This year’s GeekWire Summit may have looked a little different — a fully virtual experience stretched across three weeks. But one thing certainly remained the same: More than a dozen inspiring and thoughtful discussions on a host of newsy topics.
We started the Summit with three of the planet’s top scientists offering a prognosis for a COVID-19 vaccine, and ended yesterday with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert delivering an upbeat message about the promise of 5G wireless technology.
In between, Bill Gates discussed anti-trust issues and climate change, Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern offered insights on the future of travel and top innovators in education like DreamBox Learning CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson, Harvey Mudd College president Dr. Maria Klawe, and Summit Public Schools CEO Diane Tavenner spelled out clearly and concisely why this moment should be a wake up call for reinventing how we teach our kids.
This year’s Summit was a mammoth undertaking, and we’re proud of the effort by our dedicated team to rethink the event for this new era. Even so, we are very much looking forward to a day when the GeekWire Summit can be held again in person. We miss connecting with you.
Also, thanks to all our attendees, GeekWire Members, VIPs and speakers for joining us for the Summit, presented by Bank of America. We hope you walked away from our annual technology and innovation conference inspired, informed and with a new-found hope on how science and innovation can help push society forward.
Check out all our Summit coverage here, watch highlights videos here, and follow the conversation on Twitter.
Continue reading below for highlights and clips from the this week’s sessions. Highlights from the first week are here and from the second week are here.
Day 5: Tuesday, Oct. 27
View from the press box: Tech in 2020 and beyond
It has been one wild year. To help put things in perspective, we brought together leading technology journalists Ina Fried of Axios and Karen Weise of The New York Times to talk about a range of key issues, from Amazon’s ascendancy to antitrust battles to the future of cities and the broader economy.
How two health companies found common ground, sponsored session presented by Regence
Multicare CEO Bill Robertson and Dr. Marion Couch, who is three weeks in as the new chief medical officer at Cambia Health Solutions, discussed the journey to a value-based healthcare system, the importance of listening to providers, the potential of automation and the opportunity to fundamentally rethink how health care operates.
COVID-19: What The Data Tells Us
You may want to put off that big holiday dinner. Don’t have your heart set on sending the kids back to school anytime soon. And if you plan to get on a plane, be sure to wear your mask. The bottom line is that it’s still too early to let your guard down, despite what some politicians might claim.
Critical-care physician Vin Gupta and computational biologist Trevor Bedford delivered a data-rich status report on the pandemic today during this virtual session moderated by CNBC technology and health reporter Christina Farr.
Read more: Health experts weigh in on what we’ll have to do to get through a winter of COVID-19
Inventions We Love: Tasso
Another innovative and creative solution from Seattle-area entrepreneurs, learn about Tasso presented by CEO Ben Casavant.
Read more: Tasso raises $17M for self-sample blood test; CEO says pandemic increases demand for at-home tests
Day 6: Thursday, Oct. 29
Shaping the Future Workplace, sponsored session presented by PayScale
COVID-19 and the social justice movement of 2020 changed the workplace forever. Now, organizations across the globe are adapting to a redefined working environment.
In this session, Accolade CEO Raj Singh, Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht, and Leafly CEO Yoko Miyashita shared what they’ve learned during the past 10 months about compensation, pay equity, remote work, burnout, empathy and team culture. Moderated by Scott Torrey, CEO of PayScale.
Inventions We Love: ThruWave
Last but not least! Our final Inventions We Love session features ThruWave, presented by CEO and co-founder Matt Reynolds.
Read more: X-ray vision in the warehouse: ThruWave raises $6.4M to help online retailers see through packages
The Transformation of Healthcare
Dr. David Rhew, chief medical officer and VP of healthcare at Microsoft; Aashima Gupta, Director of Global Healthcare Solutions at Google Cloud; Rob Coppedge, CEO of Echo Health Ventures, discussed some of the tectonic shifts occurring in health care, from interoperability to telehealth in this in-depth discussion moderated by Erin Brodwin, health tech correspondent at STAT.
Fireside chat with Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile
GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop spoke with newly-appointed T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert at a pivotal moment for the Bellevue, Wash.-based company, soon after leapfrogging AT&T to claim the title of second-largest U.S. wireless carrier following the completion of its $26.5 billion Sprint merger.
Now, with the era of 5G wireless upon us, Sievert is expanding T-Mobile’s footprint beyond the traditional wireless industry, taking on the cable and telecom giants with its revamped TVision service.
Read more: T-Mobile revamps TVision service with live sports and news for $40/month, unveils $50 HUB device
Discover or rewatch GeekWire Summit sessions on demand
All sessions from the 2020 GeekWire Summit will be available on-demand through December 15. If you’re already registered, simply visit the agenda tab in the Summit event platform, and click on the session title.
You can still register at geekwire.com/summit to access this on-demand content including the full recordings of all the sessions. Please contact us at events@geekwire.com if you have any questions.
Thank you once again to our sponsors who helped make this year’s GeekWire Summit possible:
Presenting: Bank of America
Platinum: Regence BlueShield
Gold sponsors: ALLtech Benefits Trust, BCRA Design, EY, PayScale, Wave Business and Wilson Sonsini
Silver sponsors: Calgary Economic Development, CloudHealth by VMware, Slalom, Swapcard, Washington Research Foundation, and WeWork.
