With just a few days to go until Techonomy Health next Tuesday May 16th and Techonomy NYC Wednesday May 17th, it’s been a flurry of activity here finalizing not only the program but also the next issue of Techonomy magazine. We love putting out a magazine, and this year we’ll do it twice!
The magazine will hit our community first at the Techonomy Health conference program, and there’s a significant health section in the new issue. It includes another great article on genomics by our resident expert Meredith Salisbury and excerpts from an interview David Kirkpatrick did with Craig Venter at the StartUp Health festival earlier this year. These will compliment a couple of great panels over the two days of our conferences–the first Techonomy Health, and then Techonomy NYC.
A key session at health is a look at how all this tech – be it artificial intelligence, data, analytics, genomics or CRISPR – is impacting how we detect and treat cancer (the second biggest killer in the US) This panel (Finally: Headway with Cancer) will include the Chief Medical Officer of Color Genomics Dr. Jill Hagenkord, pediatric cancer specialist, cutting edge researcher and the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Dr. Andrew Kung and Dr. Eric Schadt, Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomics Sciences at Mount Sinai – all rock stars in their field.
Another Tuesday session, called Writing Our Genome, will delve into what it means now that we’ve moved from decoding/reading our genome to “writing” it. If you’ve been to any of our conferences, or read our newsletter, you’ll know that this topic has been something of particular interest to us for some time now. Jef Boeke, Director of the Institute for Systems Genetics and Biochemistry and Nancy J Kelley, of NJK+Associates and the Founding Executive Director of the New York Genome Center, join us to report on how DNA synthesis, gene editing and other technological advances are advancing our ability to unlock the huge potential of understanding our biological systems. Jef and Nancy are two of the newsworthy GP-write leadership team that includes long time Techonomist Andrew Hessel and biologist, geneticist and synbio pioneer Prof. George Church. The group had their own conference, GP-Write, this week in New York.
I’m also looking forward to the presentation by Eligible founder and CEO Katelyn Gleason. Her medical billing company aims to reform medical billing and payments. This is, according to Techcrunch, “a large untapped and lucrative industry” But more to the point…does anyone understand their medical bills in this country? Well soon, thanks to Eligible, hopefully we will! To get a glimpse into some of the complexity read this excellent article: Those Indecipherable Medical Bills? They’re One Reason Healthcare Costs So Much, by the New York Times’ Elizabeth Rosenthal.
On May 17 we switch from health and health tech to Techonomy NYC. A one day version of our annual November flagship conference in Ca (this year Nov. 5-7) we’ll kick off with an interview with Union Square Ventures Fred Wilson, one of the great spokespeople of tech in New York. Following that will be what is sure to be a great conversation on Tech in an Age of Insecurity, with The Financial Times’ Gillian Tett, Fred Krupp of the Environmental Defense Fund, who is working hard on climate change, and renowned AI and automation expert Rodney Brooks of Rethink Robotics. This is our big-picture discussion of how tech can help us get out of the multitude of messes we’re in.
Blockchain, Identity, and the Future of Recordkeeping, later that day, delves into what it means for business and society as we move into a world of increasing digital identity. Moderated by Digital Currency Group’s Meltem Demirors, the panel includes entrepreneur Melanie Schapiro of Tokenize, Daniel Buchner of Microsoft, David Treat of Accenture and Vinny Lingham of Civic.
This session is related to another session later in the day. Eli Pariser, CEO of Upworthy (and author of The Filter Bubble), Rachel Maguire of the Institute for the Future, and research psychologist and AI expert Gary F. Marcus of NYU will discuss who has “authority” in a technologized, artificially intelligent world. Backchannel’s Jessi Hempel will moderate this look at this world where everyone (and everything) is an expert. I have to thank Rachel for the spark that led to this idea. It was her presentation (What to Expect in 2026) at Techonomy back in November, where she talked about how emerging techs like AI, IoT etc. are shaping the way we confer authority in health and medicine that got us going down this road.
There’s a lot more, it’s a packed two days. I look forward to seeing you there!
