Authors, artists, and astronauts.
Senators, scientists, and superheroes.
CEOs, COOs, and CTOs.
The GeekWire Summit 2015 featured top executives, entrepreneurs, experts, and more than 800 attendees on Thursday and Friday in downtown Seattle this past week.
This was our first time hosting the Summit for two days, doubling the amount of fireside chats, power talks, and “Inventions We Love” segments.
It ended up being a fantastic time as we heard from technology leaders and innovators in a variety of fields, offering up interesting insights into the past, present, and future of their respective industries. We heard from people of all backgrounds and ages — even some impressive youngsters got in on the fun during the “Kids Tech Panel.”
There was also the debut of “The Treasure Trunk” where Summit attendees deciphered a geeky puzzle in order to unlock a trunk filled with fun tech gifts.
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We also enjoyed having Guillaume Wiatr sketch drawings on big murals near the stage inspired by what was being talked about during the interviews and presentations.
And thanks to Bruce Pavitt, the Sub Pop founder and Seattle music scene veteran who was spinning tunes during breaks and intermissions during both days of the Summit, keeping the mood upbeat with his vast catalogue of music tracks.
We’ll be posting videos from each session in the coming days, so stayed tuned for that. For now, we’ve put together a recap of the Summit for those who missed out or those that just want to relive the two-day event. Thanks to Kevin Lisota for snapping these fantastic photos.
And thanks to all of you for attending, and a huge thanks to all of our GeekWire Summit sponsors for helping to make this event happen.
Presenting sponsor: Bank of America, which is partnering with GeekWire on our Geeks Give Back campaign in support of the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship.
Gold Sponsors: Wave Business, WSGR, Best Buy, WE, Acumatica, Dice and Vulcan.
Silver Sponsors: OfferUp, Xtreme Consulting Group, EY, Hired, EMC/Isilon, Chef,Flowroute and UPS Connect.
Thursday, 9 a.m. — Top Seattle investors raise $12.5M for new ‘startup studio’ Pioneer Square Labs
Longtime Seattle investor Greg Gottesman was our first on-stage guest on Thursday morning, joining us to reveal the first public details about his new “startup studio” called Pioneer Square Labs.
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Thursday, 9:20 a.m. — Former Amazon execs: Working at Amazon a cinch compared to startup life
Former Amazon.com executives Nadia Shouraboura, Dave Cotter, and Sandi Lin shared insights into what it was like working at the Seattle tech giant during a panel moderated by New York Times reporter David Streitfeld, co-author of “Inside Amazon, Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace.”
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Thursday, 10:20 a.m — Join our Geeks Give Back campaign and help raise money to fund STEM education
Naria Santa Lucia, executive director of the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, and University of Washington computer science student Rutha Nuguse kick off the annual Geeks Give Back campaign, a new program GeekWire launched with Bank of America that will help support low and middle-income students in Washington state to pursue STEM degrees. Later on Thursday, Seattle angel investor Gary Rubens said he would match donations to the effort up to $125,000.
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Thursday, 10:50 a.m. — For Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, creating a softer workplace culture was always the goal
Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff discussed everything from the culture at Zillow, his company’s future, and why he likes to tweet.
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Thursday, 11:25 a.m. — Xbox chief Phil Spencer on how Microsoft recovered from early Xbox One blunders
Xbox chief Phil Spencer discussed a number of interesting insights into Microsoft’s gaming arm, touching on topics like Minecraft, Halo 5, and the company’s early mistakes with the Xbox One launch.
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Thursday, 1 p.m. — Nick Hanauer to tech community: Step up your social and civic engagement
Nick Hanauer, co-founder of venture capital firm Second Avenue Partners and founder of Civic Ventures, offered up opinions on minimum wage, gun control, and a number of other topics he is passionate about.
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Thursday, 1:30 p.m. — Reporter John Markoff and Microsoft Research head Peter Lee talk self-driving cars, robots taking the SAT and the AI of Hollywood
In one of the more geeky chats of the day, New York Times reporter John Markoff and Microsoft Research VP Peter Lee dove deep into the world of artificial intelligence and its potential impact on our future.
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Thursday, 2:10 pm. — Red planet vs. blue planet: Lori Garver looks ahead to Mars and the future of space
Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver joined freelance journalist Alan Boyle on stage for a space-related chat that included topics like sending astronauts to Mars and discovering a blue planet around an alien sun.
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Thursday, 2:55 p.m. — GeekWire Summit 2015: Here are 4 inventions we love
It was so fun hearing four Pacific Northwest-based entrepreneurs describe their products on stage during our first “Inventions We Love” segment. Participating companies included Excy, Wigl, PebbleBee, and You Kick Ass, which ultimately won the audience favorite award.
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Thursday, 3:30 p.m. — Glassdoor CEO Robert Hohman
Glassdoor CEO Robert Huhman talked about his 8-year-old company, a leader of the online employment community on recruiting and managing top employees, and building successful businesses in the modern tech economy.
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Thursday, 4 p.m. — 500 Startups co-founder Dave McClure: 90 percent of VCs are going to look like idiots in 10 years
Brady Forrest, Vice President of Highway1, and Dave McClure, Co-founder of 500 Startups, wrapped up Thursday with an energetic discussion about venture capital, a potential tech bubble, and their new Syfy reality show, “Bazillion Dollar Club.”
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Thursday, 5 p.m. — Opening Night Party at Sullivan’s Steakhouse
GeekWire Summit speakers, attendees and other VIPs gathered after Thursday’s sessions to eat, drink, and network at Sullivan’s Steakhouse. We also brought in a fun retro gaming arcade, where people played pinball, Pac-Man, and more.
Friday, 9 a.m. — DocuSign’s Tom Gonser on his decision to be founder and chief strategist, but not CEO
DocuSign founder Tom Gosner joined GeekWire reporter Tricia Duryee on stage to talk about handing over the CEO reins of his electronic signature company and the transition for DocuSign from a startup to a multi-national.
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Friday, 9:30 a.m. — Asteroids, plagues and why science needs more sex appeal: Our futurists take on the good and bad in tech
Science fiction writers, technologists, and a former astronaut came together for a fascinating chat about the future of science and space in a discussion moderated by GeekWire columnist Frank Catalano. Panelists included Hugo-award winning sci-fi writer Nancy Kress; computer scientist, futurist, and award-winning author Ramez Naam and former NASA astronaut and Sentinel Mission CEO Ed Lu.
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Friday, 10:20 a.m. — Geeks Give Back announcement with University of Washington student neurobiology student Mahdi Ramadan
Our second Geeks Give Back announcement featured UW stuent Mahdi Ramadan, who told his personal story and how, with the help of Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, he overcame struggles to make it to the UW.
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Friday, 10:55 a.m. — Power Talk with Dr. Jim Olson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
The serial startup founder and cancer researcher discussed the latest breakthroughs in the fight against one of the world’s most vexing diseases.
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Friday, 11:15 a.m. — Here’s what changed — and what didn’t — at Concur after its $8.3 billion acquisition by SAP
Fresh off the company’s purchase by SAP, the leaders of tech powerhouse Concur shared insights from building a successful company, and life after the acquisition.
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Friday, 1 p.m. — Tech-savvy Sen. Maria Cantwell says Hillary Clinton needs to respond faster in the digital age
Sen. Maria Cantwell dug into her tech background to offer presidential candidate Hilary Clinton some free campaign advice: “I think you have to respond more rapidly.”
https://twitter.com/Fuj_in_Seattle/status/650040814094028800
Friday, 1:15 p.m. — Power Talk: Analyzing disasters on social media
Kate Starbird, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington, discussed the emerging field of crisis informatics — the study of how information-communication technologies are used during crisis events.
https://twitter.com/ashmatty/status/650044899291611136
Friday, 1:35 p.m. — Head engineers talk about hiring, innovating and building world-class products in Seattle
Top technical leaders shared insights on hiring, innovating and building world-class products in an ultra-competitive industry. University of Washington computer science professor Ed Lazowska led the discussion with top technologists, including Redfin CTO Bridget Frey, Socrata CTO Deep Dhillon and Tim Prouty, head of Seattle software engineering at Uber.
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Friday, 2:15 p.m. — Kids Tech Panel
We invited four special guests to share their unique insights on technology and the future.
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Friday, 2:55 p.m. — Inventions We Love
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- Former Vicis CEO Dave Marver
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- MSR’s Laura McLaughlin and Glenn Austin, senior technical officer at PATH, present during the Inventions we Love segment at the 2015 GeekWire Summit.
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- Dan Shapiro speaks at the 2015 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire Photo)
Our second “Inventions We Love” segment included presentations from Glowforge, Vicis, Illumagear and the MSR SE200 Community Chlorine Maker, which ultimately took home the audience favorite award.
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Friday, 3:30 p.m. — Nike COO: We’re talking about opening a Seattle engineering center
We closed out the Summit with a sports-filled chat that featured Nike COO Eric Sprunk, who shared insight into the culture and innovation at Nike.
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