Themes

Roots & Futures: Culture, Authorship & the Long Arc of Resilience

The technologies most likely to fail communities are the ones that arrive without asking what those communities already know. This theme starts the day with a foundational provocation: that diversity, cultural memory, and community authorship are not values added from the outside - they are what makes systems work. Before we can design the future, we have to understand who has been building it all along.

Seeing Clearly: AI, Data & the Communities Left Off the Map

Decisions made without accurate information are not neutral - they have consequences, and those consequences have never fallen equally. This theme examines what changes when the data finally catches up to the reality that communities have been living: who gains access, who controls the narrative, and whether better visibility translates into better outcomes or simply better-informed inaction.

The Capital Stack: Connecting Place-Based Innovation to the Resources That Can Scale It

Proof of concept is not the finish line, it is where the real work begins. This theme examines the structural distance between a community-rooted model that works and the capital that could take it to scale, and asks what it actually takes to close it. The conversation moves across the full capital ladder: venture, philanthropic, institutional, and public.

From the Middle Out: Trust, Accountability & What We're Building Next

Accountability is not a feature you add at the end, it is a design decision made at the beginning, or not at all. This theme asks how we measure what we are building, who decides whether it is working, and what responsible innovation actually looks like when the communities it claims to serve are in the room. The day ends not with conclusions but with a collective commitment.

Roots & Futures: Culture, Authorship & the Long Arc of Resilience

Seeing Clearly: AI, Data & the Communities Left Off the Map

The Capital Stack: Connecting Place-Based Innovation to the Resources That Can Scale It

From the Middle Out: Trust, Accountability & What We're Building Next

Program

Roots & Futures:
Culture, Authorship & the Long Arc of Resilience

1:10pm Opening Keynote: (Re)Designing the Social Architectures of Human Connection

Amar Bakshi · Andus Labs / MIT Center for Constructive Communication

We’ve built technologies that scale connection while quietly eroding the social fabric that makes communities resilient. AI offers a chance to redesign that foundation, shifting from convenience to systems that enable real collective action.

1:20pm Panel: Roots & Futures: Culture, Diversity & the Long Arc of Community Resilience

Mark Chambers,Terreform One · Brandy Schultz, Sound Future · John Pasmore, Latimer

The systems that last are rooted in culture, shared memory, and lived experience, not just engineering. This panel asks whose knowledge is shaping AI and what it means to design with intention from the ground up.

Jamil Ellis, Unified Ground · Gabo Arora, Museum of the Moving Image

1:50pm Builder’s Mic: Culture & Community

Seeing Clearly:
AI, Data & the Communities Left Off the Map

2:00pm Panel : The Map We've Been Missing: AI, Resilience Innovation & the Communities Left Off the Chart

Chloe Demorovsky, NYU · Anthony Townsend, Cornell Tech · Stephen Brandt, InnSure

Communities facing the greatest climate risk have long been invisible to capital and institutions. As AI begins to make them visible, the question shifts from awareness to action and why investment has not followed.

2:30pm Keynote: New Tools for Civic Engagement and Urban Planning

Tricia Wang, Advanced Ai Society

A perspective from inside city government on how AI tools are actually reaching communities today. It highlights what is working, what is not, and where the gap between institutional capability and real need remains.

Anh Nguyen, Cornell Tech · Javad Mushtaq, C10 Labs

2:40pm Builder’s Mic: Resilience Infrastructure

2:50pm Panel : The Workforce We're Building Toward:
AI, Human Potential & the Future of Community Economic Resilience

Amar Bakshi, Andus Labs · Stela Lupushor, Reframe Work · Ketaki Sodhi, Moody’s ·

Yelena Mammadova, Microsoft

AI is reshaping the nature of work faster than institutions can adapt. This panel explores whether that transition will deepen existing inequalities or create new pathways for inclusion.

3:20pm Keynote

Abishek Dash, Adaptive Infrastructure Partners

3:40pm Builder’s Mic: Economic Empowerment & AI Innovation

Devin Abraham, Liiv · Mariyam Shamshidova & Gregory Ugwi, WeFranch

The Capital Stack:
Connecting Place-Based Innovation to the Resources That Can Scale It

3:50pm Panel : The Capital Stack for Community Resilience: Venture, Institutional &
Public Capital in Conversation

Jay Lundy, NAACP Capital · Morris Cox, Purpose Fund · Eric Horvath, Earlystone

The gap between community rooted innovation and scalable capital remains one of the system’s biggest failures. This panel explores how aligning venture, institutional, and public capital can unlock both market opportunity and social impact.

Kendra Batchelder, medara · Roma van der Walt, Vitelle

4:20pm Builder’s Mic: Health & Communities

4:30pm Panel: Built for the Future, Rooted in Place: How the Next Wave of Innovation Gets Designed

Simon Sylvester-Chaudhuri, CIV:LAB · Mike Pell, Microsoft

The next wave of innovation will either widen or reduce inequality depending on how it is designed. This panel examines what it means to build for place based resilience and local economic strength.

From the Middle Out:
Trust, Accountability & What We're Building Next

Mitch Joachim, Terreform One / NYU Gallatin

5:00pm Keynote: Where AI, Climate Resilience, Public Health & the Humanities Come Together

An introduction to a new model of interdisciplinary innovation connecting AI, climate resilience, public health, and the humanities. It reflects a shift toward integrated approaches to solving complex societal challenges.

5:10pm Closing Panel: The Communities Are Ready, Are We? Technology, Trust &
the Middle-Out Imperative

Simon Sylvester-Chaudhuri, Purpose Fund · Darren Riley, JustAir · Rebecca Darling, CoreWeave

Lasting solutions are built from within communities, not imposed from the outside. This session reframes innovation as a practice grounded in trust, alignment, and
long term commitment.

Private Lunch Roundtables

Space is limited for each, ticketed attendees can request to participate by reaching out to us at purposesummit@civ-lab.org

Anh Nguyen, Cornell Tech · Javad Mushtaq, C10 Labs

Our pre-program luncheons are intimate, invite-only gatherings where a carefully selected group of leaders share a meal and a focused conversation around a topic that matters to their community. These sessions set the tone for deeper collaboration, creating the conditions for honest dialogue before the work begins.

Purpose, Place & Profit: Communities Are Ready. Is the Capital?
A select group of LPs, VCs, and philanthropic leaders will explore how capital streams can work in concert to build community resilience from the inside out. Grounded in nearly a decade of place based ecosystem work, the discussion will focus on how capital can better align with real community needs and unlock a new frontier for impact investing where restoring purpose and dignity opens a pathway to ROI.

NYC Heat Resilience Luncheon:
By convening a diverse group of cross-sector stakeholders, including leaders in climate and environmental justice, public health, housing, workforce development, and technology, we will identify key challenges and opportunities for a more coordinated, community-centered approach to extreme heat in NYC.