Conference News: Grace Hopper News; GSMA Thrives online; Seeking Security Speakers

Virtually There: Not only does 2020 mark the 20th anniversary of the Grace Hopper Celebration, but for the first time ever the event will be held virtually at the end of September. BSR Conference will be held online from 20 – 22 October, including a global virtual networking program, where participants can connect with leaders of Fortune 500 companies, civil society, government, and academia. AI Summit London  will be transformed to an event that is fully virtual for this year, and will also be rebranded as The Virtual AI Summit London. It will now take place from 2 – 3 September and still include content across its four main stages. 

Thriving Online: Many event organizers are considering how they can take advantage of the virtual conference content even after we are able to gather in person again. One example of this is that GSMA, the group behind the Mobile World Congress events, has created a virtual event platform called Thrive. In a recent announcement, they mentioned that “GSMA Thrive offers the best of the industry’s voices and perspectives to learn from and to connect with. Like our offline events, our platform is always evolving, continuously innovating, and harnessing the collective knowledge of our global decision-makers.” The first online event to utilize this platform will be GSMA Thrive China happening between 30 June – 2 July and featuring industry leaders from around the world. Content will focus on 5G & Networks, AI, Future IoT, and Digital Transformation. The GSMA will likely utilize the Thrive platform for sessions that would have been featured at Mobile World Congress LA since that will no longer be held as a live event.

Speaking Opportunity: ManuSec – Cyber Security for Critical Manufacturing Summit will run 13 – 14 October in Chicago and online. It will bring together the cybersecurity leaders safeguarding the American manufacturing industry to address common IT and OT security challenges. If you have a speaker or talk to suggest, submit it online by the 12 July deadline. Topics of interest include transformation of critical manufacturing; Effective uses of predictive analytics and forecasted sales models; Digital manufacturing, digital design, and distributed manufacturing; Risk mitigation in the supply chain; and Creating an enterprise-wide cybersecurity culture.          

Lunchtime Learning: Founded in 2005 as an intimate gathering of friends, DLD (Digital – Life – Design) has developed into Europe’s leading innovation conference for visionaries from around the globe. In order to keep its community engaged and educated during the pandemic, they have created DLD Sync, an interactive webinar series. Hear leaders across business, academia, science and politics such as George Church, a pioneer of genomic science, who leads Synthetic Biology at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, Stefan Oschmann CEO of Merck, and Oxford economist Carl Benedikt Frey discuss how best to manage and stay safe during this time.

Coming Up Next Week: At Collision from Home (22-25 June) – which has been called “the Olympics of tech” – participants can hear from the same caliber of speakers we’ve come to expect at the live conference. InfoSec World runs 22-24 June and will offer a virtual platform the latest on the business of security and emerging tech in this space. Women in Technology International – aka WITI Summit – will kick off virtually on 23 June, promising all of the programming originally planned, just minus the awards ceremony. The WSJ CIO Network Summit is another venue that moved online, offering its intimate audience networking and high-level, honest discussion of the challenges facing CIOs today. Focused on the use of games and simulations in training & education, the online Serious Play Conference gets underway 23 June, and includes a full track on instructional/game design. Lastly, The Information’s 2020 Autonomous Vehicles Summit will run over two mornings (25-26 June) and discussions will delve into efficient capital allocation in this space as companies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.