Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: Hurry! Connecting information, people, assets, and devices – on 3rd generation platforms that support social, mobile, cloud, Big Data, IoT – drives newly insightful business action. Can a long-standing industry like chemicals benefit? Yes! Embracing IoT can open opportunities to optimize efficiency, deploy radically new business models, and stay competitive. The experts speak. David Dunn, Rolta: "All right...but apart from better sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health ... what have the Romans ever done for us?" (Monty Python). David Cruickshank, SAP: "Standing on the shoulders of giants" (Sir Isaac Newton). John Harrison, SAP: "The Internet is ultimately about innovation & integration... you don't get the innovation unless you integrate Web technology into the processes by which you run your business" (Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.). Join us for IoT and Chemicals: Transform Your Business Models Now!

The buzz: Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah! What does it really mean for you to have a connected business? Analysts estimate that by 2020, social networks will connect 2.5 billion people, the number of connected devices will total 75 billion, and the volume of global business trade between connected businesses will reach $65 trillion. As we move to an era of true hyperconnectivity in our digital economy, how can your company turn these challenges and your business networks into sustainable profitable opportunities? The experts speak. Dennison DeGregor, HP: "The digital CX revolution is dead – long live Digital Humanism!" Frank Diana, TCS: "The networked organization of the future knows that the lion's share of value exists outside its walls; it looks to capture that value and bring it inside (Dion Hinchcliffe). Drew Hofler, SAP: "We build too many walls and not enough bridges" (Sir Isaac Newton). Join us for Business Networks and the Digital Economy: Ready for Digital Humanism?

The buzz: Always better together. As the world becomes increasingly digital, your company's survival will rely more than ever on co-innovation opportunities within your business network. How can you make this happen? Simply put, seek out and connect with collaborative partners who can help you achieve the solution edge that will keep you competitive and successful. But where do you look and whom should you choose? Guidance from Peter Drucker: "The best praise an innovation can receive is for people to say, 'This is obvious. Why didn't I think of it?'" The experts speak. Dawn Duross, Cisco: "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do (Coach John Wooden). Krishna Kumar, AppOrchid: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. The choice of life" (The Godfather). Puneet Suppal, SAP: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...we must think anew and act anew" (Abraham Lincoln). Join us for Co-Innovation: Your Path to a Digital Future – Part 2.

The buzz: Spelling bee. Cybersecurity breaches in the headlines still strike fear in companies, governments and individuals worldwide. For businesses, the advent of the IoT can compromise secure access to critical infrastructures by connecting business applications with process/infrastructure applications, a traditional no-no. With today's Advanced Persistent Threats and Zero Day Exploits, how do you protect access between 30-year-old sensors without Internet protocol support? The experts speak. Gerlinde Zibulksi, SAP: "What is cybersecurity? C Y B E R S E C U R I T Y – CRY BE SECURITY – SECRET ICY RUBY – ICE CURRY BYTES – I RUT BY SECRECY." Hillel Zafir, HMS Technology Group: "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC." (Sound of Music). Richard McCammon, Delego: "We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security" (Dwight D. Eisenhower). Join us for Data Security Breaches Part 4: Wising-Up to Real-Life Impacts.

The buzz: Crystal ball. Yes, change is inevitable. But today's unprecedented pace and scale of change presents unique challenges for the future of business. Futurists worldwide are examining and assessing potential business impacts of new and emerging paradigms, energy innovations, physical-digital boundary blurring, business decentralization, and other global drivers. What are the implications for future leaders? The experts speak. Frank Diana, TCS: "We are entering a world where everything we know and understand about the purposes of business and the mission of our own organization will be challenged" (Rohit Talwar). Gray Scott, Futurist: We are becoming a digitized species…crossing the computational event horizon into a digital black hole." Timo Elliott, SAP: "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction" (E. F. Schumacher). Join us for Emerging Paradigms and the Future of Business.

The buzz: The secret's out. So you're a woman and you want to start – or expand – your own business. That's great! Women are the fastest growing segment of business owners in the U.S. today. But here's the rub: compared to men, women tend to have smaller companies, generate less revenue, and employ fewer people. What accounts for these differences? And what can you do about? Our panelists will reveal the key factors holding women back, plus solid advice for business success – for female and male entrepreneurs. These are insights you won't want to miss. The experts speak. Jane Wesman, Jane Wesman Public Relations, Inc.: "The road to success is not a solitary journey." Sandi Webster, Consultants 2 Go, LLC: "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women (Madeleine Albright). Nina Kaufman, Esq., Entrepreneur.com Legal Expert: "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else" (Yogi Berra). Join us for Success Secrets for Entrepreneurial Women.

The buzz: Honk if you love connected cars! The future is definitely connected and it's already here. Consumers, especially millennials, living an always-connected lifestyle expect continuous access to personalized information and services from service and content providers of their choice – even while driving. They do not want to be restricted by the VIN of the vehicle they happen to be driving or in at any moment. How do they define their ideal mobile digital identity? What information do they want while on the road? How much are they willing to pay for it? The experts speak. Joe Barkai, Industry Analyst: "Driving is distracting me from texting." John Ellis, former Ford Global Technologist: "Never disrespectful. Always irreverent." Larry Stolle, SAP: "I can do without more than I can put up with." (Colleague, circa 1980). Join us for Connected Car Take 3: Your Mobile Digital Identity.

The buzz: It's a small world after all. For today's consumer, "the world" is just a few clicks away. Armed with anytime, anywhere information, they can (and do) find the best solutions for their lifestyle needs, often before walking into a store, restaurant, or service center. They're actually maximizing their use of time, their most precious commodity. And they will punish providers who waste it. The experts speak. Brent Brown, HP: "100% of the shots you don't take don't go in..." (Wayne Gretzky). Brian Kilcourse, RSR Research: "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window" (Peter Drucker). Tim Hood, SAP: "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects" (Herman Melville). Join us for The Networked Economy: Shaping the Future of Retail – Part 2.

The buzz: Roll-it! Big Data represents an opportunity for us to re-imagine our world, track new signals once impossible, and change how we experience our communities, places of work, and personal lives. After nearly two years of research and filming, interviews with 30+ data science, AI, technology and digital medicine scientists and entrepreneurs, The Human Face of Big Data documentary illustrates the promise and the peril in the growing Big Data revolution. The experts speak. David Jonker, SAP: "We have to care about what kind of future we are making... (Tim O'Reilly). Sandy Smolan, Director: "Anything that is going to save the world by definition has to be able to change it for the worst as well as the better (Jay Walker). Bonnie Benjamin-Phariss, ProSocial: "There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place (J.K. Rowling). Bill Medsker, Producer: "What will happen? (Jack Kerouac). Join us for The Human Face of Big Data Film: Igniting Social Change.

The buzz: One. Employee engagement is at its highest since Gallup started tracking it in 2000. Real number? Less than one-third (31.4%) of US workers were engaged in their jobs in 2014. Why? Success in our global, uber-competitive economy may be less reliant on strategic investments in technology, acquisitions, products – and more on how you treat your employees. Meaning? It may be time to change your corporate culture…big-time. How? Can one person make a difference? Well, that depends. The experts speak.Tom Koulopoulos, Delphi Group: "Culture is what you learn to survive in an organization (Regis McKenna). Geoff Scott, ASUG: "The difference between those who change the world and those who don't, is that those who do believe they can (Simon Sinek). Pam Seplow, SAP: "Never doubt the ability of a small group of dedicated citizens to change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has (Margaret Meade). Join us for Employee Engagement Part 3: Changing Corporate Culture - How?