The opening keynote, presented by John Davis, will set the stage for this event and kick off the sessions on Changing Family Demographics. John Davis is the conference program chair, an FFI Fellow and award winner, and faculty at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Eight sessions will follow on Changing Family Demographics.

The aging of the world’s populations and other demographic trends have profound implications for multi-generational family enterprises, advisors, and researchers. What demographic changes and changes in family dynamics and culture are your clients experiencing? How can you help them build family unity in this new era?

Frank Barbera and Natalie McVeigh will co-present “How Identity is Changing the Face of Family (Enterprises).”

Nancy Drozdow will co-present “Modern Family: The impact of demographic changes on the future of family.”

Louisa Brunner will co-present “Death and Divorce: The inevitable link between family dynamics and ownership dynamics.”

Mary Duke will co-present “Evolving Competencies for Future-ready Business Owners, Stewards, and Directors.”

Anneleen Michiels and Dianne Welsh will co-present “Family Offices: Unmet needs and challenges in the fourth economy.”

Societies, industries (and their supply chains), companies, and families are suffering from the destabilizing effects of climate change. Governments and others are ramping up efforts to create a sustainable economy. Researchers are producing promising new technologies. Entrepreneurs are building significant wealth through new approaches to doing business. Can these combined efforts save us from life-altering changes? In any case, we need to understand how to guide family enterprises in this new era.

The keynote for this segment is Jason Jay, Director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative. He will discuss “Creating Climate Futures: Business in a changing world.”

Marta Widz is co-presenting “Sustainability Journeys in Two Enterprising Families: B-Corp certified family business and family office.”

Sanjay Sharma is presenting “Subjective Interpretations of Time as an Advantage for Family Enterprises in Climate Change Strategies.”

As digitization, AI, automation, and robotics are transforming the workplace, how will work get done over the coming years? How will work be influenced by core family enterprise concerns and considerations, such as generational and social shifts? What new skills and understandings do families and family firms need to build in this new era?

The keynotes for this segment are Julie Shah and Thomas Malone, both from MIT, discussing “The Future of Work: How humans, AI, and robots collaborate in the 21st century organization.”

Debbie Bing is co-presenting “Back to the Future: Time travel and interdisciplinary advising in the fourth economy.”

Alfredo De Massis and Kimberly Eddleston are co-presenting “The Future of the Family Business Board and New Work Dynamics.”

Isabel Botero is co-presenting “Building a Competent Next Gen: What do we need to do?”

For the past several decades, global prosperity, living standards, and longevity have increased, while at the same time, income, wealth, and education inequality have risen, and societies are reeling from internal pressures to find a new equilibrium in which more can benefit from capitalism. As relevant economic actors in all countries, family enterprises will need to find ways to navigate the challenges, opportunities, and dilemmas that will be posed by key societal trends.

The keynote for this segment is Stephanie L. Woerner, PhD, Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management Center for Information Systems Research (CISR).

Elizabeth Bagger is co-presenting “Who cares? What Drives the Different Generations When It Comes to ESGs and Why Does It Matter?”

Jeremy Cheng and Keng-Fun Loh are co-presenting “Impact of Millennials on Asian Business Families: Lessons for the rest of the world”