The Future of the Future with Game Changers, Presented by SAP

The buzz: “… by the year 2020 manufacturers in every industry will have invested billions of dollars in a wide array of advanced digital and fabrication technologies” (nist.gov). More than most industries, manufacturing is being disrupted by the IoT, robots, AI, and distributed intelligence. “Smart” factories, mass customization and 3D printing pose opportunities and threats to traditional manufacturing. How are industry-leading companies delivering innovation? The experts speak. Dr. Tom Bradicich, HPE: “Seek and you shall find, ask and it shall be given to you, knock and the door shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Indranil Sircar, Microsoft: “With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world” (Dalai Lama). Mike Lackey, SAP: “I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems” (Elon Musk). Join us for Hot New Technologies: Transforming Manufacturing.

The buzz: “In coming years, the most intelligent organizations will need to blend technology-enabled insights with a sophisticated understanding of human judgment, reasoning, and choice” (sloanreview.mit.edu). Record corporate profits and new business models over the last nine years can be tied to technology-driven innovation. Reality check: The S&P 500 changes every two weeks, as intelligent enterprises that embrace digital technology replace losers at an accelerated rate. If your company is not “intelligent” yet, tune in for expert insights on how to get there and pitfalls to avoid. The experts speak. Andy Steer, Itelligence Group ““It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory” (Bill Nicholson). Timo Elliott, SAP: “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes” (Oscar Wilde). Join us for So You Want To Be An Intelligent Enterprise? Path vs Pitfall.

The buzz: “Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation” (Dean Kamen). Important IT trends – Blockchain, AI, Machine Learning, IoT – are coming of age in 2018-19, individually and collectively disrupting every industry. They will transform the organizations we work as well as our personal lives – think Alexa, Siri, Amazon Dash button, self-driving cars, Nest thermostats, health monitoring smart watches, and more devices you may already use. The future is nearer than we think! The experts speak. Timo Elliott, SAP: “Anything you can do, I (AI) can do better (Annie Get Your Gun). Gray Scott, Futurist: “Nothing comes unannounced, but many can miss the announcement” (Terence McKenna). Paul Lewis, Hitachi Americas: “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality” (Walt Disney). Join us for IT Trends 2018-19: What They Mean to Your Business and Personal Life.

The buzz: “Innovation doesn’t equal social good, but social good can be accelerated by innovation…provided that purpose is at the heart of that innovation” (2014 Social Innovation Summit). Can doing good via social innovation be good for your company’s bottom line? Yes. For-profit companies are finding solutions to social and environmental issues, often collaborating with government, business, and non-profits. Is there a role for technology here, too? The experts speak. Hubert Yoshida, Hitachi Vantara: “A kid in Africa with a smart phone has access to more information than the President of the U.S. 15 years ago” (Ray Kurzweil). Karin Underwood, Stanford GSB: “Dedicated to the things that haven’t happened yet and the people who are about to dream them up…” (Stanford GSB plaque). Katie Morgan Booth, SAP: “The question is, If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” (Martin Luther King, Jr.). Join us for Social Innovation: Business Strategy with Profit.

The buzz: “The last 10 years have been about building a world that is mobile-first. In the next 10 years, we will shift to a world that is AI-first” (Sundar Pichai). While early adopters of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are revolutionizing major economic sectors, including consumer electronics, healthcare, media & entertainment, and defense & intelligence, a new wave of AI promises to disrupt the older, larger manufacturing, energy, and transportation sectors. And with the Industrial Internet of Things, AI models applied to complex physical systems in harsh environments may unlock $ trillions of value. The experts speak. Paul Kurchina, ASUG: “Change your thoughts and you change your world” (Norman Vincent Peale). Jerry Chen, NVIDIA: “Only the mediocre are always at their best” (Jean Giraudoux). Margaret Laffan, SAP: “When you change the way you think about things, the things you think about change” (Max Planck). Join us for Industrial AI for Intelligent, Purposeful Enterprises.

The buzz: “What makes some companies wildly successful while others flop? Starting and surviving in today’s economy is hard, but the companies that figure it out have something in common: the pursuit of purpose, alongside the pursuit of profit (Sherry Hakimi, fastcompany.com). How can your company navigate this chaotic world? Become a purpose-infused and experience-led organization, then activate your inspiring North Star beyond driving profits and shareholder value. An EY Beacon Institute study found that “a clearly articulated, [and activated] purpose helps organizations survive and thrive.” Are you there yet? The experts speak. Jeff Stier, EY: “Be the change you wish to see in the world” (Gandhi). Shelley McKinley, Microsoft: “It is not going to be easy, but it’s going to be awesome. Awesome ain’t easy” (Steve Gleason). Jim Sullivan, SAP: “I like being near the top of a mountain. One can’t get lost here” (W. Szymborska). Join us for Your North Star: Becoming A Purposeful Company.

The buzz: “Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent” (Bill Gates). As we transition from an “information age” of rapid technological revolution to a new “digital age” where technology intersects with how we live and work, massive changes are sweeping the business landscape. And new technologies, stakeholder scrutiny and changing work models, are pressuring business leaders to pivot in order to succeed in this “new normal”. The best way to meet these challenges head-on? Be agile – adaptive, resilient – to find innovative ways to create new value, but still be mindful about efficiency and control. The experts speak. Tony Klimas, EY: “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking” (General George S. Patton). Matt Jennings, SAP: “In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life — It goes on” (Robert Frost). Join us for Agile Business for the Digital Age: Ready for the New Normal?

The buzz: “The majority of (science fiction) movies feature killer robots…some show what our near future will look like..others are so far-fetched” (Guia Marie Del Prado) Machine Learning and the world of artificial intelligence (AI) are no longer the stuff of science fiction. They’re here now – and businesses and industries are taking advantage. As a new breed of software capable of learning without being explicitly programmed, Machine and Deep Learning go beyond human capabilities to access, analyze, and find patterns in Big Data. Now it is even easier to unlock this potential with embedded machine learning capabilities and services via the cloud. Need more convincing? The experts speak. Alex White, Nvidia: “The best way to predict your future is to create it” (Dennis Gabor). Rayn Veerubhotla, SAP: “I definitely fall into the camp of thinking of AI as augmenting human capability and capacity” (Satya Nadella). Join us for Machine Learning: Futuristic Sci-Fi or Business-Critical Now?

The buzz: “Can a machine converse with a human with enough facility that the human could not tell that she was talking to a machine?” (C.M. Valente) Welcome to the Era of Conversational AI, aka Natural Language Processing, the branch of Artificial Intelligence that enables computers to understand human language. You know it as Chatbots in your daily life–Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google Home. Now businesses are waking up how it can streamline internal processes and expand brand impact. The experts speak. Samir Patel, SAP: At the end of this game, the European Cup will be only six feet away from you…And for many of you, that will be the closest you will ever get. Don’t you dare come back in here without giving your all (Sir Alex Ferguson). Piyush Chandra, SAP: “The more we reduce ourselves to machines in the lower things, the more force we shall set free to use in the higher” (Anna C. Brackett). Join us for Conversational AI: Are You Talking to Me? – Part 2.

The buzz: “Pesky thing, tomorrow. Day after day, it shows up and brings technological innovation that alters the best-laid plans of every business owner. Managing for the future isn't easy” (Jonathan Blum, www.businessinsider.com). Smart business leaders know that tomorrow’s competitive edge requires rapid innovation across their organization today. How? By developing capabilities that leverage and combine innovative technologies: machine learning, IoT, AI, blockchain, analytics, big data. Ready for use cases? The experts speak. Darwin Deano, Deloitte: “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” (Wayne Gretzky) Patricia Florissi, Dell EMC: “20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do” (Mark Twain). Sathya Narasimhan, SAP: “Ultimate automation... will make our modern industry as primitive and outdated as the stone age man looks to us today” (Albert Einstein). Join us for Future-Proof Your Business: Digital Solutions Now!

The buzz: “New Halo Effect #10: The tendency to label any project involving digital technology as Digital Transformation…Transformation creates a new future…Change facilitates a better version of the past” (Rob Llewellyn). Bon voyage if your company has begun a digital transformation journey. But if your destination is the Cloud, you might enjoy a smoother, faster trip if you engage the right strategic partners. Why? Partners can create applications that extend and integrate into other systems, eliminating speed bumps along your path. When is it beneficial to reach out to partners? How to select the right partners? Sachin Verma, Incture: “What one man can do, another man can do” (The Edge). Simon Goupil, /N SPRO: “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible” (Walt Disney). Scott Harrison, SAP: “Obstacles are those frightening things you see when you take your eyes off your goal” (Henry James). Join us for Transformation Help from Above: Partners and Cloud-Based PaaS.

The buzz: “Impossible is not a fact. It is an opinion” (Muhammad Ali). The harrowing life-and-death decisions made by early Antarctic explorers reveal insights — not just for their own survival in extreme environments, but also applicable to our 21st century personal and business decision making. Reality check: Not all their decisions had good results. Yet, even during the most trying circumstances imaginable, very few men died. How was this possible? And what can we learn from their decision-making to help with our modern-day business and personal lives? The experts speak. Brad Borkan, SAP: “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm” (Sir Winston Churchill). David Hirzel, Author: “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure” (Colin Powell). Join us for When Your Life Depends On It: Decision-Making Stories from Antarctic Heroes.

The buzz: “It’s no longer the big beating the small, but the fast beating the slow” (Eric Pearson, CIO, International Hotel Group IHG). Reality check: Digital technologies are already an integral part of our businesses and our daily lives. If your company isn’t paying attention, it’s time to wake up to the facts. As technology erodes traditional product-based advantages, a new competitive battleground is emerging. Who will survive and thrive? You, if you transform your finance, supply chain, and HR systems into an agile digital core that connects employees, inventory, supply chains and customers across your entire enterprise. Ready? The experts speak. Bill Briggs, Deloitte: “We don’t go on because we’re ready. We go on because it’s 11:30” (Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night Live). Mike Brinker, Deloitte: “I have come to see that the key to long-term survival for a company is adaptability” (Dr. An Wang, Wang Laboratories). Join us for The New Business Battleground: Digital Technologies.

The buzz: “We need to bring the exam room to where the patients are.” (Dr. Jay Sanders). Our mobile devices already let us do almost anything anywhere, from emailing to connecting with our appliances. But, as Peggy Lee sang, “Is that all there is?”. Not! The next mobile revolutions is in healthcare, with voice commands and mobile apps letting you and your healthcare providers securely access a single source of health data for improved health outcomes. How will your data be collected, transmitted, stored, protected? The experts speak. Tom Foley, Lenovo: “Determined people make conditions, they don't allow themselves to be victims of them...Determined people working together can do anything” (Jim Casey). Dr. Holly Miller, Medallies: “I'm not feeling very well, I need a doctor immediately. Ring the nearest golf course” (Groucho Marx). Dr. Clemens Suter-Crazzolara, SAP: “Happiness is good health and a bad memory” (I. Bergman) Join us for Consumer Healthcare: The Next Mobile Revolution.

The buzz: “Digital transportation technology is an unstoppable force” (Lloyd Alter). Our digital lives at home and at work will soon extend into our increasingly autonomous automobiles; we will be “cargo”. Our connected car experience will begin before we enter a vehicle and continue after we park and leave. A new automotive ecosystem is already bringing automated parking and fueling services to a growing base of connected drivers worldwide. Will technology ultimately make driving safer, more reliable, less expensive? The experts speak. Eddie Song, SplitSecnd: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” (Maya Angelou). Kenny Hawk, Mojio: “I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun” (Thomas A. Edison). Gil Perez, SAP: “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black” (Henry Ford). Join us for The Connected Car: A Delightful Customer Experience?

The buzz: “In God we trust. All others must bring data” (W. Edwards Deming). Many large enterprises are using data and analytics to boost their bottom line. But less-mature analytics practitioners are experiencing breakdowns at critical stages of the business initiative process, starting from when they identify new business opportunities and model ways to act on insights, to measuring the outcomes of their data-driven strategies. Incentives to correcting these issues include 15% gains in operating margins and revenues, and risk profile improvement. How can your organization achieve better analytics outcomes? The experts speak. Saj Usman, EY: “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games” (Babe Ruth). Bruce Rogers, Forbes: “Study your lessons. Don’t settle for less. Even the genius asks his questions” (Tupac). Jayne Landry, SAP: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious” (Albert Einstein). Join us for Think Globally, Act Locally: 5-Step Formula for Analytics Success.

The buzz: “It’s about damn time we can control the crisp of our plain bagel with an app” (Curtis Silver, Forbes). The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is always a hot ticket, debuting new gadgets like 3D printing, robotics, AI, VR, IoT, wearables and home automation. The impact on your company? What’s consumer-cool at CES 2017 could have a major impact on your business tomorrow. The experts speak. Gray Scott, SeriousWonder.com: “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return” (L. da Vinci). Paul Lewis, Hitachi Americas: “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths” (W. Disney). Ira Berk, SAP: “You can't solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level” (A. Einstein). Join us for CES 2017: Consumer Tech Impact on Business.

The buzz: The heat is on. As technology radically changes how, where, and when companies work, IT is being pressured to redefine its role. Per a study by The Economist Intelligence Unit and SAP: 'Digital transformation is the new strategic imperative—no longer just…competitive differentiation but a must-do for every company, in every industry, and across every geography. The challenges…are testing leadership teams…In the eye of the storm sits the chief information officer -CIO- and the IT team.' The experts speak. Allan Adler, Digital Bridge Partners: 'Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer: Things fall apart…Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world' -Yeats. Chris Dinkel, Deloitte: 'Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler' -Einstein. Rob Glickman, SAP: 'Don’t wait for the invitation. If you see a better way, you have an obligation to do it' -Beth Comstock. Join us for IT Leadership and Digital Transformation: What’s Next?