Conference News: What I learned this week – May 31, 2019
Brainstorm in Boston: A few months ago, Fortune began publishing its first weekly Eye on A.I. newsletter which targets industry professionals and the finance community focused on Artificial Intelligence. Then last week. Fortune conferences followed up with the announcement of a new event called Fortune Brainstorm: A.I. which will take place in Boston, from 23 – 24 September. According to the conference team, “the goal of this conference is twofold: Explain through top experts in the field this paradigm-shifting technology, and explore the stories of how various companies are implementing it.”
Moving On: At the end of Webit.Festival, which just wrapped in Sofia last week, the conference founder, Dr. Plamen Russev, announced the winner of the Festival’s first open call for a new host city for the European festival from years 2020-2022. According to Dr. Russev, the economic impact of Webit for the host city’s economy has been estimated at €60 million per event. 27 cities competed to be Webit.Festival Europe’s new home. And the winner is… Valencia, Spain! Stay tuned for more information on the 2020 festival.
Speaking Opportunity: The 2019 WorkBeyond Summit will take place on 16-17 October at the Grand Hyatt New York under the theme: Talent@Work: Cultures for Success. This conference aims to address “how talent is the driving force behind the success of an inclusive and thriving organization, and what strategies we can apply to strengthen talent and culture for one of true advancement.” Attendance is comprised of leaders and team members who play critical roles regionally, nationally or on a global scale in helping shape their workplace culture, or helping their workforce seize opportunities to achieve their best, including professionals and practitioners with responsibility in Employee Engagement; Diversity & Inclusion; Learning & Development; Health & Wellness; Human Capital and HR; Talent and Workforce Development; Total Rewards; Talent Acquisition leaders; and ERG leaders. If you have a powerful story, research, strategies, or action tools to share, submit your speaker proposal before the 10 June deadline.
Lunchtime Learning: From the creators of Money 20/20 and Shoptalk, HLTH was launched last year to break down silos between various players in healthcare (think payers, providers, pharma, etc.). And what an agenda it was! With speakers like Anne Wojcicki, 23andme’s CEO & co-founder, Walgreen’s Chief Medical Officer, Novartis’ Chief Digital Officer, this one was full of star power that would impress anyone driving transformation in health. This year’s conference is still several months away, so while you wait, you can check out the 2018 sessions online. It won’t surprise readers to learn that less than 5% of speaking proposals were accepted into last year’s program!
Coming Up Next Week: The summer conference season is officially underway! In its third year, the GeekWire Cloud Summit (5 June; Seattle) brings together more than 600 engineers, developers, technical leaders, and execs and this year features keynotes from AWS, Microsoft, and Slack. At Promax Conference/US, entertainment marketers will hear from senior execs across all the major studios when this event runs 3-7 June in LA. In Detroit, “Transforming Brands through Sustainable Innovation” will be the theme when the Sustainable Brands Conference gathers 3,000 brand execs, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, investors, and academia (3-6 June). Amazon Re:MARS event (4-7 June; Las Vegas) is open to the public and expects around 4,000 attendees, but it is inspired by the uber-exclusive, Jeff Bezos-hosted MARS gathering. Both events tackle Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space (get it? MARS?) and the latest applications for AI. Infosecurity Europe runs 4-6 June in London, featuring an interactive exhibition floor and “far-reaching conference programme” geared toward Europe’s information and cyber security community.