Innovation Fellow, DOT
Laura Culp, Planning Manager, Bicycle Transit Systems (Indego)
Grant Engel, Data Policy Manager, SEPTA
Miguel Willis, Innovator in Residence, Penn’s Carey School of Law
 

1:45 - 2:20 pm ET | Drafting Room

Demo III: Domestic Data Streamers
Pau Garcia, Co-Founder
 

3:00 - 3:15 pm ET | Prefunction

Coffee Break
 

3:15 - 4:25 pm ET | Salon

Panel IV: Accelerating Progress Towards Carbon Zero

2050 is only 26 years away. Cities around the world are committing to achieving carbon-zero by then. While cities account for more than 70% of global carbon emissions, the world will continue to urbanize - for the better. Density also makes our cities vibrant, accessible, and often historic. But when 99% of future city visualizations look nothing like our cities today, what does the future city really look like? Especially when the future we seek to achieve is in our lifetimes. How will we adapt centuries-old buildings and urban systems to meet our modern energy and tech demands?

Panelists:
Christina Chu, Co-Founder, Solarpunks
Dom McGraw, Deputy Director, City of Phl’s Office of Sustainability
Christian Kunkel, Director of Data Partnerships and Acquisition, BlocPower
David Klatt, President & COO, Logical Buildings
Bill Braham, Director, Center for Environmental Buildings + Design, Penn
 

3:15 - 4:00 pm ET | Drafting Room

Demo IV: Philadelphia OIT
Chris Shelley, Urban Mobility, Office of Innovation and Technology, City of Philadelphia 
w/ Andrew Buss, Deputy CIO, and Tara Woody, Innovation Manager

4:30 - 5:00 pm ET | Salon

Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center Distinguished Speaker
Spencer Levy, Global Client Strategist & Senior Economic Advisor, CBRE
 

5:00 pm ET | Salon

Closing Remarks
 

5:15 - 6:30 pm ET | Drafting Room

Happy Hour
 

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