Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: Every day is a revolution. Welcome to the future. The upside: The 4th industrial Revolution's smart factories, connected machines, and IIoT offer limitless possibilities for collaborative robotics, digital twins, and myriad "smart" use cases. At the heart of it all: the industrial machinery and components (IM&C) industry. The downside: Information overload and insufficient cybersecurity are barriers to capitalizing on the near-term estimated $15 trillion IIoT opportunity. Why you should care: This all impacts your business, your career and your personal life. The experts speak. Sean Molloy, itelligence, Inc: "Thought, not money, is the real business capital (Harvey S. Firestone). Jason Coffman, Deloitte: "A man who has no imagination has no wings (Muhammad Ali). David Parrish, SAP: "It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much..." (Yogi Berra). Join us for Digital Manufacturing: Powering the 4th Industrial Revolution – Part 2.

The buzz: Knowledge is power. Reality check for utilities. Digitization and the exponential growth of mobile devices are changing your customer engagement. But still fewer than half of customers are digitally connected with their utility. Your challenge: If you're not talking to your customer, they're not listening to you. Solution: Rethink your customer engagement model. Reimagine your business models. Now! The experts speak. Jacqueline Robinson, DTE Energy: "You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction (Edward deBono). Robert Thiele, OpenText: "What I worry about the most is the competition for young eyeballs. We have so many other competing forms of media. I don't take any audience members for granted" (Chris Meledandri). James McClelland, SAP: "Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future" (John F. Kennedy). Join us for Digitization: Changing the Utilities Customer Engagement – Part 2.

The buzz: WHY ME? Business ownership is tough, especially when clients push back on your pricing, employees act like four-year olds, vendors don't deliver as promised. Add to that the fear of growing at a snail's pace, while others soar. Is it possible to reclaim your power and use the law as a tool to strengthen your business foundation and relationships? "Yes!" say three legal experts. They'll share legal pitfalls that many women—and men—entrepreneurs encounter, and how to sidestep them. Take notes! The experts speak. Nina Kaufman, Esq.: "Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn" (Harriet Beecher Stowe). Nance L. Schick, Esq.: "Order and simplification are the first steps towards the mastery of a subject" ((Paul) Thomas Mann). Renée L. Duff, Esq.: "Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it (David J. Schwartz). Join us for Legal Lessons for Women Business Owners–Part 3.

The buzz: What's a vacation? Entrepreneurs and business owners have always carried the weight of their company, with precious few days off. Now pressure to "mind the store" is literally always-on, with digital customers online 24/7 from every device and location, 74% using social networks to make a buying decision and share experiences. How can small players use social selling, digital decision tools and ecommerce solutions – but retain their uniqueness – to compete with the "big kids"? The experts speak. Lil Mohan, University of Chicago: "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place" (George Bernard Shaw). Max Dower, Unfortunate Portrait: "A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is" (Scott Cook). Susan Reynolds, SAP: "The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time" (Sam Altman). Join us for Becoming Digital, Staying Human: Be True to You and Your Business – Part 2.

The buzz: Woo woo or woo hoo? Companies like yours across all industry sectors are trying to deal with almost daily security threats to your networks and devices. Can available Security Incident and Event Monitoring (SIEM) analytics tools help you mine and analyze data to protect your vital data from eagerly prying eyes? Ideally, the analytics will enable you to detect and prevent future attacks, recover quickly from present breaches, and learn from past vulnerabilities. Ready for a reality check? The experts speak. Paul Alvarez, EY: "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit" (Harry Truman). Richard McCammon, Delego Software: "Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever" (Tahar Ben Jelloun). Gerlinde Zibulski, SAP: "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" (Stephen Hawking). Join us for Security Breach Threat Analysis and Intelligence: Just Voodoo or Real Help?

The buzz: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Businesses used to focus on the goods they produced. Now that customers in the Digital Economy demand faster, better ways to receive what they buy, product delivery logistics could become as critical to B2B business success as to B2Cs. How do you know if this is right for your business model? The experts speak. Sunil Daluvoy, Uber Technologies: "If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering" (Jeff Bezos). Charlie Cole, Tumi: ""Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (Dylan Thomas). Hari Ashvini, SAP: "The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change" (Bill Clinton). Join us for One-Hour Doorstep Delivery: Can It Transform Your Business?

The buzz: Good, better best. Never let it rest. How can any corporation partner with the right social enterprise to create sustainable and scalable social good to support the world's future? Hear answers from those in the know at Google, SAP and Livox. Take notes! The experts speak. Dr. Arie Meir, Google.org : "Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them" (Steve Jobs). Carlos Pereira, Livox: "If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest (Daniel Webster). Nish Pangali, SAP: "We begin to change the world when we stimulate long-term prosperity using technology. There is not a problem that's large enough that innovation and entrepreneurship can't solve" (Naveen Jain). Join us for Corporate Social Innovation: Good for Society and Business–Part 2.

The buzz: Bouncing back. Stress is such an epidemic that 78% of employers in the 2013/2014 Staying@Work™ Survey identified it as the top workforce risk factor. Are some of us better equipped to be resilient, while others are more prone to feel overwhelmed? The bigger question: is resiliency a genetic trait or a set of skill-based competencies that can be taught, practiced and used daily? The experts speak. Eileen McDargh, The Resiliency Group: "In a time of change it is the learners who inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists" (Eric Hoffer). Bill Jensen, Mr. Simplicity: "What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived" (Captain Jean Luc Picard, Star Trek). Sherryanne Meyer, ASUG: "Monty: Why did you say that I was a loser? Simon Wilder: Winners forget they are in a race, they just love to run. You try too hard". (With Honors, 1994 film). Join us for Radical Resiliency: Start Your Engines, People!

The buzz: "It's a new dawn, it's a new day…I'm feeling good." Bravo to your HR for offering employee health strategy programs! That means everyone is so healthy and fit that attendance and productivity are way up. Not so much? Perhaps they forgot to address how workforce behavior – do they WANT to improve their health habits – and circumstances impact illness prevention, or the importance of engagement, commitment and alignment among employer and insurer plan sponsors, healthcare providers and individual workerss. What now? The experts speak. Dr. Paul Tunnah, pharmaphorum: "Human behaviour flows from three main sources: desire, emotion and knowledge" (Plato). Michael Maniccia, Deloitte: "Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs one step at a time (Mark Twain). Joe Miles, SAP:" Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction" (Francis Picabia). Join us for The Behavior Side of Preventive Medicine: Workplace, Employees and Pharma.

The buzz: Home is where the heart is… Healthcare is experiencing a major and positive transformation – and industry disruption – largely due to technology advances like the Internet of Things (IoT). In addition to raising the quality of preventive care, this metamorphosis will allow patients to "age in place" at home, instead of at an impersonal medical or nursing care facility. What is IoT's potential impact on our wellbeing, our overall society, and how we each view and manage our healthcare in the future? The experts speak. Tom Foley, Lenovo Health: "I've always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team" (Lee Iacocca). Tim O'Malley, EarlySense: "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years" (Abraham Lincoln). Kai Goerlich, SAP: "The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years." (Deepak Chopra). Join us for IoT & Healthcare: Bringing IT Home – Part 2.