Partner Sussannah Kelly and Managing Partner Rod Malcolm hosted 65 clients, colleagues, and other senior executives for a seminar titled “The AI Revolution: The Forthcoming Technology Tsunami and How it Will Affect our Businesses and our Lives” at the prestigious National Club in Toronto, Canada. Bob Tapscott, a recognized information technology strategist and leader, was the event’s keynote speaker. Bob previously served as CIO with Citi Bank, Lloyd’s Bank, and HSBC. He has also served as an advisor to companies around the world (Boeing, Disney and others) and to governments of three countries. He has been involved with the creation of the Social Enterprise, ITaaS/SaaS, Best Practices/Security, Analytics/BI, The Blockchain, Fintech, Cloud Computing and Statistical Analytics.
After Bob’s presentation, one CEO commented, “Of interest, were Bob’s deep dives into industries that are soon to be massively disrupted as well as discussing areas where we do not need to be alarmed, but we need to be prepared.” Bob described the perfect storm we are approaching because of the merging of Big Data, advancing technology and AI that can now “feel, hear, smell and see.” A well-regarded Board member in the audience described Bob as “enlightening and insightful because he presented a lot of complex information in a clear and engaging way that sparked ‘a bit of fear’ that we need to stay at the top of our games and be aware of trends as transformative as this one.”
Jeff Cohn, Managing Partner of DHR’s Elevate Partners, was also part of the presentation and spoke about “The State of Innovative Leaders Report,” the recently released DHR-sponsored survey by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. Many attendees commented that they greatly appreciated DHR’s thought leadership around innovative leader competencies provided by the report and one participant responded, “As a CEO who is leading an organization that is undergoing significant disruption, as well as wanting to be focused on the future, I found it to be a valuable morning. The information that Jeff and Bob provided to us about innovative leadership and AI is something that is on my radar. I learned key information that I need to share with my Board and my EMT. I want to express my gratitude to DHR for being a champion of advancing leadership in Canada through events like this morning.”
Other positive comments were made about the networking opportunity the event provided and the energy in the room. Even though all were C-level executives, attendees represented all shades of business and industry spectrums in Canada.