About
Carrying on the legacy of the World’s Fair.
Our mission
Inspire and enable people
to build the future.
InspireShare bold ideas in ways that spark wonder, so people leave asking, “What can I go build?”
EnableGive people the support and resources to pursue a bold idea of their own.
PeopleEveryone, of every age and background. Builders can come from anywhere.
BuildMake something of consequence in the real world: a company, a film, a restaurant, an invention.
The futureA world more interesting, beautiful, and human. Earth thriving, and people exploring the galaxy.
What we do
Talks
Pioneers, our flagship series of in-person talks.
Tours
Expeditions, our visits to labs, bold projects, and historic World’s Fair sites.
Experiences
Tastings, dinners, and demos, up close.
Special projects
Media, podcasts, experiences, and art.
Why the World’s Fair
For more than a century, millions of people went to World’s Fairs to see the future: the telephone in Philadelphia, the Ferris wheel and a city lit by electricity in Chicago, a working assembly line in San Francisco, television in New York, the Space Needle in Seattle. Walt Disney, Henry Ford, and Maria Montessori brought their work to the fairs, and a young Carl Sagan left one in awe.
“Plainly, the world held wonders of a kind I had never guessed.”Carl Sagan, on the 1939 New York World’s Fair, which he visited as a boy
The fairs transformed the cities that hosted them. Chicago’s 1893 fair sparked the City Beautiful movement. New York turned an ash dump into Flushing Meadows, home of the Unisphere. Seattle got the Space Needle and its monorail.
Here in San Francisco, we welcomed the world three times: in 1894; in 1915, celebrating the city’s recovery from the earthquake and the opening of the Panama Canal; and in 1939, celebrating the new Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, building Treasure Island in the process.
We draw deep inspiration from those fairs. We want to carry their spirit forward and help create a world where people are excited about the future and inspired to go build it.
Our principles
We choose optimism
We reject cynicism, and we help people see that they can shape the future.
Open to everyone
Builders can come from anywhere, so our programs welcome every age and background.
Bold ideas in every field
Food, medicine, film, architecture, and anything else people are building.
In person
We meet in real rooms and real places, and share the recordings online afterward.
Go build
You have to take action to build the future you want to live in.