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Fast Companys 11th annual Innovation Festival takes over New York City this September 1518. Though every year introduces new offerings to the Innovation Festival, were also bringing back an attendee favorite: Fast Tracks. Fast Tracks are our immersive, experience-based sessions that are hosted in the offices and spaces of New York Citys most innovative companies. Think of them as field trips for adults. From Pickleball at Life Time, to augmented and virtual reality demos at CBS Stations, to a coffee tasting and tour with 787 Coffee, here are a few Fast Tracks you dont want to miss this year: Brewing Coffee and Creativity: A Shot of Storytelling Fast Track hosted by 787 Coffee [Photo: 787 Coffee] Join the team at Puerto Rican coffee company 787 for an in-depth exploration of how your morning cup of joe is transformed from bean to brew. From planting coffee seeds, to roasting a batch of beans, to making your own beverage, youll walk away with a deeper understanding of the life cycle of coffee and the stories it can be used to telland how that notion applies to your industry. Peak Performance: From Mindset to Match Point Fast Track hosted by Life Time [Photo: Life Time] Join Life Time at Penn 1 for an energizing Fast Track experience blending sport and self-optimization. Come ready to listen and play in this interactive session starting with a motivating discussion with Life Time senior vice president Jessie Syfko and Life Time vice president and founder of HPLT Brian Mazza, on how to fuel peak potential through discipline, mindset, and movement. Then grab a paddle (Life Times got em for you) and hit the court for hands-on pickleball instruction and/or straight up play with Life Times elite pros. Come in your workout gear and change after. With full dressing rooms on-site, youll be ready to power into the rest of your Innovation Festival day. From Demos to Deals: How Building an AI Startup in NYC Gets You Closer to Your Customer Fast Track hosted by The Refinery [Photo: The Refinery] As the second-largest startup hub in the world, New York City gives founders a unique edge: faster paths to revenue by building alongside the customers and industry heavyweights who can propel their growth. Join Tech:NYC president and CEO Julie Samuels for a conversation with leading AI entrepreneurs on how the citys density, diversity, and access to decision-makers turn ideas into partnerships and prototypes into revenue. Following the discussion, Fast Track attendees are invited to network with panelists and fellow guests, enjoy light bites, and take in the waterfront views. How Oscar Mayer Won the Race to Cultural Relevance and Ignited a New Summer Tradition Fast Track hosted by Johannes Leonardo [Photo: Johannes Leonardo] For decades, Oscar Mayer was a household staple that lived on the tip of peoples tonguesquite literally. Everyone could sing an Oscar Mayer jingle (or two), and the brand would spark smiles anywhere the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles went. As Oscar Mayers core audience matured and its pop-culture resence waned, the iconic Wienermobiles remained beloved. The challenge was clear: spark new brand conversation during the kickoff to grilling season, leveraging a nearly 100-year-old brand asset. The result: the Wienie 500. What began as a one-page idea in a brainstorm quickly evolved into a campaign that made marketing history and the Kraft Heinz record books. Generating more than 6 billion impressions and securing the No. 2 trending hashtag on X, the Wienie 500 took the world by storm, with fans demanding it become an annual tradition. Featuring speakers from the Oscar Mayer brand and Johannes Leonardo, this session will give attendees a deep dive into how Oscar Mayer and Johannes Leonardo crafted Americas newest obsession and pastime in a way that sparked smiles and spread love for Oscar Mayer hot dogs across the nation. The Business of Art and Creating a More Inclusive Space Fast Track hosted by GPGallery [Photo: GPGAllery] As the art market shifts, a new generation of galleries is embracing a leaner, more intentional approachprioritizing authentic relationships over volume and aligning economic success with community investment. Join us for a timely conversation between artist and gallerist Jessica Ann Peavy and acclaimed painter Guy Stanley Philoche, hosted at GPGallery (GPG) and exploring how GPGs hybrid modelmerging the artist-centered mission of a nonprofit with the sustainability of a commercial galleryis creating measurable economic and cultural impact in Harlem. This conversation will unpack how GPG is at the forefront of that movement, offering a real-time case study on how culture and capital can evolve together, from the inside out. Why We’ve Fallen Out of Love with the Biggest (Beloved) Brands, and How We Fix It Hosted by Design Bridge & Partners [Photo: Design Bridge & Partners] The same brands that once made us fall in love have somehow fallen into fatigue. In a world where private labels deliver both dupes and desire, and digitally native creator brands are dropping every day, what role do the OGsthe traditional, established brands that built whole categories but are now fighting for differentiationplay today? Using their proprietary, people-driven brand analysis platform, the top strategists at branding agency Design Bridge and Partners will explore how big brands are becoming a cautionary tale by overly relying on the feelings people already know and love them for. Theyll also demonstrate another way forward, revealing how these tried-and-true OGs can reinvigorate for a new eratapping the audience to offer additional insights and suggestions before revealing ideas for a revamped brand or two. Mobilizing Capital to Tackle Climate and Poverty Fast Track hosted by Acumen [Photo: Acumen] Around the world, the poorest communities are on the front lines of climate change, yet they have the least access to the resources needed to adapt and thrive. In this immersive Fast Track session, founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz will share Acumens pioneering approach to deploying the right mix of capital to solve the toughest problems at the intersection of climate and poverty, from assembling a $250 million capital stack to bring clean energy to the hardest-to-reach people living without electricity to raising $300 million for agricultural adaptation for smallholder farmersone of the largest such commitments in the world. Attendees will get to play investor and assess investment opportunities through Acumens framework of poverty focus and business viability. This Fast Track will explore what it takes to build systems rooted in dignity and challenge you to rethink investment as a tool for moral as well as economic transformation. Reworking the Workplace with Ryan Anderson and MillerKnoll Fast Track hosted by MillerKnoll [Photo: MillerKnoll] Join Ryan Anderson, VP of Global Research and Planning at MillerKnoll, for a new look at todays workplace. Ryan and the MillerKnoll team are known for rethinking how workspaces can best support people at every stage of their careers. Hell share insights on how the physical environment can be thoughtfully designed to reduce loneliness and social isolation, while enabling the relationship-based work thats essential for everyone to create meaningful interactions, from those just starting their careers to those preparing for their final career moves. Guests will have the opportunity to tour MillerKnolls New York showroom (which opened just a year ago), where these ideas come to life. Discover how residential and hospitality-inspired design is making offices feel less institutional, how individual workspaces are evolving to support both focus and social connection, and why thoughtful workplace design is more essential than ever in an era of rising life pressures. Light bites and drinks will follow the session. Life on the Edge: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Resilience Fast Track hosted by Edge of Earth [Photo: Edge of Earth] For three years, the Edges of Earth team has lived and worked in some of the most remote and rapidly changing ecosystems on the planetabove and below the waterline. From disappearing kelp forests to off-grid coastlines and deep jungle research stations, this global expedition set out to document collapse, but more so, to understand resilience. What they uncovered is called the edge effecta phenomenon where progress takes root in the margins, led by the people and systems that mainstream climate narratives often overlook. This session features a screening of their short-form documentary, followed by a conversation and Q&A with expedition lead Andi Cross and special guests whove been part of this journeyfrom subsistence fishers and coral scientists to forest guardians and underwater engineers. Expect raw footage, grounded insights, and a reframing of what it means to make change in a world that often feels too big to fix. Reimagining Local News: How CBS Stations Uses AR/VR to Tell the Story Within the Story Fast Track hosted by CBS Stations [Photo: CBS Stations] Step inside the future of broadcast journalism with CBS New York, where innovation meets impact. In an era when local news is more vital than ever, CBS Stations is leading the charge in transforming how stories are toldleveraging cutting-edge augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology to bring viewers deeper into the why behind the weather, elections, and major breaking news. This immersive session offers a behind-the-scenes look at how CBS New York is redefining the traditional newscast. Attendees will meet the journalists and technologists driving this evolution, explore interactive demonstrations of AR/VR storytelling, and tour the legendary CBS Broadcast Center. From dynamic weather visualizations to real-time election data rendered in 3D, discover how CBS is making news more engaging, informative, and future-ready. How Designing for Queer Audiences Fuels Unique Innovation Fast Track hosted by Local Projects [Photo: Local Projects] Amid growing political and cultural headwinds, LGBTQ+ communities continue to shape culture through bold self-expression, mutual care, and creative resistance. Designing for queer audiences today isnt just about inclusionits about unlocking new ways of thinking, building, and belonging. Join Local Projects, the Fast Company award-winning experience designer of the new Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, for a short tour of the exhibition with the founders. Following the tour, visitors will hear from a panel of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs at the forefront of inclusive design, curated and moderated by communications agency Camron. Panelists will share personal stories and lessons learned from buildng forand withinqueer communities.
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E-Commerce
You think you know Patagonia, the apparel brand beloved by crunchy hikers and finance bros alike. But the company is more than half a century old, and it has taken many unconventional turns to become an icon of sustainable business. [Cover Image: Simon & Schuster] A new book digs into this history, offering lots of untold moments about the company that even die-hard Patagonia fans may not know. In Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away, author David Gelles provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Patagonia was built. Through in-depth interviews with Chouinard, we learn about the many conflicting pressures the Patagonia founder faced as he tried to create an apparel brand that does more good than harm in the world. Here are three surprising things that happened along that journey. Patagonia Once Partnered with the Pentagon In the 1970s, the U.S. military was one of Patagonia’s biggest fans. It began with climbing gear. Chouinard, an avid rock climber, first came up with the idea of starting his company because he wanted to make better climbing gear. He couldn’t find metal spikes that he liked for wall climbing, or ice axes for ice climbing, so he developed them himself. When the military got wind of these functional climbing tools, they began buying them for soldiers who would need to scale walls during military missions. In the decades that followed, Patagonia introduced innovative new fabrics that were moisture wicking and thermoregulating. By the 1980s, the military was buying off-the-shelf Patagonia base layers and fleeces for enlisted personnel working in cold climates. “The [A]rmy’s 3rd Infantry Division was soon handing out full kits of Patagonia off-the-shelf long underwear and dark blue pile suits to its long-range surveillance teams to ward off the cold,” Gelles writes. Then, Patagonia was enlisted to create a custom cold-weather layering system for soldiers. Today a close partnership between Patagonia and the U.S. military seems odd: Patagonia is associated with hippies and environmentalists, and yet the gear was being used to train soldiers for combat. And indeed, over the years, the brand’s antiwar employees and fans often criticized Patagonia for this collaboration. But Chouinard wasn’t bothered by the complaints, Gelles says, partly because he was a veteran of the Korean War and understood how hard life was for soldiers. In the end, Chouinard argued that Patagonia wasn’t making weapons or ammunition. “Bras don’t kill people,” Chouinard told Gelles. “People kill people.” Patgonia and Walmart Were Once Unlikely Bedfellows In 2005, Walmart invited Chouinard to speak to its top executives at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Rob Walton, Walmart’s then CEO, had been connected with a sustainability expert who had worked closely with Patagonia, and he was intrigued by how Walmart could potentially be a force for good. Chouinard, in turn, was intrigued by the invitation: He believed that if he could convince a company of Walmart’s scale to improve its practices, this could create enormous impact. Chouinard and his wife, Malinda, traveled to Arkansas from their home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on a private jet sent by Walmart. In the book, Gelles paints a picture of what happened when Chouinard took the stage wearing a ratty wool jacket with leather elbow patches. He didnt mince words. He accused Walmart of not using its influence for good. In a striking example, Chouinard pulled out an enormous pair of jeans, designed for a morbidly obese person, with billows of fabric. According to Gelles, Chouinard said, “I have to hand it to you. How do you sell something like this for $8.99? The fabric alone must cost that much!” Despite the confrontational nature of Chouinards talk, Walmart executives were eager to learn more. So they started making regular visits to Patagonia HQ to learn what they could. The two companies collaborated to create the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to develop a common set of standards called the Higg Index for fashion brands to sign on to. But after the index launched, the partnership petered out. Chouinard believed Walmart execs were willing to do a few easy things to improve the companys supply chain, but not what was required to actually clean up the entirety of that supply chain. Patagonia accidentally sickened its Boston store employees In the late 1980s, Patagonia opened a store in Boston. But after a few days in operation, Gelles writes, workers began complaining of headachesand the symptoms didn’t go away. So Patagonia brought in an expert to see what was going on. The determination was that the companys new clothes were covered in formaldehyde. As workers unboxed the merchandise, they were breathing in toxic fumes. (Formaldehyde is a carcinogen.) The expert recommended a better HVAC system as a solution. Instead, Chouinard wanted to rid his product of toxic chemical treatments. Over a long process aimed at getting rid of toxins that harm both people and the planet throughout the supply chain, Patagonia eventually landed on cotton farms that often use large amounts of pesticides. Cancer rates in regions where cotton is grown were 10 times higher than normal. So Chouinard asked his team to explore sourcing organic cotton. By the mid-1990s, Patagonia was among the first apparel brands to use organic cotton. By the time Walmart’s executives partnered with Patagonia in the early 2000s, they too became interested in organic cotton, and began placing large orders with farmers. Some Patagonia employees worried that the relationship would harm the formers business, since organic cotton was part of what differentiated Patagonia from Walmart and other competitors. But over time, Patagonia grew into its leadership role in the apparel industry and realized that when other brands followed its lead, it was a win for all.
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E-Commerce
Fawning is a survival mechanism that develops in response to traumaa fourth response alongside the better-known fight, flight, and freeze reactions. Psychotherapist Pete Walker defines fawning as “a response to a threat by becoming more appealing to the threat.” When we fawn, we mirror others’ desires, suppress our own needs, and prioritize external validation to maintain safety. This isn’t simply people-pleasing or codependencyit’s a physiological trauma response that develops when fight or flight aren’t viable options. Recognizing the signs: are you fawning at work? For some fawners, it’s hard to identify their fawning because they’re just “meeting expectations” and in that context, fawning looks an awful lot like success. We pursue these paths, in part, because success is safety. It’s a shield. It brings us titles and money and all the things. At least that’s what we are told and sold. Working at a law firm is the perfect environment for a compulsive fawner. Administrative assistants fawn over lawyers. Associates fawn over partners. Partners fawn over clients. It’s a very clear hierarchy, and self-abandonment is expected. The more hours you bill, the more the firm makes. So, while my client Anthony was at the top of his game, he was also just like the rest of us, at the mercy of the culture he was inavoiding conflict to gain financial security and access to a secure life. Anthony was referred to me when his 20-year-old son went to rehab. On paper, Anthony was impressive: Harvard grad, law school, partner in a global powerhouse firmdetails that could’ve intimidated me. But I’ve never felt intimidated by Anthony. He is one of the most loving and loyal fathers Ive ever encountered as a therapist or otherwise. But also, Anthony is a fawner, and fawners want to be liked. With his black tee and salt-and-pepper beard, he logs onto every Zoom session with a cheerful smile that evokes one of my own. Early in our sessions, Anthony remarked, “I think I’m trying to win therapy.” We both laughed before he continued, “It’s like I’m implementing insights from our work so you can tell me all the progress I’m making. It’s all about the pat on the head.” How your family dynamics followed you to work While Anthony’s parents never told him to go to an Ivy League school or to become a lawyer, he always felt he needed to do those things. In a way, it was their lack of interesthe never got approval for anythingthat led to his endless quest for validation. As the stakes of achievement kept getting higher, he thought, how can my parents deny me approval now? And yet, they did. Any time I brought up his parents, he would defend them. Anytime he started to speak about how they hurt him, he would backpedal. “I can’t speak badly about my parents. I’m making them sound like monsters.” He stuck with the party line he had learned over the years: “We are a close and happy family.” But then, a couple of years into our work together, Anthony received a voicemail that altered his life. He was in a period of real transformation, beginning to advocate for himself in personal and professional relationships, setting boundaries, and leaning into new interests. He was trying to communicate differently with his parents, expressing apprehension about an upcoming family wedding. It would be the first time his son would be exposed to both extended family and that much drinking since his time in rehab. So, he made himself vulnerable, telling his parents his concerns about his son and how they both might react to this potentially stressful event. His parent’s reaction to his son’s addiction recovery had always been, “He’s all better by now, right?” Their avoidance made Anthony’s skin crawl. But he dug in, trying to be in real relationship, giving them the benefit of the doubt. “I know you guys are really excited about the wedding, and I am too for a lot of reasons, but I’m also nervous . . .” It soon became clear that they didn’t want to talk about his genuine concerns, so Anthony just got off the phone. Two hours later, he saw his mom calling back and he let it go to voicemail. When he listened to the message, his stomach dropped. It was a mistaken dial. His parents had accidentally recorded a two-minute, vicious snippet of their private conversation about Anthony and left it as a message on his phone. “Does he think he has to protect his son forever? He just needs to suck it up and get in line for this wedding! And how do we even believe him in this fight with his sister-in-law, when he’s always exaggerated everything?” Unfawning and breaking the cycle As Anthony shared what happened, I saw his devastation. “Deep down, I knew all of this was true,” he said to me. “But maybe I needed to hear it. Now I know I wasn’t making it all up.” After that day, Anthony made a conscious choice to stop living for his parents’ approval. He saw that he couldn’t fawn enough to ever get it. This was all deeply painful, but ultimately freeing. Grief unlocked necessary anger about how long he’d lived his life with a diminished sense of self. And that anger led to change. I call that behavior change “unfawning”and it’s a powerful, healing step in our recovery journey. When we learn to unfawn, we learn to detach from our old ways of people-pleasing and tune in to the self we had to abandon long ago. Anthony’s parents didn’t change. Knowing they’d never take personal responsibility; he never confronted them. The culture at his firm didn’t change, and he didn’t have to retire early or find a new career. His son was living his own life, in a new relationship, starting to find his own way. Anthony was doing the same, changing the way he showed up in every area of his life. One way he took back his power: He started to lean into the “weird stuff” his family had made fun of, but that he had always been drawn to. Battling a lifetime of messaging, this is not what a man does, he spent a week at a men’s wellness retreat. While some guys swapped the more vulnerable activities for golf and networking, Anthony immersed himself in all the taboos he’d avoided out of ridicule for 50 years. Anthony’s life is a testament to what happens when we stop fawning. Something finally turned. He dropped the script he’d been reading forever, and in letting it go, he found a life that feels unique, creative, and expansive. Unfawning is a kind of growing up. Especially for those who relied on this safety strategy since childhood, we inadvertently stayed small and childlike and we didn’t know it. We were stuck in time. Unfawning means getting reacquainted with the self we tucked awayto discover who we truly are. Adapted from Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves and How to Find Our Way Back by Dr. Ingrid Clayton, published by Putnam, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Category:
E-Commerce
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