[:en]Breakout Sessions are learning sessions that are taking place concurrently during the San Francisco University, as part of the overall Learning Agenda. These sessions will be taking place on the followings dates and times:

• Thursday, October 18th from 4pm to 5:15pm
• Friday, October 19th from 1:30pm to 2:45pm

Pre-registration is required for all breakout learning sessions. You can review the full speaker biographies and session descriptions and register for your preferred choices below. Please note that you will only be able to register for one breakout session per day and change requests will not be considered. Please review your options carefully.

Have questions about the pre-registration process? You can review the full FAQ here.

Thursday, October 18th from 4pm to 5:15pm

Nicholas Haan – Our Global Grand Challenges

Speaker Biography

Nicholas Haan has worked at the intersection of science, technology, social challenges, and innovation for the last 25 years. His issues of focus have included disaster relief, food security, environment, energy, public health, education, genetics, and information systems. And his affiliations have included the United Nations, governments, universities, donor agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Nicholas is currently the Vice President of Impact and Faculty Chair of Global Grand Challenges. His introduction to global perspectives began as a science teacher in a remote Kenyan village with the Peace Corps. This experience led to more than 20 years of living and working internationally, mainly in East and Southern Africa (including living four years in villages without running water or electricity, which gives him a unique perspective on social challenges).

Prior to joining Singularity University, Nicholas served as Senior Economist/Global Program Manager with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization where he oversaw a food security project operating in over 30 countries. He is the creator of an international standard for classifying the severity of food insecurity and disasters called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Nicholas is also involved with several Startups, including as strategic advisor to a mobile app company called eMobilis. He has a keen interest in the crowdsourcing movement and is on the regional board of directors for crowdfunder.com. He has been a visiting professor at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and was awarded a NASA Research Fellowship.

Originally from California, Nicholas has a PhD in Geography, a Master in International Development, a Master in Geographic Information Systems & Remote Sensing from Clark University, and a Bachelor in Genetics from U.C. Berkeley. He is an avid sea kayaker and explorer, most recently completing an 500 km expedition across Lake Victoria by kayak.

Session Abstract:

The implications and opportunities of many of the technological breakthroughs happening now and in the near future will be nothing short of disruptive to our lives, our businesses and industries, and society as a whole. A new understanding and set of tools are required to stay ahead of this exponential curve, through which we will solve some of the greatest problems facing humanity today.

Carlo van de Weijer – Future of Mobility

Speaker Biography
Carlo van de Weijer (1966) has a Master degree in Mechanical Engineer from the University of Technology in Eindhoven and a PhD degree with honors from Technical University in Graz. He started his career in 1990 at TNO Automotive, moved to SiemensVDO in 2001 to head the Eindhoven automotive navigation development lab, since 2007 part of TomTom.

Currently, Dr. Van de Weijer is director of the Strategic Area Smart Mobility at Eindhoven University of Technology, alongside his work for TomTom.

He is chairman and member of the supervisory board of several high-tech companies and start-ups, and advises governments and industries around the world on the future of technology and mobility.

Session Abstract:

More Information to Come

Rachel Sibley – Extending Reality: Why, When, & How to Leverage VR & AR for Impact

Speaker Biography

Rachel Sibley is a futurist, artist, and strategist who specializes in immersive technologies—primarily Augmented and Virtual Reality.

As AR/VR Faculty at Singularity University, she helps Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs worldwide ramp into exponential mindsets and strategically deploy immersive technology. Formerly a VP at Leap Motion (the company that allows people to interact in the digital world with their bare hands) Rachel led go-to-market efforts to bring physical interaction to augmented and virtual reality. Before that, she helped scale IBM Design, opening 29 global design studios in one year, catalyzing culture change, and creating a more design-centric ethos at one of the world’s oldest and largest technology companies. Rachel has been named by WIRED as a “Women to Watch” in VR and AR, co-authored a Diversity Manifesto featured in VentureBeat, and showcased her choreography at SXSW and the Cotton Bowl. As we move into the cyborg generation and technology becomes increasingly intimate, personalized, and kinesthetic, Rachel’s background as an award-winning dancer and choreographer afford her a unique perspective on the possibilities and perils of embodying this complex new digital world.

Through consulting, speaking, and senior leadership roles at companies both large (IBM) and scrappy (Leap Motion), Rachel helps envision, identify, and design how exponential technologies will shape our future.

Session Abstract:

Rachel Sibley is a futurist, artist, and strategist who specializes in immersive technologies—primarily Augmented and Virtual Reality. As AR/VR Faculty at Singularity University, she helps Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs worldwide ramp into exponential mindsets and strategically deploy immersive technology. Formerly a VP at Leap Motion (the company that allows people to interact in the digital world with their bare hands) Rachel led go-to-market efforts to bring physical interaction to augmented and virtual reality. Before that, she helped scale IBM Design, opening 29 global design studios in one year, catalyzing culture change, and creating a more design-centric ethos at one of the world’s oldest and largest technology companies. Rachel has been named by WIRED as a “Women to Watch” in VR and AR, co-authored a Diversity Manifesto featured in VentureBeat, and showcased her choreography at SXSW and the Cotton Bowl. As we move into the cyborg generation and technology becomes increasingly intimate, personalized, and kinesthetic, Rachel’s background as an award-winning dancer and choreographer afford her a unique perspective on the possibilities and perils of embodying this complex new digital world. Through consulting, speaking, and senior leadership roles at companies both large (IBM) and scrappy (Leap Motion), Rachel helps envision, identify, and design how exponential technologies will shape our future.

Brandon Carneiro, Ian Cauble, & David Lynch SommSelect – Blind Wine Tasting

Speaker Biography

Ian Cauble and Brandon Carneiro, the co-founders of SommSelect, met in 1999 at Sonoma State University and became fast friends during their time as undergrads. Ian majored in international business and Spanish; Brandon studied economics.

Six years later they reconnected in Las Vegas where Brandon was working as a fine wine salesperson and Ian was an aspiring Sommelier at one of the hottest new restaurants. Both had been seduced by the complexity and richness of wine, and had a passion for sharing their wine knowledge with others. Ian went on to earn the rigorous Master Sommelier title (watch the movie, SOMM, all about his journey) and Brandon went on to earn an MBA.

In 2014 they launched SommSelect as a way to give you access to sommelier-selected wines to enjoy with family and friends, or to thoughtfully expand your collection. Each day they bring you a new discovery, and a new education in wine.

At the start of 2017, Ian & Brandon brought in veteran sommelier and wine writer David Lynch as Editorial Director. In this role, David shapes the site’s content, adding his voice to our daily offers and striving to make SommSelect the most authoritative and entertaining wine seller in e-commerce. Perhaps best known for co-authoring the award-winning Vino Italiano (and for his 7 years as Wine Director, then GM, of New York’s Babbo Ristorante), David has a unique skill set: He was a Senior Editor at Wine & Spirits magazine and, more recently, a columnist for Bon Appétit; on the restaurant side, he was more recently the Wine Director at San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Quince, and later at his own restaurant, St. Vincent. He’s one of very few people to win James Beard Awards for both Journalism (2001) and Restaurant Wine Service (2004).

Session Abstract:

The SommSelect team presents the art and science behind Blind Tasting (the act of tasting
wines without knowing where they are from, or what type of grape they are made from). This is
a fun experience where audiences are engaged with top wine experts. In their 1 hour presentation, the SommSelect team will talk to you about the benefits of blind tasting as a
sommelier and take you through the tasting of 4-6 wines that are unknown to the group. We will also talk about Ian’s journey to become one of ~250 Master Sommeliers in the world and the challenges he had to overcome to get this diploma. David will talk about his journey to 2 James Beard Awards and the writing of his acclaimed book on Italian wines, Vino Italiano.

Key Points

• Blind Tasting 101 and the Deductive Tasting Method
• What it takes to be a Master Sommelier
• The business of tasting and selecting wine for an online audience

Dr. Romie Mushtaq – Beating Burnout: Mindful Medicine for Success-Driven Professionals

Speaker Biography

Dr. Romie Mushtaq, MD is a traditionally trained neurologist with additional board certification in Integrative Medicine. She completed her medical training at the Medical University of South Carolina, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and University of Michigan.

After suffering from career burnout and undergoing life-saving surgery, she traveled around the world learning mindfulness-based techniques, and she now helps individuals achieve brain & mental health holistically at the Center for Natural & Integrative Medicine in Orlando, Florida.

Dr. Romie combines her unique expertise in neuroscience & mindfulness as a highly sought-after speaker to teach stress management and mindful leadership to Fortune 500 companies, universities and groups around the country.

Dr. Romie’s expertise has been featured on TED talks, Fox News, NBC, NPR, The Huffington Post, and dozens of other national media outlets. She is currently writing her first book on bringing Western Medicine & Eastern Wisdom together for a “Busy Brain Cure.”

Dr. Romie has been appointed Chief Wellness Officer for Evolution Hospitality, a privately held hospitality company headquartered in Orange County, California. In 2015 Evolution became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aimbridge Hospitality, one of the largest privately owned management companies in the world. As Evolution Hospitality’s Chief Wellness Officer, Dr. Romie is responsible for leading the organization to better wellness bringing together her authority in brain health, integrative medicine, and mindfulness. Her initiatives have included research on the effects of digital device use in hospitality employees and implementing a corporate wide meditation program – both of which are groundbreaking in not only the hospitality industry, but in Corporate America.

Session Abstract:

Burnout is a modern day epidemic in service-based professionals leading to poor performance, deterioration of physical health, mental health issues, decreased productivity, and lack of emotional well-being.

In this interactive lecture, Dr. Romie brings together her unique expertise in neurology, integrative medicine, and mindfulness to help audience members heal from the root cause of compassion fatigue and burnout. Identify causes of inflammation, the gut-brain connection, and how to create a personalized prescription of healing and preventing burnout. Audience members will learn mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques and scientifically-based integrative medicine protocols to implement immediately to avoid or heal burnout.

Friday, October 19th from 1:30pm to 2:45pm

Eric Rasmussen – Global Health & Disaster Resilience

Speaker Biography

Dr. Rasmussen is a medical doctor and the CEO for Infinitum Humanitarian Systems (IHS), a multinational consulting group built on a profit-for-purpose model. By training he is an internal medicine physician with both undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University and a European Master’s degree in disaster medicine from the UN World Health Organization’s affiliate CEMEC (Centre European pour la Medecin des Catastrophes) in Italy. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Physicians in 1997 and a Fellow of the Explorer’s Club in 2014.

In addition to his corporate responsibilities Rasmussen is a Research Professor in Environmental Security and Global Medicine at San Diego State University and an instructor in disaster medicine at both the International Disaster Academy in Bonn, Germany (BBK, or Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz ind Katastrophenhilfe) and the Institute for Disaster Preparedness at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

He also pro bono as medical director for two biotech startups, and as Permanent Advisor to the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Expert Panel on Water Disasters. He has been a member of the US National Academy of Science’s Committee on Grand Challenges in Global Development since 2012.

Rasmussen is a specialist in the humanitarian sciences with extensive experience in highly-vulnerable communities in Haiti, Mexico, Curacao, Nepal, Cambodia, the Philippines, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. His disaster deployments include Puerto Rico for Hurricane Maria in 2017, Haiti for Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the Nepal earthquake in 2015, Supertyphoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Superstorm Sandy in New York, Haiti’s earthquake in 2010, Banda Aceh for the tsunami, and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

He served in the US Navy for 25 years aboard nuclear submarines, amphibious ships, and aircraft carriers. His positions included Fleet Surgeon for the US Navy’s Third Fleet, director of an Intensive Care Unit, and Chairman of an academic department of medicine in Seattle. His wartime deployments included Bosnia (x3), Afghanistan (x2), and Iraq for ten months.

He also spent nine years as a Principal Investigator in humanitarian informatics for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where his focus was civil-military collaboration in conflict zones. In 2003 he received DARPA’s capstone award as Outstanding Investigator of the Year. Soon after he retired from the Navy to serve as the CEO of InSTEDD, a humanitarian NGO established as a TED Prize by Dr. Larry Brilliant, then Executive Director of Google.org. InSTEDD’s charter is to put into action the goals outlined by Dr. Brilliant’s 2006 TED Prize speech for better global disease outbreak surveillance and response. Dr. Rasmussen shifted from CEO to Chair of the InSTEDD Board of Directors in 2010 and became CEO of IHS soon after.

Since 2014 he has also led the Global Disaster Response Team for the Roddenberry Foundation, supported by the Star Trek franchise.

Eric lives with Demi, his wife of more than 30 years, on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington.

Session Abstract:

Building resilience against natural disasters, climate change and security risks is increasingly important and exponential technologies are providing an opportunity to build more resilient systems as well as create new solutions to quickly recover when disasters occur. Recent disasters such as serial hurricanes that struck the US and Caribbean in 2017 give us new insight into how innovative thinkers are building solutions to help speed recovery and in some cases leapfrog their communities into the future.

Andre Wegner – Digital Manufacturing

Speaker Biography

Andre Wegner is founder and CEO of Authentise. Andre is a frequent speaker on emerging intellectual property issues in 3D Printing and opportunities of distributed manufacturing at events such as Singularity University, Rapid, Designer of Things, Inside 3D Printing, 3D Print Show, Pacific Crest & WIRED.

He has been quoted in publications such as BBC News, MIT Tech Review, Chicago Tribune, and Bloomberg. He is an expert in greenfield value chain creation, leading the development of a US$300 million low income gas distribution business for West Africa’s leading Oil and Gas company. Prior to founding Authentise Andre also managed a venture capital fund in Nigeria and advisory services in India. Andre is a graduate of St. Andrews University (M.A. – UK), ESSEC (M.Sc. – France) and Singularity University (California).

Session Abstract:

3D printing and additive manufacturing technologies enable users to print a fantastic variety of designs locally and inexpensively. However, a deeper revolution in digital manufacturing is just getting started. Industrial scale molecular manufacturing, will eventually allow us to assemble inexpensive, super strong, macro-scale 3D objects with atomic precision. This will alter the playing field of what is possible, and actually has the potential to usher in an age of unprecedented material abundance.

Pia Mancini – Governance & Citizenship in an Exponential Age

Speaker Biography

Co-Founder of OpenCollective, Co-Founder (now board member) of The DemocracyEarth Foundation, a YCombinator backed collaborative decision-making platform (DemocracyOS). Political scientist by training, peer and co-founder of Partido de la Red (The Net Party), World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, member of The World Fix, a community tackling the world’s toughest problem: Government. Former Chief of Advisors Deputy Secretary of Political Affairs, Government of the City of Buenos Aires. Institute for the Future for Good Fellow, The X-Lab Fellow.

Session Abstract:

More Information to Come.

Brian Kight – How to Become an Elite Leader who Builds Trust and Achieves Results

Speaker Biography

Brian Kight is CEO and owner of Focus 3, a global training company. Focus 3 installs simple systems for leadership, culture, and behavior skills to drive elite execution and results.

Brian’s emphasis is on timeless principles to address to the most important challenges in life and business. His presentations make the truth obvious, make the complex simple, and make the journey personal.

His clients around the world include entrepreneurs, Fortune 100 companies, accounting and insurance firms, banks, hospitals, school districts, and sports teams at high school, college, and pro level. Brian has worked for 15 years directly with every of executive and employee. The trust clients have in Brian and his impact has made him one of the top-rated keynote speakers and advisors in the United States. In doing this he helps people build the discipline they need to do what they want.

Brian lives in Charlotte, NC.

Session Abstract:

At some point, every successful business operator has to learn how to be a successful business leader. But most entrepreneurs don’t have a system for leadership and struggle with the balance between owner, producer and leader. This session teaches you how the two responsibilities of elite leadership, trust and results, apply in an entrepreneurial environment. It lays out the simple mechanics of building trust and achieving results through the systematic application of six disciplines. Discover the timeless physics of leadership: trust without results is unacceptable; results without trust is unsustainable. Average leaders use quotes. Good leaders use a plan. Elite leaders use a system.

Key session learnings:

• How to install and execute the two responsibilities of elite leadership, Trust and Results, using six simple disciplines.
• Immediate high-value behaviors to build more leaders in your business, not just more producers.
• Create and use a “Leadership Agenda” to be intentional, on-purpose and skillful in the way you lead.

Leslie Morgan Steiner – Crazy Love: From The Ivy League to A Gun At My Head.

Speaker Biography

At 22, Leslie Morgan Steiner seemed to have it all: a Harvard diploma, a glamorous job at Seventeen magazine, a funky New York City apartment. Plus a handsome, funny, street-smart boyfriend who adored her. But behind a façade of success, this golden girl hid a dark secret. She’d made a mistake shared by millions: she fell in love with the wrong person.

At first, Leslie and Conor seemed as perfect together as their fairytale wedding. Then came the fights she tried to ignore: he pushed her down the stairs of the house they bought together, poured coffee grinds over her hair as she dressed for a critical job interview, choked her during an argument, and threatened her with a gun. Several times, he came close to making good on his promise to kill her. With each attack, Leslie lost another piece of herself.

Gripping and utterly compelling, New York Times bestseller and TED Talk Crazy Love takes you inside the violent, devastating world of abusive love. Why did Leslie stay? She thought she loved him. Find out for yourself if she had fallen truly in love – or into a psychological trap.

Leslie Morgan Steiner is a frequent speaker about family violence. Her TED Talk about surviving domestic violence, titled “From the Ivy League to a Gun at My Head,” has been viewed by over three million people. She serves as a celebrity board member for the One Love Foundation, in honor of slain University of Virginia senior Yeardley Love and the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project.

She is a regular national television and radio guest, appearing on National Public Radio, NBC’s Today Show, The Diane Rehm Show, MSNBC, Fox News, and other programs. She holds a BA in English from Harvard College. Her first job was as an editor at Seventeen Magazine; she financed her MBA in Marketing from Wharton by writing for Seventeen, Mademoiselle, New England Monthly and Money Magazine.

She is also the editor of the highly acclaimed anthology Mommy Wars, and a former parenting columnist for washingtonpost.com. She currently writes the Mommy Wars column for ModernMom.com. Her November 2013 book, The Baby Chase, explores surrogacy’s impact on American families, and her second TEDTalk explores the ethics of global surrogacy.

She lives with her three children in Washington, DC.

Session Abstract:

Leslie Morgan Steiner’s candid, chilling, inspiring story of surviving relationship violence in her first marriage. Based on the New York Times best-selling memoir and TEDTalk.

Have questions about the pre-registration process? You can review the full FAQ here.[:]