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Four years ago, Marc Lipschultz, co-founder of Owl Rock Capital Partners LP, predicted that the rapidly changing energy market was poised to have a huge impact on not just business, but the world at large.
“We’re talking about the opportunity to reconfigure the whole industrial complex,” he told Super Return TV.
This year, changes in both the business and the environmental side of energy will culminate in the 36th annual CERAWeek, an international conference that gathers together energy industry leaders, government officials, and policymakers to have a dialogue about the current state of the energy market and how it continues to change. From March 6-10, energy experts will gather in Houston, Texas, to look at the future of energy.
The range of topics is enormous:
- What is happening in the oil industry, and how should oil companies strategize?
- How will the new administration affect US energy policies?
- How will new technologies affect how we get, use, and store energy?
- How will the future energy market, including renewables, affect transportation?
And many more.
While CERAWeek at first glance looks like a gathering of primarily oil execs, attendees are actually pretty diverse. One of the biggest draws is getting all of these different experts into rooms together so they can have the important discussions that need to be had about energy security, the economy, new technology, and how to balance all of these things with the importance of protecting the environment.
There are over 130 different sessions, including keynote speeches, plenaries, dialogues, and of course the ubiquitous conference meals. CERAWeek also makes the effort to provide less structured time for attendees to mingle and network.
This year’s conference will feature keynote speaker Peter Thiel, an entrepreneur, hedge fund manager, venture capitalist, philanthropist, political activist, and author. Thiel has the distinction of being the first outside investor for Facebook as well as the co-founder of Paypal. For his keynote, he’ll be in dialogue with CERAWeek conference chair Dan Yergin.
Events like CERAWeek are great opportunities to bring together all sides of energy issues, including business, policy, and environment, to find innovative and effective ways of working together. Attendees of this year’s conference are likely to come away with great insights into how technology and partnerships can be used to build a positive future in spite of—or perhaps because of—the current uncertainties of the energy market.