Look over the horizon with innovators, founders and CEOs at Ad Age Next
The list of founders, innovators, marketing leaders and visionaries at Ad Age Next is adding one more: Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit and Initialized Capital, the seed-stage venture fund with over $230 million under management.
Ohanian will discuss how his team seeks, evaluates and creates innovation at Initialized Capital, whose investment portfolio includes Instacart, Coinbase, Patreon and Cruise. This summer the company led a round of funding for AdQuick, which Ohanian, now a board member, describes as the software bridge between out-of-home and digital advertising. There will be a lot to talk about.
He's just the latest addition to Next, which takes place on Nov. 13 and 14 in New York. As a whole, the program will give attendees a look at the near future across the spectrum of innovation.
Day One features an afternoon of stimulating keynotes and conversations, culminating in Next Titans, a new live experience about six startups seeking funding and marketing support. They will pitch live to former Mondelēz chief media and e-commerce officer Bonin Bough, BlueRun Ventures General Partner Cheryl Cheng, former GE chief marketing officer Beth Comstock and VaynerX chairman Gary Vaynerchuk.
Day Two will take a full day to map the Next Blockbusters, from esports to mobility tech. Midday tracks will let attendees drill down on areas that particularly matter to them. And there will be networking.
The Next lineup includes:
Sophia Amoruso, CEO and founder at Girlboss
on connections as the future of currency
Sharmeen Browarek, senior director of viewer engagement at Twitch
on using machine learning to fight bias in gaming
Jess Carbino, Bumble's sociologist
on the next workforce
Daniel Cherry, CMO at Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues
on gaming's next play IRL
David Dancer, CMO at MedMen
on the cannabis boom to come
Kass Dawson, global head of marketing at Softbank Robotics
with the Pepper robot, on the future of human-robot interactions
Amy Emmerich, chief content officer at Refinery29
on content's next mission
Tony Magee, founder of Lagunitas
on cannabis in Lagunitas drinks and the culture
Jason Mars, CEO and co-founder at Clinc
on the rise of conversational AI
Claudia Mata, co-founder of Vertly
on cannabis in beauty
Megan Maloney, investor at General Catalyst
on the real future for blockchain
Pras Michél, founder of Blacture
on the future of media and tech for black culture
Glenn Minerley, head of esports at Momentum Worldwide
on brands' role in the entertainment culture ahead
Natalia Oberti Noguera, CEO and founder of Pipeline Angels
on changing the "white bro" culture of Silicon Valley
Alexis Ohanian, general partner at Initialized Capital
on finding, evaluating and driving innovation
Delane Parnell, CEO and co-founder at PlayVS high school esports league
on the future of competitive gaming
Bozoma ("Boz") Saint John, CMO at Endeavor
on Next Reinvention: How people and businesses across media and entertainment can stay head of disruption—or even drive it.
Ralph Santana, CMO at Harman
on the 65-mile-per-hour living room
David Shing, digital prophet at Verizon's Oath
on screens and our mental health
Meiling Tan, head of marketing at Waymo
on bringing self-driving cars to the public
Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer at GE Ventures
on how to accelerate change
Randall Wilkinson, CEO and co-founder of The Wilkinson Group
on the future of food and his company's robotic Wilkinson Mini Bakery
Jen Wong, chief operating officer at Reddit
on the future of community trust
Be there, just over the horizon, at Ad Age Next on Nov. 13 and 14. All the info is here.
