Conference News: “AES” the World Turns Virtual; Mobile & Global; Big AI CFP

AES the World Turns Virtual: After establishing the Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit (EWTS) in 2015 and building it into the leading event for enterprise use of immersive and wearable technologies, BrainXchange created a virtual event platform specifically for EWTS 2020 and EWTS 2021 during the pandemic. As events return to live in 2022, EWTS has been rebranded as Augmented Enterprise Summit (AES) “to more accurately reflect what the event has always been about: Augmenting the workforce with technology, including XR and related technologies.”

Global Mobility: After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the GSMA announced that it will bring back its Mobile 360 Series “cultivating regional engagement through topics that are impacting the mobile industry on both a localised and global scale.” The series, will bring together senior executives in mobile and adjacent industry verticals to learn and network with peers. Locations include Riyadh on 17 – 18 May, Singapore on 2 – 3 August, Kigaliand Africa on 25 – 27 October and Mexico City from 29 November – 1 December.  The GSMA will still host their flagship conferences in Barcelona and Las Vegas.

Speaking Opportunity: Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) is a multi-track machine learning and computational neuroscience conference that includes invited talks, demonstrations, symposia and oral and poster presentations of refereed papers. It brings together researchers in machine learning, computational neuroscience, and their applications. NeurIPS 2022 will be a Hybrid Conference from 26 November– 4 December with a physical component in New Orleans during the first week, and a virtual component the second week. They have opened their Call for Papers which are due by 16 May following the guidelines found here.

Conference Manager Q&A: Lori Pugh Marcum is Events Content Director at Path to Purchase Institute & Retail Leader. The institute is planning for their next event, Future Forward, happening 16 – 18 May in Chicago under the theme “Demystifying the New Consumer.”  The website notes that “this immersive event experience will serve as an incubator for innovation, gathering together a think tank of industry executives, leaders and visionaries in omnicommerce marketing.” We asked Lori a few questions about best practices she has learned from running successful conferences.

Speaker Strategies: What is the most important trait of a good speaker?

I prefer speakers who can be clear on what actionable takeaways the audience will have after leaving their session. It’s also important that a speaker customize their presentation for the specific audience so that it resonates with attendees.

Speaker Strategies: What is the most important piece of a successful presentation abstract/topic description?

Speakers need to craft their abstracts and topics in the mindset of the attendees who what to know “What’s in it for me?”. There needs to be clear information on what attendees will get out of the session and it needs to appeal to their sense of curiosity.

Speaker Strategies: Do you solicit attendee feedback after a conference?

Post-event attendee feedback is vital to improving the conference and it’s essential to determine if we are providing relevant content and networking activities. In addition to traditional post-event surveys, we use onsite short content surveys in the mobile app as well as intercept interviews onsite so that we can ask for feedback while the experiences are fresh in the attendees’ minds.

Coming Up Next Week: Healthcare leaders – including the CEO of Pfizer and Harvard’s School of Public Health Dean – will present at Fortune Brainstorm: Health (10-11 May) in Los Angeles, exploring how new technologies, worldwide collaboration, evolving therapeutics, and big data drive better health outcomes and also business value. The hybrid Women of Silicon Valley Summit gets underway 10 May, with attendance options onsite in San Francisco and online, to celebrate women leading the way in technology. Professional BusinessWomen of California – succinctly known as PBWC – Conference was designed to inspire, empower, and connect women and men to realize personal ambitions, achieve equity and build a better world for all. PBWC 2022 runs virtually 10-11 May. Formerly known as RetailX, the newly named Retail Innovation Conference runs 10-12 May in Chicago and includes an expo and three tailored events focused on the topics and trends driving new retail models and customer experiences. And at Black Hat Asia, information security experts will teach interactive, online Trainings and present innovative research as part of the Black Hat Briefings, when this event is held 10-13 May in Singapore and online.