Techonomy retreat headed to Lake Nona in November

Techonomy, a product of New York City-based Worth Media Group, is coming to town, now that Orlando managed to lure the heady three-day tech retreat away from Silicon Valley.

Actor Kerry Washington, known for her role in the ABC drama series "Scandal;" politician Andrew Yang, who was a 2020 presidential candidate; tennis star Lindsey Davenport and alternative rock singer Glen Phillips are among the special guests coming here Nov. 12-14 for a series of elevated conversations about artificial intelligence and its impact on human experience and business. 

This year, it’s happening in Lake Nona. Worth Media CEO Josh Kampel was captivated when he came to Orlando for the Lake Nona Impact Forum in 2022. 

“I met with people from Tavistock and got to learn about the core of Lake Nona being at the intersection of technology and health,” he said. 

Intrigued, he kept the conversation going and ultimately decided Techonomy — which was founded in 2011 — would benefit from a change of scenery. 

Orlando Inno spoke with Kampel and asked what attendees can expect from the conference:

Who is going to be at Techonomy 23? 

When you look across the people who are both on stage and in the audience, they run the gamut. They’re not necessarily coders or technologists, per se. Even the chief technology officers and chief innovation officers we have from big companies — at the end of the day, they're businesspeople. They're the people tasked with how we should be thinking about technology as it impacts our businesses and our industries.  

How do celebrities fit into this picture? 

We're bringing in Kerry Washington to talk about the impact of AI on Hollywood. Glen [Phillips] from Toad the Wet Sprocket will talk about AI and creativity in the music industry. People are going to get a very broad range of perspectives about the topic. 

What will attendees get out of participating? 

I learned during the pandemic that when you put people together in a multi-stakeholder conversation, the serendipity that happens can’t be predicted. The goal of the event is not to broadcast, “Hey, these are the speakers. These are the attendees.” That’s the typical convention where attendees sit in the dark and just listen to the speakers. We create everything, even how the room is designed. The breakouts and activities are carefully curated to push the boundaries. Our hope is that people leave having made connections and having had these great dialogues that lead to sustainable change. 

Tell us a little bit about the play-by-play of the retreat. 

The main program runs in the ballroom at the Wave Hotel. There are short presentations where an individual is on stage for no more than five minutes, one-on-one interviews and multi-person panels that run maybe 15 minutes long. We mix up the formats and keep things moving because there are so many topics to cover, and people have short attention spans. There are breakout sessions that are deeper dives for people who really want to get into certain topics. 

Can you think of a moment from a past Techonomy retreat that stands out? 

It was 2016, the day after the presidential election, and we interviewed Mark Zuckerberg on stage at the conference. A moderator asked a very simple and innocent question about fake news and its impact on the election. At that time, people didn’t really know what it was, and Mark said it was a crazy idea to think that fake news on Facebook could have had any impact on the election. Not to say Mark was lying. He didn't realize the impact it had. These are the types of things you cannot script. Ultimately that did spark huge amounts of conversations around the issue of social media. 

Why did you choose AI as the theme for this year? 

If you're not fully embracing and understanding all the ways AI — and more specifically generative AI — will impact your business, you're going to fall behind, right? Whether we’re talking real estate, wealth management or health care, AI has done a lot to free up time that people now can spend with each other. In real estate, AI has helped brokers identify properties based on client preferences. Doctors can use AI to review tests and patient records to get faster and more accurate diagnoses. There are lots of examples, but the point is, if you're not learning about all the different ways AI is transforming every industry, you're going to fall behind. 

Techonomy 

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