Thought Leaders

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE“It’s cancer.” That’s not a sentence you want to hear your doctor say when you’re only 23 years old. Seven days earlier having graduated with my degree in opera, and now I was sitting in a hospital. They say thyroid cancer is the “best” kind...

I often tell people that BrightMa didn’t start as a company — it started as a calling. My ancestors were enslaved farmers who worked the same South Carolina soil I walk today. Their sacrifice, resilience, ingenuity, and stewardship of the land are the foundation for everything I do. BrightMa Farms...

Capital Club Dubai is a hub of innovation and a crucible for visionary minds shaping the future. As I sit across from Hussain Sultan al Junaidy, the Chairman of this illustrious club, his eyes reflect profound optimism and a relentless drive to propel a business club and a global community...

There’s no greater transformative force in the world’s businesses than technology’s ability to connect people, increase competitiveness, and ultimately help organizations grow. But as the business technology market nears $4 trillion in annual spend, two significant challenges have emerged for both the businesses  who buy technology and the vendors who...

My goal as a leader is to create a company culture that is focused on people first. While it has been an incredible honor to be nationally recognized as an executive (for instance, winning the Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2024 Southeast Award), I find that I have true fulfillment when...

Joshua Baer is the founder of Capital Factory, a coworking community and mentorship-based accelerator designed to help startups find their first investors, customers, and employees. Joshua founded his first startup in 1996 in his college dormitory at Carnegie Mellon University and now teaches a class at the University of Texas...

In the media landscape, technology has been the ultimate disruptor—creating several inflection points that have changed the scope of reach for content and business models. To put the evolution of our industry and its future roadmap into perspective, we can take a closer look at the three waves of media....

PROFESSOR TOMMY WHITE, DIRECTOR, VELORIC CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP; SENIOR PROFESSORIAL LECTURER, KOGOD SCHOOL OF BUSINESS; AMERICAN UNIVERSITY (AU)AU/KSB MBA ’95, BA HISTORY & ECONOMICS, UNC-CH ‘86 I often encounter bright minds shackled by a crippling anxiety: the fear of failure. It’s a common thread woven through the fabric of the...

When I joined the Estonian technology sector, corporate strategy and digital strategy were still two different things. My main task was to create cooperation. Just as technology has become ubiquitous, Estonia,originally known for its use of digital services, has become a true pioneer of the digital society. I’m proud to...

SuperNOVA: Empowering Youth Through STEM Education At SuperNOVA, our mission is empowering youth through educational experiences in STEM that cultivate curiosity and an attitude for lifelong learning. We are committed to ensuring that youth—regardless of their geographic location, socio-economic situation, ability, or gender—can be inspired through STEM. For youth from...

  Shauna Smith, President – Four Foods Group/Savory I still remember opening day in our very first restaurant like it was yesterday. Except it wasn’t yesterday… it was 11 years ago. We had just moved into a newly developed area in Utah that was starved for eating establishments. We asked...

When we chose Oeiras to settle in 16 years ago, we aimed to keep up with the innovation and development that this municipality witnessed since the turn of the millennium with the creation of office parks until then never seen in Portugal. Besides offering the perfect conditions for Portuguese and...

À mon arrivée à Montréal en 2015, j’ai trouvé au Québec un environnement des plus stimulants, où la collaboration entre les grands établissements universitaires est non seulement encouragée, mais aussi reconnue comme un moyen de parvenir à une carrière fructueuse. Cela a sans aucun doute été un facteur déterminant dans...

For a city with a wealth of history behind it, it continues to propel itself forward and arrive at the forefront of innovation. The transformation of both Philadelphia and digital marketing within the 21st century alone is exhilarating, and it shows no signs of slowing down. The ecosystem made up...

In fact, a culture of innovation must be endemic across a company. It must form part of its DNA, driving the behaviour and thinking of every employee. This is important across all members of the innovation ecosystem, with opportunities to learn through the sharing of ideas in innovation precincts like...

Both society and technology are changing ever more rapidly. Higher education is historically designed to be steady and slow in changing. The conflict caused between slow-moving institutions and a rapidly changing world has become ever more obvious – to the point, for many, that it has reached a definitive inflection...

IT’S HUMAN NATURE TO RESIST CHANGEAccelerated change is the clarion cry of entrepreneurs and the Achilles heel of large organizations and industries. Many entrepreneurs today use the mantra: “Go big or go home,” and so it is with innovation. Innovation by its very nature needs to sit, enabled by technology,...

How often have you heard something like this: “Australia makes up only 1.3% of global emissions, and therefore why is it so important for Australia to do anything in relation to renewable energy targets and lowering emissions as we are not going to make any difference?” Make no mistake, sitting...

Experience Selling Is Here To StayWith the creativity of design professionals combined with the power of web-based analytics, we’ve been able to give leaders in organizations across the spectrum unparalleled opportunities to make presentations come alive. How? By transforming information and design into experiences that viewers can hear, see, and...

South Carolina is small, but mighty. It is a relatively small state, but it has a mighty innovation ecosystem. I encourage any entrepreneur, researcher, or investor to choose South Carolina as a place to develop and grow innovation. I’m incredibly proud of what’s being created and nurtured in this state,...

As the state’s first public research university to be located in a metropolitan region, the University of South Florida System has always been proud of its relationship with the Tampa Bay community we serve.We live in an era when the public increasingly depends on research universities to be a key...

Among attorneys, tech enthusiasts are in short supply. Most legal tech headlines don’t sound like news at all – a judge who doesn’t understand Zoom, a law firm that finally accepts credit card payments, a “new” tool that automates invoicing. Y’all, this is 2022. Why is the bar for legal...

In my pursuit to unravel the mysteries of what the future holds, I had the privilege of interviewing Kay Van-Petersen, an avant-garde thinker and a trailblazer in the realm of finance and technology. His insights, not just on where we are heading but on how we can shape our trajectory,...

As CEO of SmartHead, Veri is responsible for fulfilling the vision, strategy, leadership, and sustainable business growth. She has represented SmartHead at the Chivas Venture Competition in Los Angeles and has also attended Accelerator at the University of Oxford. In 2018, Veri was part of the Forbes Top 10 Women...