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George Zarkadakis is a well-connected science writer, playwright and novelist with a PhD in Artificial Intelligence.
He has worked for organisations including the European Commission and the British Council, Silicon Graphicsand theEuropean Bioinformatics Institute; appeared on the History Channel; written for publications such as Aeon digital magazine and the Washington Post; and been knighted by the French government for his services to science communication.
Skip Rizzo is a clinical psychologist and Director of Medical VR at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. He is also a Research Professor with the USC Dept. of Psychiatry and School of Gerontology. Over the last 25 years, Skip has conducted research on the design, development and evaluation of Virtual Reality systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation across the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations.
This work has focused on PTSD, TBI, Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and other clinical conditions. In spite of the diversity of these clinical R&D areas, the common thread that drives all of his work with digital technologies involves the study of how Virtual Reality simulations can be usefully applied to human healthcare beyond what’s possible with traditional 20th Century methods. To view some videos on his work, go to:
Duncan is the Director of TMT Research for Deloitte Canada, and is a globally recognized expert on predicting the future of consumer and enterprise technology, media and entertainment & telecommunications. He has been co-author of Deloitte Global Research’s annual Predictions report on trends in TMT since 2008. He presents regularly to companies and at conferences, has a high-profile media presence and is frequently interviewed on the future of everything.
Duncan has 31 years of experience in the TMT industry. As a portfolio manager, he made investments in the tech and telecom sector, and won the Canadian Technology Fund Manager of the Year award in its inaugural year. In his time as an investor he deployed a cumulative $2 billion of capital into global TMT markets, in public and private companies.
He is a CFA® charterholder and holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a philosopher, scholar of randomness, essayist, risk-management expert, and former trader. He is known for a multidisciplinary approach to the role of the high-impact rare event.
He is author of the New York Times bestseller The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, the revelatory book that explains everything we know about what we don’t know. In it, he defines a “black swan” as a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: it is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. He concludes that black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. He offers surprisingly simple tricks for dealing with black swans and benefiting from them, and changing the way we look at the world.
Previously, Taleb has held senior positions with major banks focusing on the trading and risk management of complex derivatives, and worked independently on the floor of the Chicago exchanges. He went on his own in 1999 and, until 2008, specialized in protecting portfolios against extreme events.
In addition to his other books and scholarly papers, Taleb is the author of the extremely popular Fooled by Chance: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, which was named by Fortune as one of The Smartest Books of All Time. His books have more than a million copies in print, and are translated into 27 languages.
He is currently a visiting professor at the London Business School. His current focus is on the properties of systems that can handle disorder (“antifragile”).
Taleb refuses all honors and anything that “turns knowledge into a spectator sport”.
Chris Brogan is an internationally sought-after keynote speaker, with over 1000 speeches delivered to everyone from company annual events like the Coldwell Banker GenBLUE conference and the HR Florida annual conference to the royalty of the United Arab Emirates.
Each presentation is fresh and customized for the people in the room, with insights specific to your industry and the people you need Chris to reach. With a mix of candid humor and straight talk as well as actionable steps to back up any lofty idea he shares, Chris delivers a unique blend of inspiration as well as tangible performance-improving insight necessary for helping you own the game you most want to win.
Tom Fishburne is founder and chief marketoonist at Marketoon Studios.
He draws (literally and figuratively) from 20 years in the marketing trenches in the US and Europe in roles at HotelTonight, Nestlé and General Mills.
