Cucalorus welcomes visionary leaders from around the world to downtown Wilmington for this year’s Connect Conference, A Future for Everyone, November 14-15 at the Brooklyn Arts Center. Nick Adkins, co-founder of Pinksocks Life, a former healthcare executive turned digital health evangelist, delivers the festival keynote focused on promoting human connection around the world.
Cucalorus Programming Director Rachel Taylor worked with Connect Coordinator Jenn Salter and Program Manager Mike Orr to build this year’s program to explore how technology and creativity can work together to address social issues and make the world a better place for everyone. Speakers include:
● Jake Kheel,vice president of Grupo Puntacana Foundation in the Dominican Republic exploring how coastal companies can become engines of environmental innovation while maintaining environmental sustainability.
● Marie Johnson, managing directorCentre for Digital Business in Australia, sharing what she sees as her moonshot, the “humanitarian revolution” where digital humans are part of an augmented health ecosystem: helping patients and reducing staff burnout.
● Girard Newkirk, founder and CEO of KWHCoin and NewNext Advanced Energy moderating an international panel discussion on Blockchain technology, poised to fundamentally change the way machines, people and businesses interact.
● Filmmakers Randall Dottin, Angela Tucker and local housing activists participating in a discussion centering around housing justice and examining possible solutions available for people who want to level the playing field while another session debates capitalism.
Chris Hillier, Executive Director of Innovation at New Hanover Regional Medical Center and a Cucalorus Connect Board member shared, “As culture, societies, and businesses are struggling to keep up with new powerful technologies that influence almost every part of our lives, now more than ever, we need to understand how we impact the future. The Connect Conference brings together an eclectic mix of creative, business and tech minds and is designed for us to explore what it means to be human and to ask ourselves what is our role and responsibility to one another, our community and the world we live in.”