Technology Futurist Sophie Hackford likes to ask big questions about technology. How is it shaping our future? How should it be deployed, managed and governed?

Her talks are very much focused on how to harness new possibilities and that’s what lies in store for business executives in the Mid-West region when she flies into Shannon on Thursday, 2 May to deliver the keynote address at a conference organised by Shannon Chamber, where the focus is the unfolding future of work. The conference will take place in Dromoland Castle Hotel and is attracting attention from the business community throughout the Mid-West.

Working from the premise that technological progress is not just about digesting today’s processes but about entirely new possibilities, Hackford is sure to get her audience thinking about the technologies that are shaping theirs and their businesses futures.

Constantly seeking answers to the many questions she asks, Hackford travels the world researching the latest technological and scientific breakthrough. Her astute advice is much sought after by executive teams and boards of large companies throughout the world, who are eager to understand the new technologies defining the new economy.

Topics she is set to cover during her first visit to Shannon include: artificial intelligence, an emerging set of technologies transforming how we live, transact and work; data analytics and how machines will help us make sense of the pending data explosion, how sensors are blending intelligence invisibly into our environment, turning the world into a computer that is processing information about us all the time. How real time ‘CCTV of the planet’ will offer radical transparency, enabling us to track economic activity. She will also cover privacy, personal sovereignty, security, ethics, and technical limitations, and how they are balanced with the opportunities the depth of data we will capture provides. 

She will also be demonstrating how virtual technologies are automating human experience blending the real and virtual worlds and how the concept of content will move from sharing video and images to the sharing of 3D objects, or even people, in a ‘3D Instagram’ and how the blend of real and virtual worlds will take us from fake news to fake worlds.

Shannon Chamber CEO is excited and apprehensive about Hackford’s visit:” There is no getting away from the fact that technology permeating everything we do on a personal and business level. We only have to look at the impact mobile technology has had on our work-life balance to know that our future will be even more transformed.

“I am excited to hear Sophie Hackford speak but naturally a little apprehensive about the changes we may need to make to prepare for a future where technology will impact on us even more than it is today.

“We chose to include a presentation of this nature in our upcoming conference on the future of work as we felt it is so important for business leaders at all levels to know and understand what is coming down the track and how they may need to reshape their strategies to be fully prepared for what lies ahead.

“The future winners, according to Hackford, will be those companies that are open to experimentation and open to bringing in new technologies. To do this they will need to have a sense of what is being developed around the world. That’s what they will gain from attending this conference.”

Conference and speaker details available at www.shannonchamber.ie/events/shaping-the-hr-people-management-landscape-an-unfolding-future/