Agenda
8:00 AM
Informal Networking
Registration & Breakfast
8:45 AM
Welcome
Programming Begins
Welcome remarks and meet your neighbors activity.
Featured Speaker: Carrie Varoquiers, Chief Impact Officer, Workday
Meet Your Neighbors: Carolyn Thayer-Azoff, US Chamber of Connection
9:10 AM
Collaborative
The AI Game
Interactive game on AI and connection.
Featured Speaker: Alison Lee, Chief R&D Officer, The Rithm Project
9:30 AM
Fireside Chat
Opening Session: The Healing Power of Human Connection: Addressing the Loneliness Epidemic
In an age of unprecedented digital connectivity, we are paradoxically living through an epidemic of isolation. In this session, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy will explore why our "evolutionary birthright" of connection is under threat, and share how we can strengthen the social fabric of our communities. Drawing on his work with The Together Project, he will discuss how we can work together to shift from a culture of individualism, to one of interdependence.
Featured Speaker: Dr. Vivek Murthy, 19th & 21st U.S. Surgeon General
Interviewed By: Anil Soni, CEO, WHO Foundation
10:00 AM
Fireside Chat
The Attachment Economy
As children increasingly form genuine relationships with machines, what needs to change to safeguard healthy functioning future societies? This session will examine how we can safeguard children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development — examining the business incentives driving the shift from attention to intimacy, and the profound implications on human relationships unless healthy attachment formation is preserved in childhood. Dr Zak Stein will share evidence-backed insights and solutions to ensure AI systems are built to deepen and encourage human relationships, rather than replace them.
Featured Speaker: Dr. Zak Stein, Writer, Educator, Futurist
Interviewed By: Cristina Criddle, Technology Correspondent, Financial Times
10:25 AM
Informal Networking
Networking & Coffee Break
10:40 AM
The Rise of the AI Companion
AI doesn't just process data anymore; it processes feelings. Researcher Julia Freeland Fisher explores the surge of "synthetic relationships" in the age of AI. From LLM stuffed toys for kids to friendship-bots for teens to 24/7 digital confidants for adults, we’ll take a high-level look at what the current research says about usage, the potential benefits and harms, and the essential need to keep human connection at the center of the algorithm.
Featured Speaker: Julia Freeland Fisher, Director, Education Research, Christensen Institute
Presentation
11:00 AM
Discussion
Why investing in social connection is key for healthy communities
Hear from philanthropists and government officials leading the way in investing in the human connection movement. While each is taking a unique approach to fostering social connection, all share in the belief that this is an issue worthy of attention, investment and policy support.
Featured Speakers:
Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, Human Change Foundation
Jean Oelwang, Virgin Unite
David Canepa- San Mateo County Supervisor, District 5
Moderator: Jillian Racoosin Kornmeier, Foundation for Social Connection
11:30 AM
7-minute Pitches
Lightning Demos: Prosocial tech for the win!
Start-up prosocial companies will demo their apps.
WYZR
Joy Teitel and Carolyn Denholm
Socialness
Will Rogers
Sunny
Emily Sanford
HYV Social
Brandon Sene
222
Chirasmita Kompella
The Relational Tech Project
Josh Nesbit
Roundabout
Deepti Doshi
12:30 PM
Break
Lunch
1:10 PM
Fireside Chat
Why human connection is a business advantage in the age of AI
We are facing a new kind of talent challenge. Headlines highlight a growing loneliness epidemic and the business costs of social isolation. If we are not intentional about building moments of connection into our workplaces, will AI accelerate the disconnection that people are already feeling? In this conversation, Workday Co-Founder, CEO, and Chair Aneel Bhusri will discuss why it was so important from the start to build a company with “Employees” as the #1 Core Value. He will also share why leaders need to plan for the reality that as AI automates tasks and makes us all more efficient, infusing trust, belonging, collaboration, and connection into corporate culture will become more vital than ever to building a thriving business.
Featured Speaker: Aneel Bhusri, Co-Founder, CEO and Chair, Workday
Interviewed By: Carrie Varoquiers, Chief Impact Officer, Workday
1:30 PM
Fireside Chat
Connection As a Civic Practice: Choosing Each Other in the Age of AI
The loneliness crisis is real. So is the temptation to outsource our hardest human work to machines that mimic intimacy. Writer, host, and speaker Baratunde Thurston isn't here to romanticize a pre-AI world or to pretend the algorithms made us do it. In this fireside chat, the host of Life With Machines (recent winner of a People's Voice Webby for Best Creative Use of AI and Tech) and the civic podcast How To Citizen makes the case for connection as an active civic practice: redirecting our data, our attention, and our money toward the people and platforms that deepen our bonds rather than weaken them. Staying human together is a design choice. Here's how we make it.
Featured Speaker: Baratunde Thurston, Emmy-Nominated Host & Producer
Interviewed By: Kristin Hansen, Executive Director, Civic Health Project
2:00 PM
7-minute Demos
Lightning Demos: The orgs fueling the IRL movement
Lightning presentations from organizations fueling the IRL movement.
Joiners
Jared Joiner
Outdoorithm
Justin Steele
US Chamber of Connection
Aaron Hurst
Resonance
Tess Posner
Friend Cult
Courtney Owyang and Matt Goss
Aqus Community
John Crowley
Creative Mornings
Tina Roth Eisenberg
2:50 PM
Presentation
Why Our Brains Need Friends
Headlines have made clear that we are in a crisis of loneliness, but the conversation has yet to cover how spending time with others impacts the body and mind on a cellular level—and why this knowledge is part of the way forward. Renowned neuroscientist Dr. Ben Rein dives into the fascinating science of social interaction, uncovering the mesmerizing biological factors at play in our moments together, from small talk with baristas to deep conversation with friends, and shares how to leverage this knowledge to our advantage as we seek happiness and health.
Featured Speaker: Dr. Ben Rein, Chief Science Officer; Mind Science Foundation; Adjunct Lecturer; Stanford University
3:10 PM
Activity
Surprise JOYFUL activity!
3:20 PM
Informal
Networking & Coffee Break
3:35 PM
Presentation
The Era of Relational Intelligence
We often celebrate intelligence as the great human advantage — our ability to reason, analyze, and compute. In schools, it’s what we test for. In the workplace, it’s what we reward. And yet, as artificial intelligence begins to outpace us in many of these cognitive domains, a different kind of intelligence is quietly emerging as essential for our future: relational intelligence. In this session, Isabelle Hau will explain why our capacity to connect deeply, authentically, and constructively with other people is increasingly becoming a survival skill in the AI era.
Featured Speaker: Isabelle Hau, Executive Director, Stanford Accelerator for Learning
4:00 PM
Presentation
Healthy to 100: How Strong Social Ties Lead To Long Lives
Contrary to popular belief, the secret to living longer is not just about eating well, exercising, or getting regular checkups. In this session, author and longevity expert, Ken Stern, shares research that shows successful aging depends on the nature of your relationships and your social connections. If you want to live a healthy and rewarding life, you need to start with social health.
Featured Speaker: Ken Stern, Founder and Chair, The Longevity Project & Author
Interviewed by: Thao Ha, Professor, ASU
4:20 PM
Presentations
Measuring Connection
To harness the power of human social connection, we must understand it better. In this session, social connection measurement experts will share some highlights from the Social Connection in America Report, a first-of-its kind report providing deep insights on how Americans feel about their social health. Additionally, they will provide some validated measurement frameworks used by social scientists that can be applied to any organization, program or project focused on strengthening social connections and measuring their impact.
Featured Speakers:
Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Researcher and Professor, BYU
Steven Michael Crane, Researcher, Behavior Designer: Stanford School of Medicine and Stanford Behavior Design Lab
Anita Chandra, Vice President & Director, RAND, Social and Economic Wellbeing
4:45 PM
Fireside Chat
Closing Keynote: Artificial Intimacy: How Our Attachment to Human-Like AI Erodes Our Humanity
In this conversation, MIT Professor Dr. Sherry Turkle explores the psychological and social consequences of our increasing reliance on AI chatbots and human-like AI companions, and explains why our biological necessity for genuine human interaction might be the key to help society reclaim its humanity in the age of AI. This session serves as a call to action to reclaim the messy, creative, and essential lulls of face-to-face interaction, reminding us that in a world of artificial intelligence, our greatest asset is our capacity for authentic intimacy.
Featured Speaker: Dr. Sherry Turkle, Professor, MIT Social Studies of Science and Technology
Interviewed By: Dr. Rachel Wood, Founder, AI Mental Health Collective
5:15 PM
Program Close
Closing Remarks
Featured Speaker: Carrie Varoquiers, Chief Impact Officer, Workday
5:20 PM
Informal Networking
Connection Cocktail Reception
Evening reception focused on solidifying partnerships and generating commitments.
6:15 PM
Summit Concludes