SPECIAL REPORT
Forbes Under 30 Summit
HP sponsors 5000 millennials to gather in Boston
Every year since 2011 Forbes selects the 30 most influential young entrepreneurs , game changers and world class innovators in 20 different sectors ranging from Tech to Sports under 30 years of age . This year HP has helped to bring them together at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston . 5000 millennials from around the world , came together to network , get inspired , and collaborate to tackle the challenges of Rapid Urbanization through a Hack-a-thon . HP provided these millennials with the inspiration and tools to reinvent and help make life better for everyone , everywhere .
HP has reinvented itself almost every decade for the past 50 years , and looks to the future as part of everyday business . We believe the group of millennials attending the Forbes Under30 Summit are the future , and can help solve some of the world ’ s most pressing challenges . This is why HP sponsored the biggest Forbes Under 30 Summit to date in Boston , a city packed with college students and young graduates who fit squarely into the Millennial generation . The summit was fertile ground for innovation , collaboration , and inspiration , in an atmosphere of creativity and social commitment .
Unprecedented scale , ambition — and fun !
Four stages across Boston , over 5000 participants , four days of intense speaker-packed program : this year ’ s Summit was the biggest and most ambitious to date . In its third year , the Under 30 Summit gathered thousands of the world ’ s current and future leaders in every field . During the summit they had the opportunity to engage with speakers like Sir Richard Branson ; Ashton Kutcher ; Jessica Alba ; Chrissy Teigen ; Deepak Chopra ; Bobby Flay ; Adam Neumann , Co-Founder and CEO of WeWork ;
Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps , and many more . The agenda did not lack fun moments either , with a Music Festival welcoming the attendees on the first night , a pub crawl in an iconic district of Boston , and a food-festival where the best Forbes Under 30 chefs competed to win votes of the attendees .
Drones and inventions on the Tech Stage
HP ’ s Shane Wall , Chief Technology Officer and Global Head of HP Labs , addressed an enthusiastic crowd of about 1000 attendees at the Tech Stage about an emerging technology that futurists expect to be a fixture in urban skies : drones . Wall was joined on stage by Ian Cinnamon , technology advisor , entrepreneur , author , and Forbes
30 Under 30 honoree , who built — and then flew — a drone on stage at the historic Majestic Theater at Emerson College . Wall himself has a collection of more than a dozen of the flying machines — they are devices that might spark a new idea , product or business .
On the same Tech Stage , Alexander Clark , an under-30 HP Innovation and Experiences Engineer , took part in Meet the Next Edisons . In this session , Alex , together with an expert panel , judged mind-blowing innovations and inventions and geniuses behind them .
‘ Reinvent the city ’ Hack-a-thon challenge
Rapid Urbanization is shaping future cities and communities . As the global population continues to rise , resources within cities are becoming scarce and urbanization is taking a toll on the environment . At Boston City Hall , the central gathering point and location of the summit , the HP Experience allowed attendees to walk through an interactive mock city with mini-stations on Infrastructure , Education , Healthcare , and Business . Inspired by that experience , summit attendees could select a
During a Hack-a-thon for Good , participants also tackled some of the challenges facing Boston .
24 Innovation Journal · Issue 5 · Winter 2016