The 10th Annual Marketplace of the Future
Back for our TENTH annual event, Marketplace of the Future is a new take on the 1939 New York World’s Fair, which was dubbed “The World of Tomorrow” and featured new inventions such as the fluorescent light bulb, air-conditioning, and television.
We're here to show climate solutions in the same light - novel now, normal soon.
First thing's first. We're beyond honored and grateful for our 2026 event host Location05! Location05 is a hidden gem located in Hudson Yards right off the highline. Beautiful white box studios and sun drenched rooms will be ready to bring the 10th annual MOTF to life!
The 2026 MOTF Run of Show!
🟢 Noon: Hall of Solutions doors open
🌎 1pm panels start
🏗️ 7pm reset for night program
🪩 8pm special evening program: SYMBIOPHILIA - Symbiotic Fashion Show of the Eco-Future
MOTF Daytime Activities Noon - 7pm
The Pinterest COOL BLUE room featuring blue stained glass (inspired by this pin!!) and orgs working on protecting the oceans and reimagining plastic waste in partnership with the Plastic Pollution Coalition.
+ The Hall of Solutions, Panel Discussions, Art, Live Jazz, fun drinks, and PLNT Burgers all day! Along with an open bar starting at 4pm courtesy of OVO Vodka!
All Day · 7th Floor
12:00 – 7:00pm
Hall of Solutions:
Consider all the various aspects of our lives. From where we shop, what we eat, how we get somewhere. Every moment along those journeys could be an intervention point to shift from the status quo.
- Think about what your plastic bag might be like in the future - perhaps made of seaweed so in case it ends up in the ocean, it will simply dissolve.
- Imagine knowing every high schooler in your area knows how to play a participatory role in this great transition...
- How about being able to venture up out of NYC and learn about regenerative farming, and adapting that practice to your local context.
Well these solutions and more will be represented at the 2026 Marketplace of the Future. Take some time and enjoy the efforts of these amazing organizations:
RENW
Sway
The Youth Climate Action Alliance
And more TBA!
Program · 9th Floor Panel Room
1:00 – 1:45pm
Plastic Pollution Coalition Presents: Regenerative Materials of the Future
Kim Kovacs, CEO, RENW Hemp Packaging
Julia Marsh, CEO, Sway
Amir Afshar, COO & Co-founder, Shellworks
Moderated by Liz Corbin, Materiom
2:00 – 3:30pm
Youth 4 Sustainability Presents: International Climate Solutions by Tomorrow’s Leaders
A fireside chat plus facilitated presentation of select youth entrepreneurs. These leaders are supported by the international youtube development program, Y4S.
4:00 – 4:45pm
Plastic Pollution Coalition Presents: Brands Paving a Plastic-Free Future with Industry Leadership
Nichola Gray, CEO, Kate McLeod
Kate Jakubas, Founder & COO, Meliora Cleaning Products
Lindsay McCormick, CEO, Bite
Moderated by Miki Agrawal, Hiro Technologies
5:00 – 6:00pm
Sustainability and Nightlife Happy hour.
This will be part presentation in collaboration with Bye Bye Plastic, The NYC Office of Nightlife, The Nightlife Climate Constellation, and DJs for Climate Action, and part hang. Come hang.
6:00 – 7:00pm
ORU(織る) Embroidery Beyond Borders (Workshop)
Harmonization of Mexican-Indigenous, Japanese & Polish Ecological Fashion Design Traditions. (P.S. Please bring an article of clothing you'd like to create on!) Presented by: Nina Bazan-Sakamoto (@airplantnina) & Clementina the “Sustainable Latina”
(more info below!)
7:00 - 8:00pm (7th floor)
Marketplace of the Future 10 year retro and vision featuring Project Drawdown.
The Marketplace of the Future has been running for 10 consecutive years, and has been based on Drawdown Solutions since day one. This will be an overview of the MOTF context, history and timeline of the past decade and look into the next 10 years of bringing the public closer to climate solutions.
🪩 Sustainable Fashion Show & Panel starting at 8pm (7th floor) 🪩
Symbiotic Fashion of the Eco-Future: Runway & Panel
SYMBIOPHILIA™ Eco-fashion show includes living plants, seaweed skins, upcycled jewelry, and plastic cyborgs share one runway: self-expression beyond destruction, toward symbiosis. Co-created by Malayna Nesbitt, Nina Bazan-Sakamoto & Clementina the Sustainable Latina.
Self-Expression Beyond Destruction, Toward Symbiosis & Mutual Thriving
Imagine a world where our self-expression thrives symbiotically with nature. Down this runway walk living plants that breathe, grow, and evolve with us; seaweed reimagined as second skin; new life breathed into discarded materials, and at the other pole, plastic cyborgs: the synthetic human future, a warning of where we might end up if we don't pivot NOW. Living and upcycled, organic and synthetic, share the same runway on purpose: the yin and yang of the crossroads we stand at. Which direction do you choose?
Our current fast fashion paradigm is soulless and destructive. The industry is responsible for 8-10% of global CO₂ emissions, 35% of ocean microplastics, and 20% of industrial water pollution, and most sustainable fashion still only operates in a "less-harm" model. But what if our style and self-expression could regenerate the planet instead, all while we feel and look FRESH & FLY AF? How about we become collaborators with the planet?
Our Eco-Creativity is essential to create a new system. Remember, we are each Creators, and we choose what we create. Creative expression is a powerful driving force for social change, as seen in every impactful movement. Our journey toward regeneration shall be irresistible: joyful, trendy, stylish, re-imaginative, radically creative, interconnective, and inclusive, inviting each of our unique expressions toward our thriving future.
Featuring: Real Living Air Plant Fashion, Upcycled Cyborg Fashion, Seaweed Fashion, and Upcycled Jewelry of the Future. Presented during the UN General Assembly and NY Climate Week as part of Marketplace of the Future, a full day of sustainable innovators, brands, and conversation.
We are each ECO-FUTURE CREATORS. Come build with us.
Refreshments
Drinks all day provided by Ovo Vodka - a mission based vodka brand working to clean the Ocean with each sale. Alongside Just Ice Tea, and more!
Partners
Be Social Change · Bye Bye Plastic · Precycle · Project Drawdown
Sponsors
Oatly · Pinterest · Plastic Pollution Coalition · Youth 4 Sustainability
About (ORU) Workshop at 6pm:
織る(ORU) EMBROIDERY BEYOND BORDERS: Harmonization of Mexican-Indigenous, Japanese & Polish Ecological Fashion Design Traditions
By Nina Bazan-Sakamoto (@airplantnina) & Clementina the “Sustainable Latina”
An Eco-Cultural Futurism Series event
🌏 Workshop Description 🌏
Our current fast fashion paradigm is soulless and destructive to our planet. However, we ask, can our sense of beauty and expression go beyond destruction; toward symbiosis instead?
In nature, it is the edge-effect: where the ocean meets the land, the most life thrives, and the most biodiversity and evolution occur. Similarly, where diverse cultures, generations, and ecosystems meet is where our evolution accelerates. These thresholds, the in-between spaces, are called ecotones. This workshop is an ecotone for the human spirit.
There are keys within each one of our unique backgrounds. Our ancestors encoded wisdom, protection, and stories into their patterns and design techniques. In this workshop we weave those stories together, for collective resilience toward a life-affirming future. Designs shape our mentality, and the consciousness of our civilization.
In this one-hour session, we'll share the significance behind these ancestral eco-fashion design traditions and how we weave them together, with a hands-on taste of two techniques:
Sashiko (刺し子): the meditative Japanese stitching that mends, strengthens, and beautifies in a single gesture. Born out of necessity among working-class communities many generations ago, it has evolved into a popular form of visible mending design. ✋ Hands-on today.
Shodo (書道): Japanese calligraphic symbolism; we'll imbue sacred meaning through kanji brush strokes applied to our clothing. ✋ Hands-on today.
Tataki-zome (叩き染め): An ancient Japanese botanical/ floral ink imprint dyeing, where fresh flowers and leaves release their pigment directly into fabric.
Tenango / Otomi embroidery: the vivid Mexican Indigenous tradition where flora, fauna, and cosmology bloom across cloth. A tradition built on resilience and perseverance.
Hafty: Polish ethnographic embroidery patterns, nature-based symbols, and motifs.
Your style can become a canvas of sacred patterns, prints, symbols, and messages. As your clothing becomes a powerful statement that educates and reminds people of the power of their own voice and expression. So this is also an invitation: to step fully into the truth that you are an agent and Creator of the Eco-Future.
P.S. Please bring an article of clothing you'd like to create on!