• 2020 Wharton DC Innovation Summit - COVID-19: Pivot, Reboot, Rebound 

• To help you adjust and move forward. Keynotes & other sessions to help you through the crisis and beyond.

• Click HERE to register.

The Wharton Club of DC is proud to announce that this year’s Wharton DC Innovation Summit will focus on the impactful and lasting effects the Novel Coronavirus will have on innovation now and for many years to come. 

Marla Beck, Co-Founder & CEO, Bluemercury, 12 Noon

• Specifically, our diverse and accomplished speakers will address how COVID-19 has changed our lives, altered the trajectory of innovation, and presented new possibilities for business disruption.  Many private and public leaders recognize that, post COVID-19, things will not go back to normal. How to adjust to the new abnormal?
  • The pandemic is reworking how we think, function and engage as creators, business and nonprofit leaders and public officials. Speakers will address hallenges and special opportunities at times of black swan events and crises, to innovate and build some of the most dynamic companies and responsive public and academic institutions.
• They will speak about how their organizations and teams are positioning themselves for future success, and overcoming challenges. Also, their ideas for reopening on a sensible balanced basis, and the types of new opportunities that COVID-19 may be creating.
  • Click HERE to register.
• Strategic Partners will include a wide array of top alumni and business groups. 
• Confirmed keynotes:
  • Marla Beck, Co-Founder & CEO, Bluemercury 
  • Kaihan Krippendorf, Wharton alum; Strategy, Innovation, & Transformation Keynote Speaker; Founder at Outthinker, Author, Driving Innovation from Within
  • David Morey, Wharton alum; consultant & author, Innovating Innovation & The Underdog Advantage
• Session topics will include these and other relevant topics:
  • Private Funding for Startups
  • Public Funding Options
  • Workforce & Workplace Adaptation to a Pandemic & After
  • The Future of Higher Education
  • Impact of the Pandemic on Healthcare Innovation
  • Innovating for Supply Chain Resilience

• Record of Success: The 2020 Innovation Summit builds upon five successful past summits, each of which received rave reviews from speakers, attendees and sponsors. Prior Summits cumulatively had over 1,700 attendees representing 350+ companies (from startups to Fortune 500 companies) and other organizations and featured 300+ diverse speakers in nearly 150 sessions. Click HERE to view the URLs and themes for the past 5 Innovation Summits. 

  • Learn more from this Video about the Summit: CLICK HERE!

• Typical reviews:

  • “The Summit is fantastic.  I’ve had a lot of great conversations with individuals here. There are many new perspectives, innovative ideas, and great opportunities to collaborate.  We’ve had numerous informal sessions with much dialogue.” – Ruth Ann Hudson, IBM
  • “What’s exciting about the Summit is that we have entrepreneurs and innovators coming together in the Nation’s Capital, finding ways entrepreneurs and innovators can help the big problems over the next decade.  I’m excited about being here because the talent gathered here can together be part of the solution for our Nation’s ills.”  – Aneesh Chopra, first White House Chief Technology Officer
• Schedule each day, 930 AM - 330 PM - to be posted shortly. Click HERE to more details on this year's schedule. All of this will be posted also, including speaker names and bios at the Summit website.
  • Each day will begin and end with 30 minutes purely for networking in Zoom breakouts
  • Speakers will be taking one-hour slots: 45-50 minutes for discussion and Q&A, followed by 10-15 minutes between sessions for breaks and breakouts
  • Helping nonprofits & people adversely affected by Covid. We're going to contribute part of our proceeds to these nonprofits and other efforts to fight the virus:
    • No Kid Hungry
    • American Red Cross
    • Dr. David Fajgenbaum, Wharton and Penn Med alum, who heads nonprofit dealing with rare diseases, playing vital role in research on drugs that may help save lives from Covid. Past Summit speaker, author of inspirational new book, Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope into Action.

Click HERE to register.

The earlier you register, the more free virtual events you get. And everyone who registers gets three months access to all of the sessions' recordings! Thanks to the public-spirited speakers, sponsors and Strategic Partners, these rates are affordable for all.

• Members: Wharton Club & Strategic Partner Members: Just 29/person for the whole Summit (must name Partner in "Special Instructions" when you register)
• Veterans, Military, Students, Nonprofit Full-Time Employee (Just 29/person for the whole Summit (must name your specific category and organization in "Special Instructions" when you register)
• Public: Just 49/person for all session access.
  • EVERYONE: Consider, please, if you will, making a contribution, to the Wharton Club of DC, to help support this Summit and other programs. Like most alumni groups, we get no financial support from any university. Thank you.