Speakers

Digital Identity in the Metaverse: Dream Opportunities & Privacy Nightmares

To achieve its full promise and hype, the Metaverse must enable a radically updated model for digital identity management for its users. Current models are often siloed and full of friction, with data ownership, sharing, and control residing more with organizations than individuals. In this speech, Jaimy Szymanski will dive into the world of personal data stewardship and data labor in the Metaverse, exploring both the opportunities and challenges that are presented when users permit their data to flow safely and seamlessly among stakeholders in this alternate reality.

Employees & AI: A Relationship that Defines the Future of Work

2020 brought dramatic shifts in office environments, work-from-home arrangements, and accelerated automation adoption. The Future of Work is here, and every organization must adapt its digital transformation efforts to account for the rise of artificial intelligence as part of the employee experience and augmentation of their roles. As employee acceptance and embracement of AI grows, a “hybrid workforce” truly takes on a whole new meaning. In this session, Jaimy will explore how employees are utilizing AI to improve decision-making and productivity, as well as why employees are more open to embracing AI as part of their work. Core use cases and benefits discussed will include: improved performance, task execution, data understanding, trends analysis, better work/life balance, and career planning. Jaimy will also discuss the implications to overarching digital transformation and workplace culture efforts, and how organizations can plan for a Future of Work that thrives from a trusting relationship between employees and AI.

The Digital Future, Powered by Edge & 5G

We’re on the cusp of an era where edge computing and 5G will smash through decades-old barriers of technology latency and open the door to an intelligent ecosystem of connected devices. This presents ambitious organizations with the opportunity to upgrade employee and customer experiences alike. In her keynote, analyst Jaimy Szymanski will detail the exciting implementations of edge and 5G that are on the horizon in retail, manufacturing, media, healthcare, transportation, and smart cities, zeroing in on the impacts that technology leaders must consider in planning and implementing pilots with the goal to scale

Putting the Customer at the Center of Digital Transformation

Emerging technologies are shifting customer experiences, expectations, and behaviors, changing the way your organization must operate to remain relevant and competitive. To digitally transform, companies must align on strategic direction, collaborate across functions and hierarchies, develop digital literacy, and plan for inevitable future disruption––all with their customer at the core of innovation.

In this speech, Jaimy Szymanski will focus on empowering digital leaders by covering:

• The principles of digital transformation, levels of maturity, and the seven areas that require alignment within an organization
• Drivers, catalysts, roadblocks, and challenges that change agents will encounter
• How to grow in digital transformation maturity, specifically examining impacts to customer experience (CX) that include: co-innovation, content strategy, customer engagement processes, journey mapping, persona development, customer research, experience automation, and real-time relevancy.
• How to overhaul the approach to CX design with data-driven personalization

The Future of Work & the Employee Experience

2020 brought dramatic shifts in office environments, work-from-home arrangements, and accelerated automation adoption. The Future of Work is here, and every organization must adapt its technology, employee engagement, and innovation strategies to the reality of virtual work and a more distributed workforce. As work and personal life blur for employees, and artificial intelligence (AI) becomes mainstay, a “hybrid workforce” takes on a whole new meaning.

In this speech, Jaimy Szymanski will explore:

• How emerging technologies are unlocking a new phase in digital transformation of the employee experience (EX), wherein the Future of Work is shaped by people and augmented by responsible use of technology to build trust
• Several key external trends that influence how employers and workers alike regard technology and data activation opportunities and risks on-the-job
• Diverse technology applications and case examples that span the employment lifecycle across industries, functions, and roles
• How to grow in EX maturity, specifically examining impacts to: talent gap analysis and recruiting; education management; cultural analysis; collaboration; empowerment; training; and partner engagement.
• Building the business case for diversity and bridging the “digital divide,” as organizations move from inclusion to equity in order to attract and retain talent

How VR & AR Technologies Enhance Workforces to Transform the Enterprise

Though consumer applications may receive most of the fanfare, mixed reality technologies like virtual, augmented, and extended reality (VR/AR/XR) offer enterprises many opportunities to supercharge employee skill-sets as well. Companies can increase collaboration and transform traditional approaches to education and training, repairs and maintenance, sales, product and site design, and more. In this presentation based on original research, Jaimy Szymanski explores in detail the six most effective cross-departmental use cases of mixed reality within organizations and the advantages of utilizing XR over traditional processes, practices, and legacy technologies.

Audience members will learn:

• Benefits of each XR use case over traditional approaches, applicable to nearly any industry, complete with illustrative case examples.
• Catalysts driving mixed reality adoption within corporations, typically driven by a corporate innovation charter.
• Challenges encountered along the way to XR success, including lack of understanding and education; inter-departmental coordination; and budget constraints.
• Best practice considerations for beginning mixed reality experimentation and implementation.

Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Customer Engagement

The rise of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning are beginning to disrupt the customer journey in ways that present companies with both new opportunities for engagement and also new challenges to overcome in reaching consumers. When mobile applications, smart home devices, autonomous vehicles, and other consumer technologies automatically make decisions for their owners, where do existing digital, marketing, sales, research, and customer service strategies fit in?

In this speech, Jaimy Szymanski will explore:

• How influencing the real “decision maker” requires organizations to adopt a hybrid mix of data science and customer experience (CX) design skills.
• How change agents and digital transformation leaders in myriad functions and industries are incorporating cognitive technologies into purchase/decision funnel strategies to better meet evolving customer expectations.
• Tailored case examples that showcase how leading companies are deploying AI in order to positively impact CX and core company metrics. Technologies covered may include: deep learning, chatbots, predictive analytics, biometric and voice recognition, geolocation, and more.

Jaimy did great. Her content was excellent and she provided good examples. As a speaker, she was confident and owned the stage. Her presentation was interesting and held the audience’s attention. As a panelist, she helped with the flow of the discussion and her expert insights added context and depth.

- Food Equipment Distributors Association