Modeled after the salons of the 18th-century Enlightenment, The Drawing Room gathers a curated group of leaders for a day of deeper discussion, debate, and discovery — along with a dash of art, culture, and magic.
This is not a conference with 3,000 attendees and a lanyard. It's an intimate gathering of 100 C-suite leaders, founders, researchers, and thinkers — held inside one of the most extraordinary buildings in Manhattan.
Previous editions at The Explorers Club and in Davos have drawn leaders from LinkedIn, IBM, Citibank, Cerebras, IonQ, and Harvard — and earned coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
What to Expect
High Signal. No Hype.
◇
Needle-Moving Content
Top AI thought leaders in fireside chats, working sessions, cutting-edge demos, and spirited debates. More CEO than CTO.
◇
A Venue to Inspire
The headquarters of The Explorers Club — whose members range from Neil Armstrong to Jane Goodall to Jeff Bezos.
◇
Culture & Connection
Live jazz, champagne, world-class magic, and curated performances. The best ideas emerge when the atmosphere transcends the typical conference floor.
The Venue
The Explorers Club
Founded in 1904. A living museum of polar expedition artifacts, Apollo-era memorabilia, and centuries of human ambition.
46 East 70th Street · New York, NY 10021
The November Salon
Speakers
First wave of confirmed speakers — more to be announced.
Hayden Brown
CEO, Upwork
CEO of Upwork, the world’s largest work marketplace — and a front-row seat on how AI is remaking work itself. She has led the company since 2020, steering its transformation into an AI-powered platform, with data from millions of workers on what’s actually being automated and what’s being augmented.
Mihir Vaidya
Chief Strategy Officer, Electronic Arts
Chief Strategy Officer at Electronic Arts, one of the world’s largest gaming companies. He shapes strategy across a portfolio that spans EA SPORTS, The Sims, and Battlefield — and sits at the center of what AI means for creativity, play, and the next generation of interactive entertainment.
Brittany Caskey
Chief Commercial Officer, DP World
Chief Commercial Officer at DP World, the global logistics giant moving cargo through ports, terminals, and supply chains around the world. Her territory is where atoms meet algorithms — AI in the arteries of the global economy, from Formula 1 race logistics to critical parts delivered across mountains on no notice.
Michael Burke
Managing Director of Commerce, Google
Managing Director of Commerce at Google, where twenty-plus years have given him a front-row seat to the future of commerce and marketing. He oversees billions in annual advertising revenue and has helped brands from Nike to LVMH to LEGO navigate digital transformation — and now the AI remaking of retail.
Jon Flynn
EVP & Head of FoxNXT, Fox Entertainment
EVP & Head of FoxNXT, Fox Entertainment’s AI and next-generation technology studio. “The AI Producer” is remaking how content gets made across scripted, unscripted, animation, and marketing — with a mission that doubles as a manifesto: promote the story, protect the art, drive artists to the front.
Philippe Schaus
Former CEO, Moët Hennessy
Led Moët Hennessy, LVMH’s wines and spirits division, as CEO for seven years, following senior leadership roles across LVMH including Chairman & CEO of DFS Group. Three decades at the top of global luxury — and a rare vantage point on what AI means for brands built on craftsmanship and desire.
Nasrin Mostafazadeh
Co-Founder & CEO, Verneek
AI scientist and co-founder of Verneek, building foundation-model technology that lets anyone make data-informed decisions in the physical world — starting with retail. Known for her research on commonsense AI, she spoke at the first Drawing Room salon in October 2025 and returns to the November stage.
Jonathan Tower
Venture Capitalist
An early-stage, cross-border venture capitalist for more than two decades, with investments in 85+ companies across AI, marketplaces, enterprise software, robotics, and frontier technologies. At Catapult, he’s building an AI-native venture platform — and writing about how AI is reorganizing the global economy.
Dr. Salima Bhimani
Former Chief Strategist for Responsible Tech, Business & Leaders, Alphabet
Alphabet’s first Chief Strategist for Responsible Tech, Business, and Leaders, where she guided how one of the world’s most consequential companies builds technology responsibly. She now works with leaders on turning responsible innovation into advantage — and on what’s stopping any of us from building the next moonshot.
Jordyn Holman
Reporter, The New York Times
Writer of The New York Times’ Corner Office column, where she interviews the chief executives, entrepreneurs, and business leaders running companies that shape the global economy, politics, and culture. She focuses on the challenges and changes facing companies — and the executives themselves — what guides them and how they make decisions. Jordyn has spent her career as a business reporter writing about big companies from Wall Street to Main Street. She joined The Times in 2022, covering the biggest American retail companies and the consumers who fuel the economy. She started her career at Bloomberg News.
Julia Herbst
Senior Leadership & Workplace Editor, Business Insider
Julia Herbst leads Business Insider’s coverage of leadership and the workplace. Previously oversaw Fast Company’s Work Life vertical for six years — one of the magazine’s most-read sections, reporting on how management, culture, and technology are reshaping work. Earlier: BREAKER Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine. Oberlin.
NYC & Davos
Voices That Have Shaped the Salon
Previous speakers from The Explorers Club (Oct 2025, May 2026) and Davos (Jan 2026).
Deepak Agarwal
Chief AI Officer
LinkedIn
Ruchir Puri
Chief Scientist
IBM Research
Andrew Feldman
CEO
Cerebras Systems
Niccolo De Masi
CEO
IonQ
Murli Buluswar
Head of Analytics
Citibank
Gary Marcus
AI Scientist
Author & Critic
Najat Khan, PhD
CEO & President
Recursion
Dr. Joel N. Myers
Founder
AccuWeather
Daniel Newman
CEO
Futurum Group
Michael J. Wolf
CEO
Activate Consulting
Geoffroy van Raemdonck
CEO
Saks Global
Peter Swartz
Co-Founder & CSO
Altana
Dan Wee
Chief eXecution Officer
Enveda
Ethan Barajas
Co-Founder & CEO
Icarus Robotics
Kylin Shaw
Co-Founder & CEO
Hippos Exoskeleton
Mike Jacobson
Magician & AI
The Magic Castle
Michael Samen
Mentalist
Rashed Haq
VP of Autonomous Vehicles
General Motors
Eric Snowden
SVP of Design
Adobe
David Shim
CEO
Read AI
Steve Rosenbush
Editor
The Wall Street Journal
Sharon Goldman
AI Reporter
Fortune
Reid Blackman
Founder & CEO
Virtue
Hilke Schellmann
Professor & Author
NYU
Meg Marco
Berkman Klein Center
Harvard
Natalie Monbiot
Founder
Virtual Human Economy
Dan Botero
Founder & CEO
Velanir
Dominic Williams
Founder & Chief Scientist
DFINITY & Caffeine
Victor Varnado
Comedian & Cartoonist
The New Yorker
Vasant Dhar
Professor
NYU Stern
Gene Kogan
AI Artist
Creator of Abraham
November 3–4, 2026
The Agenda
Sessions and speakers continue to be added.
Tuesday, November 3 · VIP & Speaker Reception
6:00 PM
Welcome Reception
Cocktails inside The Explorers Club — the room where the iconic expeditions of the last century were planned, toasted, and occasionally rescued.
Evening
6:45 PM
Behind-the-Scenes Tour
A private tour of the Club’s storied halls and archives: polar expedition journals, Moon rocks, century-old maps, and the artifacts of exploration from the deep sea to the lunar surface.
Tour
Wednesday, November 4 · The Salon
9:30 AM
Doors Open
Coffee and light breakfast inside The Explorers Club — surrounded by artifacts from the Moon landing, polar expeditions, and deep-sea exploration.
Arrival
10:15 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Jennifer Strong and Jeff Wilser set the stage for a day of deeper discussion, debate, and discovery.
Opening
10:30 AM
Fireside: The AI-Reshaped Workforce
Hayden Brown, CEO of Upwork, has a front-row seat to how AI is remaking work itself — what’s being automated, what’s being augmented, and what the data from millions of workers actually shows.
Fireside Chat + Q&A
10:55 AM
The Reporters’ Roundtable
Jordyn Holman (The New York Times) and Julia Herbst (Business Insider), with additional journalists to be announced. The stories behind the stories, the gap between AI hype and reality, and what the smartest companies are doing differently.
Panel
11:30 AM
Working Session I
Guided conversations at your table on where AI is actually breaking and where it’s actually working in real organizations — and what your peers know that you don’t. Off the record by design.
Working Session
12:05 PM
Lunch
Served with wine and beer for those who partake. (It is a Salon, after all.)
Lunch
1:00 PM
Beyond AI Strategy: Building Organizational Intelligence
The organizations that pull ahead won’t simply adopt more AI — they’ll develop an Intelligence Strategy combining human expertise, deep domain intelligence, and AI to continuously learn, reason, and decide better. In retail the transition is already visible: every decision, from merchandising to inventory to customer experience, is ultimately an intelligence problem. Nasrin Mostafazadeh (CEO, Verneek) and Philippe Schaus (former CEO, Moët Hennessy).
Panel
1:30 PM
Fireside: AI, Play, and the Future of Entertainment
Mihir Vaidya, Chief Strategy Officer at Electronic Arts, on what one of the world’s biggest gaming companies is learning about AI, creativity, and the next generation of interactive experiences.
Fireside Chat + Q&A
1:55 PM
Afternoon Break
Coffee and conversation among the expedition artifacts — explore the Club’s collection of polar expedition journals, Moon rocks, and century-old maps.
Break
2:10 PM
Fireside: AI and the Physical World: Global Trade
Brittany Caskey, Chief Commercial Officer of DP World, on AI in the arteries of the global economy — ports, logistics, supply chains — where atoms meet algorithms.
Fireside Chat + Q&A
2:35 PM
The New Threat Matrix: AI, Fraud, and Digital Trust
AI is supercharging both sides of the security arms race — deepfake fraud, autonomous attacks, and the defenses racing to keep up. A conversation with senior leaders on the front lines of payments, data security, and enterprise infrastructure. Speakers to be announced.
Panel
3:05 PM
The Investor’s View
Jonathan Tower on where the capital is actually flowing — what VCs are funding, fleeing, and quietly hedging in AI.
Fireside Chat + Q&A
3:25 PM
Demos from the Frontier
Live demonstrations from builders at the edge. Lineup to be announced.
Demos
3:50 PM
Working Session II
A second round, drawing on the day’s talks — the kind of frank exchange you can have with peers but not on a panel.
Working Session
4:20 PM
Performance
To be announced.
Performance
4:40 PM
Invent Now
The next great breakthroughs are out there waiting, hidden in plain sight. Dr. Salima Bhimani, Alphabet’s (Google) first Chief Strategist for Responsible Tech, Business, and Leaders, on what’s stopping any of us from building the next moonshot.
Talk
5:00 PM
Closing Remarks
Jennifer Strong and Jeff Wilser bring the day home.
Closing
5:15 PM
Cocktails, Jazz & Magic
Live music. Champagne. And a few surprises — performers to be announced.
Evening
Reactions
What People Are Saying
“
One of the most energizing gatherings I've been part of in a while. The diversity of industries — and how similar our core challenges are — was remarkable.
Najat Khan, PhD
CEO & President, Recursion
“
This was my favorite event at Davos.
Tricia Wang
CEO, Advanced AI Society
“
We need more salons. Not conferences with canned pitches, but real conversations about what's working, what's failing, and what keeps practitioners up at night.
Curtis Sparrer
Principal, Bospar
“
It left me feeling far more alive than I expected — something I have been puzzling over.
Dolly Chugh
Professor & Author, NYU Stern
“
The atmosphere was electric. Very rarely do you get deep-dive conversations with leaders like LinkedIn's Chief AI Officer in such curated settings.
Sneha Saigal
Media & PR
“
Not everyday you prepare for a talk at the desk where Teddy Roosevelt planned the Panama Canal.
Jamie Palmer
Co-Founder & CTO, Icarus Robotics
Attendees Have Included Press From
The New York TimesThe New YorkerThe Wall Street JournalFortuneFast CompanyBusiness InsiderPC Mag
Your Hosts
Meet the Organizers
Jennifer Strong
Coverage of AI and emerging tech recognized by awards juries more than thirty times. Creator of tech programs for The Wall Street Journal, MIT Technology Review, and ProPublica. Host of SHIFT, distributed by PRX.
Jeff Wilser
20-year veteran journalist. Work in The New York Times, WIRED, Fast Company, TIME. Author of eight books. Host of AI-Curious. Interviews range from Sam Altman to Gary Marcus to the researcher who coined AGI.
Good to Know
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the application process work?
+
Click “Apply for November,” which takes you to our page on Luma. Select your ticket tier (GA or VIP), answer a few brief questions about your role and organization, and enter your payment information. Your card is not charged at this stage. We review every application to ensure a curated, high-signal group. If approved, your card is charged automatically and you’ll receive a confirmation email with your ticket details. Applications are reviewed within two business days.
What’s included in the ticket price?
+
Full-day access to all Salon programming at The Explorers Club — keynotes, fireside chats, working sessions, demos, and performances. Food and beverages are included throughout the day, as are cocktails, live jazz, and magic during the evening reception. VIP tickets include everything above plus the VIP & Speaker Reception on the evening of November 3 (cocktails, light bites, and a private Explorers Club tour), priority seating, a post-event 1:1 30-minute AI Strategy Call, and named VIP recognition.
What’s the difference between General Admission and VIP?
+
GA gets you the full day on November 4. VIP adds the evening reception on November 3, priority seating, a personal AI strategy call after the event, and your name listed as a VIP attendee. Tickets are $695 (GA) and $1,195 (VIP).
What are the hours?
+
Doors open at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, November 4. Programming runs from 10:15 AM until just after 5 PM, then flows into an evening reception with cocktails, jazz, and magic from 5:15 to 7 PM. VIP ticket holders also join the VIP & Speaker Reception on the evening of Tuesday, November 3.
What’s the dress code?
+
Business casual. You’re spending the day inside a 120-year-old mansion full of polar expedition artifacts and Moon rocks — dress comfortably but respectfully. That said, there will be jazz, champagne, and candlelight. Do with that what you will.
Where is The Explorers Club?
+
46 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 — between Park and Madison Avenues on the Upper East Side. The nearest subway is the 6 train at 68th Street–Hunter College.
How many people attend?
+
Approximately 100. This is deliberately intimate — depth over scale.
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
+
The Explorers Club is a historic building with limited accessibility. Please contact us in advance and we’ll work to accommodate your needs.
Is there a refund policy?
+
Please contact us at contact@TheDrawingRoom.AI to discuss. We handle requests on a case-by-case basis.
This Privacy Policy explains how The Drawing Room / AI and Leadership Salon (“we,” “us,” “our”) collects, uses, and shares information when you visit our site, apply or register for the Salon, or otherwise interact with us online.
1) Information We Collect
Information you provide: Contact details (name, email, organization, role/title). Application or RSVP details submitted through our ticketing provider, Luma. Ticketing and billing information handled by our providers (we receive limited metadata; we do not receive full card numbers). Optional: dietary or accessibility needs (only to plan accommodations).
Information collected automatically: Device and usage data (IP address, browser type, pages viewed, referrer) via standard analytics. Cookies or similar technologies for site operation and analytics.
2) How We Use Information
We use information to review applications and manage invitations/registration; operate the event (logistics, seating, check-in, security); send confirmations, updates, and post-event follow-ups; send occasional Salon or related announcements (you can unsubscribe anytime); improve our programming and website based on aggregated analytics; and comply with legal obligations.
Sponsor communications: We will only share your name and email with sponsors if you explicitly opt in. Opt-in is not required for participation and can be withdrawn at any time by contacting us.
3) Legal Bases (EU/UK Visitors)
Where applicable, we rely on: (a) contract/steps prior to contract (RSVP/ticketing), (b) legitimate interests (event operations, security, site analytics), and (c) consent (marketing beyond the event; sponsor sharing; sensitive data such as dietary needs).
4) How We Share Information
We share personal information with service providers acting on our behalf, including Luma (applications, ticketing, and attendee management), Stripe (payments), Hostinger (website hosting), Google Fonts (typography), analytics services, email services, and on-site vendors — each under confidentiality and security commitments. We share with event partners/sponsors only if you opted in. We share with legal/safety recipients where required by law.
We do not sell personal information. We also do not “share” personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as defined by California law.
5) Retention
We retain information as long as needed for event administration, legal/compliance needs, and our legitimate interests (e.g., to invite you to future Salons). We then delete or de-identify it. You can request deletion sooner (see “Your Rights & Choices”).
6) Cookies & Tracking
We use necessary cookies for site functionality and analytics cookies to understand site usage. Our site loads fonts from Google Fonts, which may involve requests to Google’s servers. You can control cookies through your browser settings. If we add advertising or retargeting pixels in the future, we will update this policy and provide applicable opt-outs.
7) Email Choices
You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time via the link in our emails or by contacting us. Transactional or event-critical messages (e.g., ticket/RSVP confirmations) will still be sent.
8) Your Rights & Choices
You may request to access, correct, update, or delete your personal information by emailing us. If you previously opted in to sponsor sharing, you may withdraw consent; we will notify sponsors where feasible.
Region-specific rights (e.g., California, Colorado, EU/UK): Depending on your location, you may have additional rights such as data portability, restriction, objection, and the right to opt out of targeted advertising. We will honor applicable requests consistent with local law and may need to verify your identity.
9) Children
Our site and events are not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
10) Security & International Transfers
We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information. If data is transferred internationally, we use appropriate safeguards (such as Standard Contractual Clauses) where required.
11) Third-Party Links and Tools
Our site may link to third-party sites or embed third-party tools (e.g., Luma for registration and payments). Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies.
12) Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date reflects the latest revision. Material changes will be highlighted on this page.
Contact for privacy matters: contact @ thedrawingroom.ai
