Boston, where approximately 37 percent of population is made up of college students, can now boast its status as the newest home of the 2016 Forbes Under 30 Summit. The summit is an annual networking event hosted by Forbes Conferences that has been held in Philadelphia for the past two years and always features famous celebrities and entrepreneurs in their panels and events.
In an effort to find a permanent home for the event, Forbes has brought their largest Under 30 summit ever to Boston in the midst of our chilly Northeastern autumn.
“When you look at Boston, in terms of the technology, the innovation, the startups, the university scene — all of this makes it an amazing location for our audience, who are under 30 game-changers, world-changers,” said Taylor Culliver, the programming coordinator at Forbes. “And we want them to really experience all that Boston has to offer.”
Culliver, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015, said it’s his job to work with all the Forbes teams help “bring the vision to life” for the summit.
“I’ve had aspirations of being on the 30 Under 30 list myself,” Culliver said. “And being able to come to the summit and experience being around those people and connecting with those people has been a pretty amazing experience.” He later said, “We’re really, really excited about bringing this to Boston, making sure the students are getting involved.”
This year’s celebrity speaker and panelist lineup features names such as Jessica Alba, Michael Phelps, Chrissy Teigen, Ashton Kutcher, Bobby Flay, Sir Richard Branson, as well as some of the minds behind theSkimm, WeWork, Breyer Capital, Fine Brothers Entertainment and many more.
For a portion of Monday’s and Tuesday’s events during the summit, panelists will be divided into four simultaneous “content stages:” Tech, Impact, Capital and Create. Each stage is held at a different location in Boston and features about a half-dozen events per day.
Events range from “The Entrepreneurial Revolution: A VR Experience” at the Create stage on Monday morning, which also features Okieriete Onaodowan from “Hamilton: An American Musical,” to the panel “Politics in the 21st Century” at the Impact stage on Tuesday morning, in which both “legislators and non-politicians [will] discuss the challenges and opportunities” of a polarized political climate. The “$1 Million Change the World Competition” will feature four nonprofits and four for-profit companies competing for a $500,000 award from Ashton Kutcher and other investors.
From discussing issues of gender inequality to the future of drone use, the “content stages” feature an enormous spectrum of topics. When registering for tickets, guests choose one of the four stages they want access to.
A ticket to a content stage also guarantees guests access to a food festival, a Fenway bar crawl, a music festival happening Sunday as well as the “Under 30 Village Hubs,” which are broken into the Opportunities, Ideas and Experiences categories. Wednesday’s “Service Day,” for which Forbes promises to “leave Boston better than we found it,” is separate.
Sunday’s music festival, for which Forbes annually partners with Global Citizen, a “social action platform” that promotes global change, will feature co-headliners Jason Derulo and Halsey, as well as openers Gallant and Delta Rae. They hosted an Instagram contest in September to give away six tickets to the concert as well as VIP passes to meet Derulo and Halsey backstage, Culliver said.
“I usually get super pumped up about the music festival,” Culliver said. “One, because it’s the biggest time where everyone comes together … We’re also giving out tickets to local Boston communities to come and join us, and so I think it’s a cool way for us to kind of welcome ourselves to the city and then for us to kind of gel out with the city. I’m a huge fan of Halsey, so that’s gonna be a pretty amazing concert.”
There are also surprise acts promised on the summit’s website.
“Surprises galore,” Culliver said. “I can’t tell you what they are — that would kill the suspense!”
The three Under 30 Village Hubs, located at the City Hall Plaza, will host a more diverse range of events — “to a start-up village, to performances, to food, to a beer garden,” their website reads. The Opportunities Hub is similar to a recruitment fair, Culliver said.
The summit strikes a balance in opportunity — participants can network and receive tips on how to further their careers in the short term, as well be exposed to those who have achieved great success in their fields. Dreams and goals will be nourished to their full potential.
“This summit is all about changing the world,” Culliver said. “I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but it really is about bringing people together who are making a huge impact on people’s lives and in the world.”
