Professional stock car racing driver Danica Patrick will be among the guest speakers for next year’s Cayman Alternative Investment Summit, joining actor Will Smith on the roster of well-known names that will appear at the conference.

Ms. Patrick was the first woman to win a major-league open wheel race in a North American series and the only woman to sit on pole position for a NASCAR Cup Series race. She has seven top-10 finishes in 180 career starts and is widely lauded for raising the profile of women in motorsports.

She will take to the CAIS stage on Thursday, Feb. 8, “to share her story of immersing herself and succeeding in the male-dominated world of professional motorsports,” according to a press release from organizers Dart Enterprises.

Also joining the 2018 line-up is highly decorated Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill, part of the team who killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. He will talk on the “mentality needed to succeed in a career where failure is not an option.” Mr. O’Neill was the guest speaker at last year’s Young Caymanian Leadership Awards ceremony.

The fifth-annual CAIS is scheduled for Feb. 8-9 at the Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa. Organizers say more than 500 executives are expected to attend and discuss the latest trends and challenges facing the global alternative investment industry.

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The theme of the summit is “Wired: The Rise of Alternative Investments in a Digital Age.”

Other guest speakers will include Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab and author of the upcoming book “Experience on Demand,” Bettina Warburg, cofounder of Animal Ventures and a thought leader in the emerging blockchain space, and Maurice Conti, designer, innovator and chief innovation officer at Telefónica Alpha.

Chris Duggan, director of CAIS and vice president of community development for Dart, said, “At CAIS, we want attendees to be challenged to think differently by both those from within their industry and outside of it. It is important to us that we complement our impressive lineup of industry speakers with these special guests, who will encourage attendees to look at their world from a different perspective, whether through the eyes of a NASCAR racer, Navy SEAL or virtual reality expert.”

For more details, see www.caymansummit.com.