Since 2015, the Forum has brought together global leaders and innovators, trailblazers and changemakers to address and take action on the most urgent issues facing our times. COVID-19 is that issue. The 2020 Sun Valley Forum was a platform for immediate action and long-term vision for more resilient communities and economies. The 2020 Sun Valley Forum helped to unlock the solutions we need right now.
The Forum is global in vision, participation and impact, but a community with a local heart. We are looking forward to continuing to come together, whether in Sun Valley or online, to accelerate solutions that make our homeplaces more resilient, and create models for global resilience. The Forum has always included local solutions as key to global change. This year, we are expanding and deepening that commitment. This current challenge is an opportunity; to make a bigger impact, mobilize more capital and work on the projects that our community and communities around the globe need right now.
A New Format and New Focus on Critical Topics
Wellbeing and Equity
Leadership for well-being
Building resilient systems through diversity and opportunity
Ensuring the Security of Our Food and Farms
The power of food to empower communities and strengthen economies
The future of food: vision, innovation, investment
Spark Project: Regenerative agriculture capital project
The Role of Business and Capital in Rebalancing the Human Relationship with Nature
Climate Finance Risk & Opportunity
Corporate leadership for a circular economy
Nature-based and Indigenous Solutions
Nature’s role in a resilient future
Indigenous insights to reset the human-nature relationship
Placed-based education: cornerstone of a relationship with nature
With the shift to a virtual platform, the Sun Valley Forum focuses on addressing local needs with global resources and the rapid advancement of selected projects that have the potential to scale for near-term impact, the Sun Valley Spark Projects. Together, Forum participants gathered expertise and resources around these “shovel-ready” initiatives to accelerate their success. The projects for the Summer Series focused on solutions for building resilience in our communities and beyond.
These intensive working sessions were complemented by inspiring keynotes and panels from those taking the lead on developing resilient communities around the world. The Forum also featured Local to Global conversations that made connections between the work of our local community and global change.
2020 Resilience Now Summer Series Speakers

Mark Hyman, MD
Founder and director of The
UltraWellness Center, the Head of Strategy and Innovation of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine

MAGGIE KAPLAN
Founder, Executive Director Invoking the Pause

Kellie Lauth
CEO, mindSpark Learning

Dan Lutkenhouse Jr.
President and Executive Director at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden

AMY MATTIAS
Co-director, Local Food Alliance

Lindsay Mollineaux
Executive Director, Environmental Resource Center

TERRY O’CONNOR, MD
Blaine County/ Sawtooth Regional EMS Director
Idaho EMS Physicians Commission
Emergency Physician, St Lukes Wood River Hospital

Jonathan Webb
Founder & CEO
AppHarvest

LISA WING RN
2019 Speakers
The Host: Sun Valley Institute
The Forum is the signature event of the Sun Valley Institute, which was founding in 2015 with a bold mission: to be a catalyze for lasting quality of place: SVI builds economic, ecological and social resilience by pioneering transformative solutions, driving awareness, and convening leaders and innovators for impact. The Institute addresses risks and turns them into opportunities, while serving as a resource to others: a think- and do- tank for our changing world. For more information, please visit: www.sunvalleyinstitute.org and follow the Institute on Twitter @SunValleyInst #SunValleyForum, on Instagram @SunValleyInstitute and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/sunvalleyinstitute/.
Speakers
From government and business leaders to innovators and entrepreneurs, from adventurer-advocates and educators to photographers, authors and filmmakers, past speakers include U.S. Senator Cory A. Booker, visionary Paul Hawken and Artic explorer Sir Robert Swan, as well as business leaders from BNP Paribas/Bank of the West, Generation Investment Management, HP, Microsoft and The Weather Company/ IBM and media including The Economist, The New York Times and Rolling Stone.
The Location
The Forum will be hosted at the Argyros Theater in Ketchum, Idaho home to the storied Sun Valley resort.