By Arundati Dandapani
Close in the lead up to Generation1.ca‘s Spring 2024 Virtual Insights Career Fair and Case Competition, it was exciting to reconnect with old colleagues at George Brown College Centre for Business | George Brown College at their 4th Business Analytics Symposium last week as their long time industry partner and a visiting Professor from Humber College, another of my key Generation1.ca academic partners who pipeline a steady stream of talented interns as well as sponsor my biannual career fairs and case competitions each year.
A brilliant selection of speakers addressed the #GBC student body on what lies ahead through the change we lead each day in service to the profession. Fun photos embedded here:
A few people and insights that might interest my networks or students:
A brilliant selection of speakers addressed the #GBC student body on what lies ahead through the change we lead each day in service to the profession. A few people and insights that might interest my networks or students:
- Great to meet the Symposium Emcee GBC’s very own Dr. Nadira Singh, GBC SVP Enablement and Talent Leslie Quinlan and Dean of the GBC Centre for Business @Dr. ian Austin all of whom warmly welcomed an exciting day of meaningful connections and discussions between industry and students at their 4th annual Business Analytics Symposium.
- Vijay Wadhawan of Environics Research convinced everyone that all our social values are set by the age of 18 years, and any shifts after are incidental and incremental but not drastic. This impacts the levels of trust people have in various healthcare providers and how messaging must be targeted to unique individuals’ and segments’ values to remain relevant and competitive.
- Gayle Ramsay of BMO discussed the opportunities and challenges in personalized banking services and plans and how they were exceeding their sales targets year on year, and evolving their value proposition based on fast-changing customer needs and preferences, so “intuitively”.
- Eugene Wen of Manulife pointed everyone to Gartner‘s predictions on the growth in #GenerativeAI enabled at scale by powerful #conversational #commerce (CAGI) or “combinatorial AI”, a topic my undergraduates are grappling with as well. By 2026, more than 80% of enterprises will have used generative artificial intelligence APIs or models, and/or deployed GenAI-enabled applications in production environments, up from less than 5% in 2023. Similarly, by 2025, AI avatars leveraging text-to-video GenAI technology will support 70% of digital and marketing communications, up from less than 1% in 2022.
- Nan Oldroyd – CHRE, M.A. of Definity and her colleague Shiraz Latif offered fascinating employee engagement research and career development viewpoints underscoring the importance of keeping your employees engaged by surveying them at the 5-month-old mark! They talked about how their employee engagement survey went from 90 questions deployed annually to nearly 45 questions deployed twice a year with higher than average response rates for insurance industry standards. Don’t underestimate the value of employee exit interviews (or even “boomerang hires”- a trend they found at Definity), to gain critical inputs about your organizational health and culture.
- John Weigelt of Microsoft discussed the importance of the upcoming privacy legislation #BillC27 #AIDA in relation to AI, impacting as well the country’s AI readiness in the future. From a business standpoint, he cited an urgency for Canada to innovate before it disintegrates into a country of raw materials. He talked about the need to work with AI to create prosperity that benefits the people. He recommended Brad Smith‘s book “Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age” as well as “Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence” by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb to create more powerful collaborations across tech, people, and AI.
- Anita Mueller‘s presentation was all about being “obsessed with member safety” in providing timely roadside assistance to motorists, as she took us into the AI-powered computing that CAA Club Group does to protect drivers (rooted in mathematics theory and prediction science), and how they actively listen to customer feedback at scale to earn their #1 spot in North America eclipsing the AAA. Growing up, I often attributed earning expertise to tricks like “practicing 100 math sums a day,” (applicable to anything you want to excel in), and Anita’s talk rekindled memories of treating math like a beloved witch, because, calculus has more to do with prediction than you realize.
It was an exciting day of conversations. Enjoyed as well meeting with Tricia Campbell Tri Ho Robin Yap Karen Sinotte NANA ADWOA AFFUM Robert Heeg , Mou Yu, former Generation1.ca case competition second prize winner Shannan Peck ( Niloofar Nalchigar Vishal Singh Thakur – we missed you) and several others.
Are you looking for more opportunities to find strong and leading versatile talent? Come join us at Generation1.ca‘s Spring and Fall 2024 career fairs and case competitions. Learn more in the links below, and join us in celebrating enriching milestones and successes for North America’s top talent to drive and scale your business, technology, marketing and insights impact further:
So excited to grow your talent pools with all the powerful work happening at Generation1.ca through the support of passionate partners like you.
Importantly, come join me in a few weeks with fellow faculty and our excellent students at the Humber College Research Analyst Program (RAP) Forum on March 22nd, between 9 am and 1 pm EST at our North Campus’ Humber College – Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation (in person or virtually) where you will see some of the many thought-provoking capstone research projects I guided as Professor, and meet my talented students and esteemed teams, and where you can also network with us over lunch! Michael Wells Michelle Jordan Mary Takacs Bhavi Gandhi Karen Palomo, M. Ed. James Cullin Naila Charles Beverly (Bev) Fritz Dr. Linda Jin-Troendle
To RSVP to attend in-person or virtually, please click on this link:
I can’t wait to see you there.
