Posts Tagged ‘Technology’
Brad Smith
Friday, October 4, 2019
7:45-8:15am Continental Breakfast
8:15-9:15am Talk followed by book signing
Morning Live Talks Business Forum with
Brad Smith,
President of Microsoft
in conversation with David Kirkpatrick
discussing his book,
Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age
Gensler
500 South Figueroa Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90071
PURCHASE TICKETS*
$46 General Admission section (includes book)
$20 General Admission section (on sale Sep 4, 10am)
* All tickets include continental breakfast from 7:45-8:15am)
From Microsoft’s president and one of the tech industry’s broadest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates.
Brad Smith is Microsoft’s president, where he leads a team of more than 1,400 business, legal and corporate affairs professionals working in 56 countries. He plays a key role in spearheading the company’s work on critical issues involving the intersection of technology and society, including cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, human rights, immigration, philanthropy and environmental sustainability. The Australian Financial Review has described Smith as “one of the technology industry’s most respected figures,” and the New York Times has called him “a de facto ambassador for the technology industry at large.”
David Kirkpatrick is a journalist, commentator about technology, the founder of Techonomy and author of the bestselling book The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World. He spent 25 years at Fortune, and founded and hosted its Brainstorm and Brainstorm Tech conferences. In addition to writing for Techonomy, he contributes to Forbes and Vanity Fair. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how technology is both empowering us and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.” —Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of The Innovators and Steve Jobs
“Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read Brad Smith’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. In Tools and Weapons, Brad and Carol Ann Browne wrestle with some of the world’s toughest technology challenges with common sense and valuable insight reflecting their inside experience. The ideas in Tools and Weapons won’t solve all our problems, but they’re a very good place to start.” —Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix
Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: When your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create. This might seem uncontroversial, but it flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with rapid growth and sometimes on disruption as an end in itself. While sweeping digital transformation holds great promise, we have reached an inflection point. The world has turned information technology into both a powerful tool and a formidable weapon, and new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by even more powerful inventions like artificial intelligence. Companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future, and governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the pace of innovation.
In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne bring us a captivating narrative from the cockpit of one of the world’s largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no preexisting playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of artificial intelligence, big tech’s relationship to inequality, and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying “Microsoft memoir,” the book pulls back the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company’s most crucial recent decision points as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. There are huge ramifications for communities and countries, and Brad Smith provides a thoughtful and urgent contribution to that effort.
Tim O’Reilly with Krisztina “Z” Holly
8pm (Reception, 6:30-7:30pm)
Tim O’Reilly
WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up To Us
Cross Campus–Downtown Los Angeles
800 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90017
PURCHASE TICKETS
$50 Reserved Section Seat + book
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm)* + Reserved Seat + book
$20 General Admission Seat
$30 Reserved Section Seat
Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. the company that for the past three decades has published the books and organized the conferences where Internet entrepreneurs have learned the tools of their trade. His Safari online learning platform provides subscription based learning products to millions of software developers worldwide. O’Reilly has a history of convening conversations that reshape the computer industry. If you’ve heard the term “open source software,” “Web 2.0,” “big data,” or “the maker movement,” you’ve experienced his ability to see and frame the future. O’Reilly graduated from Harvard College in 1975 with a degree in Classics. He began working as a technical writer, and soon began writing and publishing his own books on technology topics. On Twitter: @timoreilly
“For anyone who wants to know how to prepare for the future – and how we might shape that future in ways that broadly benefit society, not just technological or entrepreneurial elites—WTF? is an indispensable guide.” — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age
“Tim has been an astute observer of both the successes and the excesses of Silicon Valley. This provocative book distills the lessons he has learned about the power of technology to shape our economy and our lives.” — Hal Varian, Google chief economist
“No one is better at understanding the future than Tim O’Reilly. He has an intuitive feel and a deep knowledge of technology. This book makes sense of the astonishing transformations that are happening around us and is an indispensable guidebook to tomorrow.” — Walter Isaacson, President & CEO, The Aspen Institute
Tim O’Reilly is one of the most prescient observers of emerging technology. Inc Magazine dubbed him “the Oracle of Silicon Valley” and Wired, “the trend spotter.” In his new book — both probing and prophetic — WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us, he explores the burning questions posed by technology and the future.
O’Reilly shares some of the techniques his pioneering company has used to make sense of and predict innovation waves. He then applies those same techniques to provide a framework for thinking about how technologies such as on-demand services, networks and platforms, and artificial intelligence are changing the nature of business, education, government, financial markets, and the economy as a whole. Finally, he examines the choices we have to make a society moving forward in this brave new world.
In this powerful combination of memoir, business strategy guide, and analysis of how technology affects jobs and the economy, O’Reilly draws on lessons from networked platforms including Amazon, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber and Lyft to show how our economy and financial markets have also become increasingly managed by algorithms. O’Reilly believes that a world ruled by machines that are hostile to humanity is not a distant possibility. Complex systems evolve from much simpler forebears, and the design of the systems we are building today is already shaping the future. He makes the case that income inequality, declining upward mobility, and job losses due to technology are the result of design choices we have made in the algorithms that manage our markets. Just as Google constantly updates its algorithms in pursuit of relevant search and ad results, and as Facebook wrestles with how to rethink its algorithms for user engagement in response to fake news, he believes we must rewrite those algorithms if we wish to create a more human-centered future.
The digital revolution has transformed the world, upending centuries-old companies and business models. Now, it is restructuring every business, every job, and every sector of society. Yet the biggest changes are still ahead.
MIT-trained engineer, tech entrepreneur and adventurer, Krisztina “Z” Holly is the host of The Art of Manufacturing podcast and Founder & Chief Instigator of LA Mayor Garcetti’s MAKE IT IN LA initiative. She is best known for curating and hosting the first ever TEDx (TEDxUSC) in 2009 and founding two innovation centers at MIT and USC. She has an instinct for finding and amplifying undiscovered talent and ideas, whether it’s helping dozens of faculty spin out new venture-backed startups, or curating dozens of speakers whose talks have garnered 14 million views online; ten have appeared on TED.com.
Early on, she played key roles at tech startups, such as Stylus innovation (acquired by Artisoft), Direct Hit Technologies (acquired by Ask Jeeves), and Jeeves Solutions (acquired by Kanisa). She served as Vice Provost for Innovation at USC and has been advisor to nearly two dozen companies and organizations, including the River LA, World Economic Forum, and the Obama Administration.
She is an avid traveler, backcountry skier, mountain biker, and the quartermaster of the Black Rock City airport logistics team in her spare time. She has two engineering degrees from MIT and currently lives and plays in Los Angeles.
Eric Ries with Mark Suster
8pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)
Eric Ries
The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 General Admission Section Seat + a copy of The Startup Way
$55 Reserved Section Seat + a copy of The Startup Way
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm), Reserved Seat + Book
$20 General Admission Seat (on sale Sep 25)
Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, which has been translated into over thirty languages. He is the creator of the Lean Startup methodology, which has become a global movement in business, practiced by individuals and companies around the world.
He has founded a number of startups including IMVU, where he served as CTO, and he has advised on business and product strategy for startups, venture capital firms, and large companies, including GE, where he partnered with them on the FastWorks program. Eric served as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School, IDEO, and Pivotal and he is the founder and CEO of the Long-Term Stock Exchange.
Entrepreneur and bestselling author of The Lean Startup Eric Ries reveals how entrepreneurial principles can be used by businesses ranging from established companies to early-stage startups to grow revenues, drive innovation, and emerge as truly modern organizations poised to take advantage of the enormous opportunities of the 21st century.
In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries laid out the practices of successful startups – building minimal viable products (“MVPs”), extensive customer-focused testing based on a build, measure, learn method of continuous innovation, and deciding whether to persevere or pivot. In The Startup Way, he turns his attention to a whole new group of organizations: iconic multinationals like GE and Toyota, Silicon Valley tech titans like Amazon and Facebook, and the next generation of Silicon Valley upstarts like Airbnb and Twilio. Drawing on his experiences over the past five years working with these organizations, as well as nonprofits, NGOs, and governments, Ries lays out a new management system that leads to sustainable growth and long-term impact. Filled with in-the-field stories, insights, and tools, The Startup Way is an essential roadmap for any organization navigating the uncertain waters of the century ahead.
Mark Suster is a Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, where he has led investments including Density, Imbellus, Invoca, mitú, Osmo, and Maker Studios (acquired by Disney in 2015.) Mark joined Upfront in 2007 after having previously worked with the firm for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Before joining Upfront, Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, a European SaaS company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Earlier in his career, Mark spent nearly ten years working for Accenture in Europe, Japan and the U.S.
Mark received a BA in Economics from the University of California, San Diego, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Jason Calacanis with Shawn Gold
8pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)
Jason Calacanis
in conversation with Shawn Gold
Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups: Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$45 Reserved Section Seat + a copy of Angel
$20 General Admission Seat
$95 Reception (6;30-7:30pm), Reserved Seat + Book
Jason Calacanis is a technology entrepreneur, angel investor, and the host of the popular weekly podcast This Week in Startups. He’s the founder of a series of conferences that bring entrepreneurs together with potential investors. As a “scout” for top-tier Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and later as an angel investor, Jason has invested in 150 early-stage startups including 4 that have achieved billion-dollar valuations (so far).
In his new book, Angel, one of Silicon Valley’s most successful angel investors shares his rules for investing in startups.
There are two ways to make money in startups: create something valuable—or invest in the people that are creating valuable things.
Over the past twenty-five years, Jason Calacanis has made a fortune investing in creators, spotting and helping build and fund a number of successful technology startups—investments that have earned him tens of millions of dollars. Now, in this enlightening guide that is sure to become the bible for twenty-first century investors, Calacanis takes potential angels step-by-step through his proven method of creating massive wealth: startups.
As Calacanis makes clear, you can get rich—even if you came from humble beginnings (his dad was a bartender, his mom a nurse), didn’t go to the right schools, and weren’t a top student. The trick is learning how angel investors think. Calacanis takes you inside the minds of these successful moneymen, helping you understand how they prioritize and make the decisions that have resulted in phenomenal profits. He guides you step by step through the process, revealing how leading investors evaluate new ventures, calculating the risks and rewards, and explains how the best startups leverage relationships with angel investors for the best results.
Whether you’re an aspiring investor or a budding entrepreneur, Angel will inspire and educate you on all the ins of outs. Buckle up for a wild ride into the world of angel investing!
Shawn Gold is Chief Marketing Officer at TechStyle Fashion Group, an industry leading platform that builds and distributes global fashion brands, including Fabletics, ShoeDazzle, JustFab and FabKids. Before TechStyle he was head of entertainment brand partnerships at Wattpad.com, the world’s largest storytelling platform and one of the fastest growing mobile content sites in the world. Previously he was CMO of Inside Studios, a video and mobile app company creating shows with over 1 billion views on YouTube and MSN. Until 2007, he was CMO, head of marketing & content for MySpace. At MySpace Gold spearheaded the development and implementation of marketing initiatives and campaigns for MySpace during its growth from 25 to 110 million users worldwide.