SXSW Eco Announces Sixth Keynote and Full Conference Programming Slate

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 28, 2016  /PRNewswire/ -- SXSW Eco®, the conference celebrating the power of design, technology and business to drive global change has announced a Keynote Conversation with Architectural Designer Michael Ford, Design Justice advocate Bryan Lee and moderated by Forbes Senior Editor Zack Greenburg. The session will discuss the cultural and colloquial implications of architecture in the built environment through the lens of Hip Hop Culture and Design Justice. The Keynote Conversation will take place Wednesday, October 12 at 2:00 PM. In addition, the full SXSW Eco 2016 conference programming slate has been announced and can be viewed below and online at schedule.sxsweco.com. SXSW Eco will take place on October 10-12, 2016 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX.

The Designing a Just City: Hip Hop Architecture Keynote Conversation joins previously announced SXSW Eco 2016 Keynotes: Dr. Sarah Richardson (Molecular Biologist), William McDonough (Architect, McDonough Innovation), Kate Brandt (Google), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Waterkeeper Alliance) and Bill Nye (Author, Educator and Entertainer).

SXSW Eco features collaborative events to facilitate direct connections, as well as focused panel sessions, one-on-one meetings, mentor sessions, workshops, and exciting competitions that will introduce attendees to transformative technologies, policies, products and ideas.

The SXSW Eco Startup Showcase presented by Austin Energy and Austin Technology Incubator is an exciting, fast-paced pitch competition featuring top impact companies from around the world. Moving into its fifth year, the event has become a launching pad for the latest innovations set to positively impact society and the environment, and serves as a place of discovery for investors, corporations, city and federal government officials, foundations and media outlets.

Place by Design highlights projects that rethink how people use and interact with place, including public art, urban interventions, digital technologies and architecture. The competition is open annually to artists, architects, designers and urbanists at all levels of experience.

SXSW Eco 2016 Programming Sessions by Track:

Cities

• Biophilic Cities
• Environmental and Mobility Impacts of Carsharing
• Equity in Practice: Building Power in the Rio Grande Valley
• Mapping our Way to an Inclusive 21st Century City
• Our Cities, Our Climate: A Solution Exchange
• The Street of the Future
• We're From DC and Here to Help: The DPDAN Network
• Keynote: William McDonough– Cradle to Cradle, The Circular Economy and The Carbon Positive City

Communications

• Climate Change is Funny
• Critical Engagement: Communicating Climate Across Divides
• Embracing Virality Without Selling Your Soul
• How to Affect Change Through Multimedia Storytelling
• Indigenous Storytelling for the 21st Century
• The Recoding: Creating a New Language for Good
• Why Should I Give A Shit?

Conservation + Adaptation

• Beyond the Hype: Bringing Synbio Products from Lab to Table
• Keynote: Bill Nye - The Optimistic View for Merging Energy and Climate Policies
• Conservation 3.0: Exponential Conservation
• Keynote: Dr. Sarah Richardson — The Planet is a Cookbook: Genetic Engineering Recipes for the Future
• Exponential Thinking for Water Abundance
• Fighting Mosquito-Borne Diseases
• Here's How We Feed, Fuel and Clothe Billions of People Without Destroying the Planet
• Humanitarian Design Summit
• Is Ethical, Community Driven Bioengineering Possible?
• Saving Our Coral Reefs: A Virtual Reality Dive Experience
• Take Meaningful Action: C02 Reduction for a Cooler Climate presented by Cool Effect
• The New Wave of Giving a Damn

Corporate Responsibility

• Behind the Spotlight: Sports and Music for Sustainability
• Color Blind: Why Your Company Isn't as Diverse as it Should Be
• Cradle to Cradle® Design Workshop
• Creating Inclusive Business Through the Power of Art
• CSR Beyond Carbon Neutrality
• Design for Seven Billion. Design for One.
• Growing Food for our Growing World: How the Ag Industry is Preparing
• Keynote: Kate Brandt - Designing 21st Century Infrastructure — Where the Engines of the Internet Meet the Circular Economy
• Net Positive – How Business Can Create Benefits that Outweigh the Impacts
• Plastic Reduction In Action: Local Policy, Business and a Refill Revolution
• Radical Empathy Building for Innovation
• The New Radicals: Companies Embracing Transparency
• Values-Driven is About Making Hard Decisions
• Will the Next Alexander McQueen be a Biologist?

Energy

• Advances in Green Buildings: Science + Practice
• Exploring the Advanced Nuclear Ecosystem
• Innovating Our Energy Future
• Open Innovation: Disrupting Climate Change
• Saltwater and Ice: Innovative Energy Storage Technologies
• The Energy Gang Live: A Candid Take on the Energy Transition
• The Future of Power Generation and Delivery
• Thirst for Power: Energy, Water and Human Survival
• Unlocking the Potential of Tomorrow's Distributed Grid
• Utilities in Emerging Markets

Food Systems

• 1% is Not Enough: Increasing Access to Organics
• Achieving Zero Food Loss
• Can Probiotics Replace Antibiotics on the Farm?
• Dairy Freedom: Creating Healthy, Plant-Based Milks
• Food Waste: The Next Big Design Challenge
• Generation Food – Changing the World Food System by Breaking Its Rules
• I Am What You Eat: Transparency, Collaboration and the Future of Food
• Mr. Chef Goes to Washington
• Will AgTech Help Scale up Sustainable Food + Farming?

Place By Design

• Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz: Art, Parks + VR
• Collective Impact by Design
• Keynote: Designing a Just City: Hip Hop Architecture
• Graphitecture: Interface for Placemaking
• Health + Design Summit
• Knight Cities Challenge Lab
• Place by Design Competition:
  • Art + Interaction
  • Equity + Inclusion
  • Resilience + Health
  • Revitalization
  • Speculative and Prototyping
  • Urban Strategy + Civic Engagement
• Reimagining Public Spaces through Cooperation
• Reviving Cities Through Collaboration
• The Future of Placemaking is the Future of Cities
• To Hell with Good Intentions: Design, Place + Community

Policy

• A Collaborative Conversation On Universal Basic Income
• Addressing the Challenges of Aging Water Infrastructure: The Road Forward presented by Bloomberg BNA
• Bans On Bans
• Decision 2016: How Will POTUS 45 #ActOnClimate?
• Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Financing the Trillion Dollar Low-Carbon Revolution presented by Bloomberg BNA
• Leveraging Data and Technology to Promote Environmental Compliance presented by Bloomberg BNA
• New Tech to Fight Kleptocracy in Africa
• Sweeping Reform to U.S. Chemicals Law: What the Changes Mean for Consumers and Companies presented by Bloomberg BNA
• Time to Wake Up: The Climate Crisis, Barriers to Action and the Path Forward for America

Startup Central

• 2016 Cleantech Open Finalist Pitches
• Beyond VC: Finding the Right Funding Model
• Friends or Foes: How Startups and Regulators Navigate Innovation
• Meet Your Accelerator
• National Resources for Startups
• Startup + Investor Connect
• Startup Showcase Competition
  • Energy
  • Food + Agriculture
  • Internet of Things + Software
  • Social Impact
  • Reuse + Recycling
  • Water

Water

• Building a Smart Water City
• HAZEL A Tool for Water-Smart Design in Drylands
• Nuclear Sharks: How Innovation Will Save Our Seas
• Place-based Learning and the Future of Our Oceans
• Keynote: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – Our Environmental Destiny
• Shaping Signals: Speculative Design for the Future
• Visualizing Environmental Justice
• Where There's Water, There's A Way

About SXSW Eco                                            

SXSW Eco creates a space for business leaders, investors, innovators and designers to advance solutions that drive economic, environmental and social change. The conference will feature collaborative events to facilitate direct connections, as well as focused panel sessions and exciting competitions that will introduce attendees to transformative technologies, policies, products and ideas. sxsweco.com

SXSW Eco 2016 is sponsored by Austin Energy, Austin Recycling Economic Development Program, Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), Bloomberg BNA, City of Austin's Office of Sustainability, Cool Effect, Earth Day Texas, Geostellar, Green Mountain Energy, Hootsuite, Southwest Airlines, The Austin Chronicle and Timshel.

Contact:
Brett Cannon
SXSW Eco Press & Publicity
[email protected]

SOURCE SXSW Eco