Unfinished Live 2021
Over two days at The Shed, a cultural center in Hudson Yards, Unfinished Live convened leading voices in tech, media, art, policy, and the spaces-in-between for vibrant conversations about the decentralized future.
The discussions during Unfinished Live fostered a movement toward an equitable and sustainable future for all. Hosted by Baratunde Thurston, participants included Angela Glover Blackwell, founder in residence at PolicyLink and the chair of the Unfinished Network; Nabiha Syed, president of The Markup; Audrey Tang, digital minister of Taiwan; Claire Evans, author of Broad Band; Elizabeth Stark, CEO of Lightning Labs; Ian Cheng, Artist; Dan Porterfield, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute; Rashad Robinson, American civil rights leader; Gavin Wood, founder of the Web3 Foundation and Parity Technologies, Co-Founder Ethereum; Gary Liu, CEO, South China Morning Post; Yasmim Green, Director of R&D, Jigsaw; Anil Dash, Co-founder and CEO,ThinkUp; Rumman Chowdhury, Founder, Parity AI; Alex Kantrowitz, Founder, Big Technology; and Anna Sale, of Death, Sex & Money, who hosted live audio experiments, along with many, many more.
With two main stages, a podcast studio, a dedicated Clubhouse social audio lounge, interactive art spaces with a special presentation from the artists of Unfinished Camp, the multi-day program was packed with meaning and experiences. Additionally, the Project Liberty Experience, a monumental, immersive, interactive, art installation by Refik Anadol, and projection environment in The McCourt, invited guests and members of the public to envision a world where individuals own and control their data.
Empire worked closely with the Unfinished team and various Unfinished partners to deliver an inspiring and seamless experience for this high-profile convening. Empire roles for Unfinished Live included technical production for the program spaces within The Shed (staging, rigging, audio, video, livestream), design, layouts and production management. Empire oversaw show running for the main stage programs for the live show days as well as live streaming to a virtual audience. Empire worked closely with T Strategy and Plan Experiential on all aspects of show production as well as Chilean strategy and creative agency, Felicidad, to deliver an extraordinary display of Unfinished Live’s design assets and imagery.
Empire, alongside the Unfinished and Shed teams, collaboratively developed and managed a thorough on-site Covid safety plan for all staff, crew, talent and guests ensuring the health and safety of all present at the event.
Empire is a proud production partner for Unfinished Live.
About Unfinished
Unfinished works to strengthen our civic life in the digital age. With a network of partners in technology, academia, social impact, and the arts, Unfinished is imagining the future of technology, culture, and our economy to create a thriving multiracial democracy.
To achieve this, Unfinished is advancing a very concrete solution through Project Liberty, an initiative with the potential to transform how the internet works and who benefits from the digital economy. Project Liberty aims to create a new civic architecture for the next generation of the internet that prioritizes people over platforms, returns the ownership and control of personal data to individuals, reflects a commitment to ethics and shared values, and expands economic opportunities for both users and developers.
Unfinished has partnered with an unparalleled, impact-driven partner network that includes: The Aspen Institute, The Shed, For Freedoms, Ford Foundation, Imperative 21, Ashoka, Georgetown University, Citizen University, Common Goal, Guild of Future Architects, Heartland Forward, Independent Sector, New_ Public, Sciences Po, Serpentine, Amplifier, MilM2, and PolicyLink and which continues to grow.
To learn more visit: https://unfinished.com/
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
