Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

Today's buzz: Airlines. New technologies are game-changing the data-intensive aviation industry – optimizing internal processes, sharpening competitive differentiation, innovating the customer experience. But is it enough, in time, and which airlines will survive? The experts speak. Michael Wm. Denis, InfoTrust Group: "Why pay billions for smart aircraft only to plug them into dumb IT? Peter Kearns, Accenture: "Airline industry business benefits related to IT improvements will be negligible unless there is business change involved. You need to change business practices and do so with your IT strategy in mind – and software developers need to help drive this process." Eva-Marie Roe, SAP: "The race is on for airlines: Get a head start and re-invent the business by adopting new technologies now. Or wait, letting others capture the competitive advantage, and then be compelled to follow after new business processes have become commodity." Join us for Airline Turnaround: Blue Skies Ahead?

Today's buzz: The city. More than just your snail-mail address, the city is a vital entity with the power to impact local quality of life as well as national and global economies. How's your city running? The experts speak. Dr. Theresa Pardo: "Running a city is a complex and challenging task. Running it well, even more so. The best run cities ... embrace the complexity of the task, see the opportunities that information and technology offer in managing that complexity, and seek out innovative yet practical solutions to the problems their citizens care about." Chris Moore: "Government technology is not for the faint of heart. Adie Tomer: "If knowledge is the key then just show me the lock." - Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, Check the Rhime Sean Patrick O'Brien: "The 19th century was a century of empires. The 20th century was a century of nation states. The 21st century will be a century of cities." - Wellington E. Webb, Former Denver Mayor Join us for Best-Run Cities: Urban Matters.

M2M. Machines connected and talking to each other. By 2018, nearly everyone, everything, everywhere will be connected real time, affecting how we innovate, collaborate, produce, govern, and achieve sustainability. Think about coffee plants telling farmers how and when to irrigate, harvest, pack, tag, ship. Mmm. Miguel Blockstrand, Ericcson: "Unleashing the power of connectivity to all people places and things is inevitable." Steve Hilton, Analysys Mason: "M2M is a jumble of technology thrown together like potatoes dumped in a bowl. But something very tasty is created by mashing the potatoes together with butter, milk, and salt. Or as Aristotle said almost 2400 years ago, 'In the case of all things which have several parts and in which...the whole is something beside the parts, there is a cause.'" - Metaphysics, Book VIII, Part 6 Benjamin Wesson, SAP: "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." - 2001: A Space Odyssey. Film 1968 Join us for M2M: Mmm, Connectivity Never Tasted So Good

Customer experience. Have you figured out what each of your customers really, really wants? If yes, have you designed a personalized, easy, conversational experience they won't perceive as intrusive or creepy? If no to either question, listen up. The experts speak. Paula Rosenblum, RSR: "The essence of precision retail is what I call 'The Grand Unified Theory' – combining the customer intimacy and knowledge of the very, very small (independents), with the economies of scale and scope of the very, very large. Yes, I stole this concept from Physics." Vicki Cantrell, NRF: ""Perfection is the enemy of the good, and it takes too long. Don't worry, be crappy." - Vicki Cantrell, combining pieces of various quotes Lori Mitchell-Keller, SAP: "Retailers will go out of business and e-commerce will dominate UNLESS retailers use their culture to draw customers into their stores." Join us for their insights on Precision Retail: What've You Done for Your Customer Lately?

Mobility is becoming ubiquitous. Exactly as planned. Some burning questions: Will the iPad Mini deliver anything new for business? Where does the BYOD (bring your own device... to work) trend end? With Windows 8, is a mobile device different from a PC? When mobility reaches full stride, will you ever have to leave the house again? The experts speak. Maribel Lopez, Lopez Research: "Mobility is about apps and business processes, not devices." Philippe Winthrop, VeliQ: "BYOD - at least for me - has become the 'Voldemort of Enterprise Mobility.'" Neil Hooper, SAP: "It's the year of the mobile application. Didn't we say that last year?" Join us for more of their insights on Mobility Enablement: Internet Coming to Your Fridge Soon?

Talent, talent everywhere, but they can't find jobs. What is HR doing about it? The experts speak. Dr. Katherine Jones: "Businesses of all sizes have struggled to shift their resources toward growth markets, yet they find a shortage of talent and leadership holding them back. We call this the 'talent paradox.' Companies need skills, yet unemployment remains high. We do not really have a job shortage—we have a skills shortage. Why?" China Gorman: "The changing demographics within the workforce are creating enormous challenges as the Baby Boomers hang on for dear life and the Millennials start pushing up the ladder. The Xers are getting caught with nowhere to go! We may miss a generation in the C-suite." Jan Grasshoff: "2013 is all about mobility: mental mobility of talents, mobile HR service delivery, mobile learning, mobile workplace, mobile organizations. A key role for HR to play!" Join us for more expert insights on HR on Alert: Talent vs. Skills Paradox.

People vs. numbers. Which should matter more to your business success? The experts speak. Greta Roberts: "Numbers are the language of business. If employees want to be valued, they need to be measured in a way that business understands ... as numbers." Haig R. Nalbantian: "Too many organizations give lip service to the people side, but fail to apply real discipline to workforce management. They rely instead on intuition, benchmarks or so-called 'best practices' to inform their people-related decisions." Russ Campanello: "It's time to begin measuring, and thereby differentiating our business, with the human capital metrics that drive performance and generate value. We still value (and report) the buildings more than the people inside them." Steve Boese: "Revenue per employee can tell you just about everything you need to know about your business." Henner Schliebs: "Democratizing analytics will be the big differentiator in 2013." Join us for Workforce Analytics: Real People, Real Numbers.

Glocalization. Does this "portmanteau of globalization and localization" (Wikipedia) describe your company's growth? If yes, the dichotomy will challenge your HR team as they try to manage a mobile workforce and multi-country payroll. If not yet, your time will come. The experts speak. David Ludlow: "The world is 'glocal' (play on the combination of think globally, act locally). Today's talent is global, connected, and mobile. New categories of solutions are required to leverage that talent to out-innovate the competition." Marianne Langlois: "HR must think of itself as a function that drives the business forward, instead of as a function that supports the business." Penny Stoker: "You can't underestimate the power of a 'singular, global payroll system.'" Keith Strodtman: "Today, large global companies are realizing big benefits from centralizing payroll across boundaries--cost savings, compliance, data accuracy, reporting, etc." Join us for Going Glocal: Mastering Multi-Country HR.

Fraud. It's 2013. Surely by now we've figured out how to catch the bad guys and gals. "Not", say our experts: Jonathan Middup: "Corporate fraud is most often a product of good people in bad circumstances. Depending on those circumstances, we could all be fraudsters." Jonathan E. Turner: "Over the past 15 years we've made great strides in understanding fraud, increasing technology-based tools, and created focused legislation – yet fraud losses are increasing and fraud schemes go longer before detection...Even though we have better tools, fraudsters do, too, and they are pulling ahead." Michael Rasmusssen: "Business today is like the Titanic." Rod Brennan: "The growing demand by stakeholders of financial and non-financial reporting for more real or near-real time reporting will drive the rapid adoption of automated assurance and monitoring in all organizations." Norman Marks: "Manage fraud like never before." Join us for Fraud Risk Management: Who, why, what, where, when and HOW?

CRM 2013: Remember me?If you thought your customers were very demanding in 2012, wake up and smell the coffee in 2013! Is your sales team skilled enough in the art and budding-science of social monitoring and sentiment analysis to handle it? Are you analyzing field-fresh customer data and giving sales the 360-view needed to make smarter sales? Do you know when and where to use push vs. pull marketing? Are your CMO and CIO equipped to lead the way? So many questions – and our panel has answers. Big Data Power 2013: Fast, faster and wow! How is your company coping with the deluge of big data, so far? Can you tell the difference between big data and good data, in time to make the right decisions? Does your sales team have the super-fresh information they need to close more profitable deals faster? You've heard about the power and benefits of in-memory computing, but is it hype or real? So many questions – and our panel has answers. Join us for Big Data Power 2013: Fast, faster and wow!