Conference
4th of May 2016, Zurich/CH
Industry 4.0 and the Pursuit of Social Innovation
Does the technology revolution require a new social policy?
Technological innovation changes our world at an unprecedented speed — confronting us with new and fluid work and life realities:
Tthe “uberization of society”, a fourth industrial revolution and robots taking over more work from us than ever. These technological innovations seem to have the potential to change our social system fundamentally. But it is an open question whether for better or for worse. The critical piece to match technological innovation — social innovation — is still missing.
About the Conference
Switzerland, as the first nation in world history, will vote in June 2016 on an intersting and provoking proposal of social innovation: a “universal basic income” (UBI). The idea of universal basic income has been embraced by prominent economists and philosophers from the left and right . It currently experiences a worldwide revival:
Leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are currently debating about basic income and are planning large basic income tests and experiments. The Finnish and Canadian government is planning experiments testing the potential of introducing a UBI. The Netherlands are conducting a set of experiments testing basic income in Utrecht, Maastricht and Groningen. And New Zealand as well as Namibia are discussing UBI as well.
This conference poses the question of whether technological change requires a new social policy.
It will discuss different answers to that question:
- How will we work tomorrow?
- What means industry 4.0 for society?
- What is the welfare state of the future?
- What role can the unconditional basic income play?
Facilitators
Dr. Dorian Warren
Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, an MSNBC Contributor, Board Chair of the Center for Community Change
Dorian T. Warren is a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and Board Chair of the Center for Community Change. He is the Host and Executive Producer of “Nerding Out” on MSNBC’s digital platform. He teaches at the University of Chicago and Columbia University and serves as a Research Associate at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies.
Dr. Alexandra Borchardt
Managing Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung
Dr. Alexandra Borchardt was editor at the German Press Agency and Munich correspondent of the Financial Times Germany. Since 2005 she works for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, first as chief editor for business news, then as Deputy Head of Department interior policy and since 2011 as Managing Editor
She studied political science and holds a PhD of Tulane University, New Orleans.
Börries Hornemann
Author and Founder of NEOPOLIS.network
Börries Hornemann is a german idea-producer and social innovator. He graduated in Philosophy & Culture at University of Bochum and Witten/Herdecke.
He founded several start-ups
as well as cultural- and civil-society initiatives in Germany and Europe. Besides that he works as an author and journalist, as consultant and human resources manager.
John Thornhill
Innovation Editor, Financial Times
John Thornhill has been Deputy Editor at the Financial Times since 2012. In January 2016 he was appointed as Financial Times’ first Innovation Editor. From 2009 to 2012 he was FTs news Editor, based in London on the main news desk. Prior to this he spent four years in Paris as the Editor of the European edition of the Financial Times. Having joined the FT in 1988 as a graduate trainee, Mr Thornhill has been the Paris Bureau Chief, World News Editor, Asia Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief and a Lex columnist.
Speakers
Academics, Researchers and Artists
Prof. Dr. Erik Brynjolfsson
Professor, MIT Boston
Erik is the Director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, the Schussel Family Professor at the MIT Sloan School, and Chairman of the MIT Sloan Management Review.
His research examines the effects of information technologies on business strategy, productivity and performance, digital commerce and intangible assets. At MIT, he teaches courses on the Economics of Information and the Analytics Lab. Professor of Information Technology, MIT
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Erik will join us by video.
Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. mult. Bruno S. Frey
Professor for Economics and Well-Being, University of Basel
Bruno Frey is ranked to be one of the most influencial economists globally and most highly cited researchers. He is known as a pioneer of economic policy theory, happiness economics and cultural economics. He is permanent Visiting Professor at the University of Basel and held professorships for econmics at the University of Zurich (CH) and Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen (DE) and for Behavioural Science at the Warwick Business School (UK).
Prof. Dr. Guy Standing
Professor of Development Studies, University of London
Guy Standing has been professor of economic security at the University of Bath (until 2006) .
Standing has written widely in the areas of labour economics, labour market policy, unemployment, labour market flexibility, structural adjustment policies and social protection. His recent work has concerned the emerging precariat class and the need to move towards unconditional basic income and deliberative democracy. He is co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network.
Amira Jehia
Managing Director "Mein Grundeinkommen", Germany
Amira Jehia is the Managing Director of the German initiative Mein Grundeinkommen. The team around her fundraises money via different channels and tools, in order to raffle it out in the form of actual basic incomes. Already 37 times someone received Euro 1.000 per month for a year.
Jehia studied International Business and International Relations in Berlin, Cambridge and London. In 2010 she won the “Women in Business” Scholarship of the HULT International Business School in London.
Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Dirk Helbing
Professor of Computational Social Science, ETH Zurich
Dirk Helbing is Professor of Computational Social Science at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences and affiliate of the Computer Science Department at ETH Zurich. He is internationally known for his work on pedestrian crowds, vehicle traffic, and agent-based models of social systems. Furthermore, he coordinates the FuturICT Initiative (http://www.futurict.eu), which focuses on the understanding of techno-socio-economic systems, using smart data.
Prof. Dr. Reiner Eichenberger
Professor at University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Dr. Reiner Eichenberger is Professor of Theory of Finance and Economic Policy at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and research director of CREMA (Center for Research in Economics, Management, and the Arts). He is expert in the theory of financial and economic policy, economic analysis of political process and political institutions, deregulation of politics, compound
Economics and psychology.
Dr. Robert Johnson
Executive Director, Institute for New Economic Thinking, NYC, USA
Robert A. Johnson is the Executive Director of the Institute
for New Economic Thinking and Senior Fellow and Director of the Project on Global Finance at the Roosevelt Institute. Johnson was previously a managing director at Soros Fund Management, where he managed a global currency, bond and equity portfolio specializing in emerging markets. He has also served on the UN’s Commission on International Monetary Reform together with Joseph Stiglitz.
Anthony Painter
Director of Policy and Strategy, Royal Society of Arts, UK
Athony Painter leads the RSA’s Development Team, which includes design, international, behaviour change, organisation change, and the RSA’s policy work and consultancy offer. In his work on policy development, he focuses on a range of policy issues including the impact of new technology on the economy and society, reform to welfare, public services and a range of public institutions. He previously directed the Independent Review of the Police Federation and worked with Google, the BBC and the Metropolitan Police.
Michael D. Tanner
Senior fellow, Cato Institute Washington, D.C., USA
Cato Institute senior fellow, Michael Tanner heads research into a variety of domestic policies with a particular emphasis on poverty and social welfare policy, health care reform, and Social Security.
Tanner is the author of numerous other books on public policy.
He directs a project on Social Security Choice, which is widely considered the leading impetus for transforming the soon-to-be-bankrupt system into a private savings program.
Armin Steuernagel
President of Purpose Foundation Berlin, Germany
Armin Steuernagel is economist and co-founder of several start-ups in e-commerce and food sector active in 20 countries. He is Member of the Think Tank 30 of the Club of Rome which aims to identify and solve problems in the world, from a younger perspective.
Armin Steuernagel is president of the Purpose Foundation that researches ownership and investment forms fitting for the 21st century economy.
Daniel J. Mitchell
Senior fellow, Cato Institute Washington, D.C., USA
Daniel J. Mitchell is a senior fellow who specializes in fiscal policy, particularly tax reform, international tax competition, and the economic burden of government spending. He also serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review. Prior to joining Cato, Mitchell was a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation, and an economist for Senator Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee. Dan’s work has been published in numerous outlets. Mitchell earned a PhD in economics from George Mason University.
Ville-Veikko Pulkka
Researcher, Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA)
Ville-Veikko Pulkkas is Social and public policy researcher at the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA) in Helsinki, which is in charge of the large Basic Income experiment starting next year.
He does basic income research at KELA and a dissertation research on digital working life at University of Helsinki.
Speakers
Parliamentarians, politics and civil-society representatives
Prof. Robert Reich
Former United States Secretary of Labor
Robert Bernard Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. Reich is currently Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was formerly a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University.
Prof. Dr .Yanis Varoufakis
Former Minister of Finance of Greece
Yanis Varoufakis was the Greek Minister of Finance in 2015. He is a leading participant in the current debates on the global and European financial crisis. Further he is author of “The Global Minotaur” and several academic texts on economics and game theory. He is professor of economic theory at the University of Athens and holds visiting-professorships at the universities of Texas and Stockholm. Besides that he is private consultant for the Valve Corporation (US video game developer).
Nell Abernathy
Director of Programs, Roosevelt Institute, New York, USA
Nell Abernathy manages strategy and research priorities for the RI think tank, and focuses her own work on economic issues, including financial regulation and the gig economy. While at Roosevelt, Nell developed and managed the Inequality Project led by Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz, and coauthored “Rewriting the Rules” with Professor Stiglitz. She has also managed the Next American Economy project with Senior Fellow Bo Cutter, and the Financialization Project with Fellow Mike Konczal.
Andrew Stern
Former president of the US Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Stern experienced the transformation of our labour markets from a unique perspective and advised President Obama on it. For 2008 he is listed as the “most invited person to the oval office”. Soon his new book will be published, in which he proposes a universal basic income for the US. He is currently senior fellow at Columbia University, New York.
Stern has been described by CBS News as the “most important labor boss in America.”
Enno Schmidt
Co-Founder of Swiss Basic Income Initiative and Movement
Enno Schmidt is artist, writer and filmmaker. He studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany and lives and works in Basel. In 2006 together with the Swiss entrepreneur Daniel Häni he founded the initiative for Basic Income in Switzerland. In 2012 they launched the Citizens Initiative for a Basic Income, which could successfully be submitted in autumn 2013 with 126.000 signatures. Therefor in June 2016 the referendum will be carried out on the introduction of an Unconditional Basic Income in Switzerland.
Rick Wartzman
Journalist, Senior Advisor The Drucker Institute
Rick Wartzman began his career at The Wall Street Journal, where he served in a variety of positions, including White House correspondent. He joined the Los Angeles Times in 2002 as business editor and, in that role, helped shape “The Wal-Mart Effect,” which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. In addition to his position as Executive Director at the Drucker Institute, Rick has written about management and leadership for Time Magazine, Forbes and Businessweek, and he currently writes a column called Work 3.0 for Fortune online.
Daniel Häni
Co-Founder of Swiss Basic Income Initiative and Movement
Entrepreneur, co-founder of “unternehmen mitte”, the largest coffeehouse in Switzerland. He is co-founder of the Swiss initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income which was successfully submitted in autumn 2013 and sparked a worldwide media echo. The referendum on the introduction of an Unconditional Basic Income in Switzerland will be carried out in June 2016.
Vania Alleva
President of UNIA Swiss Trade Union
Vania Alleva is vice president of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB) and president of Unia, with over 200,000 members the largest labor union in Switzerland. Already since 2008 Alleva is intensively dealing with the topic of changes in working environment and the related challenges for social security and social solidarity. She is co-author of the 2012 published book “Unrecognized work. Service employees in Switzerland “.
Dr. Michael Faye
Co-Founder of GiveDirectly
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of GiveDirectly and Co-Founder and President of Segovia Technology. Michael has worked in a variety of contexts including the United Nations and McKinsey. In 2013, Foreign Policy named him one of its 100 leading global thinkers.
Speakers
Entrepreneurs and business leaders
Dr. Albert Wenger
Venture Capitalist at Union Square Ventures (USV), New York
Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures (USV), a New York-based early stage VC firm focused on investing in disruptive networks. USV portfolio companies include: Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Etsy, Kickstarter and Shapeways.
Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo. He previously founded or co-founded five companies, including a management consulting firm (in Germany), a hosted data analytics company, a technology subsidiary for Telebanc (now E*Tradebank), and an early stage investment firm.
Natalie Foster
Founder of peers.org, San Francisco, USA
Natalie Foster has transformed and run some of the largest digital teams in the country, including President Obama’s successful effort to pass health reform, and built two organizations from scratch.
Most recently, Natalie co-founded and launched “Peers.org” as the organization’s first executive director. Peers is the world’s largest independent sharing economy community. Prior to Peers, she was the CEO and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, a platform for people–driven economic change, with Van Jones.
Robin Chase
Founder and former CEO of Zipcar, Boston, USA
Robin Chase is a transportation entrepreneur. She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest car-sharing company in the world. She is also the founder and former CEO of Buzzcar, a peer-to-peer car sharing service, acquired by Drivy. She also started the defunct GoLoco.org, a ride-sharing company. She is co-founder and Executive Chairman of Veniam, a vehicle network communications company. She authored the book, Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism.
Myke Näf
Co-Founder and former CEO of Doodle, Zurich, Switzerland
Myke Näf (CH) is co-founder and former CEO of “Doodle”, one of the most succesful Start-Ups in Switzerland and the world’s most used event scheduling-plattform.
The website counts 15 million user per day.
Since 2014 he supports several start-ups as early-stage investor and sparring partner, for example in cooperation with the platform kickstart-accelerator.com
Myke studied Computer Sciences at ETH Zurich and advised several Swiss companies as IT- and cybersecurity expert.
Betsy Masiello
Director of Public Policy & Economics at Uber Technologies Inc (USA)
Betsy Masiello is director of Public Policy & Economics at UBER headquartered in San Francisco, California. Uber develops, markets and operates the Uber mobile app, which allows consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request which is then routed to Uber drivers who use their own cars. Prior working at Uber Masiello spent seven years at Google where she led public policy strategies. Before Google, Betsy was a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Partners
the conference takes place as a cooperation of the following institutions
Conference host
NEOPOLIS is aresearch and idea development network founded by young entrepreneurs
Basel / Berlin / Zurich
Conference co-host
GDI is the Swiss leading think tank for economics, society and trade for the purpose of conducting scientific research in the social and economic fields.
Zurich, Switzerland
libertarian American think tank promoting individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peaceful international relations.
Washington, D.C., USA
think tank for new economic thinking facing the challenges of the 21st century
New York, USA
Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, London, UK
first world development is
performative non-profit think tank promoting direct democracy, individual liberty and sustainable development
Basel, Switzerland
non-profit research center for quantitative future research methods,
Palo Alto, California, USA
liberal American think tank promoting progressive ideas and bold leadership
New York, USA
Business magazine with over 250.000 readers.
Germany
Philanthropic initiative seeking to empower society
Athens, Greece
Venue & Schedule
Venue
Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, Zurich
The GDI is an event location of the highest standard. Just ten minutes from Zurich, the GDI is surrounded by parkland with a panorama across the lake to the Alps. We offer bright, modern facilities, professional infrastructure and first-class cuisine. The GDI is perhaps the most beautiful event location on Lake Zurich.
http://www.gdi.ch/en/event-location
Schedule // Wed. May 4th, 2016
From vision to action: aspects of a social policy in 21st century.
08:30 Doors, Coffee and Croissants
—
9:30 Keynote
David Bosshart (CH), CEO, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Introduction into the topic – the Swiss Perspective
—
09:50 Dialogue
Albert Wenger (USA), VC at Union Square Capital
Armin Steuernagel (D), President of Purpose Foundation
Social Policy 4.0 – International Perspective
—
10:15 Keynote
Bruno S. Frey (CH), Economist, University of Basel
Direct Democracy as a Society Tool
—
10:30 Keynote
Robert Johnson (USA), Institute for New Economic Thinking
Responses to Technology Revolution – Basic Income as a fundamental Paradigm Shift
—
10:50 Coffee Break
—
Room 1: “Saal”
11:20 Panel: Basic Income Experiments
Guy Standing (UK), University of London
Michael Faye (USA), givedirectly.org
Ville-Veikko Pulkka (FI), Kela, Social Insurance Institution of Finland
Amira Jehia (D), Mein Grundeinkommen
Host: John Thornhill (UK), Financial Times
—
12:15 Panel: Basic income – beyond left and right?
Michael Tanner (USA), CATO Institute
Daniel J. Mitchell (USA), CATO Institute
Robert B. Reich (USA), former US-Secretary of Labour
Reiner Eichenberger (CH), Economist, Director of CREMA
Host: Alexandra Borchardt (D), Süddeutsche Zeitung
—
Room 2: “Bibliothek”
11:20 Keynote
Enno Schmidt (DE/CH), Author and Co-Founder of the Swiss Basic Income Initiative
Unconditionality – the cultural dimension of basic income (German only)
—
11:45 Keynote
Rick Wartzman (USA), Senior Advisor and former Executive Director, Drucker Institute
History of Guaranteed Annual Wage and Income (English only)
12:15 Panel: Future of Work (German only)
Daniel Häni (CH), Entrepreneur and Co-initiator of the basic income initiative in Switzerland
Dirk Helbing (CH), ETH Zurich
Albert Wenger (USA), VC at Union Square Capital
Myke Näf (CH), Doodle.com
Host: Börries Hornemann (D), Founder of NEOPOLIS.network
—
13:00 Networking-Lunch
—
14:30 Entrepreneurs Panel: Disrupting Work
Albert Wenger (USA), VA at Union Square Capital
Natalie Foster (USA), peers.org
Robin Chase (USA), Zipcar
Betsy Masiello (USA), Uber
Host: John Thornhill (UK), Financial Times
—
15:30 Keynote: ” Technological Change and the Inevitability of UBI “
Robert B. Reich (USA), former US-Secretary of Labour
—
15:55 Labor Panel – Future of Trade Unions and Social Security
Andrew Stern (USA), SEIU Trade Union
Nell Abernathy (USA), Roosevelt Institute
Vania Alleva (CH), Unia Trade Union
Dorian Warren (USA), Center for Community Change
Host: Alexandra Borchardt (D), Süddeutsche Zeitung
—
16:50 Coffee break
—
17:20 Live-Video-Interview
Erik Brynjolfsson (USA), MIT
—
17:35 Videotrailer
Christian Tod (A), Golden Girls
“What`s Wrong with a Free Lunch”
—
17:45 Keynote
Anthony Painter (UK), The Royal Society of Arts
Creative Citizen, Creative State: The Principled and Pragmatic Case for a Basic Income
—
18:05 Keynote
Yanis Varoufakis (GRE), former Greek Minister of Finance
When becomes a society social?
—
18:40 Apéro
—
About us
The Conference’s Executive Board
Andrew Stern
Former President Service Employees International Union, NYC
Natalie Foster
CEO Peers.org, Institute for the Future, San Francisco
Albert Wenger
Venture Capitalist at Union Square Ventures (USV), New York City
The organising Committee
The conference has been organised and hosted by NEOPOLIS.network – a team of young entrepreneurs and researchers
Armin Steuernagel
Entrepreneur
Economist and co-founder of several start-ups in e-commerce and food sector that are active in 20 countries around the world. Founder of Purpose Foundation.
Börries Hornemann
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur, “idea-producer”, networker, journalist, leadership consultant and full-time staff member for this conference.
boerries@socialpolicy2016.com
Benjamin Brockhaus
Project Developer
Social innovator, sustainability consultant and project developer. He supports several NGOs in Europe, like “Alternative Nobel Prize”. benjamin@socialpolicy2016.com
Jonas Rohloff
IT and Project Developer
Engineer renewable energies, research&development, software and project developer, conference organisator.