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Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel and Commerce Sec. Penny Pritzker Join Speaker Lineup for Sixth Annual “Washington Ideas Forum” Oct. 29 & 30

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Washington, D.C. (October 17, 2014)—U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker will join a lineup of leaders pushing change, offering solutions, and sparking new concepts at the sixth annual “Washington Ideas Forum,” presented by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic October 29 and 30 at the Harman Center for the Arts. Across two days of interviews and panel conversations, entrepreneurs and business visionaries, designers, educational disruptors, leading politicians, media minds, and innovators in science and technology will share their ideas and insights into key issues impacting the world. The Washington Ideas Forum expects to draw an audience of more than 1,500 people across the two days.

Additional new speakers joining the Forum’s lineup include: National Security Advisor Susan Rice; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci; U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan; House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD); White House Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith; Senator John Barrasso (R-WY); Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI); U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman; journalists and authors of the recent Atlantic cover story, “The Confidence Gap,” Katty Kay of the BBC and Claire Shipman of ABC News; and Freedom to Marry Founder and President Evan Wolfson.

A complete list of the more than 70 speakers sharing their ideas at this year’s Forum can be found at The Atlantic’s Events Channel. Among those taking the stage:

  • BUSINESS: Revolution Founder and Partner Steve Case, Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb, The Carlyle Group Co-Founder and Co-CEO David Rubenstein, and Yelp Inc. CEO Jeremy Stoppelman
  • DESIGN: Alta Planning + Design President Mia Birk, Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson, Not Impossible Labs Founder and CEO Mick Ebeling, and Flipboard CEO Mike McCue
  • LITERATURE: Americanah author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Netherland author Joseph O’Neill, and Little Failure and Super Sad True Love Story author Gary Shteyngart
  • EDUCATION: edX CEO Anant Agarwal, Cornell University President David Skorton, and GoldieBlox Founder and CEO Debbie Sterling
  • ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE: NRG President and CEO David Crane, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, and BP Capital Management Chairman T. Boone Pickens
  • MEDIA: The Onion Editor Cole Bolton, New York Times Columnist David Brooks, Cook Political Report Editor and Publisher Charlie Cook, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith, and House of Cards Screenwriter Beau Willimon
  • POLICY: Export-Import Bank President and Chairman Fred Hochberg, Delaware Governor Jack Markell (D), Houston Mayor Annise Parker (D), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI), Former Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan, and Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
  • SCIENCE & TECH: Institute for Brain and Society Chairman and CEO Jacopo Annese, Fast Forward Labs Founder Hilary Mason, ZocDoc CEO Cyrus Massoumi, and J. Craig Venter Institute Founder, Chairman, and CEO Craig Venter

Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson will speak about The Innovators, his new book profiling the people who started the digital revolution, and will moderate portions of the event, along with The Atlantic’s Co-President and Editor-in-Chief James Bennet; Washington Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons; National Correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates; National Correspondent James Fallows; and Editor Scott Stossel; Quartz President and Editor-in-Chief Kevin Delaney; Washington Ideas Forum Editorial Director and Bloomberg View Columnist Margaret Carlson; and MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell. Additional speakers and program moderators will be announced and a full schedule will be shared in the days ahead.

Media interested in attending the program, or with additional questions, should contact the press leads below.  For those unable to attend in person, the program will be webcast live via The Atlantic’s Events Channel and on the Aspen Institute’s live page. Follow the conversation online via @Atlantic_LIVE and @AspenInstitute, and by using #IdeasForum.

Comcast, Nestle, and The Walton Family Foundation are the Presenting Level Underwriters of the Forum. AbilTo, The American Federation of Teachers, Google, and the National Council of Behavioral Health are the Supporting Level Underwriters, and Allstate, GSK, and Shinola are the Contributing Level Underwriters.

AT A GLANCE:
The Sixth Annual Washington Ideas Forum
October 29-30, 2014
Harman Center for the Arts
610 F Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004

WATCH via The Atlantic’s Events Channel and the Aspen Institute’s live page
FOLLOW via @Atlantic_LIVE, @AspenInstitute, and #IdeasForum