Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: Manufacturing. Manufacturers are pushing automated processes into overdrive to survive in the global marketplace. As this evolution spawns new jobs demanding specialized skills best performed by robots, will the factory workforce need humans? The experts speak. Mike Yost, MESA International: "Governmental initiatives, like Germany's 'Industry 4.0' and US National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, are shining a light on the importance of advanced technologies in manufacturing, but we're still a long way away from putting the pieces together correctly." Kimberly Knickle, IDC: "I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy" (Marie Curie). Jeff Jackson, Deloitte: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" (Albert Einstein). Chuck Pharris, SAP: "The future of automation will be a shift from robots replacing humans in jobs to humans working beside robots." Join us for Manufacturing Trends: Automation in Overdrive – Part 2.

The buzz: Game on! Games are an integral part of all societies. A formalized expression of play, games carry the ideas and behaviors of a culture through time to future generations (Wikipedia.org). But while we thought they it just for fun, the concept of games was maturing into a serious player in the diverse arenas of formal learning, job training, workplace productivity, sustainability, healthcare, advertising and sales. We've even heard that 70% of the top 2000 companies plan to use gamification by 2015. Not a believer yet? The experts speak. Prof. Ashok Ranchhod, Games Design Hub: "If you don't know where you are going, any road'll take you there" (Alice in Wonderland). Gopal RajGuru, Innovate+Grow Group: "Let the (business) games begin!" Philipp Herzig, SAP: "Participants who went through a gamified (elearning) course are upset when they have to take a non-gamified training." Join us for Gamification: Serious Business – Part 2

Today's buzz: SMEs. If you're the entrepreneurial founder or leader of a small-to-midsize company, you likely face challenges that test your commitment every day. Once you get past grappling with financing and building a leadership team, you need to focus on scaling technology, opening sustainable channels of distribution, engaging new customers, mastering social media opportunities and more. Ready to hear how successful businesses are figuring it all out? The experts speak. Brian Moran, Brian Moran & Associates: "If you want something bad enough, you will find a way; if you don't, you will find an excuse." Andrew Sherman, Jones Day: "Innovation without execution is an irresponsible waste of corporate assets and dilutes shareholder value." Ursula Ringham, SAP: "Every great company started with an ambitious idea." Join us for Growing Your Small-to-Midsize Business: Challenges and Strategies

Today's buzz: Data overwhelm. What's the big deal about big data when it comes to marketing your products and services? Successful marketing hinges on gaining insight from the mountains of data you capture and store, so you can build great relationships and experiences with your customers and prospects. Do you have the right people and tools to sift through all that information and find the golden nuggets of opportunity? The experts speak. Andrew Jones, Altimeter Group: "Customer identity today is a shattered mirror, with little pieces of it spread throughout the organization. Customer Service sees a different piece of the profile than sales or marketing or loyalty." Esteban Kolsky, ThinkJar: "Customers don't care about brands. Brands care about customers." Kaan Turnali, SAP: "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service fits him and sells itself" (Peter Drucker). Join us for Data Deluge: Customer Insight Challenges and Opportunities.

Today's buzz: Fraud. With today's sophisticated detection and prevention technology, you'd hope we'd be able to stop the bad guys from stealing our money and identities, cheating companies and consumers. Alas, industrious cybercriminals are busy this very second devising clever schemes to attack vulnerable merchants and buyers, creating innocuous-looking blogs and referral sites, targeting chat forums and social media, infecting e-cards. Your organization can't afford to not be vigilant and not be resistant to the risk of corporate fraud. The experts speak. Prakash Santhana, Deloitte: "When the proverbial 'it' hits the fan – will you be ready? Because it will…it is only a question of time!" Vincent Walden, Ernst & Young: "Big risks require big data thinking." Mike Kosonog, Deloitte: "'More Data, More Opportunities.' This tag-line seems to cut two ways." Michael Lortz, SAP: "The data doesn't lie...or does it? Join us for Fakes, Frauds, Scams: Who's Winning? – Part 2.

The buzz: Mobile BI. Mobile BI is quickly becoming mainstream, with a majority of organizations considering it "critical" or "very important," particularly in smaller organizations, in the Retail segment, and outside North America and EMEA. In fact, according to the Howard Dresner Mobile Analytics Study 2013, mobile business intelligence is the third most common use case for mobile business workers, next to email and contact information. Are you and your team getting right-time business information when, where and how you need it, so you can act on it quickly? The experts speak. Howard Dresner, Dresner Advisory Services: "Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required" (Winston Churchill). Kaan Turnali, SAP: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" (Leonardo da Vinci). Mimi Spier, SAP: "In time of big wind, some people build walls and some people build windmills" (Chinese proverb). Join us for Mobile BI: Location, Location, Location.

The buzz: Mentoring. Mentoring at its most basic involves a more experienced or knowledgeable person helping to guide someone less experienced or knowledgeable for personal and/or professional development. But mentoring can be so much more. It's a two-way learning street, with its own rules and culture. It can be done in reverse. And it can help your organization pass on cultural norms and more. The experts speak. Sherryanne Meyer, Air Products and Chemicals: "'Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi!' is the phrase I will occasionally recite to colleagues who have some knowledge that I need. Obi Wan was Luke and Anakin Skywalker's mentor in Star Wars." Sarah Cooke, Great Place to Work: "I'd rather regret the things I have done than the things that I haven't" (Lucille Ball). Meaghan Sullivan, SAP: "Dress for success… always present yourself both mentally and in physical appearance in the job that you want to be in… one level up." Join us for Mentoring Done Right: Everybody Wins!

The buzz: Game on! We've always been drawn to games in our leisure time, from Senet (Egypt), Mahjong (China), dice (Iran, India) to Monopoly (US), and videogames. But while we were having fun, gaming became a serious player in the arenas of formal learning, workplace productivity and even sales. We've heard that 70% of the top 2000 companies plan to use gamification (term coined in 2002 by Nick Pelling) by 2015. Are you in it to win it? The experts speak. Prof. Ashok Ranchhod, Games Design Hub: "Curiosity may have killed the cat, so we should love and respect it. For without curiosity and imagination, we would all be the living dead." Gopal RajGuru, Innovate+Grow Group: "Gamification has its place … but some things are difficult to put into a meaningful game that both entertains and educates." Philipp Herzig, SAP: "The opposite of play is not work, it's depression" (Brian Sutton-Smith, play theorist, game researcher). Join us for Gamification: Filling the Customer Expectation vs Sales Gap.

Today's buzz: Industry 4.0. It's 2014 and we're witnessing the rise of the Industrial Internet and orchestrated manufacturing. This Age of the Smart Factory brings a new generation of systems delivering real-time awareness and autonomic interactions among machines, systems, assets and things aka The Internet of Things. Is your business ready to adjust and take advantage of the opportunities - or will you be left behind? The experts speak. Dave Westrom, ThingWorx: "And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things" (Niccolo Machiavelli). Quentin Fisher, CSC: "In 10 minutes, the equivalent data from the dawn of creation until 2003 is generated and there is plenty of idle data in the system. Cisco has quoted that 1% of what can be connected is connected." Join us for Industrial Internet: Real-Time Capabilities to Grow Your Business.

Today's buzz: Mobility. Welcome to the Mobile 2.0 world. Enterprise mobility is moving at triple-Internet speed. Adoption of BYOD and enterprise-wide B2E, B2B and C2B is disrupting traditional computing. Nearly 50% of organizations will invest in mobile apps, devices and mobile device management solutions over the next 12-18 months, but not all have a mobile strategy in place to ensure effective deployments. What will it take for companies to have a fighting chance to achieve mobile success? The experts speak. Benjamin Robbins, Palador: "Going small is not the same thing as going mobile." Michael O'Farrel, Mobile Institute: "Wearable workforce on the horizon." Maribel Lopez, Lopez Research: "Mobile is the foundation for contextual engagement." Carolyn Fitton Coad, SAP: "The connected future is here and mobile is the first screen to innovation." Join us for Enterprise Mobility for Dummies: You Can Run But You Can't Hide – Part 2.