On Thursday, April 12, Rome will welcome a variety of speakers from all over the country to speak at the Historic Desoto Theatre for Confluence Rome. Confluence Rome is a conference of inspiration, innovation, and motivation for business leaders, technologists, educators, entrepreneurs and students.
Beth Wardlaw, technology integration coordinator for Darlington School, is serving as the 2018 chairperson of Confluence, and has played an integral part in its coordination.
“As chair of this year's Confluence, I am honored to represent the Rome Floyd Chamber as we present this impressive lineup of speakers,” said Wardlaw. “I’m especially excited that Confluence intentionally involves local high school and college students, which will inspire the next generation of innovators, technologists, and entrepreneurs.”
A number of Darlington students will be involved in Confluence as attendees and presenters, including the DarBots robotics team, the Upper School Design Thinking class, and middle grades Creative Technology students.
“This is a great opportunity for our students to connect with innovators while also sharing what we are doing at Darlington,” Wardlaw continued. “Seventh-graders Anaya Desai, Shriya Garg, and Noah Kinney will be involved in a student poster session and the DarBots will be doing a demonstration as well.”
The event attracts business executives, CEOs, CMOs, EVPs of international manufacturing companies and CIOs of regional banking operations, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions, many of whom oversee technologists. These attendees desire to hear the latest trends and be exposed to new ideas across a variety of industries.
“The vision of Confluence is to create a culture of innovation and creative problem solving,” said Wardlaw. “We’re excited about the lineup of amazing presenters, some with connections to Darlington. Dr. Himanshu is a Harbin Clinic cardiologist and parent of Annika Patel (‘23). We’ll also hear from Thomas Gatliff, owner of Gatliff Technologies and donor of the Upper School’s new 3D printer.”
Click here to view a full schedule of speakers. Tickets to Confluence are available online at
www.confluencerome.org or at the door. Registration begins at 8 a.m. with the keynote beginning at 9 a.m. in the Historic DeSoto Theatre. Follow the event on social media at #ConfluenceRome2018.
