
reThink Food
Napa Valley, CA2015 reThink Food Program Summary
The 2015 reThink Food program focused on three overlapping areas of discovery: trust, transparency, and trajectory. Keeping in mind the questions and issues that are crucial to the work of today’s chefs, foodservice operators, retailers, and innovators in all sectors of the food industry, sessions examined the need to rebuild trust between the technology and food communities, the decisions that investors make when looking at innovative companies to support, the impact that personalized and digital healthcare will likely have on our food decisions, next-generation strategies that companies should use to communicate with their customers, and the role of robots in our food future—among other thought-provoking presentations and breakouts.
Nicholas Negroponte, who founded the MIT Media Lab, was WIRED’s first investor, and today is an angel investor to many companies in the tech and other sectors, shared with the audience the boldest of his ideas for the future of food. Restaurant designer Mark Stech-Novak talked about what we know and don’t know about the restaurant space. Sessions by legendary design firm IDEO, the Institute for the Future, the Food Business School, and Compass Lab featured presentations about epicenters of innovation, entrepreneurship, supply chain re-invention, and design thinking. Some of the country’s most creative chefs shared their visions for the future, which sometimes implied looking far back, along with demonstrations, tastings, and sensory evaluations.
A unique collaboration between The Culinary Institute of America and the MIT Media Lab, the three-day conference invited food industry leaders, academics and innovators in R&D, technology, consumer package goods, marketing and related fields to join us for networking opportunities, cutting-edge research that will widen perspectives, and business-friendly solutions for the challenges and imperatives that face us.
Find the 2015 reThink Food YouTube playlist here, or click on the video player below to watch all general sessions and seminars held on the Ventura stage during the 2015 conference.
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Presentations