GeekWire Summit 2016: Relive our biggest tech conference yet with photos, videos, and more

Top executives from the likes of Microsoft and Expedia laid out their vision for the future. A biotech CEO explained how his company is fighting cancer. A former NFL wide receiver who nearly died on the field last year talked about the power of grit and determination. And Seattle was declared as “the Silicon Valley of saving the world.”

In between all of that, hundreds of entrepreneurs, engineers, executives, and many more met new friends, made business connections, and learned about the future of innovation.

The 2016 GeekWire Summit seemed to have it all as we welcomed more than 800 folks in downtown Seattle over an action-packed two days this week to learn from the top thinkers and builders across the tech industry.

Conversations ranged from self-driving spaceships to treatment of software developers to jumping out of airplanes without parachutes to solving the tech talent gap. You can check out our full coverage here, and some of our favorite moments from Day 1 and Day 2.

Along with the on-stage interviews and fun parties, attendees also had fun with the return of the Best Buy box, which offered prizes if folks could solve tricky puzzles.

We also welcomed back the awesome Guillaume Wiatr, who sketched drawings on big murals near the stage that were inspired by on-stage interviews and presentations.

 

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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. We’ll see you again at the GeekWire Gala this December.

A big thanks to Dan DeLong 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

Gold Sponsors: WSGR, Wave Business, Northeastern University, OfferUp, Centric, Lane Powell, Vulcan Technology and Zillow Group.

Silver Sponsors: Nuance, Moz, UPS Connect, Sirqul, CenturyLink and Flowroute.

Exhibitors: Frontier, DefenseStorm, Woot, ReachNow, Flock and Taser Axon.

Supporting Sponsors: Strideline, Best Buy, Accenture, Knoll,Global Innovation Exchange, Bootstrapper Studios, Killer Infographics, Frolik, ALLtech, Tagboard, Sharp and League.

Welcome Party at Zillow Group

Online real estate company Zillow Group hosted the Welcome Party at their downtown Seattle HQ. Summit attendees, speakers, and other VIPs enjoyed tasty food, cold drinks, and great networking with amazing views of the Seattle waterfront.

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Panel: The View from the Press Box

Top tech journalists — Nick Wingfield of The New York Times; Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet; and Jay Greene of The Wall Street Journal — kicked off the 2016 GeekWire Summit by laying out their unique insights into the state of the industry.

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Millennials: Growing Up Tech

Pioneer Square Labs co-founder Ben Gilbert; M3 Biotechnology CEO Leen Kawas; and Coding Dojo CEO Richard Wang shared perspectives on innovation, culture, and what it means to be a millennial entrepreneur.

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Geeks Give Back

Naria Santa Lucia, executive director of the WSOS, and Gary Rubens, a northwest entrepreneur and investor, representing the Rubens Family Foundation, helped us launch the second annual Geeks Give Back campaign, which raises funds for the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship (WSOS) that supports students studying STEM in Washington state.

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Fireside Chat: Peggy Johnson, EVP at Microsoft

Microsoft’s top dealmaker talked about a new era of cooperation and competition with longtime partners and rivals, as well as the company’s new venture arm.

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Fireside Chat: Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia

Expedia Inc.’s top boss talked about the future of travel, his thoughts on the presidential race, and what’s next in the road ahead for the travel giant.

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Sponsored Lunch Talk: Nick Huzar, CEO of OfferUp

The CEO of one of Seattle’s fastest-growing startups discussed how OfferUp is reimagining local commerce and why he’s not afraid of Facebook.

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Power Talk: Scott Wyatt of NBBJ

Wyatt talked about how technology and science are reshaping cities and changing the spaces where we live, work and play, while also explaining the rationale behind Amazon’s new biodomes.

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The Power of Grit: Ricardo Lockette, former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver

Lockette shared his inspiring story of overcoming multiple bouts of adversity, from growing up and making it to the NFL before having his playing career cut short due to a near-death experience during a game last season.

 

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Fireside Chat: Jeff Jordan, Andreessen Horowitz

The Airbnb board member and former OpenTable CEO discussed what’s hot in startup land and whether we’re in the midst of a bubble or on the verge of discovering the next big thing.

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Fireside Chat: Hans Bishop, CEO of Juno Therapeutics

Juno Therapeutics is taking the fight to cancer and Bishop is the CEO leading the charge. He talked about the company’s original name — F*** Cancer — and why the state of Washington needs to invest more in biotech.

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Job Title Bingo with Bridget Quigg

Bust out the bingo cards! In a twist on the age-old game, Techlandia creator Bridget Quigg provided an afternoon laugh with her funny take on tech job titles.

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Inventions We Love

We invited local innovators on stage for a fun geek show-and-tell featuring some of the coolest gadgets and hardware devices we’ve seen. Founders from Modumetal, ChefSteps, Lulabop, Package Guard and Coros all showed off their creations.

Opening Night Party

GeekWire Summit speakers, attendees and other VIPs and geeked out on one of the best rooftop decks in Seattle at Frolik at Motif Seattle. There were cold drinks, hot food, shuffleboard, ping pong, and more.

Sponsored Breakfast: Education Reboot: How Higher-Ed Can Help Solve the Tech Talent Gap

Panelists from Redfin, Galvanize, Microsoft, OfferUp, and Northeastern University led an informative discussion on some of the tech industry’s most pressing issues: How to educate the future workforce, how to solve the talent tech gap, and how to fix sexism and ageism.

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Fireside Chat: Arati Prabhakar, Director of DARPA

Drones. Cyber defense. Genetic engineering. The chief of the U.S. agency charged with developing cutting-edge technologies for the military talked about a wide-range of topics, helping us understand more about an organization with a history of developing technologies that make their way into civilian life, as well.

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Fireside Chat: Joel Spolsky, CEO of Stack Overflow

Spolksy gave insights into the modern world of software development from the engineer and entrepreneur whose musings on technology have entertained, informed and influenced the culture of programming for nearly two decades.

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Power Talk: Vikram Jandhyala, VP for Innovation Strategy at The University of Washington

Jandhyala talked about inclusive innovation, and how technology can have positive and meaningful impact on global problems such as homelessness, affordable housing and food access.

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Power Talk: Geeks Give Back

Jordana Dahmen, a senior biology major at Washington State University and one of the amazing WSOS scholars, gave an inspiring talk about her life story and how WSOS has helped her educational goals.

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Fireside Chat: Nathan Myhrvold, CEO of Intellectual Ventures

The former Microsoft technology chief, one of the most controversial figures and biggest thinkers in the industry, provided a unique glimpse into the future of technology, innovation and science. He said Seattle “is absolutely the Silicon Valley of saving the world” and talked about why his company, Intellectual Ventures, still believes in the power of patents.

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Sponsored Lunch Talk: From Elephants to Seahawks: The Wide World of Vulcan Technology

Spanning cutting edge AR/VR that extends experiences to leveraging machine learning and drones to protect endangered wildlife, Vulcan Technology’s Keith Rosema and Selvam Velmurugan revealed the focus and method of Paul Allen’s latest technology projects.

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Power Talk: The Jump! Luke Aikins, Skydiver

The man who wowed the world by jumping from an airplane at 25,000 feet — without a parachute — discussed the physics and science behind the death-defying jump, along with some of the lessons learned from taking a true leap of faith.

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Panel: Inside A.I.

Bot or Not? We heard about how the emerging world of artificial intelligence is transforming our work and lives from Dr. Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and UW professor; and machine intelligence expert Shivon Zilis, the founding member of Bloomberg Beta, a $75 million venture fund backed by Bloomberg L.P. that invests in startups transforming the future of work.

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Tech and Politics: Teddy Goff

Teddy Goff, the political insider and digital strategist of the Hillary Clinton campaign, talked about how technology is being used in one of the most bizarre elections in American history.

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