Unlike. Any. Other. Imagine Solutions conference returns to Naples

A speaker at the 2023 Imagine Solutions conference addresses the audience at the Arthrex One Center in Naples. This year’s conference is March 4 at the same location. COURTESY PHOTO

It is a time machine into the future where the nation’s top experts in technology, health, history, science and art, take us on an insightful journey of amazing breakthroughs.

The 14th annual Imagine Solutions conference in Naples brings the hottest AI artist in the world, a Nobel Prize winner who is changing the way we look at space, world leaders in personalizing and revolutionizing medicine and more to Naples where guests can see how their unquenchable curiosity and determination led to astonishing discoveries.

“We want to introduce the audience to amazing people that they probably never heard about,” said Randy Antik, CEO and organizer of the non- profit conference. “It is a potpourri of amazing ideas.”

ANTIK

It’s not just the ideas, but the people behind them, Antik said.

“There is a genius from India that came out of poverty and got himself into Stanford and is now creating amazing breakthroughs,” Antik explained.

The theme this year is Unlike. Any. Other.

“We are bringing you a number of speakers that are really unique and are unlike any other,” Antik stressed. “It is a time for you to see those kinds of breakthrough ideas.”

Antik scoured the nation to find this lineup of speakers that include:

• Dan Huttenlocher – Internationally renowned for his research in computer vision and social media analysis, He co-authored the book The Age of AI and Our Human Future with Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt.

• Refik Anadol – AI Artist pioneer combining AI and art. He transforms complex datasets into captivating visual and auditory experiences.

MATHISEN

• Alfred Whitehead – An AI leader whose team blends behavioral, medical and data science and hardware and soft- ware prototyping to create inventive solutions for health-related challenges.

• Miles Fisher – The cofounder of Metaphysic, an innovative company at the forefront of AI and metaphysics.

• Richard Reeves – Chair of the Boys and Men Project at the Brookings Institution who conducts research in social and economic policy and how it addresses issues relating to men and boys.

• Stewart Patrick – Director of the Global Order and Institutions Program and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an active member of the council on foreign relations and former policy planning staff member at the US Department of State.

• Mary Lou Jepsen – Founder and CEO of Openwater who is developing groundbreaking technology to enable wearable devices capable of reading thoughts and images from the human brain.

• John Mather – Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist who had a pivotal role in leading the development of the James Webb Space Telescope.

IMAGINE SOLUTIONS SPEAKERS 2024

• Neil Shubin – Paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, renowned for his groundbreaking discovery of Tiktaalik, a 375 million year old extinct fish species that is a vital piece of evidence in the study of evolution.

• Noel Paul Stookey and Liz Stookey Sundal – Noel is the Paul from Peter Paul and Mary, and his daughter is co-founder of Music to Life — using music for social change.

• Mike Snyder – Chair of Genetics and Director of Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford. He is using cutting edge technologies to create tailored health monitoring solutions advancing genomics role in personalized medicine

• Fanny Elahi – A physician scientist at the Department of Neurology Neuroscience and Pathology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sanai in New York. She is doing groundbreaking work to analyze molecular signatures in blood that unveil insights into disease risk and resilience. Her Elahi Lab is aiming to treat dementia by understanding the role of blood vessels in human brain function and the genetic causes of vascular pathology across the lifespan that may cause a spectrum of dementia-related diseases.

• Ran Balicer – Leader behind the Israel Center on Non-communicable Disease Research.

• Jeff Cole – Director of the Center for the Digital Future — research on the impact of technology on society, culture, and human behavior.

• Ian Bassin – A leading figure in the realm of democracy and international cooperation.

• Celine de Sola – Co-founder of Glasswing, an organization bringing transformative change in communities facing adversity.

• The Northwell Nurses Choir – Frontline nurses during Covid who used songs as part of their commitment to patient care.

The event will be hosted and moderated by Tyler Mathisen, an Emmy award winning journalist for CNBC.

Antik spent years going to Ted Talks and the Aspen Institute and realized there was nothing like that on the east coast. So 14 years ago he started this yearly conference in Naples.

Antik said the audience will hear about Mary Lou Jepsen’s plans to transform MRI’s from a machine that costs more than half a million to a headset device with a $150 price tag.

“These people just think differently,” Antik said.

Guests will hear how the paleontologist saw some cliffs in Pennsylvania with fossils and then scoured the world to find similar structures. That led him to northern Canada where he found the 375 million year old fish that was the first to come out of water and begin of the evolution from animals to humans.

“Each of these ends up being a big idea,” Antik explained. “If you think of it as a jigsaw puzzle, it is a picture of the fabric of what our world will look like in the next five years. In each case we try to get someone that is trying to do something, not someone who is just writing about it.”

Fanny Elahi is one of those people doing amazing work discovering ways to treat dementia. She is developing ways to screen for early detection of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive impairments and use preventative treatments, similar to cholesterol-lowering medications that prevent heart disease, to measure brain health and modify the risks of brain degeneration before symptoms begin.

“I am 100 percent sure that will happen,” Elahi exclaimed. “That is when we are really going to win the game. I am a very optimistic person.”

She said advances in technology during the past five years have fast tracked her research and given her the tools she needs to find treatments. Elahi wants the audience at the Imagine Solutions conference to feel her optimism and understand that great things are coming.

“I am just really, really happy and excited about everything that has happened, so I try to convey that to everyone I speak to,” she said.

Suzanne Willis is the director of Imagine Solutions and a big fan of the yearly conference.

“Everyone is so different that you really walk away with ‘wow I learned something new’,” Willis exclaimed.

In past years Willis said she was wowed by a woman who is using DNA to create pig’s hearts and by the CEO of Sesame Street who is a huge philanthropist. She was also amazed at how Moderna had already been working on a formula for creating vaccines quickly long before Covid even occurred.

“This year the one that I am really wowed with is the astrophysicist,” Willis said, “The James Webb space telescope is really more than expected. It is mind boggling what they can see with this telescope.”

Only 550 tickets will be sold.

“If you get too large, you cannot meet and talk to speakers,” Antik stressed.

He is also proud of the mixture of themes and the musical entertainment that will break up some of the more serious topics.

“The 12 nurses — that is a really important voice we need to hear,” Antik said.

While the event is costly, Imagine Solutions offers scholarships especially for teachers and first responders. The group is also teaming up with Lee Health to bring local nurses to the event.

“I love learning,” Antik said. “I have a huge respect for education and if we can bring these stories to other people isn’t that worth doing? The idea of bringing interesting ideas and education to a community is worth doing. The conference always opens my mind. There are so many people doing so many cool good things.” ¦

In the KNOW

Imagine Solutions Conference 2024

· When: Monday, March 4; 8:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

· Where: Arthrex One Center in Naples

· Price: $700

· Theme: Unlike. Any. Other.

· For more info and to register: www.imaginesolutionsconference.com

The post Unlike. Any. Other. Imagine Solutions conference returns to Naples first appeared on Bonita Springs Florida Weekly .