The Kairos Global Summit, hosted by the Kairos Society partnered with the United Nations and the New York Stock Exchange, brought hundreds of top innovative and entrepreneurial students from across the world together with society’s most influential leaders.
For two days, current and future leaders of the world came together to address, analyze and discuss some of the world’s most pressing issues and challenges.
The goal of the summit was to introduce young entrepreneurs to prominent leaders and leaders of innovation. It aimed to familiarize the students with company growth and communication strategies, as well as global problem-solving tactics.
Additionally, the winners of the 2012 Kairos 50—the 50 most ground-breaking university ventures—were announced at the summit.
According to its website, the Kairos Society is “an international, student-run, not-for-profit foundation [that] fosters a culture of innovation-driven entrepreneurship by engaging diverse fellows with a variety of industry and thought leaders surrounding a wide range of global challenges.”
The society’s mission is to engage young innovators under the idea of individual and collective action toward a better, more productive future.
Kairos fellows also “strive to develop meaningful ventures that create value for the global economy while improving the lives of billions of people around the world.”
New to the summit this year was the Conrad Foundation, created and head-up by the late astronaut Pete Conrad’s wife, Nancy Conrad.
Conrad and five students attended the summit as the first collaboration between the newly-partnered Conrad Foundation and Kairos Society.
Brent Piephoff , freshman in computer science, was one of the students from the University who was able to attend the summit. Piephoff said he and some of the students received invitations because they were finalists in the Spirit of Innovation Awards while in high school.
Hosted by the Conrad Foundation, the Spirit of Innovation Awards competition sought to make students into inventors, according to Piephoff . He and his team proposed a new mobile application that would improve cyber security in mobile units.
“After the competition we were invited to join the board of alums of the Conrad Foundation. [Then] the Conrad Foundation and the Kairos Society formed a partnership which included a few invitations to the Kairos Global Summit that were given to us,” Piephoff said.
At the summit, Piephoff said he and the other students were introduced to a diverse group of professional and student entrepreneurs and were able to network with people from around the world.
He said his favorite part of the summit was the presentations of the top ideas and products.
“Personally I enjoyed hearing the K-50’s ideas a lot and [they] further inspired me to continue to search for my own million dollar idea,” Piephoff said.
Also hailing from the University was Ankesh Madan , junior in materials science and engineering. He said the summit was a collaborative tool for students interested in innovation and entrepreneurship.
“The networking was a lot of fun for me because I got to meet different students who were interested in many different things. It was like a big sounding-board for ideas,” Madan said.
Mingling with students from across the world, Madan said he enjoyed pioneering new ideas for various environmental, technological and engineering fields.
Throughout the two-day summit, Madan said they had breakout sessions, during which experts from various fields acted as mentors and spoke and encouraged discussion among the students.
“[The summit] was an amazing hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. We’re bringing society forward to the next level,” Madan said. “I’ve been given the tools and the contacts. Now I just need the right idea.”
Daniel Wang, sophomore in economics and math at Dartmouth College, was also a Kairos Global Fellow who attended the summit. He said it’s important for students to see the accessibility of entrepreneurship and invention.
“Starting a business and marketing your innovation is actually a very doable process. Young innovators and entrepreneurs shouldn’t be afraid to implement their ideas,” Wang said.
Currently, the Conrad Foundation and the Kairos Society are working together on the Spirit of Innovation Challenge, which is the Conrad Foundation’s primary program.
The Conrad Foundation website says the Spirit of Innovation program “challenges high school students to develop commercially-viable, technology-based products that address real-world issues.”
Through the foundation’s program, approaches to teaching science, technology, engineering and math are being transformed across traditional educational platforms.