Talks & Keynotes
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The Key to the City: Why Diversity and Inclusion is the Key to Smart Cities of the Future [Workshop]
Topics covered: Today’s most ambitious smart city projects | Future thinking about smart cities and innovation | Quotes from city leaders and leading vendors in some of the world’s smartest cities | Most common smart city projects | Common issues and opportunities faced by today’s smart cities
Formats offered: Keynote; Short presentation; Facilitated panel discussion
Beyond 'Smart': Why the Smartest Cities of the Future will be the Inclusive Cities
Topics covered: Today’s most ambitious smart city projects | Future thinking about smart cities and innovation | Quotes from city leaders and leading vendors in some of the world’s smartest cities | Most common smart city projects | Common issues and opportunities faced by today’s smart cities
Formats offered: Keynote; Short presentation; Facilitated panel discussion
The Next Disruption: An Exclusive Sneak Peek at the Technology of the Future
Topics covered: Cutting-edge preview of the tech trends shaping the future, based on the latest insider conversations and tech trends reports; Thought leadership about how these tech trends will impact the audience sooner than they think; Relevant research into digital transformation, innovation, and disruption
Formats offered: Keynote; Short presentation; Facilitated panel discussion
Broadband Access and Startups: How connectivity and access can propel—or prevent—startup innovation
Topics covered: Today’s most ambitious smart city projects | Future thinking about smart cities and innovation | Quotes from city leaders and leading vendors in some of the world’s smartest cities | Most common smart city projects | Common issues and opportunities faced by today’s smart cities
Formats offered: Keynote; Short presentation; Facilitated panel discussion
5G: The Smart City Enabler
Topics covered: Today’s most ambitious smart city projects | Future thinking about smart cities and innovation | Quotes from city leaders and leading vendors in some of the world’s smartest cities | Most common smart city projects | Common issues and opportunities faced by today’s smart cities
Formats offered: Keynote; Short presentation; Facilitated panel discussion
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Billion-Dollar Opportunities: An inside look at innovation in today's smart cities
Description: Smart cities have the potential to change our world—to fight climate change, to reduce crime, to banish poverty—and yes, to have less traffic.
At this moment, there are people in your city who are planning smart city projects for us, for the places we call home. But it’s not the tech that’s going to make that happen. It’s the people.
In this versatile talk, we explore smart city innovations around the globe, with a closer look at the people, partnerships, processes, and tech that makes these innovations a reality.
Formats offered: Keynote; Short presentation; Facilitated panel discussion
Curating a Professional Online Presence with Social Media
Remember: The time to build your network is not when you need your network!
Description: Not only can a professional online persona help connect you with your professional goals (from internship hunting to job placement), but it can also help you collaborate with those in and outside of your field, stay in touch with students and professors, learn about conference and presentation opportunities, and more.
Whether you’re pursuing academia, industry, or public service, social media can be a valuable tool. You can harness social media’s networking power—without spending too much time and energy—to launch with your career and research goals.
Formats offered: Training session, workshop
Report Writing | Proposal Writing
Focus areas: How to write professional reports | Research to show that anyone can be a strong writer | Secrets to the writing process | Fundamentals of the writing process | Report structure or Proposal Structure | Tips for writing high-quality reports or proposals | How to write and edit reports, proposals, and technical documents
Formats offered: Training session, workshop
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Presentation Training
Focus areas: Feel more confident whenever you speak | Strategies for professional presentations | Audience awareness and presentation development | Presentation structure | Tips for delivering high-quality presentations
Formats offered: Training session, workshop
The Art and Practice of Resilience: A Guide for Students
Focus areas: Resilience isn’t something you have—it’s something you grow. This empowering session combines storytelling, neuroscience, and proven leadership strategies to help students grow their own resilience plan, which includes methods for intention and practice going forward. In this exploratory session, students will have a chance to consider what resilience means in their lives—and what skills they already have that can help them to be resilient during difficult times.
Formats offered: Keynote, Workshop
Social Media Gets Collegiate: Tweeting and Tagging Your Way to Student Engagement
Description: Faculty consider new strategies, best practices, pedagogy-first approaches, benefits and challenges, and next steps regarding social media integration within postsecondary educational settings. Goal is to share ideas for enlarging the conversation of course topics, beyond the confines of the classrooms—ways to easily bringing in experts or following experts to add to the class discussions and understanding. Examples focus on how social media can improve student engagement and content retention, and strategies focus on manageable ways for faculty of all technology comfort levels to integrate social media. The workshop focuses on the mainstream tools (including Twitter and LinkedIn) but also briefly discusses brand-new tools.
Formats offered: Keynote, short presentation, training session, workshop
How Do We Learn?
(Can be adapted to suit faculty groups or student groups)
Focus areas: How do adults learn? What are the key differences between learning and studying strategies for high school students and undergraduates? How should learning strategies change when they’re applied to adults (rather than to kids)? A review of the key strategies in adult learning research, plus an overview for how faculty can apply the principles of adult learning theory in their classes — or an overview of how students can apply best practices in learning to their studies.
Formats offered: Keynote, short presentation, training session, workshop
Technology and Teaching: Strategies for easier integration and improved student engagement
Description: In this interactive workshop, participants experiment with new tools while considering the theory and best practices supporting successful technology integration in in-person, hybrid, and online courses. Participants will learn more about how IT integration theory informs pedagogy while they practice using new educational technology tools to improve student learning and engagement.
Formats offered: Keynote, short presentation, training session, workshop
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Stop Giving Women Advice: The hidden danger of unsolicited advice and its effect on women
Description: The year my business started making six-figure annual revenue, I was constantly hearing from others that I needed to be more confident, or more assertive—and in the big world of startup culture, it made me feel about an inch tall.
After years of research, I've learned that I'm not alone—women are more likely to receive unsolicited advice than men are, and it can have an incredibly damaging effect on our confidence, our performance, and our relationships. In this talk, we'll explore unsolicited advice from a neuroscience perspective, and talk about ways you can re-channel others' unnecessary feedback into fuel for your fire.
Formats offered: Keynote
Change Perceptions to Change Reality: Know How Female Leaders Are Perceived
Description: If perception is reality, perceptions of female leaders matter. Many perceptions are wrong—even unjust—but awareness can equip you to set expectations, battle stereotypes, and advocate for women in business. Join us and learn insightful—even inciting—data on perceptions of women leaders, and what you can do in the face of those perceptions.
Formats offered: Keynote; Short presentation; Facilitated panel discussion
Forget the “Grind”: Let’s talk about fortitude
Focus areas: The “hustle and grind” culture prioritizes work over all things and sees work as facetime and hours spent. But does it work? Are those who are burning the candle at both ends really more successful? This talk is a review of where we are now and a dream for where we could be instead — a look at the current effects of hustle culture and a vision for what could be better, with real strategies that help us prioritize wellness (and research to help show why this works).
Formats offered: Keynote, Short Presentation
The Art and Practice of Resilience
Focus areas: Resilience isn’t something you have—it’s something you grow. This empowering session combines storytelling, neuroscience, and proven leadership strategies to help participants grow their own resilience plan, which includes methods for intention and practice going forward. In this exploratory session, participants will have a chance to consider what resilience means in their lives—and what skills they already have that can help them to be resilient during difficult times.
Formats offered: Keynote, Workshop
How Do Adults Learn?
Focus areas: How do adults learn, and how should learning strategies change when they’re applied to adults (rather than to kids)? A review of the key strategies in adult learning research, plus an overview of how companies, brands, consultants, and leaders can better apply the principles of adult learning theory in their work.
Formats offered: Keynote, short presentation, training session, workshop
Applying the Science of Learning to Business Outcomes
Focus areas: How learning transfer could be key to capturing your clients’ attention, and why strategies that work for the best college professors might work in your board room
Formats offered: Keynote, short presentation, training session, workshop
Entrepreneurship and Mental Health
Description: What does mental health look like in today's "hustle" culture? According to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health. 49% of entrepreneurs deal with mental health issues directly. But for many entrepreneurs, traditional mental health resources - like HR Departments or paid leave - are not available. What lessons can we learn from successful entrepreneurs who have prioritized mental health? How can this community support the unique mental health needs of entrepreneurs?
Formats offered: Keynote; Short presentation; Facilitated panel discussion