Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: "In the unknowable future, all leaders will need to be entrepreneurs: visionaries that can imagine, adapt, and act nimbly to address whatever challenges come their way." (Bhatia and Levina, hbr.org) With global businesses impacted by Covid-19 and other disruptions, companies that survived are looking at their future workforce through a new lens. No more obey-the-status-quo hires. They need creative, entrepreneurial, collaborative problem-solvers to help them turn obstacles into positive results. Where to find them? In school! Since 1987, NY City-based nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) has taught project-based entrepreneurship to 500,000+ under-resourced students, now in 18 U.S. states and 10 countries. Will these grads snag top jobs in the coming years? We'll ask Dr. J.D. LaRock, Kyle Garman, Dr. Karina Edmonds, Srinivas Rapthadu and Dr. Malcolm Woodfield for their insights on Back to School: The Future of The Entrepreneurial Mindset and Technology.

The Buzz 1: "The future holds unparalleled visions of progress and intrigue for the curious…where we manifest our hopes, dreams and even worst fears…While we've had our fair share of inventive breakthroughs in the past that have changed the world, the dazzling and world-shaking inventions of the future will change the world in even stranger and greater ways." bigthink.com The Buzz 2: In the 19th century, inventors were heroes…Stephenson, Morse and Goodyear were the shock troops of the Industrial Revolution. Their ideas helped drag humanity from agrarian poverty to manufactured plenty. These days, though, inventor-superstars, while not absent, are fewer and farther between.…Patent records reveal that the way inventions are made has changed over the years." economist.com We'll ask modern inventors Brian Fried, Alex Tholl, Samantha St. Raymond and Shawn Taylor for their take on Your Great Idea: The Future of Inventors, Inventing and Technology.

The buzz: Futurists are people who attempt to predict the future – authors, consultants, thinkers, organizational leaders and others who engage in interdisciplinary and systems thinking to advise private and public organizations on diverse global trends, possible scenarios, emerging market opportunities and risk management. Futurists are motivated by change. Not content merely to describe or forecast, they desire an active role in world transformation. Futurology is concerned with 'three P's and a W', i.e., 'possible, probable, and preferable' futures, plus 'wildcards', which are low-probability, high-impact events. In The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin distinguished futurology – the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurists – from novelists, whose 'business is lying.'" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurist We'll ask futurists Mike Bechtel, Frank Diana, Tom Raftery and Alexandra Whittington for their take on The Future of Futurists, Futurology and Crystal Ball Tech.

The buzz: "We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams." (President Jimmy Carter) But Canadian social psychologist John Berry observes that multiculturalism is dependent on both the "cultural maintenance" by immigrant groups and "cultural acceptance" by host societies. Strong cultural maintenance by immigrants and weak cultural acceptance by a host society lead to separation and marginalization. Conversely, weak cultural maintenance by immigrants leads to assimilation into the host culture. (psychologytoday.com) Through media globalization and cross-border connectivity, technology is playing an integral role in balancing cultural preservation with fluid cultural exchange. And this creates a real-time multicultural experience. We'll ask Court Stroud, Sarah Carberry, Diego Lastra and Ana Crandell for their take on No More Tower of Babel: Multiculturalism, The Media & Technology.

The buzz: "Over the centuries human beings have always loved to laugh. We can imagine jokes being shared by our cave dwelling ancestors about the two woolly mammoths. Today comedy is shared with vast audience by world-famous arena-filling comedians. Comedy is part of human culture. "There seems to be more comedy than ever. There are local comedy clubs, the Edinburgh Fringe, YouTube, comedy series and Hollywood movies – however you like your comedy served up, there is probably a source catering to your taste. "Still some key challenges…for all but the very top tier of acts to make a living…comedy has always lingered slightly in music's shadow in terms of new media – lagging behind embracing digital platforms." (Sarah Henley, co-founder of NextUp, www.tvbeurope.com/features/what-impact-might-technology-have-on-comedy We'll ask Eddie Sarfaty, Lori Hammel, Peter Michael Marino and Karen Bergreen for their take on "What's So Funny?!? The Future of Humor and Technology."

The buzz: Although they comprise more 50% of the population, women hold far fewer positions in the wine industry, fewer leadership roles, and fewer ownership roles. Wine expert and The Wine Bible author Karen MacNeil's Second Annual Report on Women in the Wine Industry reveals an estimated 10% of winemakers in California are female, 7% in Washington, and 5% in New York. She closed her keynote at the 2019 Wonder Women of Wine (WWOW) inaugural conference with this advice: "My friends, men are not going to fix this. Many of them don't even think a problem exists. The situation is ours to change, and the time is now. So, move forward unwaveringly and ambitiously…Be supportive of other women…And help create a new terroir of wine feminism." We'll ask Susie Selby at Selby Winery, Sharon Cohn at Breathless Wines, Jane Uttley at Unfiltered Unfined Wines and Karen Maley at Robert Young Estate Winery for their take on "We'll Drink To That: The Future of Women and Tech in the Wine Industry."

The buzz: "We've all been there — woken up from a night's sleep thinking about a dream from the night before. Why did the dream happen? What does it mean? (Jean-Marc Emden, DreamsCloud. www.wired.com/insights/2014/10/dreaming-innovation) Finally, answers! The Aurora headband from iWinks gives us the opportunity to control our dreams and access lucid dreams – awareness that one is dreaming – by prompting them in our sleep. The headband measures brain wave and eye movement activity, while tracking body movements to figure out when a user is in their dream state. Using Bluetooth technology, personal dream data is transferred to a mobile app, allowing us to analyze our sleep patterns over time. We'll ask Roberta Moore at EQ-i Coach, Therapist Scott Schenck, Licensed Counselor Dr. Francesca Ferrentelli and Psychiatrist Leonard Cruz, MD, ME, for their take on "It's All In Your Head: Technology for Remembering Your Dreams.

The buzz: Vrooomm. Today, women account for only 27% of the US auto manufacturing workforce as compared to about 47% of the overall labor force. This talent gap is counterproductive for companies looking to tap into the rising opportunities for innovation, transformation, and disruption by digital technologies such as AI, AR, and the IoT. (www2.deloitte.com) Bogi Lateiner, owner of 180 Degrees Automotive in Phoenix, wanted to be a mechanic. "I had to go to 20 shops before I got the first job to say yes to hiring me". She started her shop in her driveway. (cronkitenews..azpbs.org) In 2000, Automotive News had a difficult time filling its first list of 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry. By 2015, it had hundreds of powerful female execs to choose from. (autonews.com) We'll ask Julie Fream (OESA), Laurie Harbour (Harbour Results), Shannon Quinn (Bridgestone) and Jennifer A. Dukarski (Butzel Long) for their take on the future of women in the automotive industry.

The buzz X 3: Make me laugh! Though seemingly innocuous, cartoons, caricatures, comic strips and comic books are representative of important issues in society. Years ago, cartoons were handmade, frame by frame. Now many use flash, aftereffects or other software with interpolation features to produce movement illusion. (engadget.com) Caricature artists once heavily relied on pens and paper. Now, many use digital artistic tools for molding their imagination. (bmmagazine.co.uk) Storytelling using pictures, often with words, has existed at least since the ancient Egyptians. The American comic strip adapted this for the 20th century. (newworldencyclopedia.org) Comic books were once created using typewriters, pencils, pens, brushes, inks, and dyes. Now it's all ones and zeroes. (pcmag.com) We'll ask visual artists Bruce Outridge, Sandra Bell-Lundy, Rina Piccolo, and Joe Bluhm for their take on the future of technology and the visual art they create to make us laugh or just think.

The buzz: "Web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the right moment that a buyer needs it." (David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR) For companies trying to sell you something right now, while you're listening to us and in the midst of a pandemic, is this the right moment? How do you want them to find you, pitch you, engage you, earn your trust and get you to buy their products or services? Are you annoyed by their intrusion or do you welcome it? Today's dynamic business and social landscapes are forcing sellers and marketers to creatively find you wherever you are – on social platforms, websites, email, perhaps still in the physical commerce world. As the world and society evolve, so does business. We'll ask Lorraine Maurice at SAP, GL Hendricks at Chirp PR, and Brian Moran at Brian Moran & Associates to predict the post-pandemic 'next normal' for modern marketers with something to sell to consumers, including you, me and even each other.