How The Wall Street Journal Designed Its Future of Everything Event Around a B2B Crowd

NEW YORK—On May 28 and 29, The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything, one of publication’s signature live events, took place at a new venue, The Glasshouse in New York City. 

For its seventh year, the event brought together a cohort of business titans and emerging leaders to discuss the future of key industries, ranging from technology to finance to sports and entertainment.

Participants included president of the Las Vegas Raiders Sandra Douglass Morgan, cofounders of Imagine Entertainment Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, CEO of United Airlines Scott Kirby, CEO and founder of Commence Brooke Shields, and more. 

“The Glasshouse offered the team the flexibility to customize the stages and spaces to create a cohesive ‘office from your office’ experience for our attendees,” Last explained about the site selection. “As part of our effort to curate this year’s audience, many of our attendees were executives and we needed those individuals to have space to work during the day—whether that's a quiet nook for a private phone call or a space to catch up on email. The Glasshouse enabled our team to really lean into that concept, while also providing an ample setting for our two stages of conversations.”Photo: Courtesy of The Wall Street JournalThis year’s event focused on longevity and addressed the question: As human life expectancy increases, how will we work, spend, and plan for an AI-enabled future? On-stage interviews covered topics including health and biotech, economic growth, the evolution of work and careers, and leisure time. 

“We turned our attention to longevity—not just in terms of lifespan, but in the span of our careers. With advances in health, technology, and workplace policy, people are working longer, switching careers later in life, and redefining what it means to stay relevant and resilient over decades,” explained Kim Last, editor of live journalism and special content for The Wall Street Journal. 

Starting with this year's gathering, the organizers geared the event more toward a B2B crowd, from the programming and speakers to the audience makeup. It was also no longer open to the public and instead was switched to an invite-only event. According to the event’s audience profile, typically 75% of attendees are at the executive management/vice president/director level; 15% are policy makers and founders; and 10% are C-suite execs.

“Business is, of course, core to what we do at The Wall Street Journal and across Dow Jones more broadly. Our focus for this year was an attempt to bridge some of the other parts of our business more closely including programming some panels from our energy and risk business partners on those critical topics,” Last said.

In addition to the programming, attendees had access to The Longevity Lounge, a co-working space where they could experience interactive demos from brands including exoskeletons from German Bionic, Snap Spectacles, and longevity-focused testing and supplements from Novos Labs.

WAVi Medical was on site demonstrating its EEG technology that's designed for setup in a primary care medical setting.Photo: Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal“One core part of past Future of Everything events was our lab where we showcased interesting, see-around-the-corners technology and products,” Last explained. The new lounge keeps “that DNA,” she said. WSJ’s digital products, including subscriber exclusives like Intelligent Investor, the 10-Point newsletter, and the WSJ app, were also showcased, and guests had the opportunity to record questions for a special episode of WSJ’s "Take on the Week" podcast.

Close to 1,000 attendees attended this year’s event. Presenting sponsors included EY-Parthenon, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Kenvue, NYU Langone Health, Penske Transportation Solutions, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Samsung, and ServiceNow. Supporting sponsors were Cushman & Wakefield, Next Era Leaders, and Panerai.

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer joined reporter Ben Fritz to discuss why human-centered stories remain timeless for audiences.Photo: Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal