FUTURE OF WORK

A Future So Bright: Strategic Optimism for an Uncertain Future

The world seems more complex and uncertain every day — and the problems of the future are getting more urgent.

We’re already living through a global pandemic of unprecedented scale, and the next few years are critical to make the best decisions about climate, geopolitics, labor economies, and more to set in place the best possible future for the most people, or at a minimum, the least damaging future for the most people.

So how should we think about navigating the future? How do we make strategic decisions in a time of constant change?

While emerging technology is often cited as a problem we face, it also offers tremendous opportunities to facilitate solving human problems at scale more efficiently than ever, while offering better human connectedness. But rather than lead with technology as a solution, it starts with understanding what humanity is, what makes it special, and then using technology to amplify those characteristics.

Based on her book, “Tech Humanist,” Kate presents an approach to global transformation of technology and beyond that keeps humans at the center: an emphasis on meaningful human experiences, guided by strategic purpose.

Intended to help both individuals and leaders of all kinds see the landscape of the future in an empowering new way, this session presents the opportunity to solve strategic problems arising from integrating data and emerging technology into business models and operations with a central emphasis on sustainability, ethically-aligned business, and human rights.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Tech Humanism: How Data and Technology Shape the Future of Meaningful Human Experiences

At a time when every business in every industry faces digital transformation or disruption due to emerging technologies, new business models, fickle platforms, and evolving customer expectations, how can you be sure you’re making the right decisions and investments to secure your company’s future?

What’s more, with everything changing so fast, what can you do to prevent ending up on the wrong side of data breaches and overreaches, ethics and regulatory missteps, and PR nightmares?

As relevant to non-profits as to financial services, to high tech, hospitality, or healthcare, in this keynote, Kate O’Neill pulls it all together and puts it in context.

She surveys the ups and downs of the emerging technology and cultural trends landscape and demonstrates how the decisions companies make have far-reaching impact both to their bottom line — and to the future of human experience as a whole.

Kate makes the humanity-affirming case for the importance of meaning and meaningful experiences as guiding principles within business strategy and innovation, and shows leaders how to use these clarifying insights to articulate the kind of organizational focus that can help align priorities and resources so you can invest and adapt with confidence.

You’ll come away with insights to help you drive a meaningful and “human-centric” digital transformation with greater agility.

DIGITAL STRATEGY

Pixels and Place: Human Experience in the Metaverse, and What it Means for Digital Strategy and Placemaking

In Kate O’Neill‘s 2016 book "Pixels and Place: Connecting Human Experience Across Physical and Digital Spaces," she describes an approach to serving people relevant digital interactions while meeting them in the context of their physical surroundings — for more memorable, more meaningful, and more integrated digital and physical experiences.

In this talk, she applies that approach to the needs of your audience. As more brands and organization consider their relevance in the metaverse and fully immersive spaces, they may need to turn their playbook upside down but the principles of human experience still apply.

For this talk, depending on the audience, the content may focus more on brands as placemakers or on digital user experience, exploring digital placemaking and strategy: the meaning of place, and how digital “place” creates context for behavior, reactions, and experience and what marketers and designers can do to harness that.

Kate will cover real-world, current examples from a variety of industries and review action-ready ideas for implementing integrated experiences.