Main Topics:
The Decade Ahead 2020-2030
The next ten years are going to be even more disruptive than the last ten. What are the industries and businesses that are going to shake the marketplace? From artificial intelligence, 5G and super computing to the life sciences and robotics, Alec Ross describes the changes which are going to impact our future, and examines the cultural, political and demographic contexts out of which this change is emerging, for good and ill.
The Impact of Geopolitics on Markets and the Economy
The impact of geopolitics on business is greater today than any time since 1945. Doing business across borders is growing more complicated, perilous and prone to near-instant change. Today’s business leaders need new strategies to understand and manage geopolitical risk. Alec Ross has served as an advisor to Presidents, Prime Ministers and CEOs and provides guidance for leaders trying to make sense out of our increasingly chaotic world.
Innovation, Automation, and Education in Tomorrow’s Economy
How will increased automation impact labor market in developing and developed economies around the world? What should companies and entire industries be doing to benefit from the growing power of artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning while safeguarding the interests of workers? How should we think about educating our children and retraining our employees to ensure that they can compete and succeed in tomorrow’s economy? Alec Ross confronted these questions during his tenure in government and in his global best-seller,The Industries of the Future. Ross frames the issues that will be at the forefront of national and global conversation over the next several years, and offers practical ideas and inspiration focused on ensuring that growth fueled by innovation will benefit our companies and workers.
The road forward for the USA and Europe
The transatlantic relationship is marked by more uncertainty that has been the case since the 1940s. The NSA revelations undermined trust and brought into prominence conflict over issues ranging from privacy to big data to state sovereignty. The election of Donald Trump resulted in a fundamental break with the decades-long alliances and assumptions. Alec Ross will share his analysis of what the road forward holds for the United States and Europe, and its impact on markets, firms and investors.
The car crash between Business, Government & Everyday People
Today’s global companies are now more like countries than companies. On issues ranging from privacy to sustainability to diversity to equity and workers’ rights, we are more governed by companies than we are by governments. This trend has already disrupted geopolitics, and it is set to continue. Whether the future looks more like Star Trek or more like Mad Max comes down to a very human question that we cannot outsource to algorithms: will we come together to re-write our social contract and re-set the equilibrium defining the rights and responsibilities between companies, the governing and the governed? Alec Ross explains the current car crash at the intersection of business, government and everyday people and provides information and inspiration for how to navigate the road forward.
10 innovations that will change all of our lives in the next 10 years
We have the Internet and smart phones, what’s next? In an informative and entertaining tour de horizon, Alec Ross identifies and explains 10 innovations that will come to market in the next 10 years which will impact all of our lives and work and home.
Futureproofing Our Children: Parenting and Leading in a Changing World
In the research for his global best-seller The Industries of the Future, more than 100 leaders were asked the question “What are the skills and attributes that today’s young people need to compete and succeed in tomorrow’s world?” Ross combines the wisdom from that research with an examination of future labor markets and the future or work to provide a powerful, often shocking set of recommendations and guidance for parents and leaders helping to steward the next generation. Based on his extensive travels and his observations of how other countries thrive (or sputter), Alec offers his analysis of the forces changing the world and the best opportunities for progress, specifically for people in business and for those committed to improving the quality of life throughout the world. From the refugee camps of the Congo to the battlefields of the Middle East to the board rooms of Asia, Alec Ross shares experiences that give his audience a constructive way of appreciating how global factors will affect the way we live, now and tomorrow.
Managing large-scale innovation
After co-founding a technology start-up in a basement and growing it into a global organization, Alec Ross managed a large-scale process for making the U.S. government more innovative. He led a remarkable turnaround at the U.S. State Department which a study by Deloitte and the Partnership for Public Service scored as the State Department the most innovation-friendly culture of any cabinet-level agency and a Brookings Institution study described “State’s remarkable emergence as the leading innovator in its field.” Today, Alec is one of the world’s most sought-after innovation advisors and shares his secrets for how to drive innovation with entrepreneurs still in the basement to executives leading the world’s largest and most global enterprises.
Cyber Crime & Cyber War – your industry on the battlefield
Hundreds of billions of dollars are being stolen every year in cyber theft. Critical systems and infrastructure are at risk. Whether you know it or not, your industry is already on this battlefield, and the conflict is only going to grow worse. Alec Ross has been a major player and had a privileged view into this dark world, and is able to share experiences and learnings for executives trying to understand how best to manage their enterprise’s well-being.
Today’s University Students, Imagining and Inventing the Future
Alec Ross has had an improbable and inspirational journey to the peaks of geopolitical power. During college, he worked on a beer truck in the hills of coal mining country and as a midnight janitor. He joined Teach for America and started a nonprofit organization that grew from 3 people in a basement into a global organization, helping millions of poor people in 15 countries.As a globe-traveling business leader and diplomat, Alec has gotten a close-up view of the way that young people all over the world are imagining and inventing the future. In his remarks, Alec will give practical and inspirational advice to today’s college students for how to navigate their way in an increasingly complicated world to the career of their imagining.
Professional Profile:
Alec is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Industries of the Future”. The Industries of the Future, currently available at major retailers, explores the technological and economic trends and developments that will shape the next ten years, from cybersecurity and big data to the commercialization of genomics to the code-ification of money, markets and trust.
Alec serves as an advisor to investors, corporations and government leaders to help them understand the implication of factors emerging at the intersection of geopolitics, markets and increasingly disruptive network technologies.
He currently sits on the board of directors or advisors for companies in the fields of technology, media, telecommunications, education, health care and cybersecurity.
Alec Ross recently served for four year as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a role created for him by Secretary Clinton to maximize the potential of technology and innovation in service of America’s diplomatic agenda. In this role, Alec acted as the diplomatic lead on a range of issues including cybersecurity, Internet Freedom, disaster response and the use of network technologies in conflict zones. Previously, Alec served as the Convener for the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Policy Committee on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.
In 2000, he and three colleagues co-founded the technology-focused nonprofit organization One Economy and grew it from modest origins in a basement into a global organization serving millions of low-income people, with programs on four continents.
Among recent recognitions:
- Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine
- U.S. Department of State Distinguished Honor Award
- Oxford University Internet & Society Award
- Huffington Post’s 10 Game Changers in Politics
- Tribeca Film Festival Disruptive Innovation Award
Alec has served as a guest lecturer at numerous institutions including the United Nations, Oxford University, Harvard Law School, Stanford Business School and a number of parliamentary bodies. His writing has appeared in academic publications including the Johns Hopkins SAIS Review of International Affairs and the NATO Review. Alec started his career as a sixth grade teacher through Teach for America in inner-city Baltimore where he lives with his wife and their three young children.
Selected Works:
“The Industries of the Future” in which Ross shows us what changes are coming in the next ten years, highlighting the best opportunities for progress and explaining why countries thrive or sputter. He examines the specific fields that will most shape our economic future, including robotics, cybersecurity, the commercialization of genomics, the next step for big data, and the coming impact of digital technology on money and markets. In each of these realms, Ross addresses the toughest questions: How will we have to adapt to the changing nature of work? Is the prospect of cyberwar sparking the next arms race? How can the world’s rising nations hope to match Silicon Valley in creating their own innovation hotspots? And what can today’s parents do to prepare their children for tomorrow?
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