This week, the third annual Fast Company Innovation Festival will bring together ambitious minds centered around the theme of “Leading With Optimism”. With over 10,000 attendees and 150 sessions ranging from tech to design, leadership to creativity, fashion to healthcare, this year’s festival is sure to be five days of inspiration and creativity.
October 23-27, 2017
New York City
Inspire yourself with the stories of others.
The Guts to Change: Taking the Right Risks to Innovate
Breakfast and Conversation
Lifeway Foods CEO Julie Smolyansky will be giving a talk at the Fast Company Innovation Festival. She will be discussing how to identify new opportunities and leverage your established ethos to build new product lines—and how to educate consumers to embrace them.
In the hyper-competitive food industry, survival often means brand expansion, and Lifeway Foods is adept at continuous innovation. The company has been evolving ever since immigrant Michael Smolyansky began brewing kefir—a probiotic, fermented milk drink well-known for its health benefits in his native Russia—in his basement in Skokie, Illinois in 1986. Today, the fast-growing company offers more than 100 products, including its latest: Elixir, a fresh line of non-dairy sparkling probiotic drinks.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Arrival Time: 8:00AM
Session Time: 9:00AM – 10:00AM