Disruptive Innovation Festival 2015 Grand Finale Registration Opens

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Nov 9, 2015) - The Disruptive Innovation Festival 2015 announced the opening of registration for its Grand Finale event on 18 November, which will mark the climax of this year's three-week, global online Festival dedicated to exploring the latest ideas and innovations shaping our changing economy.

The Disruptive Innovation Festival (DIF 2015), which is taking place from November 2-20 at thinkdif.co, uses a unique, collaborative platform to host up to twelve hours of curated sessions per day by some of the world's most forward-looking start-ups, entrepreneurs, designers, thought-leaders and policymakers.

The Grand Finale, which will be held from 2:30-5:30pm GMT on 18 November, will feature live presentations, discussion and debate around the latest thinking and developments in the fields of the headline speakers:

Michael Braungart - the pioneering Cradle to Cradle design concept
Michelle Unger - IBM's Watson™ and deep learning machines
Leontino Balbo Jr. - the future of global food systems
Jeremy Howard and Rand Hindi - the life-changing nature of artificial intelligence

The sessions by Michelle Unger, and by Jeremy Howard and Rand Hindi, will be hosted by prime-time TV news host Ali Velshi, of Al Jazeera America. Dame Ellen MacArthur will present an overview of key themes of the Festival, and closing remarks.

A limited number of places are available to attend the Grand Finale event in person, at Cisco Event Centre, Bedfont Lakes, near London, with pre-registration. The Grand Finale will be broadcast live from 3pm at thinkdif.co, and streamed directly to participants' devices. The Grand Finale event, in common with all the 200-plus Festival sessions, is available to view online free of charge after registering at thinkdif.co.

The Grand Finale speakers feature alongside DIF Headliners who include Robin Chase, co-founder of Zipcar; Hunter Lovins, sustainable development expert; Alison Vincent, Chief Technology Officer at Cisco; Ida Auken, Member of Danish Parliament and World Economic Forum Meta-Council; Jyrki Katainen, European Commission Vice President and Commissioner for Jobs, Growth, Competitiveness and Investment; Michel Bauwens, founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives; Neal Gorenflo, co-founder of Shareable; April Rinne, shareable cities expert; and George Lakoff, expert in cognitive science and linguistics and Professor at University of California at Berkeley.

The DIF 2015 provides participants with a rare opportunity to put their questions and ideas directly to the speakers and to like-minded peers, both at physical events such as the Grand Finale, and online via the live chat facility incorporated in the platform.

NOTES FOR EDITORS:
The Disruptive Innovation Festival (DIF 2015) is curated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

This press release was made possible through our media partner PVBLIC Foundation, an organization focused on using media to drive impact and social change. PVBLIC utilizes existing and emerging technologies to increase issue awareness around important causes and to help non-profits amplify their message. @PVBLIC or visit pvblic.org

About the Disruptive Innovation Festival
The Disruptive Innovation Festival, 2-20 November 2015, is a three-week online festival bringing together thought-leaders, entrepreneurs, businesses, makers, learners and doers to catalyse system-level change for a future economy. Offering a mix of online and physical events, the DIF will explore ideas such as 21st century science, new business models, sharing economy and many other themes. Participants from all over the world can attend sessions running across multiple formats and time zones and are able to apply to host their own session as part of the 'Open Mic' programme during the Festival. www.thinkdif.co

About the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was created in 2010 to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. The Foundation's work focuses on four areas: insight and analysis, business and government, education and training, and communications. With Knowledge Partner, McKinsey & Company, the Foundation works to quantify the economic potential of the circular model and to develop approaches for capturing this value. The Foundation collaborates with Global Partners (Cisco, Google, Kingfisher, Philips, Renault, Unilever), and its CE100 network (corporates, universities, governments and cities, emerging innovators, affiliates), to develop circular business initiatives and build capacity. The Foundation is creating a global teaching and learning platform on the circular economy as well, encompassing work with leading universities, schools and colleges, and online events such as the Disruptive Innovation Festival.
www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org

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Visit the website: www.thinkdif.co
Register to participate: www.thinkdif.co/user/register
Present your ideas via an Open Mic session: www.thinkdif.co/open-mic

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