The 19th-annual HD Summit, hosted in February at the JW Marriott Cancun in Mexico featured a panel of speakers nearly as stunning as the sunny location. A special thank you to all of the HD Summit sponsors, who make this inspiring event possible.
Noah Wilson-Rich kicked off the first day of our annual Summit event on a buzzy note. The behavioral ecologist and author of The Bee: A Natural History, discussed the role of bees in our ecosystem and food supply. Wilson-Rich illuminated his work as cofounder and chief science officer for the Best Bees Company, a beekeeping service that installs and maintains honey beehives for corporate rooftops and grounds across the U.S. The discussion ranged from the urgency of protecting bees—46 percent of beehives have died in the past year—to the future of beekeeping in hospitality, and even in space.
Flynn Coleman spoke next on the importance of ethically designed artificial intelligence (AI), as is detailed in her recent book A Human Algorithm. The writer, professor, and international human rights attorney organized her discussion into five imperatives necessary for thriving in “the new epoch.” Coleman urged attendees to (1) acknowledge that no single one of us has all the answers and (2) to invite a wider diversity of voices into the conversation about AI design. In addition to emphasizing (3) the value of all living things and all types of intelligence, Coleman also explained the need to (4) encode values and empathy into technology to imbue our best qualities or risk AI manifesting our worst. Finally, Coleman reminded attendees to (5) stay curious and embrace the uncertainty of life.
Filmmakers Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci of Optimist discussed their Netflix documentary Living on One Dollar. To better understand the lived experience of extreme poverty, the economics majors spent two months in a rural Guatemalan town, where they documented everything from the amount of time it takes to make dinner each day (five hours, they report) to struggles with obtaining clean water and dealing with pests and illness. But most compelling were their stories of two people they met during their time: a 12-year-old boy named Chino and an indigenous woman named Rosa. Through the lens of these stories, Ingrasci and Temple learned to ask five important questions: Wait Why?, I Wonder Why or If?, Couldn’t We at Least?, How Can I Help?, and What Really Matters? Ultimately, the pair’s thesis boils down to: People are experts in their own lives. Intervention isn’t the answer most people think it is.
Keynote speaker and restaurant industry trailblazer Danny Meyer—CEO of Union Square Hospitality and founder of Shake Shack—sat in conversation with HD’s Michael Adams on day two. The pair covered topics from Meyer’s hopes for the 1985-opened New York staple Union Square Café (“I was very conscious of not wanting it to be hot because hot gets cold”) to his fast-casual empire (“We’ve created an environment to have the same quality of ingredients without a server or a chef”) and employees’ reaction to eliminating tipping in his establishments (“The team spirit has actually been great.”). Regarding the mark he wants to make on the industry? “I’ve always felt that unless we have something to add to the dialogue, there’s no point in doing it.”
