Exponential Futures
Innovation Summit Program Template
The Innovation Summit will provide a high-impact overview of the technological forces driving disruption across industries, emphasizing a linear-to-exponential mindset shift, and empower participants to navigate uncertainty by taking action in the face of accelerating technological advancement.
This program is designed for one-and-a-half days, is intended for an in-person or hybrid audience and incorporates an intensive mix of workshops, discussion and prototyping activities.
This program provides an accelerated introduction to the technological forces driving disruption, and provides frameworks and tools leaders can use to prepare for the future, today. Topics covered will include artificial intelligence, digital biology, advanced manufacturing, and more.
Shift from linear to exponential thinking to properly understand how quickly new technologies can disrupt and enable.
Prototype and experiment with emerging technologies through workshops in AI bias mitigation and rocket science.
Synthesize insights from the program into actionable next steps to bring back to your organization.
Facilitator Lecture
Singularity University was founded on the idea that there are a multitude of technologies out there that are changing at an exponential pace. We explore the range of technologies for which exponential holds true, and examine accelerated convergences and how they affect industry verticals and cross-collaborations. This session will lay the framework on which the remainder of the program is based.
Expert Lecture
The world around us is changing at an exponential pace. From climate change to water to hunger, global issues are becoming more challenging and growing faster than traditional organizations are able to manage. What does it mean to create impact in this new environment? And how can you, as one of today's most capable leaders, define your own massive transformative purpose?
Facilitator Workshop
Moonshot thinking is the human mind at its best, working in the zone of bearable discomfort to bring imagination to life. In the words of Astro Teller from Google X, “Making a moonshot is almost more an exercise in creativity than it is in technology.” This workshop first frees up the mind by exploring bearable discomfort and possibility thinking, then introduces a range of exponential technologies through convergence exercises and prompts. 10X technologies empower us to work at our own mental and physical cutting edge. Man is still the measure of all things, and the Fourth Revolution heralds a renaissance in human creativity and potential.
TECH TRACK OPTION 1
This session unpacks the hype behind the ‘The Metaverse’ and introduces the technologies and implications of a new spatial internet. Core technologies covered include augmented and virtual reality, game engines, blockchain and NFTs, geospatial mapping infrastructure, and virtual world platforms. The ‘Metaverse’ represents a radical shift in the way we spend time online. Soon, we will inhabit avatars inside 3D virtual spaces where we’ll work, play, shop, and connect with friends. This session explains how virtual environments are shaping our personal and professional lives.
TECH TRACK OPTION 2
Quantum Computing is the quintessential exponential technology: the advances in this new form of computing could offer advances in medicine, machine learning, and cybersecurity. It is likely only a few years until quantum computing will be deployed commercially, making the time to invest now. This session covers what is quantum computing, its current status, the major players, top use cases, global and local implications, and what steps are involved in creating quantum computing software and cybersecurity.
TECH TRACK OPTION 3
The recent explosion of artificial intelligence technologies is disrupting entire industries and will completely transform the way we live. But if the algorithms behind many of these advances were developed decades ago, why are we starting to see their impact all of a sudden? In this session, gain insight into why the explosion in artificial intelligence is occurring now, how you can best position your organization to harness the power of these advances, and what the future looks like for the fields of computer vision, natural language understanding and generation, and cognitive computing.
WORKSHOP OPTION 1
This hands-on workshop explores how algorithmic bias develops in automated decision-making systems. Participants will design, train, and deploy their own algorithms, gaining insight into the effects of inclusion and exclusion. The workshop focuses on identifying different types of algorithmic bias, locating points where biases enter designs, and assessing automated decision-making systems for their potential to perpetuate biases. Participants will also increase their understanding of how automated decision-making algorithms and machine learning systems are designed and used.
WORKSHOP OPTION 2
This highly interactive and practical session will teach you the ins & outs of how Silicon Valley’s most innovative companies create, build and test services & products in less time it takes most of us to convene a single meeting. In this session participants will learn what it's like to develop products and services that are 10 times better in 1/10th of the time. Participants will learn to work on rapid iterations of ideating, prototyping, and testing. Oftentimes when trying to develop new products or services, people will reason about problems they encounter instead of experiencing them. This session combats this way of thinking by offering a new framework: Prepare, Prototype, Test, Learn, Repeat. In this way, prototyping will lead to a better outcome for products, as well as for leadership.
Facilitator Workshop
Take a collaborative and systematic approach to mapping possible futures by working from the known and venturing into the unknown. Identify 1st- and 2nd-order implications cascading from transformative developments and trends. Explore unintended consequences, points of convergence, dependent and contingent relationships, and the dynamics of disruption from unusual places and walk away with an easy-to-use tool for future exploration.
Expert Lecture
How can visionary leaders harness exponential technologies like AI to supercharge human potential? This session explores the intersection of technology, human capacity, and inspirational leadership. We’ll see how AI can profoundly enhance human skills, collaboration, and wellbeing to augment human capabilities and enable teams to accomplish more. Success requires self-mastery from leaders to become their best selves and also attract and motivate top talent. Be inspired to lead with purpose, practice human-centric change management, and responsibly deploy AI to reinvent your company and society.
(presented by facilitator)
Thinking exponentially is core to everything we teach at Singularity, this means that we start with showing how each year the power and/or speed of technology is doubling and/or the cost is dropping by half. Getting into the mindset of thinking exponentially is a fundamental first step for projecting into the future. During this session participants will not just understand the basic definition of exponential growth, but dive into its implications, and shift from a linear way of thinking to an exponential one.
We typically overestimate growth in the short term, and underestimate it in the long term due to the deceptive nature of exponential growth. Because computational technologies (including artificial intelligence, biotechnologies, advanced manufacturing, and more) progress exponentially, its growth and adoption can be surprising. As these technologies continue to democratize, access to use them becomes more widespread and more and more people, companies, and industries will have a role to play in how they’re leveraged.This session will prepare you for thinking about these growth patterns, how they apply to your industry, and what role you can play in their use.
The world around us is changing at an exponential pace. From climate change to water to hunger, global issues are becoming more challenging and growing faster than traditional organizations are able to manage. What does it mean to create impact in this new environment? And how can you, as one of today's most capable leaders, define your own massive transformative purpose?