Thought Leaders

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

TOM HAJDU

CEO, DISRUPTER

A little over five years ago, I had the privilege of serving as the Chief Innovator of South Australia, a position through which I could catalyze change. During that time, I spearheaded a pivotal initiative, transforming Adelaide into Australia’s first gigabit city and the first city outside the United States...

INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2

DARREL FRATER

DARREL FRATER

INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE, VISIBLE HANDS

The record startup fundraising and investment climate of 2021 has slowed considerably as public market valuations for late-stage tech companies have declined drastically, and concerns around rising interest rates have added to VCs’ hesitation for making new investments. Black entrepreneurs, in particular, have been hit hard by this pullback from...

INNOVATE® Detroit

TINA KOZAK

FRANCO - CEO

It’s an amazing time to be a Detroiter. Yes, the city has its fair share of challenges, but its reputation is on the rise. As noted in a recent PR News article about Detroit’s renaissance, “Behind every rehabbed reputation lies really hard work, dedicated individuals and, of course, some strategic...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

PROFESSOR TOM HAJDU

DIRECTOR, SIA FURLER INSTITUTE AND CHAIR OF CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

As the inaugural director of the Sia Furler Institute and the Chair of Creative Technologies at the University of Adelaide, I have been privileged to be a co-founder of the Art Intelligence Agency — a first-of its-kind convergence of creativity and machine learning. Creativity: The Core CompetencyIn recent years, there...

INNOVATION Quebec

LAYLA NASR

CEO, MAKILA AI

In both North America and Europe, collaboration between the communities of scientific research and professional practice plays a pivotal role in the advancement of knowledge that benefits society at large. When it comes to technologies, especially artificial intelligence, the diversity of skills and the wealth of knowledge from research communities...

INNOVATE® Blockchain

JEVAN FOX

JEVAN FOX

CRO, AGENCY ENTERPRISE

The rate of technological innovation has increased exponentially since the industrial revolution. A 12-second flight along a North Carolina beach led to a moon landing only 66 years later. That staggering pace of development pales in comparison to what has occurred with digital technology in the past decades. That pace...

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

Jose Rui Marcelino

CEO - Almadesign

From an early age, I was fascinated with the possibility of materializing, through images or objects, what is created by our imagination and which, without the proper communication tools, exists only in our heads: whether to satisfy a need, solve a problem or just because its beauty inspires us. It...

INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath

PROFESSOR IAN WHITE

PROFESSOR IAN WHITE

VICE-CHANCELLOR AND PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Innovation and collaboration will always be essential to power progress in our societies and I think are a crucial part of what universities in particular can offer in partnership with others. This is especially important now as we begin to recover from Covid-19, and I have been pleased to play...

INNOVATE® San Diego Vol.1

Kristin Gaspar

San Diego County Supervisor

The government is famous for operating under the philosophy – “If it ain’t broke, fix it till it is”. That may be why we throw millions, even billions of dollars at the same problem every year and get the same results. After being elected to the San Diego County Board...

VOICES of the Future

AMNAH AJMAL

LEADING WITH HEART

Amnah Ajmal’s ascent to global corporate leadership is nothing short of riveting. She shines as Mastercard’s Executive Vice President, Market Development, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, covering 80 countries, and embodies the essence of inspiration. This conversation unveils her remarkable path through the ranks, highlighting a relentless pursuit of...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

WILLIAM CHERNICOFF

PH.D.- TOYOTA MOBILITY FOUNDATION

Innovation has long been the buzzword in the tech world, a concept intertwined with progress, growth, and the future. But through my years of experience, I’ve realized there’s a distinct difference between mere innovation and social innovation. It’s like planting a tree without considering the forest. In contrast, social innovation...

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

ANTONIO MARTINS DA COSTA

ANTÓNIO MARTINS DA COSTA

PRESIDENT, AMCHAM PORTUGAL

Innovation is what drives economic development and social welfare. Societies are made of citizens, corporations and States, who need a permanent culture of innovation for two main reasons: its own survival, if a society misses the competitive race for progress there is a risk of stagnation, irrelevance and sometimes disappearance;...

INNOVATE® Georgia

AMY BARBIERI

FOUNDING PARTNER, PRESIDENT, AND CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER, VITAL4

To all my fellow dreamers and doers, let me take you on a journey—a journey filled with challenges, triumphs, and the relentless pursuit of innovation. My name is Amy, and I am not just a female entrepreneur and tech founder, but a student of life and an example of resilience...

INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

SEBASTIAN “CHOSEN1” BURTON

SEBASTIAN “CHOSEN1” BURTON

DIGITAL ADVERTISING & ESPORTS THOUGHT LEADER ACTIVATING BRANDS WITH CONSUMERS VIA ESPORTS & GAMING,

The way I see it is that the gaming/esports ecosystem is an interesting experience that reflects the games we all play. Need an example? God of War, Uncharted and The Last Of Us are all blockbuster titles that are classified as action-adventure games. However, if we start digging deeper we’ll...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

DEAN DEBIASE

DEAN DEBIASE- REBOOT PARTNERS

REBOOT PARTNERS

CEOs constantly hear noise about competitive “disruption” in their sectors, fueling concerns about their organization’s ability to innovate in an increasingly competitive and agile global market. This creates natural pressure to grow and meet earnings targets—but growth can be slow and expensive. With Open-Innovation and Co-Creation platforms, it doesn’t have...

INNOVATE™ Ottawa

Claude Brulé

President - Algonquin College

  Claude Brulé, President – Algonquin College When Claude Brulé was appointed Algonquin College’s ninth president in mid-2019 he quickly embarked on an innovation agenda to establish experiential, personalized learning as the institution’s guiding educational principle for the future. “We know the people who walk through our doors, both physically...

INNOVATE® Blockchain

CLAIRE CAWTHORN

CLAIRE CAWTHORN

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, HELICONNFT

NFTS AND GAMING: THE PERFECT MATCH?Hello, I’m Claire Cawthorn, Chief Marketing Officer of HeliconNFT, a play-to-earn NFT ecosystem that gives gamers the power to monetize their in-game assets by tokenizing them into NFTs and allowing them to play with these NFTs in amazing blockchain games on our platform. Throughout my...

INNOVATE™ South Africa

LUIS RODRIGUEZ

LUIS RODRIGUEZ

MANAGING DIRECTOR, ACCENTURE STRATEGY IN AFRICA

Demystifying innovation is trying to break it into what we see are the building blocks of getting from creating ideas to realising the value of innovation. There are three parts to it, and these are not necessarily sequential – ideating and shaping, designing and killing ideas and lastly scaling. Many...

INNOVATION Quebec

RICHARD CHÉNIER

DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL DU CENTECH

La prochaine décennie offrira plusieurs opportunités stratégiques à saisir en matière d’entrepreneuriat et d’innovation, particulièrement technologique. Plusieurs avancées scientifiques, jadis considérées comme fondamentales, transitent en effet actuellement à une vitesse fulgurante vers des applications réelles. Ces nouvelles applications se doivent d’agir comme catalyseur de solutions concrètes pour répondre à nos...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

MIKE SOUTHON

CHIEF EDITOR, STARTUPMAFIA

Many people are fascinated by Unicorns, mythical horse-like animals with a spiralling horn on its forehead, who symbolise purity, rarity and magic. In Estonia you can meet real unicorns, companies who have achieved billion-dollar valuations. There are more of these per head of population than anywhere else on earth. Here...

INNOVATE® Georgia

BRIAN KEMP, GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA, ANDRE DICKENS, MAYOR OF ATLANTA

Andre Dickens, Mayor of Atlanta, Brian Kemp, Governor of Georgia, presenting at TAG’s GeorgiaTechnology Summit There is no doubt that Georgia is the leader of technology and innovation in the South. We’re very proud to say Georgia is the #1 state for business in the nation, which we’ve maintained for...

INNOVATE® Miami

Jorge Ruiz

Jorge Ruiz

Founder & CEO - Finconecta

  Jorge Ruiz, Founder & CEO, Finconecta Innovation itself has evolved. It used to be that you could create something, patent that something, and it would serve its purpose until a new and superior product came along and replaced it. Now, innovation is not just about solving a problem that...

INNOVATE® Milwaukee

The Water Council

Dean Amhaus, President & CEO

Fifteen years ago, when I became the founding CEO of The Water Council, I brought with me a background in government and nonprofit management. I faced a steep learning curve in understanding water technology and environmental issues. I’m still very much a novice, but over time I’ve learned a thing...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

DOUG ROBERTSON

PRESIDENT & CEO, VENN INNOVATION INC.

ATLANTIC CANADA IS GROWING, OUR PEOPLE ARE HIGHLY SKILLED, MOST CERTAINLY INNOVATIVE AND INCREASINGLY DIVERSE. WE HAVE WORLD CLASS TECHNOLOGIES, INSPIRING TECH SUCCESS STORIES, AND A CONFIDENT, GLOBALLY FOCUSED TECH INDUSTRY. It has always given me a great sense of pride to welcome visitors to our region, “come from aways”...

TOM HAJDU

CEO, DISRUPTER

A little over five years ago, I had the privilege of serving as the Chief Innovator of South Australia, a position through which I could catalyze change. During that time, I spearheaded a pivotal initiative, transforming Adelaide into Australia’s first gigabit city and the first city outside the United States...

DARREL FRATER

DARREL FRATER

INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE, VISIBLE HANDS

The record startup fundraising and investment climate of 2021 has slowed considerably as public market valuations for late-stage tech companies have declined drastically, and concerns around rising interest rates have added to VCs’ hesitation for making new investments. Black entrepreneurs, in particular, have been hit hard by this pullback from...

TINA KOZAK

FRANCO - CEO

It’s an amazing time to be a Detroiter. Yes, the city has its fair share of challenges, but its reputation is on the rise. As noted in a recent PR News article about Detroit’s renaissance, “Behind every rehabbed reputation lies really hard work, dedicated individuals and, of course, some strategic...

PROFESSOR TOM HAJDU

DIRECTOR, SIA FURLER INSTITUTE AND CHAIR OF CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

As the inaugural director of the Sia Furler Institute and the Chair of Creative Technologies at the University of Adelaide, I have been privileged to be a co-founder of the Art Intelligence Agency — a first-of its-kind convergence of creativity and machine learning. Creativity: The Core CompetencyIn recent years, there...

LAYLA NASR

CEO, MAKILA AI

In both North America and Europe, collaboration between the communities of scientific research and professional practice plays a pivotal role in the advancement of knowledge that benefits society at large. When it comes to technologies, especially artificial intelligence, the diversity of skills and the wealth of knowledge from research communities...

JEVAN FOX

JEVAN FOX

CRO, AGENCY ENTERPRISE

The rate of technological innovation has increased exponentially since the industrial revolution. A 12-second flight along a North Carolina beach led to a moon landing only 66 years later. That staggering pace of development pales in comparison to what has occurred with digital technology in the past decades. That pace...

Jose Rui Marcelino

CEO - Almadesign

From an early age, I was fascinated with the possibility of materializing, through images or objects, what is created by our imagination and which, without the proper communication tools, exists only in our heads: whether to satisfy a need, solve a problem or just because its beauty inspires us. It...

PROFESSOR IAN WHITE

PROFESSOR IAN WHITE

VICE-CHANCELLOR AND PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Innovation and collaboration will always be essential to power progress in our societies and I think are a crucial part of what universities in particular can offer in partnership with others. This is especially important now as we begin to recover from Covid-19, and I have been pleased to play...

Kristin Gaspar

San Diego County Supervisor

The government is famous for operating under the philosophy – “If it ain’t broke, fix it till it is”. That may be why we throw millions, even billions of dollars at the same problem every year and get the same results. After being elected to the San Diego County Board...

AMNAH AJMAL

LEADING WITH HEART

Amnah Ajmal’s ascent to global corporate leadership is nothing short of riveting. She shines as Mastercard’s Executive Vice President, Market Development, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, covering 80 countries, and embodies the essence of inspiration. This conversation unveils her remarkable path through the ranks, highlighting a relentless pursuit of...

WILLIAM CHERNICOFF

PH.D.- TOYOTA MOBILITY FOUNDATION

Innovation has long been the buzzword in the tech world, a concept intertwined with progress, growth, and the future. But through my years of experience, I’ve realized there’s a distinct difference between mere innovation and social innovation. It’s like planting a tree without considering the forest. In contrast, social innovation...

ANTONIO MARTINS DA COSTA

ANTÓNIO MARTINS DA COSTA

PRESIDENT, AMCHAM PORTUGAL

Innovation is what drives economic development and social welfare. Societies are made of citizens, corporations and States, who need a permanent culture of innovation for two main reasons: its own survival, if a society misses the competitive race for progress there is a risk of stagnation, irrelevance and sometimes disappearance;...

AMY BARBIERI

FOUNDING PARTNER, PRESIDENT, AND CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER, VITAL4

To all my fellow dreamers and doers, let me take you on a journey—a journey filled with challenges, triumphs, and the relentless pursuit of innovation. My name is Amy, and I am not just a female entrepreneur and tech founder, but a student of life and an example of resilience...

SEBASTIAN “CHOSEN1” BURTON

SEBASTIAN “CHOSEN1” BURTON

DIGITAL ADVERTISING & ESPORTS THOUGHT LEADER ACTIVATING BRANDS WITH CONSUMERS VIA ESPORTS & GAMING,

The way I see it is that the gaming/esports ecosystem is an interesting experience that reflects the games we all play. Need an example? God of War, Uncharted and The Last Of Us are all blockbuster titles that are classified as action-adventure games. However, if we start digging deeper we’ll...

DEAN DEBIASE

DEAN DEBIASE- REBOOT PARTNERS

REBOOT PARTNERS

CEOs constantly hear noise about competitive “disruption” in their sectors, fueling concerns about their organization’s ability to innovate in an increasingly competitive and agile global market. This creates natural pressure to grow and meet earnings targets—but growth can be slow and expensive. With Open-Innovation and Co-Creation platforms, it doesn’t have...

Claude Brulé

President - Algonquin College

  Claude Brulé, President – Algonquin College When Claude Brulé was appointed Algonquin College’s ninth president in mid-2019 he quickly embarked on an innovation agenda to establish experiential, personalized learning as the institution’s guiding educational principle for the future. “We know the people who walk through our doors, both physically...

CLAIRE CAWTHORN

CLAIRE CAWTHORN

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, HELICONNFT

NFTS AND GAMING: THE PERFECT MATCH?Hello, I’m Claire Cawthorn, Chief Marketing Officer of HeliconNFT, a play-to-earn NFT ecosystem that gives gamers the power to monetize their in-game assets by tokenizing them into NFTs and allowing them to play with these NFTs in amazing blockchain games on our platform. Throughout my...

LUIS RODRIGUEZ

LUIS RODRIGUEZ

MANAGING DIRECTOR, ACCENTURE STRATEGY IN AFRICA

Demystifying innovation is trying to break it into what we see are the building blocks of getting from creating ideas to realising the value of innovation. There are three parts to it, and these are not necessarily sequential – ideating and shaping, designing and killing ideas and lastly scaling. Many...

RICHARD CHÉNIER

DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL DU CENTECH

La prochaine décennie offrira plusieurs opportunités stratégiques à saisir en matière d’entrepreneuriat et d’innovation, particulièrement technologique. Plusieurs avancées scientifiques, jadis considérées comme fondamentales, transitent en effet actuellement à une vitesse fulgurante vers des applications réelles. Ces nouvelles applications se doivent d’agir comme catalyseur de solutions concrètes pour répondre à nos...

MIKE SOUTHON

CHIEF EDITOR, STARTUPMAFIA

Many people are fascinated by Unicorns, mythical horse-like animals with a spiralling horn on its forehead, who symbolise purity, rarity and magic. In Estonia you can meet real unicorns, companies who have achieved billion-dollar valuations. There are more of these per head of population than anywhere else on earth. Here...

BRIAN KEMP, GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA, ANDRE DICKENS, MAYOR OF ATLANTA

Andre Dickens, Mayor of Atlanta, Brian Kemp, Governor of Georgia, presenting at TAG’s GeorgiaTechnology Summit There is no doubt that Georgia is the leader of technology and innovation in the South. We’re very proud to say Georgia is the #1 state for business in the nation, which we’ve maintained for...

Jorge Ruiz

Jorge Ruiz

Founder & CEO - Finconecta

  Jorge Ruiz, Founder & CEO, Finconecta Innovation itself has evolved. It used to be that you could create something, patent that something, and it would serve its purpose until a new and superior product came along and replaced it. Now, innovation is not just about solving a problem that...

The Water Council

Dean Amhaus, President & CEO

Fifteen years ago, when I became the founding CEO of The Water Council, I brought with me a background in government and nonprofit management. I faced a steep learning curve in understanding water technology and environmental issues. I’m still very much a novice, but over time I’ve learned a thing...

DOUG ROBERTSON

PRESIDENT & CEO, VENN INNOVATION INC.

ATLANTIC CANADA IS GROWING, OUR PEOPLE ARE HIGHLY SKILLED, MOST CERTAINLY INNOVATIVE AND INCREASINGLY DIVERSE. WE HAVE WORLD CLASS TECHNOLOGIES, INSPIRING TECH SUCCESS STORIES, AND A CONFIDENT, GLOBALLY FOCUSED TECH INDUSTRY. It has always given me a great sense of pride to welcome visitors to our region, “come from aways”...

INNOVATE® Ecosystems