NeoCon 2017 Keynotes: Arianna Huffington, Jessica Green and John Ronan
How can a better tomorrow be achieved, one with renewable cities and more efficient and responsive buildings? The influential individuals headlining this year’s NeoCon® Conference Program, Arianna Huffington, Jessica Green, and John Ronan, will address this question. Hailing from the worlds of business, science and architecture, their powerful ideas and active efforts are helping to advance the built environment and provide a healthier future. NeoCon, June 12-14 at The Mart in Chicago, has become known as a leading forum for the industry. The 2017 keynote programming will provide attendees with a comprehensive educational experience, examining timely topics and illuminating emerging trends that have far reaching effects.
Monica DeBartolo, Director of Programming, comments, “From accelerating and mainstreaming well-being in the workplace, to modeling urban spaces as complex ecosystems, to practicing research-based, highly methodical architecture, this year’s keynotes are actively providing solutions that enhance the built environments of today and tomorrow. We are excited that this exceptional group of thought-leaders will be the first to take the stage in our new NeoCon Theater (Motorola, 19th floor).”
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON [K1]
Founder & CEO of Thrive Global and Founder of The Huffington Post
Monday, June 12
11:30 am in The NeoCon Theater (Motorola, 19th floor)
Presented by Humanscale, Thrive Global and IIDA
Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post and founder & CEO of Thrive Global, hasbeen named to Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Huffington will take the stage on day one to discuss Thrive Global, her new and groundbreaking venture, which aims to end the epidemic of stress and burnout by offering companies and individuals sustainable, science-based solutions to enhance both well-being and performance. Its three interconnected core components are: corporate trainings and workshops that bring the latest strategies and tools around health and well-being to organizations; a media platform that serves as the global hub for the conversation about well-being and performance with an emphasis on action; and, an e-commerce platform that offers a curated selection of the best technology and products for well-being. Together, the three components create an integrated platform that empowers people to make sustainable changes to their daily lives, going from knowing what to do to actually doing it. Thrive Global is committed to accelerating the culture shift that allows people to reclaim their lives and move from surviving to thriving.
JESSICA GREEN [K2]
Scientist, Founding Director of the Biology and the Built Environment (BioBE) Center
Tuesday, June 13
8:30 am in The NeoCon Theater (Motorola, 19th floor)
Presented by Aspecta by Metroflor and ASID
Jessica Green is a world renowned scientist inspiring people to think about bacteria in entirely new ways. As founding director of the Biology and the Built Environment (BioBE) Center, she is working with architects and engineers to advance the public’s understanding of how microbial communities assemble, interact, evolve, and influence public health. The co-founder and CTO of Phylagen, a DNA data harvesting and analytics company, Green envisions a future for urban design that promotes sustainability, human health, and well-being. In her presentation, Green will explore how the microbial blueprint of human beings, homes, cities, and forests impacts the world, and the future. Green is currently spearheading efforts to model urban spaces as complex ecosystems that house trillions of diverse microorganisms interacting with each other, with humans, and with their environment.
JOHN RONANÂ [K3]
Founding Principal of John Ronan Architects
Wednesday, June 14
8:30 am in The NeoCon Theater (Motorola, 19th floor)
Presented by AIA Chicago
The founding principal of Chicago-based John Ronan Architects, John Ronan FAIA, will round out the keynote programming on the final day of the show. Ronan serves as lead designer on all projects his firm undertakes and is known for his abstract yet sensuous work which explores materiality and atmosphere. John Ronan Architects pursues an iterative design methodology to explore and test a wide range of ideas in order to find the response that feels intuitively correct for each situation, based on its unique site, program and context (cultural, historical, economic, social). Ronan has lectured widely and his work has been exhibited internationally, including the Art Institute of Chicago and The Architectural League of New York’s Urban Center. The international design press has covered Ronan’s projects extensively, and Princeton Architectural Press published a monograph on his work, entitled Explorations, in 2010. A publication on his Poetry Foundation building by the Center for American Architecture & Design at the University of Texas was published in 2015. His firm has been the recipient of two AIA Institute National Honor Awards—for the Poetry Foundation and The Gary Comer Youth Center, both in Chicago, and is a finalist firm for the Obama Presidential Center.
These three keynotes will be complemented by a robust lineup of nearly 100 CEU-accredited seminars presented at The Mart. NeoCon also showcases hundreds of leading companies across key vertical markets including Workplace, Healthcare, Hospitality, Retail, Education, Public Spaces, and Government. In addition to three full floors of permanent showrooms, NeoCon’s 7th Floor Exhibit Hall showcases the best products and services by category: Interior Building Products/Materials & Finishes, Furniture & Fabrics, Flooring, and Technology.
The NeoCon 2017 website and complimentary online registration is open at www.neocon.com. On-site Registration: $35. Keynote Presentations: Free. CEU Seminar details and registration will go live on March 10.
For showroom and exhibitor news, images and real-time information, follow NeoCon Shows on the following social media channels: Facebook (@NeoCon Shows),Twitter (@NeoCon_Shows),Instagram (@NeoCon_Shows) and Snapchat (@NeoConShows).
NeoCon® is a registered trademark of theMART, a Vornado Property.  theMART is owned by New York-based Vornado Realty Trust, a fully integrated, publicly traded, real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of the largest owners and managers of commercial real estate in the United States with a portfolio of over 45 million SF.
