Byron Reese

What would you have foreseen seven years ago? There were no self-driving cars or Apple watches. Would you have seen the transformative effect that tablets and smartphones would have?

“The next seven years will have much more change than the prior seven years. We know this. And this is the change we need to begin preparing for.” – Byron Reese

This talk overflows with reasoned optimism and is suitable for all audiences, as its focus is not specific technologies, but how to think about technology.
 

With a gift for storytelling, Byron captivates audiences around the world with the message that technology is empowering us to build a better world, and he invites his listeners to imagine this better world and build it.

As a lifelong entrepreneur with multiple IPOs and successful exits under his belt, Byron frequently speaks to business audiences on how to excel in the world of tomorrow, and how to deploy technology successfully.

He states: “Technology multiplies human ability. That’s its trick. It magnifies us. We can move more bricks with a forklift than we can on our backs. Technological advancement is not to be feared, rather it should be welcomed, for by enhancing human ability, we enhance our productivity and therefore our standard of living. This is the entire reason why we live so much more lavish and prosperous lives than did our great-grandparents. 

An hour of our time is vastly more productive than was an hour of theirs.”

Byron has addressed hundreds of corporations and professional organizations on almost every continent and reports that he is open to traveling to Antarctica to round it all out.

“Robots and artificial intelligence will change the world, empowering humans to be more productive and live better lives. We will use these technologies to end disease, hunger, and poverty. We should no more fear these than our ancestors should have feared steam power and electricity.”
– Byron Reese
 

The world has, throughout human history, changed. Almost always, this change is for the better. Through civilization, we have raised life expectancy, the standard of living, access to education, and political liberty. How has this change been brought about? Futurist, author, and technologist, Byron Reese explains the change is driven largely by the actions of individuals driven to change the world. This talk focuses on how that change happens and looks at how virtually any individual can literally have a worldwide effect on the history of the planet.

On this topic, Byron demonstrates how current technological changes will ultimately bring about the end of poverty, disease, hunger, ignorance, and war. Additionally, Byron explores how these historical problems of humanity are fundamentally problems of technology, and thus will have technological solutions, solutions we will find much sooner than is commonly believed.

Attendees can expect to learn:
•    Why the gloom and doomers always get it wrong
•    How technology will transform the world
•    What is needed to end misery and want; disease and death
•    What to expect from the coming golden age of humanity

“We are entering a world of more choice and more opportunity than ever before, and the best response is to expand our dreams and expectations, not our fears and concerns.” – Byron Reese
 

No matter your industry, you probably have a sense that you are in one of those radical disruptive periods where everything seems to be changing. You may be wondering when it is all going to settle down so you can take a bit of a breather.

In this talk, futurist, author, and technologist, Byron Reese explores how businesses operating in industries undergoing dramatic changes can prosper and be successful. While traditional futurists seldom bridge the gap between “here is what is going to happen” and “here is how you capitalize on it,” Byron explores how it is that radical technology advancement creates new multi-billion dollar companies, and destroys old ones.

What would you have foreseen seven years ago? There were no self-driving cars or Apple watches. Would you have seen the transformative effect that tablets and smartphones would have? The next seven years will have much more change than the prior seven years. We know this. And this is the change for which we need to prepare.

Attendees can expect to learn:
•    How to profit in times of great change
•    How to innovate in a rapidly changing world
•    How AI will change business
•    How to use AI in business … without a data scientist

“Think about AT&T, 3M, NCR and Geico. They are all acronyms. And if you know what they stand for, you will notice something interesting: None of them simply do the thing that is in their name. These companies transformed themselves. And yet, why doesn’t Blockbuster own streaming video? Why doesn’t Kodak dominate in the digital camera world? These cases, and many more like it, are examples of entrenched companies failing to adopt a transformative technology.” – Byron Reese
 

How should education change? How will it? What skills will ensure that a person can economically contribute in a world of radical technological change?

In this talk, futurist, author, and technologist, Byron Reese answers these questions and explains that the University system is a 12th Century French invention that remains to this day largely unchanged from its origins in the Middle Ages.

“Our K-12 system is a 19th Century German invention designed to produce homogenous factory workers,” he says. “It too remains unchanged since the late 1800s. Now, we find ourselves in a world that has changed in ways no one expected. Now, the two most important job skills are the ability to independently learn new skills and working collaboratively with a team, neither of which are taught in our existing framework.”

Attendees can expect to learn:
•    How education will be different in the next decade
•    What skills will be needed in a technical future
•    How to spot a robot-proof job
•    What a 21st Century education could look like

“Our world is full of countless institutions, each of which evolved over that long history to fill a specific purpose. The institutions upon which our world rests will play a big part in how the future unfolds.” – Byron Reese