As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary this summer, Naples’ Imagine Solutions Conference will look at the ways our country’s past and present are shaping its future.
Nineteen influential “thought leaders” from around the world will visit Naples this March for the annual event. They’ll each give short, TED Talk-like lectures on everything from how the arts shape national identity to how AI is creating next-generation medicines.
This year’s theme — “Honoring Our Past | Creating Our Future” — explores the nation’s history, science, technology, health, leadership, ethics and more.
“This anniversary isn’t just about celebrating where we’ve been,” said Randy Antik, the conference’s founder and CEO, in a news release announcing this year’s speakers. “It’s about asking whether we’re living up to the ideals that launched this country and how we carry those ideals forward in a very different and complex world.”
Imagine Solutions Conference speakers for 2026
This year’s speakers and performers include:
- Regina Dugan, former Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), now leading efforts to make advancements in human health with the nonprofit Wellcome Leap;
- Chris Bahl of AI Proteins, a Boston biotechnology company using AI to design next-generation protein-based medicines that could change how we treat disease;
- David Brooks, a New York Times columnist and bestselling author who writes about politics, culture and the social sciences;
- Sing Harlem, a music group that celebrates “the power of voice, community and American musical tradition, underscoring the essential role of the arts in shaping national identity”;
- Patrick Spero, president and CEO of the American Philosophical Society, the country’s oldest learned society founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743.
- And public radio journalist Moira Gunn, host of the weekly NPR show “Tech Nation.”
“What makes this conference newsworthy isn’t just who’s speaking,” Antik said in the news release. “It’s what they’re speaking about. These are people doing real work in real time — advancing science, shaping policy, preserving history and asking questions that matter.”
Info, tickets for Naples’ Imagine Solutions Conference
The 16th-annual Imagine Solutions Conference takes place Monday, March 2, at Naples’ Arthrex One Conference Center. The event usually sells out all 630 seats.
Antik started the Imagine Solutions Conference in 2010 through the nonprofit Searching for Solutions Institute. He drew inspiration from the popular TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conferences and videos.
“Our whole concept is to bring you big ideas across a wide array,” Antik said in 2024, “a landscape of different issues from education to arts to science to medicine to technology to conservation and explorers.”
Tickets for the conference are $700.
All the talks are recorded and posted about a month later on YouTube and the Imagine Solutions website.
For more information on the Imagine Solutions Conference or to watch speaker videos, visit imaginesolutionsconference.com or youtube.com/@imaginesolutionsconf.
Charles Runnells covers arts and entertainment for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 or email crunnells@usatodayco.com. Follow or message him on Facebook(@charles.runnells.7), Instagram (@crunnells1) and X (@CharlesRunnells).
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