Our Work

2025 Annual Conference

October 28-29, 2025 | Sheraton Grand Seattle, Seattle, Washington

AGENDA

SPONSORS

Innovation is who we are as Cascadia. From airplanes and running shoes to AI and bone marrow transplants, Cascadia is leading the way and must continue to be a global innovation and technology leader. We can be home to the next technological revolution, healthcare breakthrough, or iconic global retailer.

Cascadia creates and collaborates and has led the way in generating groundbreaking ideas, products, and companies with a global impact. This year’s conference will celebrate our mega region’s innovation and chart out opportunities to continue building the Cascadia Innovation Corridor as a global hub for innovation and technology. You will hear from top business executives, elected officials, and regional, national, and international experts on our region’s latest advancements and how we can maximize our shared values and competitive advantages.

As with past conferences, this will be a time for leaders across sectors within the Corridor to collaborate and network, make shared commitments that will uplift our communities, and continue envisioning together what a sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive future looks like for our region.

New add-on this year! Cascadia on the Move: A High-Speed Rail Convening

The Cascadia high-speed rail initiative received $54.5 million in federal and state funding in late 2024 to plan future rail service connecting Seattle with Portland and Vancouver. This event, immediately following the annual conference, will bring together local and regional government, elected officials, and the private sector to learn about the possibility of high-speed rail connecting Cascadia and the development work underway.

Why attend? Plans to accommodate the 3-4 million more people expected to call Cascadia home by 2050 should begin with local communities. High-speed rail is an innovative technology used throughout the world and presents an opportunity to accommodate future growth and address the affordability, congestion, and climate change challenges facing the Cascadia megaregion.

Attendees will learn about a high-speed rail service development plan, opportunities to engage, and strategies to take back to your communities, and have an opportunity to build relationships with other mayors, county executives, transportation and planning leaders, and private sector stakeholders from across the Cascadia region.

This event is free for Cascadia Innovation Corridor annual conference attendees; tickets can also be purchased separately for Cascadia on the Move.

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Conference Agenda

Day 1: Tuesday, October 28th

› 11:30 am-12:30 pm: Registration, Networking, and Box Lunch

› 12:30-12:45 pm: Welcome and Opening Remarks

Gov. Chris Gregoire, Chair, Cascadia Innovation Corridor

› 12:45-1:30 pm: Keynote: 2050 Vision of an Innovation Corridor

Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft

› 1:30-2:15 pm: Panel: Celebrating Cascadia’s Signature Industries

Chris Grames, Managing Director Project Strategy, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Skip Newberry, President and CEO, Technology Association of Oregon
Anna Stukas, Vice President Strategic Partnerships, 1PointFive
Moderator: Bridgitte Anderson, President and CEO, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade

› 2:15-2:45 pm: Networking Break

› 2:45-3:30 pm: Cascadia’s Technology Frontier: Cloud, AI, and Quantum

Dr. Stephanie Simmons, Founder & Chief Quantum Officer, Photonic
Dr. Nikko Strom, Distinguished Scientist & VP, Amazon AGI
Jason Zander, EVP, Microsoft Discovery and Quantum
Moderator: Todd Bishop, Co-Founder, GeekWire

› 3:30-4:15 pm: From Bench to Breakthrough: Life Sciences and Biotech Innovation across Cascadia

Dr. Tom Lynch, President & Director, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Dr. Bonnie Nagel, Interim Chief Research Officer & Executive Vice President, OHSU Research & Innovation
Moderator: Marc Cummings, President & CEO, Life Sciences Washington

› 4:15-4:45 pm: Video: Cascadia in Action & Day 1 Closing Remarks

› 5:00-6:00 pm: Reception

Day 2: Wednesday, October 29th

› 8:30-9:00 am: Day 2 Welcome

Gov. Chris Gregoire, Chair, Cascadia Innovation Corridor

› 9:00-10:00 am: Keynote: Journalist & Abundance Co-author Derek Thompson

› 10:00-10:45 am: Benchmarking Cascadia’s Economic Competitiveness

Szoa Geng, Managing Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group

› 10:45-11:15 am: Networking Break

› 11:15am-12:00 pm: Panel: From Ideas to Action — What’s Next for Cascadia

Elysa Darling, Chief Operating Officer, DIGITAL
Michael Mattmiller, General Manager, Washington State & Global Employee Engagement, Microsoft
Joe Nguyen, Director, Washington State Department of Commerce
Mari Ostendorf, Vice Provost for Research, University of Washington
Moderator: Deb Gracio, Director, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

› 12:00-1:00 pm: Lunch Keynote & Closing Remarks