At the 2016 Main Event, Catalyst Companies descended on Mastercard’s NYC Innovation Center, gathering to share best practices and collaborate around the topic of corporate innovation. The council also visited futurist agency Sparks & Honey and corporate education provider General Assembly as part of the two-day event.

Members in attendance included senior leaders from Verizon, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo, Philips, Colgate-Palmolive, and many more Fortune 500 companies from around the globe. The Catalyst Companies Main Event featured speakers from within the council and externally who focused on the “how” behind corporate innovation, sharing many case examples and program details to help guide council members.

Select speaker synopses are below:

John Sheldon, Mastercard, reviewed the company’s multiple innovation programs, both internal and external, that it uses to surface ideas efficiently and bring them to prototype and implementation. From its intensive, week-long Launch Pad program, to its IdeaBox adapted from Adobe Kickbox, the company encourages employees to innovate outside of their current roles.

Darius Miranda and Kelli Carlson, Wells Fargo, talked about the company’s dedicated innovation group of 100 employees that examines tech trends two to five years out to gauge their impact on consumer relationships. The team’s charter is “culture change,” guiding many teams to innovate (design and delivery; payment strategy; collaboration and social media; R&D; and more).

Robert Scoble, thought leader and futurist of UploadVR, shared his predictions for a future wherein virtual and augmented reality technologies will be part of our everyday lives. They will transform how we see each other, interact with the physical world around us, and perceive branded products. He shared many examples of startups and technologies that enable this transformation.

Catalyst Companies has many member-only events planned for 2017, kicking off the year with a private member dinner at CES in January. Also look out for new research on corporate innovation from Jeremiah Owyang and Jaimy Szymanski, coming later this month.