Alexandra Samuel

Featured Keynote Programs

Whether you’re dealing with big data or smaller, more manageable “little data”, you need to be able to not only understand and learn from it, but tell effective stories with it. In this talk, Samuel shares the secrets of her success as the tech industry’s leading data storyteller: The approach to data visualization that landed her company a feature spread in the Harvard Business Review.The research design that made her report the go-to authority on the sharing economy. The storytelling strategy that made her the go-to data journalist for Forbes’ prestigious report on the World’s Most Influential CMOs. Through this behind-the-scenes account, audiences will learn the steps to developing an effective data storytelling strategy, from data gathering and visualization to media and social media engagement

From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to Europe’s new privacy policy directive, companies are grappling with increasing sensitivity and pressure when it comes to how they handle their customers’ data. But that doesn’t mean brands need to forgo the insight that comes from really knowing their customers; it just means they need a strategy that respects customers’ privacy and autonomy. In this talk, Alexandra Samuel shares the principles and practices that allow businesses to make effective, respectful use of customer data. Building on her experience developing innovative social media data strategies for some of the world’s leading brands, she maps out the best practices that give companies the insight they need — without betraying their customers.

Declining attention spans. Shorter memories. A shift from abstract to concrete thinking. These are just a few signs that technology is changing our brains, as digital distraction changes how we work, live and communicate. But that doesn’t mean our brains are changing for the worse — or that we have to switch off our devices in pursuit of digital wellbeing. Instead, we can draw on the lessons of neurodiversity: the recognition of unique strengths that come with autism, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities and other neurological differences. In this talk, Samuel maps out the way neurodiversity can help us understand and address technology’s impact on our brains. Sharing data and case studies of neurodiversity in the workplace, she illuminates the strategies and practices that turn difference into advantage, and shows how the lessons of workplace neurodiversity can help us embrace the impact of technology on our thinking, work and relationships.

From boardrooms to classrooms, children’s growing use of technology has ignited debate over the addictive power of screens and the best way to prepare kids for a digital future. In this talk, Alexandra Samuel addresses the controversy with the same data that has driven her widely discussed stories for The Atlantic, JSTOR Daily and The Wall Street Journal: An original survey of more than 10,000 North American parents that uncovered three distinct digital parenting styles. Countering speculation with hard data, Alex shows what these three different styles mean for the future of business, education and society.

You don’t have to worry about the Terminator to wonder how today’s kids and young adults will fare in the world of work. Between the rise of artificial intelligence and the shift towards a gig economy, economists and policy-makers now fret over the coming “end of work”. But that doesn’t mean employers, educators, families or governments need to give up on the next generation. Building on her research on how tens of thousands of North Americans are navigating the collaborative economy and their own household technology choices, Alexandra Samuel maps out the robot-proofing strategies that will ensure today’s young people become tomorrow’s successful managers, entrepreneurs, and employees.

The increasingly sophisticated use of data and algorithms mean that the technologies we rely on — our phones, our computers, our social networks — are ever more distracting. But we can reclaim our attention and our autonomy by making smarter use of the very tools that have turned against us. Alexandra Samuel, author of Work Smarter with Social Media (Harvard Business Review Press), shares the roadmap to productivity in the digital world. Drawing on her extensive survey research on workplace communication and digital wellness, Samuel shares the strategies that allow smart managers and professionals to reconnect to their key goals and priorities through their time online.