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Highlights from the Third Annual Fast Company Innovation Festival featuring: Abby Wambach, Derek Jeter, Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Andy Cohen, Cecile Richards, Jim Hackett, and moreFast Company's third annual Fast Company Innovation Festival (October 23-27) brought together extraordinary personalities from the worlds of business, technology, design, and entertainment for bold conversations, hands-on workshops, and exclusive behind-the-scenes tours inside some of New York City's innovative companies. Drawing a record 7,500 attendees, the week-long event centered on the theme "Leading with Optimism." High-profile participants included: Athlete and activist Abby Wambach; "Watch What Happens Live" host Andy Cohen; Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards; Yankees great and Founding Publisher of The Players' Tribune Derek Jeter; Glossier Founder and CEO Emily Weiss; Model and actress Issa Rae; The Honest Company Founder Jessica Alba, Ford (News - Alert) CEO Jim Hackett; Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti; Actress and Fabletics Cofounder Kate Hudson; Starbucks CEO and President Kevin Johnson; The Kitchen Cofounder Kimbal Musk; Emmy-winning actress and screenwriter Lena Waithe; Walmart.com CEO Marc Lore; Chef and restaurateur Mario Batali; Cohost of Good Morning America and SMAC cofounder Michael Strahan, and many more. Conversations covered a wide-range of topics, from challenging the status quo and telling an authentic story to achieving racial and gender equality in the workplace. Highlights from select conversations follow: Kate Hudson, Actress and Cofounder Fabletics: "I think Hollywood has been a great platform to make noise on things that are happening. At this point any women...we've been fighting the boys club for many many many years. I'm comfortable in the boys club but at some point...now need to start talking about, the pendulum needs to shift. We need women on boards, we need to have more of a female voice in any business. When you're one woman on a board with seven men your voice isn't always as loud. Unless we start making it loud. And then when you make it loud, and you become the "difficult one…"
"I realized last year that Donald Trump is basically a first season Real Housewife who's so desperate to stay on the show that he'll do and say anything. For me as an Executive Producer of the show it doesn't work so I'll say you're off the show...And I don't want to demean the Real Housewives by saying this because I love them, I just want to make that clear." Abby Wambach, Athlete and activist: "From a human evolution perspective, we are doing really good things. When you're in the nearsighted focus of the day-to-day, it can be daunting. If you feel hopeless, take yourself out of the day-to-day. Get off social media. Be with the people you love. Look at it from a different lens so you can be more present and courageous in your day-to-day life. Obviously, optimism is important. But for me, optimism isn't as important as doing the day-to-day stuff." On taking a knee: "It's very complicated and it's really hard from somebody in my position. My teammate Megan Rapinoe, she started taking the knee once Kap (Colin Kaepernick) started doing it. She started doing it in support of him. And now because it's a conversation that has completely lost the initial meaning. Now it's about respect and the flag instead of what it was truly about which is black lives being brutally assaulted by police officers. We can't lose sight of the whole reason why taking the knee became now this social thing." Derek Jeter, Yankees great and Founding Publisher The Players' Tribune On taking a knee: "I don't know what the league rules are, to be quite honest with you, because this is something that just came up last year, so I've been retired. It's unfortunate... everyone has their ways of doing peaceful protest... And as long as it's peaceful...if every protest was peaceful, the world would be a better place. Right? You may not necessarily agree with how someone is protesting, but as long as it's peaceful. Now saying that, would I kneel during the anthem? No, I don't think I would kneel during the anthem but everyone has their own personal choice. I think people have lost sight of the fact of what someone is protesting about, and they are focusing on how they're protesting, which is unfortunate. But it's an uncomfortable conversation; it's an uncomfortable conversation for a lot of people, and I don't know if anyone has the right answer." Jim Hackett, CEO, Ford: "You waste more time trying to find a parking place than you do being stuck in traffic. That's because you're trying to match the open parking place with where the car needs to go. We have a dream where they can actually tell each other that. The car and the parking spot are talking to each other. They find each other." Fast Company Innovation Festival partners included: Audi of America, Cartoon Network, Pfizer, Shell, 3M (News - Alert), Flex, UCLA, Lifeway Foods, CBRE, FedEx, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Lippincott, and Bumble Bizz. ABOUT FAST COMPANY Fast Company is one of the world's leading business media brands, with an editorial focus on creativity and innovation in technology, ethical economics, leadership, and design. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication Inc. and can be found online at fastcompany.com. events.fastcompany.com/fcny | #FCFESTIVAL| @fastcompany
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171031006340/en/ |
