Event Summary
As AI and automation evolve at an unprecedented pace, what does the future hold for human workers? AI-powered agents, real-time learning systems, and smart robots are reshaping industries—augmenting existing jobs and creating new jobs, while eliminating others. How can professionals prepare for this transformation? What skills will remain uniquely human and valued?
Join us for this special Austin Forum event featuring a conversation about these and related questions featuring a futurist, a technologist, a psychologist, and a neuroscientist focusing on human empathy as treatment. As we all learn to understand, use, and embrace AI and prepare for more automation in our employers and lives, this conversation will help us also understand our strengths as humans in the future workforce and what we can do to adapt and enhance our own future careers.
Speakers
Nancy Giordano, CEO & Founder, Play Big Inc
Nancy built a formidable career at several of the most influential ad agencies in NY, Chicago, and LA and for more than a decade has been the Founder/CEO of Play Big Inc., a strategic inspiration company. Her current work dives deeply into the emerging intersection of tech, business, and society. Her expertise and experiences range from AI to frozen foods, to reinventing the internet, and all of her projects have a key common denominator: transitioning away from the extractive operating systems and outdated business thinking that no longer holds up... to create more sustainable, inclusive, and dynamic solutions the future demands.
Author of the Amazon bestselling book Leadering: The Ways Visionary Leaders Play Bigger, Nancy is a frequent panelist at South by Southwest, global keynote speaker, Singularity University guest lecturer, and the world’s first TEDx licensee. She is recognized as one of the world’s top female futurists and is co-founder of the Femme Futurists Society.
William “whurley” Hurley, CEO & Co-founder, Strangeworks
whurley is the founder and CEO of Strangeworks, an Eisenhower Fellow, a Senior Member of the IEEE, founder of the Quantum Computing Standards Workgroup at the IEEE, the first Ambassador to CERN and Society, and the co-author of "Quantum Computing For Babies” and the upcoming “Quantum Computing for Dummies” (available for pre-order now). Prior to starting Strangeworks, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs [NYSE: GS]. He came to Goldman Sachs via the acquisition of his second startup, Honest Dollar. Prior to Honest Dollar whurley founded Chaotic Moon Studios which was acquired by Accenture [NYSE: ACN].
Dr. Maninder “Mini” Kahlon, CEO & Founder, beheld and Professor, Dell Medical School
Dr. Maninder “Mini” Kahlon is a systems and behavioral neuroscientist, technology innovator, and medical research leader. She is the founder of beheld, a company translating the science of empathy into tech-enabled, human-centered services for improving health outcomes, with initial focuses on maternal health and diabetes management. Previously, she was the founding Vice Dean of Dell Medical School, where she established a biomedical translational hub and developed the school’s focus on population health. In her research at Dell Med, she led community-based clinical trials exploring innovative interventions for better disease management. Dr. Kahlon earned her PhD in Neuroscience at UCSF and has held leadership roles in large-scale translational science initiatives, software development, and health innovation.
Dr. Art Markman, Sr. Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Professors of Psychology, UT Austin
Art Markman is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology, Human Dimensions of Organizations, and Marketing and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written over 150 papers on topics including reasoning, decision making, and motivation. Art brings insights from Cognitive Science to a broader audience through his blogs at Psychology Today and Fast Company as well as his radio show/podcast Two Guys on Your Head. He is the author of several books including Smart Thinking, Smart Change, and Bring Your Brain to Work.
Attendance Instructions
In-person
Join us at ACC Rio Grande: Building 3000 where you will be checked in at the front. Parking map here! Street parking is free after 6 pm.
In-person attendees, please join us from 5:15 to 6:15 for networking and food. We look forward to chatting with you face-to-face!
Virtual
Once you register via Eventbrite, you will receive the virtual link one day before the event.