On the first morning of Doc, an exclusive health and longevity event that convened its inaugural meeting this past October, scoring a caffeine hit required navigating a human obstacle course that had sprung up in the overflow tent. A shifting group of 20 to 30 attendees eagerly chatted by the coffee bar and make-your-own-trail-mix station, while a separate gaggle formed around Eric Verdin, CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, as if he were a celebrity—which, in this crowd, he was. At about noon, a directive appeared on a message board politely asking those who’d congregated to move their conversations outside; their voices were carrying into the main room. The small cliques did as they were instructed, migrating into the mild Napa Valley sun, where they continued their animated dialogues.
These side gatherings didn’t indicate a lack of interest in the programming, which ranged from a talk about brain implants by UCSF neurosurgeon Eddie Chang to a provocative discussion with billionaire investor Vinod Khosla, cofounder of Sun Microsystems, about A.I.’s role in health care; there was rarely an empty seat in the airy, contemporary barn that housed most of the weekend’s sessions. Instead, many attendees seemed to have caught a bad case of FOMO and were determined to grab every single opportunity to exchange ideas—and schmooze—with fellow participants.
“The amount of people here that are intertwined and interconnected within science, investing, content—and actually wanting to help—it’s something I’ve never experienced before,” said Bruno Balen, cofounder and “chief genius” of the longevity-oriented start-up Ani Biome. “I really feel like I belong [for the] first time in my life,” he added, sounding a bit like an eager freshman newly arrived at M.I.T.
Doc founders John Battelle (left) and Jordan Shlain.
Laura Morton