To our esteemed NewCo readers —
It’s been some time since we sent you a “letter” — and there’s been so much news in the NewCo world. We held our first ever NewCo Shift Forum this past February, to much acclaim. Leaders from three major power centers in our society — big companies, innovative new companies, and regulators/policy experts — convened to discuss a new contract between business and society. And yes, the fact that the event took place in the second week of what has become a tumultuous Presidential administration gave the event an extraordinary energy.
So last week, we announced we’re once again hosting the Shift Forum, again in San Francisco, and again at the fabulous St. Regis hotel. The theme is “Business must lead,” and our guiding framework is “Rational discourse,” something that is terribly missing from Washington these days. Join us there! (tickets will be released soon).
At our companion publication NewCo Shift, we’ve had a busy few months of publishing groundbreaking stories. Highlights include:
- A plea by the former US Chief Data Scientist that we not cripple data collection and progress in genomic medicine.
- An essay by a respected Harvard scholar on every citizen’s responsibility to engage fully in our political system, in particular when it comes to throwing around the word “impeachment.”
- A rant about how Facebook warps our relationships to each other.
- An impassioned plea to a local Congressman from a woman who stood to lose her healthcare (and possibly her life).
- A guide to detection of fake news in real time, from the man who invented Google News.
- An interview with Joanne Wilson, independent consigliere to founders (one of six or seven such interviews over the past few months).
- A critique of the impact of telecommuting on our society and economy.
- A call to embrace the unknown at work, from the Vice Chair of GE.
- The truth about GMOs in food, from a farmer who knows the topic cold.
- Clear-eyed truth-calling on Snapchat and Uber.
And that’s just in the past few months.
We’ve also announced new NewCo festivals in Miami, Pittsburgh, Sydney, Toronto, Melbourne, and Portugal. Check our main site for more about those events.
As always, thank you for being part of the NewCo narrative. We look forward to seeing you in the pages of our publication, or the halls of one of our events. And if you want to keep close to the story, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly newsletter.
My best,
John Battelle, EIC and CEO