The NYC Preparedness & Recovery Institute (PRI), in partnership with Columbia Engineering, invites you to attend the 2026 PRI Innovation Forum: Empowering Hyperlocal Response. Building on the momentum of the 2024 Innovation Forum and the 2025 Innovation Showcase, the 2026 Innovation Forum advances PRI’s commitment to generating, refining, and scaling practical innovations in public health preparedness and response.
This one-day conference will bring together researchers, government officials, industry leaders, community-based organizations, technologists, funders, and social entrepreneurs to move from exploration to execution. The focus for 2026 is clear: strengthening sustainable partnerships and advancing solutions that can scale to support New York City’s long-term public health resilience.
This year’s theme, Empowering Hyperlocal Response, addresses a central challenge in public health preparedness: emergencies are felt first at the neighborhood level, yet resources and decision-making are often centralized. This theme is informed by PRI’s COVID-19 Review. A draft of the Review will be available for public comment during the Forum.
What to Expect
Keynote & Panels – Hear from experts who are advancing promising innovations in hyperlocal preparedness and response. Discussions will explore emerging challenges, pathways to scale, sustainable partnership models, and real-world implementation strategies. Panels will also highlight progress, lessons learned, and next steps from the 2024 Innovations Grant awardees and other emerging projects.
Demo Expo – Engage with emerging technologies, interventions, and research in public health preparedness throughout the event space. Interact directly with solution providers, test prototypes, and explore tools designed to power hyperlocal preparedness and response. Featured solutions will highlight tools, partnerships, and models that deliver timely data, resources, and decision-making support tailored to local needs and contexts. Interested in exhibiting your work? Learn more and apply below.
Real-World Workshops – Help design upcoming AI, data and tech-driven prototypes that will bring innovation into the world of preparedness. Join researchers and entrepreneurs as they present real-world concepts to be refined in conversations with community, government and private sector partners.
Networking Opportunities – Connect with community members, researchers, policymakers, investors, funders, and technology innovators throughout the day. Dedicated networking breaks, the Demo Expo, and a closing reception will provide space for collaboration, partnership building, and future funding pathways.
Innovation Champions
The PRI Innovation Forum is supported by Champions who help elevate the event and the work of innovators and partners. We’re grateful for their support in expanding the event’s reach across New York City and beyond, strengthening connections across public health leaders, community organizations, and innovators, and bringing more people into the conversation around practical solutions for local preparedness and response. Interested in becoming a Champion? Contact Tara Abularrage for more information.
Demo Expo
Starting at lunch and running through the afternoon, the PRI Innovation Forum will feature a Demo Expo where attendees can explore and engage with cutting-edge technologies and interventions designed to empower hyperlocal public health preparedness and response. These interactive sessions will spotlight innovations that enable communities, local organizations, and frontline responders to act quickly and effectively when formal systems are constrained, highlighting tools, partnerships, and models that deliver timely data, resources, and decision-making support tailored to local needs and contexts.
The Demo Expo provides a platform for startups, innovators, researchers, and solution providers to showcase their work, demonstrate real-world applications, and gather feedback from public health leaders, community members, and other key stakeholders. Attendees will experience technologies firsthand, ask questions, and contribute insights on how these solutions and lessons learned could be adapted and implemented in New York City and beyond.
Interested in showcasing your work? Exhibitors can participate through a staffed demonstration table or poster presentation, or a poster display that can be viewed by attendees without the exhibitor present. Applications to be an exhibitor are due by April 5th.
Agenda At-A-Glance
Subject to Change.
| 8:30AM | Registration & Breakfast |
| 9:00AM | Morning Sessions |
| 12:30PM | Lunch – Demo Expo Opens |
| 1:30PM | Afternoon Workshops |
| 4:30PM | Closing Session |
| 5:00PM | Networking Reception |
| 6:30PM | Event Ends |