Help us bring important conversations to SXSW Interactive and SXSW EDU.

Every March, a wide range of influencers — leaders and learners, entrepreneurs and educators, practitioners and visionaries — flock to Austin for SXSW, an annual celebration of creativity and innovation across technology, education, and the arts. This conference is always on our list of must-attend events.

We frequently receive questions about how we connect the dots between our focus areas, build networks across sectors and industries, and bring new initiatives to life. SXSW is a place where people and ideas intersect, and we want to take attendees behind the scenes with panel discussions at SXSW Interactive and SXSW EDU. Help send our team to Austin: Anyone can vote for these sessions during SXSW’s PanelPicker community voting period.

• How open innovation can solve 21st-century health problems, led by Luminary Labs CEO Sara Holoubek with panelists from Takeda, Northwell Health, and CareQuest Innovation Partners. (SXSW Interactive)
• Catalyzing collaboration and community to prevent suicide, led by Director Ben Alsdurf with panelists from Veterans Health Administration, Televeda, and ReflexAI. (SXSW Interactive)
• Centering place and people in education infrastructure, led by Engagement Manager Logan Cummings with panelists from Siegel Family Endowment and Walton Family Foundation. (SXSW EDU)
• Space skills for careers on Earth, led by Engagement Manager Natalia Allen with panelists from NASA, the National Space Council, and the University of Central Florida. (SXSW EDU)
• Reading between the lines: The case for adult education, led by Director Eden Baker with panelists from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and World Ed. (SXSW EDU)

Learn more about our session proposals, and check out our curated lists of additional picks for both conferences.

SXSW 2024

How open innovation can solve 21st-century health problems

Healthcare is known for being hierarchical and expert-based. This is for good reason; lack of knowledge or experience can lead to human harm. But this structure makes it difficult to incorporate outsiders’ novel ideas. To meet the challenge of 21st-century health problems, Takeda, Northwell Health, and CareQuest Innovation Partners are investing in the power of external partnership. In this session, Luminary Labs CEO Sara Holoubek will join Takeda’s Julia Jackson, Northwell Health’s Ipsita Chatterjee, and CareQuest’s Mariya Filipova to highlight their best practices for making the case and getting the job done, and also share recently released benchmark data from a survey of 100+ organizations engaging in open innovation. Learn more about the open innovation session and cast your vote.

Catalyzing collaboration and community to prevent suicide

Suicide affects communities everywhere, but some populations, including Veterans, are particularly at risk. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recognized that tackling this intractable problem, a White House priority, would require new ways of working. Luminary Labs Director Ben Alsdurf will join Dr. Amanda Lienau from Veterans Health Administration, Shruti Gurudanti from Televeda, and Sam Dorison from ReflexAI for a look at VA’s Mission Daybreak, a $20 million grand challenge calling on innovators to develop solutions to reduce Veteran suicides. Hear how this helped catalyze collaboration and community, resulting in new solutions tailored to at-risk Indigenous Veterans and AI/ML technology to support first-line responders. Learn more about the Mission Daybreak session and cast your vote.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988, or chat 988lifeline.org. You’ll be able to speak with a trained crisis counselor any time of day or night.

More SXSW picks from our extended network

• AI in Healthcare: Real Work Having Global Impact at Scale, with Verily, Johnson & Johnson, and Finn Partners.
• ARPA-H: Breakthroughs in Human Health, with ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn.
• CancerX in 2050: The Digitization of Cancer Research & Care, with Digital Medicine Society, Moffitt Cancer Center, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• Combatting Mental Health Stigma Among Veterans, organized by the Ad Council and featuring Dr. Matthew Miller from VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.
• Crowdsourcing at NASA & How You Can Be Part of Our Mission, organized by NASA.
• Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital, with Liz Zalman and Jerry Neumann.
• How Disabled People in the South Will Save Democracy, organized by New Disabled South.
• Maternal Mental Health Injustice & Socially Responsive Care, organized by Robin Hood Foundation.
• PlayFull Podcast: A Tasty Mix of Impact & Ice Cream, with ImpactFull, Living Cities, Skoll Foundation, and 1Community.
• Power to the People: Disruptions in Philanthropy, organized by VELA Education Fund.
• Prioritizing Impact over Impressions in the face of a youth mental health crisis, organized by Factory360.
• The Future of Food & Bioeconomy, with Cargill, Mars, and CUBIQ Foods.
• The Intricate Web of Inequities in Women’s Health, with Organon, Supernode Ventures, and NYU.
• You Need A Stump Speech: Building Your Leadership Narrative, with Andy Barr.

SXSW EDU 2024

Centering place and people in education infrastructure

Despite tremendous local variation and rapid societal changes in recent decades, the physical design of schools has largely remained standardized and static — not tailored to students’ preferences, communities’ unique needs and assets, or the opportunities afforded by advances in digital technologies. In this session, Luminary Labs Engagement Manager Logan Cummings will join Joshua Elder from the Siegel Family Endowment and Jamie Jutila from the Walton Family Foundation to explore the potential of schools to be the ultimate community infrastructure and the application of placemaking in public education. How might rethinking the learning environment (physical and digital) and centering students improve education outcomes and strengthen communities? Learn more about the education infrastructure session and cast your vote.

Space skills for careers on Earth

Space technology has the potential to help us address some of our biggest challenges on Earth — from climate change to organ transplants. To realize these bold innovations, we need a multidisciplinary workforce with a range of career and technical skills. Yet many young people are not aware of the broad range of space careers, nor how these roles can impact our life on Earth. During this session, Luminary Labs Engagement Manager Natalia Allen will join Dr. Lisa Martino from the University of Central Florida, Dr. Quincy Brown from the National Space Council, and Rob Lasalvia from NASA to share how NASA, the U.S. Department of Education, and other federal agencies are using career exposure and project-based learning to engage students in space careers. Learn more about the space careers session and cast your vote.

Reading between the lines: The case for adult education

The evidence is undeniable: Increasing adult literacy in America would help break cycles of intergenerational poverty, boost our GDP, and improve individual and community wellbeing. Yet more than 40 million Americans — nearly one in five adults — read below the equivalent of a third-grade level. And only a small portion of these adults have access to adult education programs. This is a pervasive, complex problem but it is solvable. In this session, Luminary Labs Director Eden Baker will join Andrew Roberts from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and Priyanka Sharma from World Ed to look at federal and philanthropic initiatives — from open innovation to collective impact — that are expanding access to education and training opportunities. Learn more about the adult education session and cast your vote.

More SXSW EDU picks from our extended network

• ALL IN: Activating Human Potential via Multiple Literacies with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, World Education, and the National Center for Families Learning.
• Apprenticeships for People with Disabilities organized by WorkingNation.
• Circle Up: Co-Design for Innovation in SEL, organized by CAST.
• Citywide Change Starts with Early Childhood Education, with Matterlab, George Kaiser Family Foundation, Oakland Promise, and Child Poverty Action Lab.
• Computational Thinking to Support K-12 Learners, organized by Michigan State University.
• Equity in Education: Scaling Proven Programs, organized by Robin Hood.
• Harnessing AI for Good in the Classroom and Beyond, with the Walton Family Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, and OpenAI.
• Health Equity & the Intersection of Workforce & Education, with the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning, Jobs for the Future, and Kaiser Permanente.
• How Federal Partnerships are Transforming Ed R&D, with the Walton Family Foundation, Indiana University, Sound Town, and the National Science Foundation.
• It Takes a Village: Building Modern Apprenticeships, organized by Robin Hood.
• Leveraging National Standards for Teacher Apprenticeships, organized by InnovateEDU.
• Making Data Science That’s Really for Everyone, with the Institute of Education Sciences, Virginia Department of Education, The Guardian, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
• Nurturing Computational Thinkers for an AI-Powered Future, organized by Robin Hood Foundation.
• Universal Design 3.0 for Accessibility, Inclusion AND Equity, organized by CAST.
• Welcome to the Education Entrepreneur Revolution, organized by VELA Education Fund.
• When Learner Equity, Humanities, & STEM Connect, organized by InnovateEDU.