RISE Maui: Regeneration, Innovation and Sustainability Summit

• RISE Maui 2026, the Regeneration, Innovation, and Sustainability Experience, runs Aug. 17-21 at Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa and Hua Momona Farms in Lahaina.

• Speakers include Star Trek executive producer Rod Roddenberry, AI and climate researcher Dr. Sasha Luccioni, and Hua Momona Foundation founder and CEO Gary Grube.

• Proceeds support the Lahaina Innovation and Arts Center and the foundation's continuing recovery work following the 2023 Lahaina wildfires.

• Tickets and details are at RISE-Maui.org; the third annual Maui Music & Food Experience follows Aug. 21-22.

RISE Maui, the first annual Regeneration, Innovation, and Sustainability Experience, runs Aug. 17-21, 2026, at Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa and Hua Momona Farms in Lahaina. Organized by the Hua Momona Foundation, the nonprofit leading Maui's recovery and long-term resilience efforts after the Lahaina fires, the five-day summit gathers global leaders, innovators, and the local Maui community for keynotes, panels, farm excursions, and hands-on workshops. Tickets are available at RISE-Maui.org.

The program blends the intellectual depth of a summit with the intimacy of a retreat. Set against oceanfront views and farmland, the week moves between morning wellness practices, conversations with speakers and cultural leaders, and daily programming on environmental stewardship, food and water security, spirituality, technology, AI, cultural preservation, and sustainable innovation.

Rod Roddenberry, Star Trek executive producer and son of series creator Gene Roddenberry, will co-host an innovation panel with foundation CEO Gary Grube, a tech entrepreneur holding 644 patents. The roster reaches across disciplines: Jason Resch, a former IBM Master Inventor with 1,072 patents, leads a panel on innovation and quantum entanglement, and Dr. Sasha Luccioni, the AI and climate expert whose 2025 TED Talk introduced a power-efficient alternative to current data centers, delivers a keynote.

The food and agriculture track is equally specific. Diego Sabino, co-founder of The Only Caviar alongside Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul, will discuss how the brand, which raises its sturgeon in Italy, merges luxury with sustainability. Mark Neal of Neal Family Vineyards, the first Regenerative Organic Certified vineyard in Napa, joins Maui farmers whose Hawaiian ecosystem stewardship reaches back hundreds of years. Cultural expert W. Kamaunu Kahaialii, taro farmer "Uncle Oliver" Dukelow, Volcano Wasabi farm manager Olaf Lange, Tufts professor Matthias Scheutz, University of Massachusetts professor Jun Yao, and longtime Rolling Stones collaborator Bernard Fowler round out the lineup.

The week opens Monday, Aug. 17, with an Aloha welcome reception featuring Hawaiian musicians John Cruz and Steven Grimes. Tuesday is devoted to sustainability and AI at Hua Momona Farms, with Luccioni's keynote, farm tours, lunch from head chef Zach Laidlaw, a tree-planting project presented by Treecovery, and Ohana dinners hosted in small groups by West Maui restaurants.

Wednesday turns to innovation, with a series of RISE Talks culminating in The New Intelligence: Where Innovation Meets AI, a panel led by Roddenberry and co-moderated by Grube, followed by an oceanside conversation between Fowler and musician Nick Tremulis. Thursday's regeneration day travels by four-wheeler to Uncle Oliver's taro farm in Kahakuloa for a guided tour not open to the public, covering irrigation practices used for 1,000 years, and closes with the Hua Momona Farms Gala Dinner, a ticketed evening featuring West Maui chefs. Friday brings an oceanfront closing ceremony.

RISE Maui builds on the foundation's response to the August 2023 Lahaina wildfires, which included delivering approximately 100,000 meals to residents and first responders while Hua Momona Farms sustained local food distribution, more than 30 tons of farm boxes since 2020. Proceeds and partnerships from the summit directly support the Lahaina Innovation and Arts Center along with investments in education, agriculture, youth programs, and long-term community resilience.

The host property is a AAA Four Diamond resort set on 40 oceanfront acres along Ka'anapali Beach, with 810 guestrooms including 31 suites, private balconies facing the Pacific, a LEED-EBOM Gold certification, Maui's only oceanfront full-service spa, and ten food and beverage outlets, among them the award-winning Japengo.

Immediately after the summit, the foundation hosts the third annual Maui Music & Food Experience, Aug. 21-22, at the same resort. The lineup includes John Cruz, headliner Taimane, Kanekoa, Grammy winner Lisa Fischer with What Mongoose?, and four-time Grammy winners Los Lobos with special guest Alejandro Escovedo, alongside chefs including Laidlaw.