January 18, 2018
One Bryant Park, 43th Floor (AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD LLP)
Bank of America Tower
New York, NY 10036-6745
1:30 PM Check-in and Registration |
2:30 PM Host Introduction and AFS Video |
2:35 PM Venue Introduction |
2:40 PM Keynote Speaker #1: 1: Huining Cao “A Parallel World on Blockchain” |
3:00 PM Keynote Q&A |
3:05 PM Judges Introduction |
3:20 PM Explanation of Competition Rules |
3:25 PM Competitors Pitch |
6:25 PM Intermission |
6:35 PM Keynote Speaker #2: Adam Daniel Hilkemann “A Legal Overview of Investment Fund Investments in Digital Currencies and Tokens” |
7:05 PM Harper Reed award acceptance greeting |
7:05 PM AaA 2017 Winner Announcement and Awardee Acceptance Speech |
7:20 PM Group Photos |
7:30 PM Special VIP private dinner, Networking for Other Attendees |
*All events are subject to change |
Keynote Speaker

Harper Reed is an hacker/engineer who builds paradigm-shifting tech and leads others to do the same. Harper loves using the vastness of the Internet to bring people together, whether as CTO of Obama for America, CTO at Threadless.com, or on his own projects.Through the acquisition of his company, Modest, inc,Harper is helping to define the future of commerce at PayPal.You can often find Harper playing with new technologies,looking for something to hack, or enjoying life in Chicago with his amazing partner, Hiromi and our bizarre poodle, Lulu.
Dr. Huining (Henry) Cao is a Professor of Finance, Chair of the Finance Department and the Academic Director of the Finance MBA at CKGSB. He earned a PhD in Finance in 1995 from UCLA and a PhD in Pathology in 1991 from Yale University.Before joining CKGSB, he taught at UC Berkeley, UCSD, Ohio State University, Carnegie Mellon and UNC Chapel Hill.Cao’s research has been published in journals including Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Business, Review of Finance and Marketing Science. Cao is the co-editor of International Financial Review and sits on the editorial board of Annals of Economics and Finance and China Financial Review.
Chair and Professor of Finance Department
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business
Mr. Hilkemann has significant experience with private equity funds, hedge funds and hybrid funds pursuing a variety of investment strategies, including energy, event-driven, real estate, venture capital, emerging markets, distressed debt, macro and funds of funds. Mr. Hilkemann regularly advises management companies in connection with fundraising, registration, investment activities (including negotiating side letters, direct equity and other forms of convertible investments), marketing, ongoing compliance and operational issues. Additionally, he advises management companies on internal structuring issues such as profit sharing arrangements and seeding transactions.
Adam Daniel Hilkemann
Counsel
Akin Gump