Leveraging Martech to Transform Experiences

Join us for a provocative discussion about the future of data as a business ASSET and LIABILITY. Discover how data value and data risk if employed strategically can be utilized to accelerate business “ethics” in a data saturated world.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ The future of data as a business driver
▪ Best practices for handling data
▪ Ethics in data management

Michelle Finneran Dennedy

Chief Executive Officer

DrumWave

Many practitioners and technology leaders are eager to know what’s on the horizon for their data infrastructure. Technology is changing at lighting speeds and the business landscape is continuously trying to keep pace. Join us as we bring you up to speed on the future of the stack and how you can prepare for what’s next to come.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Emerging technologies
▪ Data infrastructure
▪ The future of the stack and how to prepare

These roundtable sessions provide a great opportunity for data leaders to exchange ideas around common industry challenges. These intimate facilitated off the record table discussions give leaders the opportunity to problem solve with peers and discuss strategies around implementation and the future of data and AI.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Exchange of ideas around how you and your fellow industry peers are implementing data strategy within your organizations
▪ Exchange of ideas around current data challenges
▪ Exchange of ideas around leadership and team design

There are many factors that can bring into question the ethics of your data programs, such as bias, inconsistency, security, and transparency to name a few. The existence of these risks affects whether your AI systems should be trusted. Join us for a conversation around ethics and the role it plays in your AI strategy.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Defining an AI strategy
▪ How to effectively build trust in your data
▪ Bias in algorithms

The eCommerce industry has been completely transformed by the advancements in AI and ML. The ability to recommend and personalize products have allowed the industry to grow rapidly. With this growth the ability to effectively harness data from digital platforms have become increasingly challenging.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ The advantages and disadvantages of personalized vs. non-personalized recommendations
▪ Challenges involved with harnessing data for customer recommendations on digital platforms
▪ Primary considerations when deciding to implement a product recommendation engine

Asma Farooq

Product Lead, Advertising

eBay

A practical introduction to (NLP) Natural Language Processing is becoming an essential skill for organizations to gain a competitive edge. By enabling services like chatbots, text-based decision support systems, semantic analysis, threat detection and question answering systems NLP tools are being used to help people get insights from unstructured data and operate more effectively. For this reason, it has become an essential tool for many new business functions. In this immersive workshop you’ll be introduced to NLP techniques and tools with their real-world applications.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Learn and understand popular NLP approaches with interactive examples
▪ Understand how to clean and handle unstructured text data
▪ Complete NLP tasks including text classification, sentiment analysis, text clustering, topic modeling and semantic visualizations

Carlo Lipizzi, Ph.D.

Graduate Engineering Management & Systems Analytics Program Director School of Systems and Enterprise

Stevens Institute of Technology

A strong data team affords you the ability to effectively solve for business problems and leverage the rich resources within data to influence your company’s direction for the future. Lean in on this discuss with Data Science leaders as they share their struggles and successes in organizing data science teams.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How to best organize data teams within an organization
▪ The key to hiring and retaining top notch talent
▪ Team fluency around financial and business metrics

Meghan Anzelc

Head of Data & Analytics

Spencer Stuart

These intimate solutions focused roundtables offer you a great opportunity to check in with industry leaders about the state of your data and AI health. These off the record discussions are great ways to get guidance for your most pressing questions around your data and AI journey.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Current data and AI challenges you and your industry peers are facing
▪ Sourcing AI for your business needs
▪ How to incorporate AI/ML in to the your organization

At Tencent Games, all decisions are data driven. Data mining techniques are applied to huge data sets collected from 200+ games to provide end to end big data analytic solutions. In this session , you will learn how they apply various predictive modeling techniques throughout the customer life cycle to improve user experience and optimize marketing. They will present use cases on new user acquisition,  user monetization, user retention , churn pre dictions, and item recommendation.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How big data transforms the gaming industry
▪ Data science solutions at scale throughout user life cycle
▪ How to choose an appropriate algorithm for a specific problem

Qiaolin Chen

Director of Data Science

Tencent Games

Developing an internal data science capability requires a major cultural shift and a strategic mapping process which align your business objectives. In order to be effective, you need technical infrastructure that support new processes and organizational structure that can alter business practices that create measurable efficacy.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Opportunities for data science to identify and prioritize value for your organization
▪ Recruiting, retaining, and goal setting for team members
▪ Budgeting and hiring for business objectives

Haftan Eckholdt

Chief Data Officer & Chief Science Officer

Understood.Org

Wayfair launched the CastleGate program, a leading drop-ship operation in 2014, helping 300+ suppliers boost sales by delivering products to customers faster, safer, and at a lower cost than ever before. As they expanded their supplier partnership footprint in CastleGate, it was critical for them to quantify incremental dollar impact of entering a product in the program. This translated into a challenge for their analytics team due to the absence of historical experimental design. Join us for this session as they share the journey of this project.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ The importance of showing incremental dollar impact
▪ How to push forward in the absence of historical information
▪ How to realistically boost sales

Ankit Mangal

Associate Director, Web Analytics

Wayfair

Gaining support from internal stakeholders is the life or death of many initiatives. Often, projects are rejected because stakeholders don’t have a clear understanding of its possibilities. Discover effective ways to use data visualization to influence stakeholder buy-in.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Using data visualization as a selling tool
▪ How to win over non-technical stakeholders
▪ Data Visualization tools

In order to identify how data can be instrumental in solving key business priorities you much first clarify the business drivers where data can deliver value. Your strategy should clearly demonstrate data’s ROI. As data continues to be imbedded in all industries the only way to maintain relevance within your industry is to create a business strategy lead by data.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Where do your data decisions originate top down or bottom up?
▪ Where are you in your data journey?
▪ Clarifying business objectives

AI-based approaches to prediction are often seen as an unbiased decision-making process. However, algorithms have frequently been found to have biased predictions. Whether due to statistical issues in data collection or labeling, or because of human bias in training data, these issues can impact individuals at a tremendous scale. In this session, we will highlight examples of biased predictive algorithms and cover primary sources of bias in the development of predictive models. We will also discuss best practices that can be used to assess for, and hopefully limit, bias in predictive models.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Understand the limitations of predictive models and the risk for bias in AI
▪ Describe key risks in data or approach to model development that can lead to bias in predictive algorithms
▪ Develop internal methods to assess for and limit

Dr. Wade Schulz, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine & Computational Healthcare Researcher

Yale School of Medicine

In today’s digital marketplace the majority of the digital audience are anonymous. This makes it extremely difficult for many customer facing organizations to get a good understanding of its customer base. Find out how some of the biggest brands are curating effortless digital experiences that is allowing them to attract and retain customers at high rates.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Collecting data around the digital experience
▪ Best practicing in digital analytics
▪ Creating a seamless digital experience

The “Data for Good” movement is increasingly becoming a critical component to many organization’s corporate social responsibility initiative. The benefits of this movement include improved employee engagement, increased brand visibility and greater community engagement. Viz for Social Good is one of the many organizations whose mission is to help non-profit organizations understand their data through attention-grabbing and informative visuals. Discover how to harness the talents of data and analytics specialists to impact social change.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Benefits of incorporating Data for Good into your organization to improve data culture
▪ How to use your expertise and talents to impact humanity
▪ Defining Data for Good and methods of engagement within your organization

Vanitha Lucas

Board Member

Viz for Social Good

Join us for an in-depth look at how machines are taking lessons from their human counterparts. Discover how machines are becoming more humanized in order to be effective at finding the best insights.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Human-centered design
▪ Human behavior patterns
▪ Effective implementation of emerging technology

Application of Image Based KNN and Anomaly Detection to Product Type Classification

In e-commerce product catalog, product types have a significant influence on customer journey starting from product discovery. Image-based classification approaches do not have high enough precision by itself to be used in production. On the other hand, text-based classification models are challenged by noisy input data, flattened product type hierarchy, and certain kitchen sink product types.

By combining image based KNN with anomaly detection, the speaker will demonstrate how to detect product type errors in an unsupervised manner.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How to use anomaly detection to validate golden data set
▪ How to optimize recall/precision of image based KNN
▪ How to build end-to-end misclassification detection pipeline for large scale catalog

Binwei Yang, PhD

Distinguished Engineer, Merchant Technology Data Science,

Walmart Labs

In this hands-on workshop attendees will have an opportunity to build their very own neural network. We’ve created a safe space for you to play around and test your skills and theories. Whether it’s your first time or you are a pro; I’m sure you’ll gain great insights from your conference colleagues.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Popular tools for building networks
▪ Best practices in data science and infrastructure
▪ Effective uses of neural networks

There are so many aspects that go into creating a data science CoE. Funding, who will spearhead the effort and building the best teams. In this session you’ll hear how companies are stepping up to the challenge of taking charge of their data.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

▪ Funding your Data Science CoE
▪ Data Culture
▪ Curating a team of unicorns

The goal of every data science team is to make a significant impact on the business. Teams work hard building some amazing and extremely useful tools that never see the light of day and their potential impact never realized. Join us as we uncover how to organize the development process to keep engagement high and demonstrate added value along the way.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Obstacles faced by data scientists their data projects
▪ How to restructure development, get accurate feedback and demonstrate value
▪ How to keep stakeholders involved during project journey. From exploration to implementation

Morgan Cundiff

Data Scientist

ShopRunner

The ability to attain insights in real time and use those insights to respond to customer needs or make recommendations is a major advantage in the data world. Join us for an intriguing discussion around instant insights and how it has been changing the analytics game.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Challenges with implementing real-time analytics
▪ Incorporating historical data
▪ Privacy rules

Closing the communication gap around data must be a priority for any company whose goal is to use data as a revenue generator. Join us for a conversation around making data the universal language of your company.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Organization wide data fluency
▪ Data Strategy
▪ Closing the communication gap

2020 will be a historic year economically and politically. Various factors are impacting the economic cycle including GDP, interest rates, and consumer spending, all of which directly affect your organization. As finance executives, your priority is to appropriately manage to spend and increase profitability, while preparing for the backlash of the presidential election and
a recession.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How the government’s deficit spending affects finance
▪ The ripple effect of expunged student debt
▪ What the future of healthcare looks like, depending on who is elected

Stephanie Kelton

Former Chief Economist, U.S. Senate Budget Committee, Leading Expert on Modern Monetary Theory & Professor of Economics and Public Policy

Stony Brook University

The necessary implementation of technology platforms helps streamline finance processes and launch your organization into new growth. AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities allow for increased personalization and optimization of finance operations.
In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How to integrate technology platforms within the finance function
▪ The importance of personalization
▪ Understand how to grow your organization through technology

Hosted by: TripActions

Intelligent automation technology has created a new reality for risk management, audit, and control. Welcome to the end of control sampling and say hello to 100%. The new reality is that audit firms are no longer asking for a few samples to test your controls. They simply want access to everything: the whole ledger, and every single journal entry.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Utilizing modern tools to identify trends, risks, and outliers that were never possible
▪ Using intelligent automation in your the operation to eliminate control risks
▪ Ensuring you are ready when your external auditor simply wants everything

Lee Coulter

Chief Executive Officer, Transform AI & Chair

IEEE

FP&A teams play a crucial role in achieving budgeting, forecasting, and analysis goals. As FP&A teams evolve, the competencies members need also change. Critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, among other skills, gain in importance.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How the FP&A role is morphing as it gains prominence
▪ Obtaining better data and increasing efficiency as the teams grow
▪ Staying on track with delivering meaningful and strategic value

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected] or 646-380-9200.

The CFO’s Crucial Role in Digital Transformation* Digital transformation utilizes technology that helps an organization create efficient operations and processes, but what’s the role of the CFO and finance? The top priority is to decide which internal funding requests to prioritize. Which funding requests deserve priority? And how much financial investment should they get, both in the short and long term?

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Finance’s role in creating and prioritizing a digital agenda
▪ Adapting to digital disruption and pivoting to competitive business models
▪ Ensuring digital investments launch your organization into new growth and profitability

Prevedere

In recent years, FP&A has emerged as a crucial function within finance. There is an increased need for an organization to obtain real-time data insights regarding products and services. Developing a strategic long-range plan, identifying resources to implement projects, and understanding how operational plans will drive financial results are a few key principles that benefit FP&A.

This session will explore:
▪ Identifying specific targets and hold teams accounting for results
▪ Establishing KPIs that drive business success
▪ Monitoring the results of KPIs and the link to financial incentives

Ivan Ouzounov

Vice President Financial Planning and Analysis

Power Stop LLC

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

Finance plays a very important role in the promotion and advancement of organization-wide sustainability initiatives and tackling climate change issues that could impact the business. In particular, finance has a massive opportunity to trail-blaze new sustainable strategies and capitalize on the multi-level benefits that green finance practices offer. In addition, as the main financial adviser to the CEO, investors, and shareholders, CFOs can create and present strategies that will positively affect their companies’ bottom lines, while also making a positive impact on the environment.

This session will address:
▪ Integrate sustainability into the core of existing businesses and new business models
▪ Steering the entire organization to focus on the importance of climate change and the drive for cleaner economic growth
▪ Moving beyond reporting on energy costs and carbon impact to prioritizing operations that minimize environmental impact

Vistra

FP&A is expected to forecast, plan, and analyze a company’s financial and operating performance for the near future. However, organizations often fall short of being able to predict how much growth and investment products & services will drive in the coming years. This session will cover some of the best practices in forecasting, including the use of rolling forecasts, instead of a traditional budget, to allow for real-time responsiveness.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Examining forecast assumptions with a critical eye to improve accuracy
▪ How to make better guesses and prepare for the unknown
▪ Understanding the politics of financial uncertainty and what adequate predictions entail

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

The CFO does not really control the financial success of the organization. That outcome is determined by the decisions made by everyone in the organization every day.

Building a bridge to teach and engage non-financial leaders to understand how the choices they make affect the organization’s success is vital.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Where do you start to build the bridge?
▪ What processes can be used to engage non-financial leaders?
▪ How can you ensure sustained success?

Denise Chamberlain

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

EdwardElmhurst Health

Companies face uncertain economic times, forcing FP&A executives and CFOs to find ways to improve the accuracy of financial planning and sharpen data-driven insights. Technology tools can help strengthen forecast accuracy and enrich data insights, but the real benefit comes from better processes and practices.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Producing a rolling forecast to understand business performance shifts
▪ Tracking real-time performance against objectives to improve agility
▪ Using feedback to discover what works and what doesn’t

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

As the expectations of finance change, there is an increased bias towards talent management and a higher demand for finance business partnering initiatives. Finance executives must stay abreast of new initiatives regarding talent management and development, successful onboarding, and coaching individuals to prepare for the C-suite.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Investing in finance business partnering capabilities
▪ Developing and managing talent in the finance function
▪ Mentoring and coaching for the C-suite

Tom De Weerdt

Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President

Mauser Packaging

Today, many companies are solving critical financial and strategic challenges through digital transformation. A key priority in a transformation is gaining the ability to analyze data to make smarter decisions, rather than the historical norm of basing them on gut instinct. However, how does the CFO push the finance organization to reach these heights? And how can a CFO accelerate the finance team’s shift from performing low-value, manual work to providing analytics-rich internal financial advice enabled by cutting-edge automation?

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Utilizing technologies like robotic process automation and machine learning to make operations and processes more efficient
▪ Ensuring finance has the right technology and talent to support the business’s future needs
▪ Positioning finance organizationally to be a better business partner

John Lausas

Vice President of Finance & Corporate Controller

Chamberlain Group (CGI)

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

The rise of digital transformation has been steering consumers away from cash and creating a demand for fast, frictionless payments. New technologies and companies are finding ways to bring more streamlined international payment services to businesses of all stripes. With the expansion of these digital payment services, an organization can broaden its business initiatives into new terrain.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Improving accuracy and mobility through the implementation of automated payment services
▪ Providing business customers with an easy, accessible way to buy goods or services from your organization
▪ Save money on bill pay processing by optimizing automated payment services

As the cyber risk landscape continues to evolve, all organizations must be prepared to respond to potential data security & privacy threats. Failure to communicate effectively and with expediency on these and other important issues can damage the business by eroding trust, tarnishing the brand reputation and undermining competitiveness. As a result, stakeholders expect organizations to develop, maintain and execute a robust capability to manage and mitigate reputational risk effectively.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Understanding the evolution of today’s risk landscape
▪ How to communicate effectively in response to data security & privacy issues, and how to avoid common communication missteps
▪ Budgeting for critical solutions to combat the attacker’s evolving tactics

Jamie Singer

Senior Vice President Crisis & Risk Management

Edelman

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and
clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

Finance executives, especially Treasurers and Controllers, often have the end goal of earning the CFO title within an organization. Navigating internal growth opportunities as well as the job market gives insight into the availability of positions including the desired skill-sets companies are asking for.

This session will explore:
▪ Understanding the competencies needed to be a CFO
▪ Strengthening your personal brand
▪ What to expect when working with recruiters

Panelists:

Mark Noffke, CPA

Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President

Flying Food Group

Steven A. Bourne, CPA

Chief Financial Officer, Secretary & Treasurer

Clarus Therapeutics

The 2020 presidential election may unearth insecurities within your organization, especially when evaluating the aftermath of the vote. Tax-free income may be brought to light especially considering the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and changes made with the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA).

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Understanding the implications of the 2020 presidential election on business taxation trends
▪ How changes pertaining to taxes and healthcare can directly impact your bottom line
▪ How potential changes in international taxation may affect operations domestically and abroad

Lyndsey Zhang, MBA

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Boardroom&Beyond

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

Although the U.S. economy is fairly stable, the word “recession” is still being uttered by economists and CFOs, and uncertainty and fear of a sustained downturn still dogs business planning. Fortunately, organizations have had ample time to position themselves to withstand uncertain economic times.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Prepare for a gradual or sudden downturn in the global economy
▪ Position a business for stability as economic growth slows or turns negative
▪ Identify financial risks and forecast the effects on investment, spending, and capital-raising

Panelists:

Yang Xu

Vice President & Global Treasurer

The Kraft Heinz Company

Deanna Strable

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Principal Financial Group

The spread of the coronavirus virus cut quickly into global trade flows and threatened the financial well-being of some companies. Understanding and preparing for epidemics, as well as other Black Swans, requires thoughtful planning. That said, it’s absolutely necessary to protect a business from unpredictable, turbulent events.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How to identify an epidemic and its attendant threats
▪ Putting into action strategic risk assessments for all kinds of catastrophic hazards
▪ Developing a plan to manage post-event consequences

Hear from leading finance executives on their experience as women in leadership and what barriers they’re fighting to overcome to gain a seat at the table

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How to face the ‘glass cliff’ – taking over a CFO job when the probability for failure is high
▪ How to build a team of advocates and collaborators to ensure success
▪ Making a concerted effort to promote gender diversity in your organization

Panelists:

Moderator:

Denise Chamberlain

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

EdwardElmhurst Health

Tiffany Harper

First Deputy Treasurer & Chief of Staff

City of Chicago

Yang Xu

Vice President & Global Treasurer

The Kraft Heinz Company

Deanna Strable

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Principal Financial Group

Brenna Albert

Global Controller

Medline Industries

The presidential election four years ago brought massive uncertainty, but this time around may be even more challenging.
The polarization of politics could mean a massive swing in business regulations, taxes, and investment depending on what party wins the White House and Congress. How can organizations prepare for different election outcomes?

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Strengthening the organization’s finances to withstand economic disruptions
▪ Managing through events that could unsettle financial markets and curb demand for products and services
▪ Navigating policy changes in an altered business environment post-election

Due to hyper-growth and an ever-changing regulatory landscape, the U.S. cannabis industry provides unique challenges to finance professionals entering the space. Consistent with the theme of evolution in today’s world of finance, leaders in this industry are required to maintain focus on long-term goals and core values, even when strategies may need to unexpectedly shift due to rapidly developing market factors and regulatory changes. However, broad lessons can be learned about navigating and managing change, building a diverse team with skillsets needed for success in an evolving industry, and solving unexpected problems on a day-to-day basis.

This session will explore:
▪ Background of the regulated U.S. cannabis industry and the emergence of public companies in the space
▪ Navigating change and driving the evolution of a finance organization
▪ Problem-solving and resourcefulness in the face of a unique set of circumstances or challenges

Brenna Albert

Global Controller

Medline Industries

FP&A executives are tasked with sourcing and collecting accurate information to forecast data-driven insights. However, many organizations do not have a healthy framework for collecting and storing data and preventing user error and data corruption.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Capturing information with less error and more clarity, strengthening forecast accuracy
▪ Developing best practices for sourcing, protecting, and sourcing data
▪ Implementing forecast solutions that ensure end-to-end data integrity

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

The sustainability and societal impact of a company or business is a major determinant for many investors today. How can finance executives shoulder the responsibility to ensure social and environmental viability?

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Ensuring your organization has an ESG framework in place
▪ Navigating the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental
▪ Pursuing sustainable initiatives that produce both environmental and economic benefits

Trying to expeditiously assemble financial plans and forecasts, FP&A executives struggle with traditional accounting processes that stall their work. Accounting teams present FP&A with an analysis of the financial figures, but it is produced in such a way that FP&A is left to ask multiple questions. This back and forth process is labor-intensive and time-consuming.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Finding ways for FP&A teams and accounting to work together
▪ Exploring modern accounting processes and systems that make financial data transparent
▪ Recognizing the responsibilities of each role to streamline processes

Matt Galvanoni

Vice President of Finance – North America

Ingredion Incorporated

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected] or 646-380-9200.

Properly translating data across every department within an organization is critical to preserve confidential information. When everyone has access to data, decision-making is expedited and barriers that limit understanding are eliminated. Data democratization is disruptive with the potential to change long-standing business models.

This session will address:
▪ Democratizing your organization through data access
▪ Enabling access through machine learning
▪ Efficiently deliver insights

Corporate Performance Management (CPM) systems have become critical tools for monitoring and managing the organization’s performance, with the most prevalent KPIs covering revenue, ROI, overhead, and operational costs. Implementing the appropriate frameworks will ensure performance management is accurately assessed, giving an organization measurable metrics to enhance decision-making.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Assessing the most important KPIs for your organization
▪ Implementing appropriate frameworks to ensure performance management is accurately
measured.

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected] or 646-380-9200.

Healthcare is one of the largest expenses within an organization. Employers are responsible for covering the benefits of their employees, a cost which is expected to increase over the next year.
Finance executives are tasked with budgeting healthcare costs while ensuring employees still receive quality assistance.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Understanding the varying costs of healthcare
▪ Promoting healthcare benefits to attract talent
▪ Negotiating health plans that fit your organization’s needs and budget

Panelists:

Joe Richmond

Vice President of Finance, Behavioral Health

Kindred Healthcare

Understanding the metrics FP&A needs to meet is essential to achieving the goals of this function. Whether the metrics are based on ROI, closing opportunities, formalizing procedures, or budgeting, tracking them is critical.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Devising the metrics FP&A professionals should be measured on within your organization
▪ Aligning FP&A around the importance of meeting deadlines and achieving goals
▪ Translating performance data into manageable numerical targets

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

Providing a positive consumer experience to drive profit and gain a competitive edge requires changing an organization’s culture. Many businesses underestimate the effort required. How can a CFO help lead the effort and drive best practices and customer-centric processes?

This session will explore:
▪ Developing long-term relationships with customers in the digital age
▪ Understanding customer needs and shifting processes and products to meet them
▪ Pivoting finance to be customer-focused\

Panelists:

Lyndsey Zhang, MBA

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Boardroom&Beyond

Whenever your organization takes on a transformation or improvement project, there is often resistance to change. These transformations directly impact employees and jobs, which could increase frustrations and disrupt streamlined processes. It is important to understand where to customize transformations and where you don’t, especially if your organization is on a global scale.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Operational strategy, process changes, and managing budget
▪ How to deliver transformation appropriately
▪ Budgeting for necessary finance transformations

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

As an organization goes through high growth periods, the nurturing of company culture becomes harder. But losing the culture that brought the organization success could directly impact the quality of talent within your organization.

This session will cover:
▪ How to create team-building events to enhance company culture and a feeling of togetherness
▪ How to help employees balance work and life during periods of high stress
▪ Evolving the policies and practices to allow for greater workplace flexibility and better management of remote workers

Jill Skordinski

Corporate Controller

Corelle Brands

Artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled technology solutions continue to flood the market, forcing finance executives to evaluate the solutions available and the benefits they can bring. How do you distinguish between hype and reality? What can AI and machine learning help organizations accomplish in the short and long term?

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ How to build the right team to explore and implement AI &machine learning solutions
▪ How to identify AI use cases and establish enterprise-wide data policies
▪ Expanding the use of algorithms across the organization once they are proved successful in finance operations

Panelists:

Chris Ortega

Chief Executive Officer

Fresh FP&A

Workshops at CFO Live are an exclusive opportunity to truly engage your prospects and clients by hosting a unique and exclusive deep-dive breakout session. Capped at four workshops over two days, these events within an event allow your organization to present its content to a select audience. Our content & production team will work closely with you to create a thoughtful and engaging session.

Interested in a workshop opportunity? Contact Argyle on [email protected]
or 646-380-9200.

The requirements of today’s CFOs are ultimately more diverse, complicated, and sweeping. They are expected to not only provide counsel to the CEO but to perform a key role in identifying strategic growth opportunities for the business.
There’s an absolute need for CFOs to evolve in their roles, even if not transitioning into a CEO position. This means adopting a more left-brain right-brain balance where, as numbers people, they can also begin to embrace a more creative, problem-solving, and intelligent risk-taking attitude when it’s needed.

This session will explore:
▪ Balancing fiscal prudence with a broader perspective on the benefits of investing in people, training and technologies
▪ Developing a more collaborate attitude
▪ Bringing a future-forward perspective that requires giving up control of some day-to-day details

Suk Shah

MBA, Chief Financial Officer

Guaranteed Rate

Ozan Kaya

Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer

ShopRunner

Developed and talented finance teams often become direct targets for recruiters which results in competitors poaching seasoned talent. Organizations can prevent that by analyzing the competitive landscape for new hires and assessing whether the salaries, benefits, and opportunities you offer new and seasoned employees are attractive relative to the competition.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:
▪ Understanding the relationship between your organization’s performance and hired talent
▪ Recruiting productive and talented professionals to increase productivity and company value
▪ Avoiding the threat of competitor’s poaching your outstanding performers

As CX professionals, it’s no surprise when we come across higher level executives who don’t necessarily understand our plans of action. So how do you get these important decision makers to listen? Speak their language. This means taking company data and transforming it into true actional value in order to explicitly convey what you need from them and why you absolutely need it. Hear from James Woloszyn from HPE tell a story on just how he was able to convert opportunities into the company’s bottom line in an effort to win over key stakeholders.

Topics of discussion include, but are not limited to:

• Defining ROI in both a qualitative and quantitative way
• How to capture your data and mine for insights at a fast pace
• What happens when you get it right and what happens when you get it wrong

James Woloszyn

Vice President, Worldwide Customer Advocacy

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Beyond products, services and price, companies today are competing on delivering a memorable and predictable customer experience. Competing on CX involves investments in technology, systems integration, and channel harmonization and it requires investments and proper allocation of resources.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• How valuable customer experience is compared to other investments
• What aspects of customer experience are most important to consumers
• How to calculate the value of a superior customer experience to your organization

Hosted by: ARM TreasureData

Steven Tsao

Digital Marketing Futurist

ARM Treasure Data

As consumers are becoming more technologically driven and savvy, so are brands. With the uptick in using technology for everyday purposes, organizations are taking advantage by implementing services and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms into their customer experience initiatives. With that in mind, it’s important for CX professionals to understand the full potential these capabilities can offer their program initiatives.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Understanding benefit of integrating automated services and technologies
• Obtaining data to understand why consumers are using these platforms for brand interaction
• Learning the future direction(s) of these capabilities

Shiva Mathur

Vice President Customer Success

HCL Technologies

CX teams are having a tough time. Our latest state of the nation survey suggests that CX programs are still struggling to make an impact on the business. This can’t go on. It’s time for a CX revolution.

But what will drive the revolution?

Like any revolution – it’s about people. More specifically, the skills you have in your CX team.

In this presentation, Bob McGinn, Director of Customer Experience Consulting will share the results of the new research and highlight ways for CX professionals to really make their mark. Bob will set the stage with a look at how the world of CX looks for 2020 and focus on how CX professionals can break out of the box and drive real business change.

Join Bob to learn:

• The key skills you need in your team (spoiler alert – it’s not all analytics!)
• How to use those skills to have an impact across the business
• Ways to engage with teams across the business so CX is at the heart of decision-making

Hosted by: Confirmit

Bob McGinn

Director CX Consulting

Confirmit

With more than 50% of web traffic coming from mobile devices, mobile has quickly become the new standard for CX and marketing initiatives. Over the years mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop usage – and companies that develop their products and surveys using a mobile-first approach are more likely to succeed with their intended objectives. For many consumers, it’s their first interaction with a brand and they expect your mobile website to function just as well as your desktop version. That said, meeting, and/or exceeding those expectations is vital to earning loyal customers.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• How to effectively link your customer loyalty program with your mobile app
• Focus on making the mobile purchasing experience seamless
• Review of the benefits of innovative website apps
• Utilizing customer feedback to prioritize future engagement

Moderator:

David Farris, MBA

Director, Worldwide Customer Experience

EA Sports at Electronic Arts (EA)

Panelists:

Michael Hoffman

Director of Ecommerce & Customer Service

Rainbow Apparel Co

Matt Wilson

VP of Experience and Quality

Altice USA

Jim McKeown

VP of Customer Experience & Mobility

Selective Insurance

Mary Salvatera

Senior Creative Director, Customer Experience

Comcast, NBC Universal

What does it take to develop a differentiated Customer Experience? Sure, systems, unified platforms make a difference, but what are the singular factors that determine how to drive your Customer’s to an Outcome vs helping them (and you) achieve the RIGHT outcome. Join MQ Qureshi as he talks about how to achieve great digital & customer experiences.

Highlights of this session include:

• Understanding context and knowing your audience
• Knowing what you are making
• Planning to succeed, making it beautiful, and adding sizzle

MQ Qureshi

Head of Digital Product Experience

ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers

Central to the mission of making work better for employees is establishing a communication channel between the end users and the stakeholders. Continuous monitoring and improvement of key CIO initiatives is critical to success. Hear from Claude Elle at IBM on the benefits of a continuous feedback mechanism.

Hosted by: Usabilla

Claude Elie

CIO Design Research and Analytics Lead

IBM

Developing tactics for customer experience and service can come together seamlessly in most industries when additional factors don’t influence the process. However, when serving the needs of consumers in organizations with strict compliance frameworks, rules and processes can look different, making it difficult for CX professionals to achieve team goals. Within these industries, CX teams must work alongside other departments to ensure they are not crossing any boundaries or laws when implementing effective plans.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Understanding the processes in regulated industries for CX professionals
• Defining and executing initiatives when other risk factors come into play
• Comparing CX campaigns and actions that seem seamless to many brands to those of high-risk organizations

Moderator:

Phil Burrows

Senior Director, Head of Consumer Digital Sales & Experience

Verizon

Panelists:

Scott Wilson

Customer Experience Principal

FedEx

Matthew Larson

Senior Director, Client Experience

Optum

As CX and marketing executives, you know that an exceptional customer experience can lift your brand and lead to growth. However, building engagement across the organization to put the customer at the center of your strategy can sometimes feel like pushing a boulder up a hill. How do you rally your entire organization to embed a client-first perspective within their workflows? Hear how S&P Global Market Intelligence took a journey-centric approach to ACT on their customers’ behalf and deliver superior customer experience:

Topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Analyze and adapt: define and measure your most important customer experience interactions and build on your strengths
• Create culture: gain internal buy-in from all functions and set goals that put that customer at the center of your strategy
• Talent and technology: balance your resources of humans and machines for the highest quality customer touchpoints

Moderator:

Meredith Binder

Chief Marketing Officer

S&P Global Market Intelligence

Panelists:

Mary Salvatera

Senior Creative Director, Customer Experience

Comcast, NBC Universal

Patrick Waller

Director of eCommerce - OtterBox, LifeProof, Liviri

Otter Products

Sherif Mityas

Chief Experience Officer

TGI Fridays

The role of the Chief Marketing Officer continues to change.  Today’s CMO is a brand shepherd guiding their team and overall organization to achieve a reputable brand identity in a highly competitive marketplace.  However, with the traditional purpose of marketing changing faster than imagined, CMOs now need to shift their priorities individually, departmentally and organizationally, in order to spearhead successful initiatives.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Implementing a diverse and effective marketing team to keep up with new industry hurdles
• Sustaining an effective leadership role through the ever-changing marketing environment
• Defining past, present and future directions, as a C-Suite executive

Dawn Bradshaw

Chief Marketing Officer

Wintrust Mortgage

From elevated customer expectations to pressure on driving growth and life-time value, today’s marketing leaders face new challenges every day.  But with customers and ROI at the center of all decisions, it’s given the modern marketer a new opportunity; to lead.

In this session, you will be walked through not only how marketers can survive, but thrive in today’s connected world.  She will also share how Microsoft Marketing has helped lead the company while it’s gone through its own digital transformation.

Hosted by: Microsoft

Valerie Beaulieu

Chief Marketing Officer

Microsoft, US

In the past, marketing was typically viewed as a technical action that drove engagement, raised brand awareness, and increased revenue.  However, marketing is more than the science behind numbers, it’s an art form that must also be viewed through a creative lens.  By maintaining a creative mindset, marketing campaigns and initiatives have a higher potential for visionary freedom, which in turn will drive greater results.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Seeing success with creative marketing initiatives in both typical and atypical industries
• Developing marketing initiatives while keeping the marriage of art and science in mind
• Understanding the importance of visuals in traditional and non-traditional marketing campaigns

Moderator:

Keith McCluskey

Senior Director of Online Strategy, Office of Communications

Harvard Law School

Panelists:

Tiana Conley

Vice President, Global Brands

Kellogg Company

Britten Follett

Executive Vice President

Follett School Solutions

Andrea DeWerd

Senior Marketing Director

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Publishing

Stefanie Rowe

Director of Sales & Marketing

Hotel EMC2

All too often MTA implementations focus on the technical application, but marketers should take care to focus on the people and process side of choosing and deploying multi-touch attribution for their marketing organization. This presentation, geared for marketers deploying MTA within their organization, will walk through the technical and organizational challenges involved in changing the way your team attributes revenue and assigns budgets.

Hosted by: Arm Treasure Data

Scott Mitchell

Manager Solution Engineering

Arm Treasure Data

The marketing, technology and consumer behavior landscape has shifted dramatically since the pandemic began. As we adjust to this new normal, how have marketers pivoted and what’s next? Organizations are being restructured to work from home, adjust to quarantine services, and forcing businesses to make painful sacrifices in every department. Meanwhile, the media and e-commerce landscape have dramatically shifted, creating opportunities and turmoil. What areas do you prioritize and how do you keep your team motivated and engaged?

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• People: How to empathetically engage and motivate your teams?
• Purpose: What does your brand purpose have to do with Covid-19 communications?
• Priorities: How to prioritize and help teams prioritize?

Akash Pathak

Former Vice President & Head of Marketing

Trunk Club

Until recently, marketing and sales were looked at as two different functions within an organization.  One of marketing’s main responsibilities is to promote an organization and its products, whereas the role of sales is to generate revenue through customer engagement.  However, as the importance of cross-functional roles become crucial for growth, marketing and sales must work in tandem to seamlessly achieve powerful ROI and long-term success.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Creating initiatives where both departments work together in order to meet project goals
• Implementing plans for open communication between marketing and sales divisions
• Streamlining practices and obligations to better aid both teams in their efforts

Moderator:

Yolanda Hernandez

Former Vice President, Digital Marketing Operations

Tribune Publishing Company

Panelists:

David Partain

FlexShares Chief Marketing Officer

Northern Trust Corporation

Kristin Fassler

Senior Vice President, Director of Integrated Marketing Strategy

Penguin Random House

Brian Ludwig

Senior Vice President of Sales

Cvent

The global pandemic has negatively impacted individuals on personal, workplace, and community levels.  During these trying times, organizations must tread lightly, and marketers must especially be careful to not use insensitive language while still trying to promote their brand.  Avoiding controversies during an unprecedented time is tricky, so what can your organization do?

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Staying abreast to developments pertaining to the coronavirus
• Taking precautions to avoid using insensitive language
• Remaining calm and not overacting to damage your brand name

Andrew Yang

Senior Director of Global Marketing

Cytiva

Targeting consumers through personalized marketing, or one-to-one marketing, is a long-trending strategy that allows organizations to leverage data and develop positive consumer relationships.  That said, it’s important for marketing executives to understand if a customized messaging campaign is indeed effective for their campaigns, and if so, what are the best techniques to make their customer feel important?

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Observing results and data in personalized marketing
• Comparing the benefits and losses between personalized and mass marketing campaigns
• Learning consumer psychology behind personalized marketing

Santhosh Lakkaraju, PhD

Associate Director of Marketing Analytics

University of Notre Dame

Bill Martin

Executive Director of Marketing, Communications, and Customer Experience

Indiana University Health Plans

Corporate business development is a strategic framework used to identify, define, analyze and prioritize a list of relevant acquisition target opportunities.  The purpose is to strengthen the competitive position of the company and accelerate its growth through a proactive, calculated acquisition strategy.

Attend this insightful session to learn more about:

• Deal identification, sourcing, analysis and execution
• Best practices for deal flow productivity
• Expanding options for deal-maker effectiveness

Edward P. Richards, Jr.

Vice President, Corporate Business Development

The Lubrizol Corporation

In times of uncertainty and beyond, CFOs are being challenged to digitize finance. This need to reinvent is a journey on which many CFOs are travelling, embracing the challenges and the opportunities offered by today’s technologies. Finance leaders are playing instrumental roles in this ‘inside-out’ revolution of reinvention in order to achieve cost clarity, efficiently develop new business architectures, and reinvent finance processes by re-engineering cognitive-fueled workflows. Redesigning more intelligent workflows and processes is knitted together through the power of exponential technologies (including AI, advanced analytics, automaton, blockchain, IoT, etc.) and fresh combinations of data.

This chat will explore how today’s enterprises are radically changing both how work gets done and how new value is realized. Finance leaders are identifying differentiating and value-creating workflows and then reimagining them using exponential technologies across the people, processes and data framework.

In this fireside chat we will discuss:

• How CFOs in the most successful enterprises are realizing the strategic value of data to achieve material improvements in performance
• Examples of how CFOs are using data as a strategic asset to deliver deeply nuanced, individualized experiences powered by sophisticated, intelligent operations will be shared

Hosted by: IBM

Thomas Fisher

Global Finance Transformation Practice Leader

IBM

Roxi Wen, CFA

Chief Financial Officer

Mozilla

All companies across the globe are navigating through the Coronavirus pandemic, causing everyone to navigate the digital landscape in ways they have never attempted.  If we’re all in this together, why is it some companies are adapting to this new digital landscape better than others?  What differentiates the successful companies? How will this digital acceleration affect the future of the workplace?

Topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• How digital maturity is differentiating successful companies from those that are struggling
• Embracing a more remote future and its possible impacts
• How using digital acceleration brings value to its customers

Amit P. Shroff

Former Vice President, Toyota Financial Services

Toyota, North America

The role of today’s CFO extends well beyond the traditional finance function. CFOs play an active and vital role in leading an innovative culture.  With that in mind, in this session, we will discuss how you can have a strong impact on driving innovation within your organization, as well as hear real-life examples of how this has been put into action.

Attend this session to learn more about:

• Investments in technology that are being made to improve operational performance
• Ways has the implementation of new technologies allowed you to reduce cost, increase ROI, gain a competitive advantage, and drive change in business processes?
• How to best utilize Intelligent Automation (AI, ML, RPA, etc.) technologies to efficiently define competitive advantage and overcome business challenges
• Harnessing the power of data analytics, as an effective business intelligence tool and resource

Join this session for the opportunity to earn 1 CPE credit! 

Moderator:

Joe Fleischer

BILL

Panelists:

Daniel Perez, CTP

Director, Assistant Treasurer

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey

Roxi Wen, CFA

Chief Financial Officer

Mozilla

Steven Soter

Senior Director of Product Marketing & Accounting Industry Principal

Workiva

Jim Gahagan

Principal Solutions Marketing Manager, Financial Services

Workday

As organizations around the globe go through, or have gone through, drastic changes in their company and how they conduct business, sustaining and nurturing a company’s culture becomes very difficult.  But losing the culture that brought the organization success could directly impact the quality of talent within your organization, which must be addressed by every functional area of an organization, including finance.

This session will cover:

• How to create and retain company culture and a feeling of togetherness
• How to help employees balance work (and maybe still working from home) and life during periods of high stress and global crisis
• Evolving the policies and practices to allow for greater workplace flexibility and better management of remote workers

Join this session for the opportunity to earn 1 CPE credit! 

Moderator:

Joe Fleischer

BILL

Panelists:

Heidi B. Bacote, MBA

Associate, Civil Commercial Group, Consulting and Mission Operations (Atlanta)

Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.

Larry Bitton

Vice President of Finance

Nihon Kohden America

Tabrez Malik

CFO Engineered & Product Solutions, Critical Power

ABB

Ben Marzouk

Executive Director of Finance

AbbVie

As the global pandemic takes the nation by storm, organizations are forced to pivot their business and embrace a new “normal”. The responsibilities of a CFO begin to grow, and it becomes crucial to bridge all c-level roles within an organization, especially during a time of crisis. Online workforces and online education have become standards for employees and students with a return to in-person normality a distant thought.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• CFO Responsibilities including strategy, risk management, compliance, and operations
• How to stay positive, productive, and healthy both physically and mentally during the transition to the new normality
• Stanford University Aluminums Women Circle

P. Y. Nicole Chang

Chief Executive Officer & President

CF Global Enterprises, Inc.

Lyndsey Zhang, MBA

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Boardroom&Beyond

HR departments are knee-deep in people data. Yet, many organizations struggle to turn collected metrics and analytics into actionable business initiatives. In this session, you will learn how many organizations are utilizing data to enhance and create business strategies that drive workforce success.

Key takeaways will include:

• How to master the workforce data dilemma and what to measure?
• How to create a people analytics action plan for your company
• Optimizing data usage to align your current and future workforce with strategic goals
• Tips for overcoming common HR challenges to gaining internal support for analytics initiatives

Lydia Wu

Head of Talent Analytics & Transformation

Panasonic

Experiences in the workplaces are often designed in the absence of knowing what employees really want or need. Organizations deploy annual or bi-annual engagement surveys, but these tools lack the ability to understand employees in their day-to-day work life and fail to uncover emerging risks and detect patterns in employee attitudes. By not engaging employees at a more frequent cadence, companies are at risk of acting too late on issues that have real impact on employee sentiment.

This conversation will focus on why Employee Experience must shift from an HR-only priority but grow to a company-wide initiative to gain a more real-time understanding of how employees are doing and what can be done to improve their experience across the organization. Our discussion will empower you to:

• Break down silos and partner with teams across the organization to help capture the voice of employees and better understand worker and management needs
• Develop an employee pulsing strategy that considers the right frequency and types of signals
• Act on evolving employee sentiments in the moment, not after

Hosted by: Medallia

Melissa Arronte, Ph.D

Solution Principal, Employee Experience

Medallia

Neynes Ladha

Digital Solutions, Service & Improvement Director

BT

From recruitment to mentoring, human resources professionals stand at the forefront of strategy for diversity and inclusion.  Survey after survey shows that companies that hire more dynamically in terms of gender, culture and ethnicities, outperform employers that fail to make diversity a priority. From recruiting, to rewards and recognition, being a diverse and inclusive organization requires a whole new way of hiring and managing talent.

Beyond compliance legislation and the latest headline news, this session will drill down on:

• How innovative companies are advancing their D&I goals
• Ways that HR technologies can help improve diversity & inclusion in the workplace
• How to squelch the dangerous diversity beast called implicit bias
• Proven methods for measuring diversity and inclusion success
• Recognizing and fixing a flawed approach to diversity & inclusion

Moderator:

Natalie Runyon

Director, Enterprise Content, Talent, Culture and Inclusion Strategist, Market Insights

Thomson Reuters

Panelists:

Jeanette Bashford

Global Head of HR, Engineering

Bloomberg

Mario Gagliano

Vice President, Biopharma HR, Emerging Markets

Pfizer

Nicholas Iadevaio

Vice President of Human Resources

L'Oreal USA

Demetria Johnson

DEI & Talent Expert

As every great human capital leader knows, the secret to success is thinking proactively.  But even the best and brightest could not have prepared for a global shutdown, mass layoffs, and the instantaneous alteration of an entire workforce.  Looking one step ahead keeps your workforce agile and ready for what might come.  Now more than ever, leaders must focus on the future of work.  This session will revisit lessons learned during the COVID-19 shutdown, ways to develop organizational responses to the impacts of current and future crisis, and how to help hire, cultivate and reorient talent strategies.

Topics of discussion include, but are not limited to:

• Addressing the challenges and opportunities brought on by the COVID-19 crisis
• Ways to invest in continuous learning, improve company culture and help employees adjust to the new normal
• Identify the technology and processes that worked, and those that failed during the crisis and which types of tech smart companies are investing in now

Laura Lee

Executive Coach & HR Consultant (Retired CHRO - MGM Resorts)

HR software is evolving at warp speed!  From chatbots to virtual reality, technology is transforming the way HR does business.  Keeping up with all the opportunities and innovations to make HR processes more efficient and effective is a challenge for even the most tech-savvy HR professionals.  Attend this panel discussion to learn how top companies are combining intelligent technology with human ingenuity, and which HR technology types drive the most significant results and value.

Topics of discussion include, but are not limited to:

• HRIS and beyond- the past, present and future of HR software
• Latest HR software technologies (enhanced hiring, chatbots, virtual reality, cloud-based HR, Employee Wellness, data security & more) and how companies are using them to automate & streamline processes
• Real-life stories of evaluation, selection and planning to help your organization find the right technology for your goals
• Getting the most bang for your tech buck

Moderator:

Monique Jefferson

Chief People Officer

Community Preservation Corporation

Panelists:

Jeffrey Galusha

Vice President, Global HRIS

Sotheby's

Jeremy D. Preston

Information Systems, IT Director – HR & Legal

The Dow Chemical Company

Fundamentally, work is being disrupted, and the need for ‘digital’ and associated relevant skills – such as adaptability, critical thinking, data sciences, and application development – is critical.  Given the tight talent market, organizations have turned internally to their workforces to digitally upskill talent. Thus far, results are underwhelming.  Only 17% of U.S. CEOs say their upskilling programs have been very effective in filling the gap – there’s much more work to be done.

The good news is that, fundamentally, employees want relevant skills and are willing to learn new skills or completely retrain to improve their future employability.  The challenge is for organizations to align their leadership, technology infrastructure and digital upskilling programs across the talent lifecycle to deliver on transformation in the business.

Attend this session to learn:

• Trends around upskilling and the types of tools and approaches companies are using
• Challenges and common misperceptions — including that upskilled employees tend to leave
• A case study: The PwC story and how they implemented digital upskilling
• Impact and results — on productivity, employee engagement and brand
• Practical steps to get started

Julia Lamm

Partner, Financial Services People And Organization Practice

PwC

Thriving in today’s new normal has thrust senior HR professionals on a journey to resiliency. Building resiliency within an enterprise’s workforce enables it to quickly adapt no matter the crisis.

The critical need is to build and enable a highly productive workforce capable of collaborating, running workshops, executing projects and running business operations in a new normal full of ever-changing conditions. And while most enterprises have come out of the initial chaos of the crisis with a more stabilized and operational footing, HR leaders must now shift their focus to react and adapt for a ‘future unexpected.’

This chat will focus on building out an organization’s ability to respond to changing conditions quickly and effectively and how to balance addressing immediate threats while establishing longer-term success.

Our discussion will empower you to:

• Re-imagine work so that roles could be performed in the most productive way through the lens of location
• Develop a workforce strategy that considers where work can be performed which will change where you hire, train and progress your people
• Transform the skills of your organization using personalized continuously learning in and agile enterprise

Hosted by: IBM

*By attending this IBM session, you will be entered into a raffle to win a $100 Mastercard gift card. This offer is available to eligible Human Resources professionals. You are eligible to be entered into the free prize draw if you meet the following criteria 1) Valid U.S. mailing address 2) Valid email address 3) Must have a title of Director or higher 4) Company revenue must exceed $100M 5) Must reside in the United States. Gift card can take up to 1 week to process if eligible.

Victoria Pelletier

V.P., North America Talent & Transformation Leader

IBM Services

Ola Snow

Chief Human Resources Manager

Cardinal Health

As the COVID-19 global pandemic settled on the world, mobile became the stage on which nearly all businesses relied.  Mobile provides the presentation layer and actionable data that can help drive (and sustain) a digital business, so having the right mobility strategy is key to enabling digital transformation.  In this session we’ll help you understand best practices for embracing mobility and provide real-life business examples and actionable takeaways that will help you identify the right approach for your organization.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Lessons learned during the great shutdown on the importance of mobile strategy and resilience
• Real life examples of how companies are mastering mobile strategies
• Steps to assure your mobile strategy enhances digital transformation objectives

Sean Ginevan

Head of Global Strategy & Digital Partnerships, Android Enterprise

Google

Organizations for many years have explored and implemented cost saving measures to move legacy applications and systems to alternative platforms and incorporate the latest technology solutions. This has proven the stability of mainframe platforms and opened more possibilities, like how much more can be leveraged across open systems and cloud environments.  Mainframes, long thought to be the standard barrier for large scale enterprise solutions, are now being realized as complimentary to alternative platforms.

During this session, you will learn:

• How implementing hybrid offerings that bridge old and new technologies creates more agile processes, enables faster time-to-market, and allows for more complete environments
• How smart companies are using legacy transformation to achieve strategic objectives and greater competitiveness

Hosted by: Micro Focus

Richard (Rick) Truesdale

IT Modernization Advisory

DXC Technology

Augmented intelligence is continuously impacting human innovation and is certainly a trend all IT professionals must be on top of, most especially CIOs and senior-level IT executives.  Furthermore, as more organizations are being tasked to implement AI initiatives, gaining a better understanding of AI, the IoT, and augmented intelligence is essential.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Understanding the evolution of artificial intelligence in relation to augmented intelligence and IoT
• Risks, implications, and benefits associated with AI, the IoT, and augmented intelligence implementation

Moderator:

Dr. Sasi Pillay

Vice President and Chief Information Officer

University of Nevada, Reno

Panelists:

Mark Burnette

Vice President, Digital Insights

Hitachi Vantara

Abhishek Rajpurohit

Global BI & Analytics Lead

PayPal

From big data, to fast data, and now highly decentralized data, organizations are critically challenged with how best to derive insights, drive intelligence initiatives, and take action. These challenges are highlighting a key concern; the rise of dark data.

Takeaways include:

• Learn more about the challenges faced when managing big, fast, decentralized data
• Learn more about dark data and its impact
• Gain insights into approaches used to solve the problem

Hosted by: Boomi

Thameem Khan

General Manager, Data Catalog & Preparation

Boomi

The security industry has many opinions telling you where to focus, what solutions you should buy, what threats you should focus on, and what risks you should mitigate.  As experts in technology, you are tasked with identifying where security teams should place their efforts and resources, and what the latest tools are to keep your organization safe.

In this session, you will learn a common-sense approach to cyber and information security including:

• Evaluating your organization’s security team to ensure the focus remains on crucial areas and that you are managing resources effectively
• How to be sure the numbers drive your program and tool architecture
• The risk of breaches, especially by phishing emails, and how to mitigate risk
• How CISOs can gain buy-in from the board and prove the investment in infosec is “paying off”

Tolgay Kizilelma, PhD

Director of MS in Cybersecurity Program

Dominican University of California

During the COVID-19 global crisis, the importance of cybersecurity has multiplied as remote workers conduct daily tasks on personal devices and outside networks.  But this is just one piece of the cybersecurity puzzle.  As companies digitize and automate operations, cyber risks flourish and even the most innovative, and aggressive IT department can’t protect an organization from a digital disaster.  The true measure of a company’s cybersecurity success is how effectively security programs are tailored, taught and actively pursued in each region, department, and role throughout an organization.

CIOs and senior-level executives must learn how to build a security-driven culture to avoid the escalating threat of a cyber catastrophe.

By attending this session, you will:

• Learn the defining features of a security-driven corporate DNA (and red flags that point to serious security culture issues)
• Gain real-life advice on how to improve and measure company-wide security values, attitudes and initiatives
• Understand practical steps to take when you find security values lacking

Obtain insight into the positive and negative effects of one-size-fits-all security initiatives, and learn how to create security advocates within the organization

Moderator:

Tolgay Kizilelma, PhD

Director of MS in Cybersecurity Program

Dominican University of California

Panelists:

Melissa Bendana

Global Cybersecurity Leader

Roderick Kaleho

Director Security & Risk - IAM, Automation

Cargill

M. Scott Koller

Partner

BakerHostetler | Legal Solutions

Ian Mitroff

Senior Research Affiliate, Center for Catastrophic Risk Management

UC Berkeley

Worldwide, businesses are adapting to the new market conditions by transforming their traditional operating models to meet the new consumer demands and improve productivity, all  while still focusing on achieving growth. In this new era, taking an outside-in approach to digital business ecosystems can help organizations harness their existing resources and relationships to drive new innovation and efficiency.

Digital business ecosystems encompass a network of partners, developers and customers facilitated by modern, cloud-first technologies. They can be made up entirely of internal parties (such as developers within an organization) or can expand to include external individuals and organizations, such as suppliers, third-party providers, customers, developers, regulators, or even competitors.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• The key pillars of a digital business ecosystems strategy
• How leaders in this space are driving business results
• The technology imperatives to build successful digital ecosystems

Pranav Parekh

Head of Customer Success

Apigee

We are a nation are under siege.  Concerns about privacy heighten with every breach and cyberattack.  As a result, new data privacy regulations seem to be popping up every month and the laws that govern data are growing more complex.

By attending this session, you will learn more about the latest federal and trending state legislation in the data privacy space, as well as:

• Legislative predictions for the coming year
• Critical state and federal legislative changes every CIO and CTO need to know
• Current data privacy lawsuits and what they could mean for your organization

Jose Esteves

Partner, Intellectual Property and Technology

Skadden | Legal Solutions

Brian Otten (BOTTEN) and Kay Lummitsch (KLUMM), members of Axway’s global Digital Catalyst Team and trusted advisors, have been helping large organizations all around the world with their digital endeavors. The last six months shook up the world and we’ve all had to change our social habits, business practices and the like. But as with any living system— such as individuals, families, organizations (yes, organizations too), there often needs to be a disturbance or disruption to trigger change.

During this session, you will learn how your organization can use this as momentum and re-think your strategies on how to adapt to digital. THE BOTTEN & KLUMM SHOW LIVE has been broadcasting every Monday and Thursday from Omaha, Nebraska and Zurich, Switzerland to discuss digital topics with guests and tech experts.

This special closing session will discuss the tools you need to inspire the right digital strategy for your organization. Because it’s not a Digital Journey anymore, it’s a Digital Race!

Kay Lummitsch

Digital Catalyst and Coach

Axway

Brian Otten

Digital Transformation Catalyst

Axway

As CX professionals, it’s no surprise when we come across higher level executives who don’t necessarily understand our plans of action. So how do you get these important decision makers to listen? Speak their language. This means taking company data and transforming it into true actional value in order to explicitly convey what you need from them and why you absolutely need it. Hear from James Woloszyn from HPE tell a story on just how he was able to convert opportunities into the company’s bottom line in an effort to win over key stakeholders.

Topics of discussion include, but are not limited to:

• Defining ROI in both a qualitative and quantitative way
• How to capture your data and mine for insights at a fast pace
• What happens when you get it right and what happens when you get it wrong

James Woloszyn

Vice President, Worldwide Customer Advocacy

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Beyond products, services and price, companies today are competing on delivering a memorable and predictable customer experience. Competing on CX involves investments in technology, systems integration, and channel harmonization and it requires investments and proper allocation of resources.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• How valuable customer experience is compared to other investments
• What aspects of customer experience are most important to consumers
• How to calculate the value of a superior customer experience to your organization

Hosted by: ARM TreasureData

Steven Tsao

Digital Marketing Futurist

ARM Treasure Data

As consumers are becoming more technologically driven and savvy, so are brands. With the uptick in using technology for everyday purposes, organizations are taking advantage by implementing services and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms into their customer experience initiatives. With that in mind, it’s important for CX professionals to understand the full potential these capabilities can offer their program initiatives.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Understanding benefit of integrating automated services and technologies
• Obtaining data to understand why consumers are using these platforms for brand interaction
• Learning the future direction(s) of these capabilities

Shiva Mathur

Vice President Customer Success

HCL Technologies

CX teams are having a tough time. Our latest state of the nation survey suggests that CX programs are still struggling to make an impact on the business. This can’t go on. It’s time for a CX revolution.

But what will drive the revolution?

Like any revolution – it’s about people. More specifically, the skills you have in your CX team.

In this presentation, Bob McGinn, Director of Customer Experience Consulting will share the results of the new research and highlight ways for CX professionals to really make their mark. Bob will set the stage with a look at how the world of CX looks for 2020 and focus on how CX professionals can break out of the box and drive real business change.

Join Bob to learn:

• The key skills you need in your team (spoiler alert – it’s not all analytics!)
• How to use those skills to have an impact across the business
• Ways to engage with teams across the business so CX is at the heart of decision-making

Hosted by: Confirmit

Bob McGinn

Director CX Consulting

Confirmit

With more than 50% of web traffic coming from mobile devices, mobile has quickly become the new standard for CX and marketing initiatives. Over the years mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop usage – and companies that develop their products and surveys using a mobile-first approach are more likely to succeed with their intended objectives. For many consumers, it’s their first interaction with a brand and they expect your mobile website to function just as well as your desktop version. That said, meeting, and/or exceeding those expectations is vital to earning loyal customers.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• How to effectively link your customer loyalty program with your mobile app
• Focus on making the mobile purchasing experience seamless
• Review of the benefits of innovative website apps
• Utilizing customer feedback to prioritize future engagement

Moderator:

David Farris, MBA

Director, Worldwide Customer Experience

EA Sports at Electronic Arts (EA)

Panelists:

Michael Hoffman

Director of Ecommerce & Customer Service

Rainbow Apparel Co

Matt Wilson

VP of Experience and Quality

Altice USA

Jim McKeown

VP of Customer Experience & Mobility

Selective Insurance

Mary Salvatera

Senior Creative Director, Customer Experience

Comcast, NBC Universal

What does it take to develop a differentiated Customer Experience? Sure, systems, unified platforms make a difference, but what are the singular factors that determine how to drive your Customer’s to an Outcome vs helping them (and you) achieve the RIGHT outcome. Join MQ Qureshi as he talks about how to achieve great digital & customer experiences.

Highlights of this session include:

• Understanding context and knowing your audience
• Knowing what you are making
• Planning to succeed, making it beautiful, and adding sizzle

MQ Qureshi

Head of Digital Product Experience

ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers

Central to the mission of making work better for employees is establishing a communication channel between the end users and the stakeholders. Continuous monitoring and improvement of key CIO initiatives is critical to success. Hear from Claude Elle at IBM on the benefits of a continuous feedback mechanism.

Hosted by: Usabilla

Claude Elie

CIO Design Research and Analytics Lead

IBM

Developing tactics for customer experience and service can come together seamlessly in most industries when additional factors don’t influence the process. However, when serving the needs of consumers in organizations with strict compliance frameworks, rules and processes can look different, making it difficult for CX professionals to achieve team goals. Within these industries, CX teams must work alongside other departments to ensure they are not crossing any boundaries or laws when implementing effective plans.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Understanding the processes in regulated industries for CX professionals
• Defining and executing initiatives when other risk factors come into play
• Comparing CX campaigns and actions that seem seamless to many brands to those of high-risk organizations

Moderator:

Phil Burrows

Senior Director, Head of Consumer Digital Sales & Experience

Verizon

Panelists:

Scott Wilson

Customer Experience Principal

FedEx

Matthew Larson

Senior Director, Client Experience

Optum

As CX and marketing executives, you know that an exceptional customer experience can lift your brand and lead to growth. However, building engagement across the organization to put the customer at the center of your strategy can sometimes feel like pushing a boulder up a hill. How do you rally your entire organization to embed a client-first perspective within their workflows? Hear how S&P Global Market Intelligence took a journey-centric approach to ACT on their customers’ behalf and deliver superior customer experience:

Topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Analyze and adapt: define and measure your most important customer experience interactions and build on your strengths
• Create culture: gain internal buy-in from all functions and set goals that put that customer at the center of your strategy
• Talent and technology: balance your resources of humans and machines for the highest quality customer touchpoints

Moderator:

Meredith Binder

Chief Marketing Officer

S&P Global Market Intelligence

Panelists:

Mary Salvatera

Senior Creative Director, Customer Experience

Comcast, NBC Universal

Patrick Waller

Director of eCommerce - OtterBox, LifeProof, Liviri

Otter Products

Sherif Mityas

Chief Experience Officer

TGI Fridays

Dealing with data security up-front rather than repairing the costly and time-consuming fallout caused by security breaches makes good business sense, and the best way to do so is by rethinking your approach enterprise security architecture. By implementing security controls as supportive roles, companies can ensure that solutions work and are efficient to meet business needs, protect against known threats and properly balance risk.

Attend this session to learn how to:

• Utilize existing functions to aid security transformation efforts in your company
• Reduce data risk by baking security design (homegrown and shelf-ware) into solutions
• How to integrate security architecture with app architecture, infra architecture, and data architecture

Jason DeMarco

Executive Director of Information Security - Architecture & Engineering

MGM Resorts International

Organizations have millions of vulnerabilities. And our research has shown that those same organizations, large or small, on average, can only fix one in 10 of those vulnerabilities.

But as a security executive you still need to keep your organization secure, so how do you do that when you can’t possibly fix all of your vulnerabilities? The answer is to focus on your highest-risk vulnerabilities first.

Join Kenna Security’s Jonathan Cran as he:

• Reviews what years of research into vulnerability management data uncovered about the scope of the challenge
• Details the findings on how risk-based is the way to get ahead in vulnerability management
• Lays out several factors that drive better remediation performance
• Provides steps for setting up a successful risk-based vulnerability management program

Jonathan Cran

Head of Research

Kenna Security

The COVID-19 global crisis has turned enterprises inside out.  Remote workers using outside networks amplify the need for new strategies in data protection. As CISOs and senior-level cybersecurity and technology executives, you and your teams spend extensive time and money preparing for external threats – but are you ignoring insider threats?  Insider threats are the fastest growing risk organizations face today and the global pandemic has proven that people and data will continue to be on the move and vulnerable.  Job tenure is declining and the ways in which data moves is increasing at an unprecedented pace. The reality is – prevention is no longer enough.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Implementing security measures to quickly identify and respond to insider threats to data
• Understanding high risk users and how to create an insider threat program to protect your organization
• Changing the perception of your security team as the ‘no’ police to the protectors of collaboration

Moderator:

Tolgay Kizilelma, PhD

Director of MS in Cybersecurity Program

Dominican University of California

Panelists:

Sathish Kuppuswamy

Chief Security Architect, Cybersecurity Leader

PG&E

Juan Morales

Deputy Chief Information Security Officer, Global Information Security

Realogy Holdings Corporation

Ray Stirbei

VP Information Security & Privacy

Signet Jewelers

Cyber breaches are bigger and worse than ever. Hardly a day goes by without headlines about some new devastating cyber-attack. As hundreds of millions of customer records, credentials, and proprietary information are stolen from organizations every year, regulators and oversight agencies have put special emphasis on enforcing proper cyber hygiene and improving cyber resilience.

Realizing that traditional security strategies are no longer enough in battling today’s threats, many security practitioners have altered their approach and adopted a Zero Trust model to secure their ever-expanding modern attack surfaces, including cloud, big data lakes, DevOps, containers, and microservices.

There are many starting points on the path to Zero Trust. However, all roads still lead to identity. Hackers don’t hack in anymore — they log in using weak, default, stolen, or otherwise compromised credentials. Indeed, Forrester Research estimates that 80 percent of today’s breaches involve privileged access abuse — that is, user accounts that have administrative access to critical systems in the organization.

Attend this session to learn about:

• Why today’s security is not secure;
• Explore today’s tactics, techniques, and procedures of hackers to implement an effective security strategy;
• Best practices of prevention;
• Why Zero Trust is considered the antidote of today’s threatscape;
• Why the path to Zero Trust starts with identity;
• How to start your journey towards Zero Trust; and
• What benefits you can achieve by aligning your security strategy with a Zero Trust approach

David McNeely

Chief Strategy Officer

Centrify

Having a deep understanding of the cybersecurity regulations currently in place and the specific information that is being extracted through breaches is of course a top priority for you and your teams.  A short list of the regulations you may actively stay abreast of include data collection practices and the responsibility of protecting all collected data against cyberattacks including viruses, phishing, and information theft.

By attending this session, your key takeaways will include:

• Better understanding of the current cybersecurity laws and regulations
• Solutions that ease the burden of compliance and help organizations understand the necessary regulations
• The importance of protecting all confidential information from cyberattacks

Moderator:

W. Reece Hirsch

Partner, Co-Head Privacy and Cybersecurity

Morgan Lewis & Bockius

Panelists:

Brian Costello

Vice President Data Access Strategy and Strategic Solutions

Envestnet | Yodlee

John Reed

Senior Manager, IT Security

True Value Company

Dr. Sasi Pillay

Vice President and Chief Information Officer

University of Nevada, Reno

Ransomware attacks bring companies to their knees! One of the most damaging cyberattacks, ransomware worries top every CISO’s nightmare scenario list. According to most industry estimates, ransomware cost Americans over 7.5 billion dollars in 2019 alone. This session will delve into the latest ransomware attacks and how to defend your organization.

In this timely session, you will learn:

• The latest iterations of ransomware attacks
• What to do before, during and after an attack
• The latest technologies available to fend off these dangerous attacks

Sajed Naseem

Chief Information Security Officer, Former

New Jersey Judiciary

The COVID-19 crisis forced companies to accelerate digital transformation projects originally scheduled to be phased implementations of one- to three-years. This hyper-acceleration of digital initiatives opened a world of unique cybersecurity concerns. And there’s no going back! Most CISO’s know that a clear vision is key for a secure digital transformation, but what steps, processes and gotchas await you along the way? Now is the time to reassess security considerations and clearly map a vision for all digital initiatives.

Attend this panel discussion to learn real-life examples and lessons on:

• How technology leaders are navigating digital transformation security in 2020
• The most common web application, network, and cloud vulnerabilities in our digital world, and how some companies are addressing them
• The importance of AppSec in digital transformation
• How to use company culture and education to help mitigate digital risk
• Key aspects of a deliberate and effective long-term digital security strategy

Moderator:

Michael Anderson

Deputy CTO

Dallas Independent School District

Panelists:

Les Correia

Director – Global Information Security – Architecture, Engineering and Operations

Estée Lauder

Ryan Lloyd

Vice President of Products

Veracode

Mark Ostrowski

Head of Engineering, US East

Check Point Software

As the Coronavirus has caused great health and economic hardship to the world, we have all learned over the past few weeks and months that what was before is very different than today, and will be for tomorrow.  Furthermore, there has been great disparity in our experiences as people and as organizations.  We’ve been facing very different challenges and implementing a wide variety of solutions based upon our universal, yet unique situations.  No one can say with 100% certainty what the future of work may be or that “one size fits all”.  However, by addressing some of the key challenges faced by organizations, at very different places with respect to their organization’s standing, we can all learn from each other and hopefully be stronger in the long-term.

• Gain insight into trends for returning to work, including changes to office spaces, retail environments, and other workplaces
• Considerations when bringing back furloughed or separated employees
• Effectively communicating new policies and other changes as your workforce returns
• How to keep up with demand on an operational, infrastructure, and workforce level

Panelists:

Angela Blum-Finlay, SPHR, SHRM, CCP

Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer

Dime Community Bank

William Packer

Head of Global Business Services

Mylan

Curt Burghardt

Vice President, People Delivery Group

Unum

As shelter-in-place orders are lifted and employers are permitted to reopen their workspaces, extreme caution should be used as they wade through a patchwork of local, state, and federal requirements. Additionally, understanding what guidance or recommendations are mandatory is a crucial element for employers.

• What are the legal risks for employers when returning to work?
• Understand best practices in developing a “Return to Work” plan, including what must be addressed
• How OSHA obligations are construed into this new era
• What do you if employees refuse to return to your workplace?
•  High-risk employees: understand your obligation to developing their path for returning to work
• How the Families First Coronavirus Response Act impacts paid leave in new ways

Panelists:

Michelle Phillips

Esq., Principal

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Jenifer Bologna

Attorney at Law

Jackson Lewis P.C.

As the world learns more about how COVID-19 spreads, surface contact has been scientifically proven to be a key risk element, therefore should be avoided as much as possible. Furthermore, adhering to social distancing protocols has also proven to reduce the spread, therefore should be practiced now and into the future.

• The return of the work cubicle – and other new office furniture/structural fixtures, space layouts, and surface fabrication that will create a safe workplace for your workforce – and customers
• Touchless smart technologies for entry gate points, door handles, elevator buttons, ATMs, PoS devices, and more
• Turning shared work areas and customer-centric spaces into safe environments social distancing protocols can be adhered to – and also reduces surface contact
• What are the non-negotiable renovations that must be implemented immediately – or can be put off for a while – and are
  tenants or building management companies responsible for the capital spend (and will the government offer financial funding if said renovations are government mandates?)

Panelists:

Lenny Beaudoin

Global Lead, CBRE Workplace

CBRE

Ariel Bentata

Founding & Managing Partner, Investments

Accesso Partners

Joanna Frank

President & CEO

Center for Active Design

Tom Gille

BOMA Fellow & Founding Principal

REAL System

The role of the Chief Marketing Officer continues to change.  Today’s CMO is a brand shepherd guiding their team and overall organization to achieve a reputable brand identity in a highly competitive marketplace.  However, with the traditional purpose of marketing changing faster than imagined, CMOs now need to shift their priorities individually, departmentally and organizationally, in order to spearhead successful initiatives.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Implementing a diverse and effective marketing team to keep up with new industry hurdles
• Sustaining an effective leadership role through the ever-changing marketing environment
• Defining past, present and future directions, as a C-Suite executive

Dawn Bradshaw

Chief Marketing Officer

Wintrust Mortgage

From elevated customer expectations to pressure on driving growth and life-time value, today’s marketing leaders face new challenges every day.  But with customers and ROI at the center of all decisions, it’s given the modern marketer a new opportunity; to lead.

In this session, you will be walked through not only how marketers can survive, but thrive in today’s connected world.  She will also share how Microsoft Marketing has helped lead the company while it’s gone through its own digital transformation.

Hosted by: Microsoft

Valerie Beaulieu

Chief Marketing Officer

Microsoft, US

In the past, marketing was typically viewed as a technical action that drove engagement, raised brand awareness, and increased revenue.  However, marketing is more than the science behind numbers, it’s an art form that must also be viewed through a creative lens.  By maintaining a creative mindset, marketing campaigns and initiatives have a higher potential for visionary freedom, which in turn will drive greater results.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Seeing success with creative marketing initiatives in both typical and atypical industries
• Developing marketing initiatives while keeping the marriage of art and science in mind
• Understanding the importance of visuals in traditional and non-traditional marketing campaigns

Moderator:

Keith McCluskey

Senior Director of Online Strategy, Office of Communications

Harvard Law School

Panelists:

Tiana Conley

Vice President, Global Brands

Kellogg Company

Britten Follett

Executive Vice President

Follett School Solutions

Andrea DeWerd

Senior Marketing Director

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Publishing

Stefanie Rowe

Director of Sales & Marketing

Hotel EMC2

All too often MTA implementations focus on the technical application, but marketers should take care to focus on the people and process side of choosing and deploying multi-touch attribution for their marketing organization. This presentation, geared for marketers deploying MTA within their organization, will walk through the technical and organizational challenges involved in changing the way your team attributes revenue and assigns budgets.

Hosted by: Arm Treasure Data

Scott Mitchell

Manager Solution Engineering

Arm Treasure Data

The marketing, technology and consumer behavior landscape has shifted dramatically since the pandemic began. As we adjust to this new normal, how have marketers pivoted and what’s next? Organizations are being restructured to work from home, adjust to quarantine services, and forcing businesses to make painful sacrifices in every department. Meanwhile, the media and e-commerce landscape have dramatically shifted, creating opportunities and turmoil. What areas do you prioritize and how do you keep your team motivated and engaged?

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• People: How to empathetically engage and motivate your teams?
• Purpose: What does your brand purpose have to do with Covid-19 communications?
• Priorities: How to prioritize and help teams prioritize?

Akash Pathak

Former Vice President & Head of Marketing

Trunk Club

Until recently, marketing and sales were looked at as two different functions within an organization.  One of marketing’s main responsibilities is to promote an organization and its products, whereas the role of sales is to generate revenue through customer engagement.  However, as the importance of cross-functional roles become crucial for growth, marketing and sales must work in tandem to seamlessly achieve powerful ROI and long-term success.

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Creating initiatives where both departments work together in order to meet project goals
• Implementing plans for open communication between marketing and sales divisions
• Streamlining practices and obligations to better aid both teams in their efforts

Moderator:

Yolanda Hernandez

Former Vice President, Digital Marketing Operations

Tribune Publishing Company

Panelists:

David Partain

FlexShares Chief Marketing Officer

Northern Trust Corporation

Kristin Fassler

Senior Vice President, Director of Integrated Marketing Strategy

Penguin Random House

Brian Ludwig

Senior Vice President of Sales

Cvent

The global pandemic has negatively impacted individuals on personal, workplace, and community levels.  During these trying times, organizations must tread lightly, and marketers must especially be careful to not use insensitive language while still trying to promote their brand.  Avoiding controversies during an unprecedented time is tricky, so what can your organization do?

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Staying abreast to developments pertaining to the coronavirus
• Taking precautions to avoid using insensitive language
• Remaining calm and not overacting to damage your brand name

Andrew Yang

Senior Director of Global Marketing

Cytiva

Targeting consumers through personalized marketing, or one-to-one marketing, is a long-trending strategy that allows organizations to leverage data and develop positive consumer relationships.  That said, it’s important for marketing executives to understand if a customized messaging campaign is indeed effective for their campaigns, and if so, what are the best techniques to make their customer feel important?

In this session, topics of discussion will include, yet will not be limited to:

• Observing results and data in personalized marketing
• Comparing the benefits and losses between personalized and mass marketing campaigns
• Learning consumer psychology behind personalized marketing

Santhosh Lakkaraju, PhD

Associate Director of Marketing Analytics

University of Notre Dame

Bill Martin

Executive Director of Marketing, Communications, and Customer Experience

Indiana University Health Plans

Abstract soon to come!

Carol Tran

Chief Growth Officer

Hummingbyrde

The pace of change in the world is breathtaking and leading this change is data. How are you charting a path to ensure that data and technology works for us rather than against us? Data Scientists have the power to effect major changes, but first they must adopt new approaches. Join us to learn first-hand how to use data to influence change.

DJ Patil

Former Chief Data Officer

United States Office of Science & Technology Policy
& Head of Technology, Devoted Health

PANEL DISCUSSION:

Preserving the Virtue of Your Data*

Do not assume that everyone in your company values data in the same way.  Each department has its own unique relationship with data. Implementing clear processes around data is the only way to safeguard your company’s most valuable asset. 

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Incorporating data governance into your business strategy
• Developing a culture of data citizens 
• Processes for preserving data quality 

USE CASE: Demystifying Applied ML – Building Frameworks & Teams to Operationalize ML at Scale

Comprehending how to match the deep knowledge of a subject matter expert to the technical application of ML programs remains a major barrier to applied ML in the workplace. Join us as we examine best practices on how to scale operationalizing ML to solve complex problems.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Outlining your business objectives – defining goals and success criteria
• Providing the right technology and tools
• Structuring and training your teams

Dr. Nels Lindahl

Operational Reporting and Analytics

Cohere Health

USE CASE: How Strava is Using Data Visualization to Fuel Growth 

The Strava dataset grows by millions of activities a day and comprises trillions of GPS data points; this quantity of data is gold for businesses. Discover how user data at Strava is transformed into innovative visualizations of human performance: heatmaps, fitness stats, mobile routes, and even urban planning/mobility. Hear first-hand how they are able to scale visualizations, and detail how data sets are analyzed and transformed into business insights the company uses to fuel its growth. 

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• How to effectively scale visualization
• Using Data Visualization for increase growth
• Extracting quality data from large datasets

Cathy Tanimura

Sr. Director, Analytics & Data Science

Strava

WORKSHOP A: Exploring the Race to Capitalize on Untapped Big Data Reserves to Develop Smarter, Data-Driven Decisions

AI solution reliance on modern socio-economic trends is one of the most provocative factors for data-driven analytics. Businesses are relying on insights extracted from Big Data, substantiating data as the new form of currency. This paradigm shift has corporations racing to capitalize on their untapped big data reserves to develop smarter, data-driven decisions capable of improving every business aspect.  The complexity of moving to data-driven frameworks is often underestimated.  HPE’s AI-driven Full Stack Data Science program works strategically to develop custom, high performing, end-to-end, real-time analytics solutions focused on facilitating client’s success making intelligent, data-driven decisions from their amassed data.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Learn how AI-driven full stack data science pipelines power the extreme-scale market
• Explore the real costs associated with free and open source software
• Understand how commercial products offset many development complexities

Theresa Melvin

Chief Architect, AI-Driven Big Data Solutions

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

PANEL DISCUSSION: Self Service Enablement – Empowering Data Discoveries Across the Organization* 

Achieving the level of a data driven organization opens up a new world of possibilities for your organization. With a stable data governance strategy in place and a workforce fluent in data you are able to empower your workforce to drive data focused initiatives across the organization.  

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Defining your data governance strategy
• Establishing a level of data fluency within your organization 
• Training on the tools and techniques required to effectively analyze data

Moderator:

Stephen Skinner

Visual Data Architect

DataBilder

How to Effectively Accelerate ROI on Your AI Investments

Every organization wants to use data as its core advantage, but struggle with scaling and accelerating their data initiatives. Many of the challenges can be attributed to the fact that the data, and its applications are advancing faster than the technologies used to process and design them. Join us as we dive into the root cause of many common data challenges and incorporate applied patterns to solve them.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• How to design efficient data models that will enhance the performance of your AI/ML tools
• How to successfully use applied patterns to address the root cause of your data challenges
• Real-World solutions to scale and accelerate AI/ML processes

Ronak Shah

Head of Data Engineering

Coursera

Dirty Data – Strategies for Improving the Quality of Your Data*

Are you confident in your organizations data? If the answer is NO, then you have a major problem. High quality data can increase business performance for your organization and validate key business decisions Learn best practices for protecting the quality of your data.

WORKSHOP A: Exploring the Race to Capitalize on Untapped Big Data Reserves to Develop Smarter, Data-Driven Decisions

AI solution reliance on modern socio-economic trends is one of the most provocative factors for data-driven analytics. Businesses are relying on insights extracted from Big Data, substantiating data as the new form of currency. This paradigm shift has corporations racing to capitalize on their untapped big data reserves to develop smarter, data-driven decisions capable of improving every business aspect.  The complexity of moving to data-driven frameworks is often underestimated.  HPE’s AI-driven Full Stack Data Science program works strategically to develop custom, high performing, end-to-end, real-time analytics solutions focused on facilitating client’s success making intelligent, data-driven decisions from their amassed data.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Learn how AI-driven full stack data science pipelines power the extreme-scale market
• Explore the real costs associated with free and open source software
• Understand how commercial products offset many development complexities

Theresa Melvin

Chief Architect, AI-Driven Big Data Solutions

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

USE CASE: Business Strategies to Burst the Bias Bubble 

Collaborative decision making under uncertainty happens daily in business. Machine learning obscures bias behind the complexity of its algorithms. Bias is corrosive because it hides in metrics and systems we use to make decisions every day. It gives us false confidence that our decisions are data driven when in reality, they are bias driven.

Even data scientists often don’t understand the data and models well enough to prevent biased outcomes. Autonomous cars are 5% more likely to hit PoC because their training data wasn’t diverse enough. Amazon abandoned their automated candidate screening system because it was biased against protected classes. Join us as we dive into what you can do to control bias within your organization

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Creating a culture that strives to reduce bias 
• Using Machine Learning systems to reduce uncertainty
• Reducing uncertainty around key decisions by controlling bias

Vin Vashishta

Data Scientist, Strategist, Author

V2 Machine Learning Consulting

USE CASE:Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) 

Deep learning algorithms have achieved high performance accuracy in many complex domains. Due to the nested non-linear structure of deep learning algorithms, these highly successful models are usually applied in a black-box manner, i.e., no information is provided about what exactly causes them to arrive at their predictions  Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) creates interpretable models while maintaining a high level of learning performance, thereby enabling users to understand, appropriately trust the underlying models. The session will provide a comprehensive overview of XAI concepts along with three use case demonstrations across biomedical, natural language processing and security applications.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Creating interpretable models while maintaining high accuracy
• How to leverage explainability to increase trust in model decisions?

How XAI enhances understanding of “black box” models & feature engineering?

Sherin Mathews, PhD

Principal AI Research Scientist

U.S. Bank

Augment, Don’t Automate: Drawing Insights from Customer Feedback Using Natural Language Processing 

Companies are frequently faced with large amounts of unstructured text data, like forum comments or product reviews. Important trends can emerge in these datasets, but it can be time-consuming to read through comments, and keyword matching frequently misses critical nuances. We’ll discuss how we’ve approached this problem at Google using Natural Language Processing, with examples of the approach applied to open datasets. We’ll explore how it fits into the ML project lifecycle, with examples of common pitfalls. Finally, we’ll highlight how to use this technology as part of a “human in the loop” approach to supercharge your existing team members.

Peter Grabowski

Software Engineering Manager

Google

AI + Humans Working Together to Drive Revenue* 

When it comes to AI collaboration is key. The fear that humans will be replaced by the machines is still very prevalent in the workforce.  The reality is AI is a tool and humans will always be needed to manage the tools.  Data leaders must spearhead the change in mindset around the implementation of AI. Working together machines will provide the consistency and speed to uncover patterns in real-time and humans will provide the logic to extract insights that will help companies make better informed decisions.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Fear of the machines
• Scaling AI across an organization
• Upskilling your workforce

Panelist:

Gaja Nagarajan

Head of Information Technology

eHealth, Inc.

USE CASE:Using Machine Learning to Get Personal 

Learn how GSN Games uses machine learning to integrate behavioral data, survey data and psychographic data to generate game-play personas for their players. These personas are used to help inform and validate product features and in-game experiences, to make their games more fun and rewarding for players

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Data goes beyond behavioral actions
• Customers have different aspirations and motivations when they engage with products
• A successful product is keenly informed by customer aspirations

Andy Veluswami

Vice President, Data Engineering & Analytics

GSN

Effective Algorithms to Gain a Competitive Advantage 

The right algorithms allow companies to disrupt industries and change the way consumers spend their time and money.  Just hiring a data science team is not enough to develop effective algorithms.  Sometimes, data science teams struggle to find the right data for the problem, struggle to solve the problem well enough, or struggle to implement the solution.  

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Finding the right problems & Setting the right, realistic objectives 
• Testing and validating results 
• Engaging stakeholders to use the algorithms & customers to understand and trust the algorithms

Elizabeth (Betsy) Barton

Director of Data Science, Walmart InHome Delivery

Walmart

USE CASE: Getting Your Data House in Order – Critical Issues in Advancing Data Governance 

Data is the asset of the present – and the future. Whether it’s generating insights, driving innovative product development           or improving decision making, the need for and dependence on big data has never been greater. 

Data is a critical strategic asset for any company looking to leverage the power of AI, machine learning, and other advanced analytics. However, for companies that were not “data-first,” implementing a data governance program that both maximizes the quality of their data and addresses the obligations created by the changing regulatory landscape remains a challenge. This session will explore the critical legal and practical issues a business must consider as it develops and implement compliant and effective data programs.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• How to structure a data governance program that addresses their current regulatory obligations to comply with new privacy and security obligations
• Best practices in creating a data-focused business culture
• Real-world examples of trends, challenges, opportunities and developments to come in data collection and use

Jessica B. Lee

Partner, Co-Chair, Privacy, Security & Data Innovations

Loeb & Loeb

Is AI the Right Fit for Your Business?*

There is still a lack of understanding of how AI and ML should be used within organizations.  Many companies have spent considerable amounts of money (blown budgets) on AI/ML technology and have not seen any ROI on these investments. Leaders are tasked with sourcing new technology, but they need to know that the technology is the best fit for the business. This session will help you manage your expectations around AI/ML and provide you with realistic goals for how AI/ML can fit your business objectives.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• AI on a shoestring budget
• Sizing AI to fit your business
• Managing stakeholder expectations around AI

USE CASE: How to Save your Company from Drowning in Unimpactful Insights

With many organizations now relying on a multitude of data sources to inform their decision-making, the expectation has now been set on stakeholders and leaders to depend on, and act on, a perpetually growing technology stack and volume of data. Despite the competitive advantage that clean data can bring to an organization, there also exists a real risk of drowning in an abundance of interesting, but ultimately unimpactful, data and insights. In this talk, we will go through two detailed use-cases of how Getty Images combined Data Science and business needs to build a comprehensive suite of data-based frameworks and products to track, monitor and alert on e-commerce performance, and to help understand how customers consume our vast collection of imagery content.

Topics of discussion will include:

• The importance of building business-agnostic frameworks and applications
• How to understand customer behavior using NLP and unsupervised learning
• How to leverage time series modeling to move from a reactive to proactive state when monitoring e-commerce performance

Thomas Vincent

Head of Data Science

Getty Images

USE CASE: A Guide to Building a Data Driven Culture

When it comes down to it, organizations struggle with becoming data driven and making it a part of their culture. Hiring a team of data scientists does not fix this problem outright. Success is dependent upon building the right processes, democratizing data and resetting the mentality across the organization. These problems are often more difficult to solve than the tech and math related to data science. Join us in the discussion of a how to guide for building a data driven culture.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Understand the data maturity model and where to start. 
• Get an overview of processes and people requirements to drive a data driven culture. 
• Understand the citizen data scientist movement and the realistic expectations of people outside of data science

Daniel Gremmell

Head of Data Science

Policygenius

PANEL DISCUSSION: Deploying Machine Learning in the Wild*

Join in on this discussion as representatives from some of today’s leading-edge company’s share how they are developing and deploying ML applications with success.  Hear the backstories behind the journey; pitfalls, abandoned projects, small wins and successful processes that worked.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Managing stakeholder’s expectations when developing machine learning
• Structuring your team for effective ML implementation

• Preparing your data for algorithm training – Do you know what problems you want to solve?

Panelist:

Elizabeth (Betsy) Barton

Director of Data Science, Walmart InHome Delivery

Walmart

USE CASE: The Intuition Behind Machine Learning in Marketing 

Since the year 2013 important breakthroughs and advances in technology have made it possible to run sophisticated predictive models capable of classifying images, text, and sound. Technology has brought to reality self-driving cars, chat bots and a host of other AI powered devices. In this session we will present key insights that will help you make AI/ML more beneficial to your marketing efforts. Through real world case studies, the session will demystify the core technologies around ML and illustrate how to successfully apply the technology. 

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• How to think and interpret predictive models   
• What metrics we use to evaluate models 
• Specific case studies in optimization, channel attribution

Mario A. Vinasco

Director BI and Analytics

Credit Sesame

PANEL DISCUSSION: Systems Integration – Getting Your Systems to Work in Harmony*

As companies grow so does the technology used to support them; with that growth comes a myriad of systems implementation. Many companies are currently struggling with getting their systems to communication. This lack of communication has made it challenging to easily access all aspects of captured data. Discover real-world examples of how some companies are navigating this communication roadblock. 

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Navigating system integration
• Growth and technology
• Digital transformation

Panelist:

Gaja Nagarajan

Head of Information Technology

eHealth, Inc.

USE CASE: Using ML and AI to Produce Real-Time, Scalable, Informed Decisions 

The ability of ML and AI to provide real-time, scalable decision-making support to executive strategy is changing the business landscape. In the healthcare sector, patient privacy, data interoperability, and high stakes patient health ramifications intertwine to create a challenging environment in which to use advanced computation techniques. Join us to learn how Johns Hopkins Healthcare’s model, Callisto has been instrumental in predicting suitable health management programs for THEIR patients that deliver concrete return on the overall health of the patient.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• The unique challenges within the healthcare sector that other industries can benefit by understanding
• How the runaway cost structures can be fundamentally inverted by targeting pain points with focused ML/AI

How advancements in AI has allowed the healthcare sector to leapfrog into the 21st century as a fully-integrated player in the cyber community

Romy Hussain

Director, Healthcare Economics

Johns Hopkins Healthcare

USE CASE: Going Beyond Payments – How Mastercard is Utilizing Data & Analytics Intelligence 

In this session you’ll hear fascinating use cases based on Mastercard’s cumulative experience in partnering across industries.  Discover how they have successfully produced valuable market and customer insights using a rich combination of data sets and analytical approaches.

In this session, topics of discussion will include

• Cross-industry application on data & analytics
• Insights about observable markets and consumer trends
• Application of data analytics and marketing science to improve MROI, customer experience and value proposition innovation

Carlos Jose Fonseca

SVP Data & Services. Sales Strategy and Solutions Financial

Mastercard

Data leaders are acutely aware of bias in data collection and they are wrestling with effective ways to ensure that their data processes are bias free. Join us for a conversation about bias and how leaders are navigating this major data quality issue.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Reducing bias in machine learning
• How to handle explainability
• Data governance

Moderator:

Kate Starchnyi

Founder

Story by Data

Panelist:

Sharad Shandilya

Ph.D, Vice President, Artificial Intelligence Practice Lead (Enterprise CoE)

Fidelity Investment

Join us for a provocative discussion about the future of data as a business asset and liability.   Discover how data value and data risk if employed strategically can be utilized to accelerate business “ethics” in a data saturated world.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• The future of data as a business driver
• Best practices for handling data
• Ethics in data management

Michelle Finneran Dennedy

Chief Executive Officer

DrumWave

Many practitioners and technology leaders are eager to know what’s on the horizon for their data infrastructure. Technology is changing at lighting speeds and the business landscape is continuously trying to keep pace. Join us as we bring you up to speed on the future of the stack and how you can prepare for what’s next to come.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Emerging technologies
• Data infrastructure
• The future of the stack and how to prepare

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Leadership Strategies for Today and Beyond*

These roundtable sessions provide a great opportunity for data leaders to exchange ideas around common industry challenges. This intimate “off the record” discussion will give leaders the opportunity to problem solve with peers and discuss strategies around implementation and the future of data and AI.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Exchange of ideas around how you and your fellow industry peers are implementing data strategy within your organizations
• Exchange of ideas around current data challenges
• Exchange of ideas around leadership and team design

PANEL DISCUSSION: Ethical Risks in AI*

There are many factors that can bring into question the ethics of your data programs, such as bias, inconsistency, security, and transparency to name a few.  The existence of these risks affects whether your AI systems should be trusted. Join us for a conversation around ethics and the role it plays in your AI strategy.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Defining an AI strategy
• How to effectively build trust in your data
• Bias in algorithms

Moderator:

Bhargav Raman

Chief Executive Officer

Medpixels

USE CASE: Augmenting Customer Experience with ML in eCommerce

The eCommerce industry has been completely transformed by the advancements in AI and ML. The ability to recommend and personalize products have allowed the industry to grow rapidly.  With this growth the ability to effectively harness data from digital platforms have become increasingly challenging. 

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• The advantages and disadvantages of personalized vs. non-personalized recommendations
• Challenges involved with harnessing data for customer recommendations on digital platforms
• Primary considerations when deciding to implement a product recommendation engine

Asma Farooq

Product Lead, Advertising

eBay

WORKSHOP C: 

Practical Introduction to Natural Language Processing

A practical introduction to (NLP) Natural Language Processing is becoming an essential skill for organizations to gain a competitive edge. By enabling services like chatbots, text-based decision support systems, semantic analysis, threat detection and question answering systems NLP tools are being used to help people get insights from unstructured data and operate more effectively. For this reason, it has become an essential tool for many new business functions. In this immersive workshop you’ll be introduced to NLP techniques and tools with their real-world applications.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Learn and understand popular NLP approaches with interactive examples
• Understand how to clean and handle unstructured text data 
• Complete NLP tasks including text classification, sentiment analysis, text clustering, topic modeling and semantic visualizations

Carlo Lipizzi, Ph.D.

Graduate Engineering Management & Systems Analytics Program Director School of Systems and Enterprise

Stevens Institute of Technology

PANEL DISCUSSION: Structuring Data Teams to Maximize Impact*

A strong data team affords you the ability to effectively solve for business problems and leverage the rich resources within data to influence your company’s direction for the future. Lean in on this discuss with Data Science leaders as they share their struggles and successes in organizing data science teams.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• How to best organize data teams within an organization
• The key to hiring and retaining top-notch  talent
• Team fluency around financial and  business metrics

Meghan Anzelc

Head of Data & Analytics

Spencer Stuart

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Data & AI Wellness Check*

This intimate solutions-focused roundtable will offer you a great opportunity to check-in with industry leaders about the state of your data and AI health. This “off the record” discussion is  a great way to get guidance for your most pressing questions around your data and AI journey.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Current data and AI  challenges you and your industry peers are facing
• Sourcing AI for your business needs
• How to incorporate AI/ML into the your organization

USE CASE: How Tencent Games is Successfully Shaping Business Strategies & Maximizing Income 

At Tencent Games, all decisions are data driven. Data mining techniques are applied to huge data sets collected from 200+ games to provide end-to-end big data analytic solutions.  

In this session, you will learn how they apply various predictive modeling techniques throughout the customer life-cycle to improve user experience and optimize marketing. They will present use cases on new user acquisition, user monetization, user retention, churn predictions, and item recommendation.

Topics of discussion will include:

• How big data transforms the gaming industry
• Data science solutions at scale throughout user life cycle
• How to choose an appropriate algorithm for a specific problem

Qiaolin Chen

Director of Data Science

Tencent Games

WORKSHOP C: Practical Introduction to Natural Language Processing

A practical introduction to (NLP) Natural Language Processing is becoming an essential skill for organizations to gain a competitive edge. By enabling services like chatbots, text-based decision support systems, semantic analysis, threat detection and question answering systems NLP tools are being used to help people get insights from unstructured data and operate more effectively. For this reason, it has become an essential tool for many new business functions. In this immersive workshop you’ll be introduced to NLP techniques and tools with their real-world applications.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Learn and understand popular NLP approaches with interactive examples
• Understand how to clean and handle unstructured text data
• Complete NLP tasks including text classification, sentiment analysis, text clustering, topic modeling and semantic visualizations

Carlo Lipizzi, Ph.D.

Graduate Engineering Management & Systems Analytics Program Director School of Systems and Enterprise

Stevens Institute of Technology

USE CASE: Making Data Science – Scoping, Sizing, Hiring & Retaining an Internal Data Science Capability

Developing an internal data science capability requires a major cultural shift and a strategic mapping process which align your business objectives.  In order to be effective, you need technical infrastructure that support new processes and organizational structure that can alter business practices that create measurable efficacy.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Opportunities for data science to identify and prioritize value for your organization 
• Recruiting, retaining, and goal setting for team members
• Budgeting and hiring for business objectives

Haftan Eckholdt

Chief Data Officer & Chief Science Officer

Understood.Org

USE CASE: Scaling Advanced Modeling Solutions to Drive Business Value

Data science is the key business driver for any data driven organization. As a data scientist it is a necessity that you understand how to scale modeling solutions to drive adoption at the most granular level to get the most value out of your data. In this session, learn how Wayfair transformed its Business Intelligence team into an Applied Data Science team by systematically up skilling our team, improving tool stack and establishing processes to support the scale with minimal investment. 

Ankit Mangal

Associate Director, Web Analytics

Wayfair

PANEL DISCUSSION: How to Creatively Convey Your Data Discoveries to Non-Technical Stakeholders*

Gaining support from internal stakeholders is the life or death of many initiatives.  Often, projects are rejected because stakeholders don’t have a clear understanding of its possibilities. Discover effective ways to use data visualization to influence stakeholder buy-in.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Using data visualization as a selling tool
• How to win over non-technical stakeholders
• Data Visualization tools

WORKSHOP C: Practical Introduction to Natural Language Processing

A practical introduction to (NLP) Natural Language Processing is becoming an essential skill for organizations to gain a competitive edge. By enabling services like chatbots, text-based decision support systems, semantic analysis, threat detection and question answering systems NLP tools are being used to help people get insights from unstructured data and operate more effectively. For this reason, it has become an essential tool for many new business functions. In this immersive workshop you’ll be introduced to NLP techniques and tools with their real-world applications.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Learn and understand popular NLP approaches with interactive examples
• Understand how to clean and handle unstructured text data
• Complete NLP tasks including text classification, sentiment analysis, text clustering, topic modeling and semantic visualizations

Carlo Lipizzi, Ph.D.

Graduate Engineering Management & Systems Analytics Program Director School of Systems and Enterprise

Stevens Institute of Technology

Leading with Data – Creating a Business Strategy Where Data is King*

In order to identify how data can be instrumental in solving key business priorities you much first clarify the business drivers where data can deliver value. Your strategy should clearly demonstrate data’s ROI. As data continues to be imbedded in all industries the only way to maintain relevance within your industry is to create a business strategy lead by data.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Where do your data decisions originate top down or bottom up?
• Where are you in your data journey?
• Clarifying business objectives

USE CASE: Managing Bias in Predictive Models

AI-based approaches to prediction are often seen as an unbiased decision-making process. However, algorithms have frequently been found to have biased predictions. Whether due to statistical issues in data collection or labeling, or because of human bias in training data, these issues can impact individuals at a tremendous scale. In this session, we will highlight examples of biased predictive algorithms and cover primary sources of bias in the development of predictive models. We will also discuss best practices that can be used to assess for, and hopefully limit, bias in predictive models.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Understand the limitations of predictive models and the risk for bias in AI
• Describe key risks in data or approach to model development that can lead to bias in predictive algorithms
• Develop internal methods to assess for and limit bias in new AI models

Dr. Wade Schulz, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine & Computational Healthcare Researcher

Yale School of Medicine

PANEL DISCUSSION: How to Achieve a Seamless Digital First Experience*

In today’s digital marketplace the majority of the digital audience are anonymous. This makes it extremely difficult for many customer facing organizations to get a good understanding of its customer base. Find out how some of the biggest brands are curating effortless digital experiences that is allowing them to attract and retain customers at high rates.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Collecting data around the digital experience
• Best practicing in digital analytics
• Creating a seamless digital experience

Moderator:

Amy Bishop

Director of Strategy

Hawkeye

USE CASE: “Data for Good” an Essential Building Block for a Healthy Data Culture

The “Data for Good” movement is increasingly becoming a critical component to many organization’s corporate social responsibility initiative.  The benefits of this movement include improved employee engagement, increased brand visibility and greater community engagement. Viz for Social Good is one of the many organizations whose mission is to help non-profit organizations understand their data through attention-grabbing and informative visuals.  Discover how to harness the talents of data and analytics specialists to impact social change.  

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Benefits of incorporating “Data for Good” into your organization to improve data culture
• How to use your expertise and talents to impact humanity

Defining “Data for Good” and methods of engagement within your organization

Vanitha Lucas

Board Member

Viz for Social Good

PANEL DISCUSSION: Human Centered AI*

Join us for an in-depth look at how machines are taking lessons from their human counterparts. Discover how machines are becoming more humanized in order to be effective at finding the best insights.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Human-centered design
• Human behavior patterns 
• Effective implementation of emerging technology

USE CASE: Application of Image Based KNN and Anomaly Detection to Product Type Classification

Application of Image Based KNN and Anomaly Detection to Product Type Classification. 

In e-commerce product catalog, product types have a significant influence on customer journey starting from product discovery. Image-based classification approaches do not have high enough precision by itself to be used in production. On the other hand, text-based classification models are challenged by noisy input data, flattened product type hierarchy, and certain kitchen sink product types. 

By combining image based KNN with anomaly detection, the speaker will demonstrate how to detect product type errors in an unsupervised manner.

Topics of discussion will include:

• How to use anomaly detection to validate golden data set
• How to optimize recall/precision of image based KNN
• How to build end-to-end misclassification detection pipeline for large scale catalog

Binwei Yang, PhD

Distinguished Engineer, Merchant Technology Data Science,

Walmart Labs

PANEL DISCUSSION: Creating a Data Science Center of Excellence (CoE)

There are so many aspects that go into creating a data science CoE. Funding, who will spearhead the effort and building the best teams.  In this session you’ll hear how companies are stepping up to the challenge of taking charge of their data. 

Topics of discussion will include:

• Funding your Data Science CoE
• Data Culture 
• Curating a team of unicorns

Brandon Cosley

Principal, Biostatistical Research Scientist

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee

USE CASE: Developing Data Science to Add Value

The goal of every data science team is to make a significant impact on the business. Teams work hard building some amazing and extremely useful tools that never see the light of day and their potential impact never realized. Join us as we uncover how to organize the development process to keep engagement high and demonstrate added value along the way.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Obstacles faced by data scientists their data projects
• How to restructure development, get accurate feedback and demonstrate value
• How to keep stakeholders involved during project journey. From exploration to implementation

Morgan Cundiff

Data Scientist

ShopRunner

The ability to attain insights in real time and use those insights to respond to customer needs or make recommendations is a major advantage in the data world.  Join us for an intriguing discussion around instant insights and how it has been changing the analytics game.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Challenges with implementing real-time analytics 
• Incorporating historical data

Closing the communication gap around data must be a priority for any company whose goal is to use data as a revenue generator. Join us for a conversation around making data the universal language of your company.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• What data literacy is and how it impacts all levels of the organization
• How the 4-levels of analytics are needed for Data Citizens
• How communicating with data is a key to all data and analytic success

Jordan Morrow

Global Head of Data Literacy

Qlik

Both the producers and consumers of AI and ML recognize the importance of linking data insights to successful business initiatives. However, many organizations fail to close the gap between the technical teams who produce complex data products and the non-technical business leaders who need to make decisions to achieve business success. In this session I will walk you through case stories that will address the good and the bad in evaluating the success of data-driven decision-making. 

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Engaging business leaders in Data Fluency 
• Building a culture of Business Fluency among data leaders and technical teams 
• Defining a strategy for measuring the success of AI and ML programs

Jeremy Welland

Global Head Data & Analytics

PayPal

2020 has been a historic year economically and politically. Unemployment has been at an extraordinary high, with over 22 million Americans having filed in just two months. As the economy is jolted, organizations are struggling to stay afloat and are forced to optimize federal resources, cut costs, and make painful decisions. As finance executives, your priority is to appropriately manage spending while trying to maintain profitability, all while preparing for backlash of the presidential election and a recession.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• How the global pandemic affects the economy
• The ripple effect of unemployment and examining government debts
• Adopting Modern Monetary Theory and its growth in importance

Stephanie Kelton

Former Chief Economist, U.S. Senate Budget Committee, Leading Expert on Modern Monetary Theory & Professor of Economics and Public Policy

Stony Brook University

Intelligent automation technology has created a new reality for risk management, audit, and control.  Welcome to the end of control sampling and say hello to 100%.  The new reality is that audit firms are no longer asking for a few samples to test your controls.  They simply want access to everything: the whole ledger, and every single journal entry.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Utilizing modern tools to identify trends, risks, and outliers that were never possible
• Using intelligent automation in your operation to eliminate control risks
• Ensuring you are ready when your external auditor simply wants everything

Lee Coulter

Chief Executive Officer, Transform AI & Chair

IEEE

In recent years, FP&A has emerged as a crucial function within finance.  There is an increased need for an organization to obtain real-time data insights regarding products and services. Developing a strategic long-range plan, identifying resources to implement projects, and understanding how operational plans will drive financial results, are a few key principles that benefit FP&A.

This session will explore:

• Identifying specific targets and hold teams accounting for results
• Establishing KPIs that drive business success
• Monitoring the results of KPIs and the link to financial incentives

Ivan Ouzounov

Vice President Financial Planning and Analysis

Power Stop LLC

Digital transformation utilizes technology that helps an organization create and sustain efficient operations and processes, but what is the role of the CFO and finance? Top priority is to decide which internal funding requests to prioritize, especially during unprecedented times where budgeting is critical. Which funding requests deserve priority? And how much financial investment should they get, both in the short and long term?

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Finance’s role in creating and prioritizing a digital agenda during a crisis
• Adapting to digital disruption and pivoting to competitive business models
• Ensuring digital investments sustain your organization’s growth and profitability in the long run

Moderator:

Matt Poleski

Regional Chief Financial Officer

Arthur J. Gallagher

Panelists:

Christopher Hollinger

Chief Financial Officer

Rethink Food NYC

John Hugo

Vice President, Financials Products and Go to Market

Workday

Steven Soter

Senior Director of Product Marketing & Accounting Industry Principal

Workiva

Dr. Liran Edelist

President

Jedox Inc.

Unprecedented times call for a strong executive team, emphasizing the critical role a CFO plays within an organization. Finance executives, especially Treasurers and Controllers, often have the end goal of earning the CFO title within an organization. Navigating internal growth opportunities as well as the job market gives insight into the availability of positions including the desired skill-sets companies are asking for.

This session will explore:

• Understanding the competencies needed to be a CFO
• Strengthening your personal brand
• What to expect when working with recruiters

Moderator:

Rishi Potdar

Chief Financial Officer

K4 Mobility

Panelists:

Mark Noffke, CPA

Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President

Flying Food Group

Anna Gomez

Global Chief Financial Officer and Partner

Mischief USA and No Fixed Address

Steven A. Bourne, CPA

Chief Financial Officer, Secretary & Treasurer

Clarus Therapeutics

Ben Ellis

Managing Partner

Still Valley Partners

Recent Grant Thornton surveys conducted from the winter through late spring suggest changes in how CFOs leverage their organizations and drive innovation. With an increasing struggle to focus on multiple capacities, it is even more important for CFOs to delegate, automate, and train their organizations. Join us as we explore trends that have emerged from Grant Thornton’s recent surveys.

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze and compare the results of recent Grant Thornton surveys
• Identify the impacts of the current environment on emerging technology adoption, investments and innovation
• Recognize the need to leverage all levels of your organization
• Indicate best practices for CFO’s success in response to disruption, technology and role transformation

Nick Vellani

National Managing Principal, Financial Management

Grant Thornton

Jess Parisi

Senior Manager

Grant Thornton

Jacqueline Schuh

Senior Associate

Grant Thornton

As COVID-19 takes the nation by storm, companies are forced to rely heavily on technology. Today, many companies are solving critical financial and strategic challenges through digital transformation. A key priority in a transformation is gaining the ability to analyze data to make smarter decisions, rather than the historical norm of basing them on gut instinct.  However, how does the CFO push the finance organization to reach these heights? And how can a CFO accelerate the finance team’s shift from performing low-value, manual work to providing analytics-rich internal financial advice enabled by cutting-edge automation?

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Utilizing technologies like RPA and machine learning to make operations and processes more efficient
• Ensuring finance has the right technology and talent to support the business’s future needs including work from home capabilities
• Positioning finance organizationally to be a better business partner

Kelly A. Garnes

Chief Financial Officer

Gill St. Bernard's School

Finance executives are often the first port of call when an organization seeks to partner on business initiatives for leadership, deep thought or analytical excellence. Here we make the case for a dedicated Commercial function that interfaces between the C-suite, Operations, Business Development and other Finance colleagues to work on projects.

In this session, we will explore how a commercial function creates value:

• Through an ‘owner’s’ mindset, embedding commercial thinking into the DNA of an organization, dramatically increasing the value proposition of projects
• Build succession planning resilience and provide an exciting, accountable career path for talent in the finance function
• 3 example cases of value enhancement led by the commercial function – a program to monetize industrial assets, a business development governance framework and making better exit or ‘double down’ decisions

Rahul Handa

Integrated Commercial Lead

Dentsu

As the cyber risk landscape continues to evolve, all organizations must be prepared to respond to potential data security & privacy threats. Failure to communicate effectively and with expediency on these and other important issues can damage business by eroding trust, tarnishing brand reputation and undermining competitiveness. As a result, stakeholders expect organizations to develop, maintain and execute a robust capability to manage and mitigate reputational risk effectively.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Understanding the evolution of today’s risk landscape
• How to communicate effectively in response to data security & privacy issues, and how to avoid common communication missteps
• Budgeting for critical solutions to combat attacker’s evolving tactics

Jamie Singer

Senior Vice President Crisis & Risk Management

Edelman

The COVID-19 crisis is an unprecedented challenge, one of the largest and unforeseen challenges we have faced in decades. The role of the CFO within this turbulent time demands for new ways to co-pilot the business.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Re-defining priorities and the role of leadership
• The importance of data-based decisions and scenario planning
• Learnings for the future

Luis Briz Ordieres

Vice President of Finance

Nestle Health Science U.S.

Healthcare is one of the largest expenses within an organization. Employers are responsible for covering the benefits of their employees, a cost which is expected to increase over the next year. So, what does this look like when millions of people fall sick from the coronavirus? Finance executives are tasked with budgeting healthcare costs while ensuring employees still receive quality assistance.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Understanding the varying costs of healthcare
• Promoting healthcare benefits to attract talent
• Negotiating health plans that fit your organization’s needs and budget

Joe Richmond

Vice President of Finance, Behavioral Health

Kindred Healthcare

Brandon Thompson

Regional Vice President, Operations & Chief Financial Officer

Humana

2020 has been a year of historic change, leading the way for permanent inclusiveness and diversity, and eliminating intolerance based on race, gender, and ethnicity. As CFOs and leaders in finance, addressing these challenges to become a more diverse and inclusive organization requires a whole new approach to managing and promotion.

This session will explore:

• Analyzing the positive relationship between diversity and financial performance
• Promoting diversity, inclusiveness, and equal opportunities
• Formalizing strategies, implementing training, and measuring diversity and inclusion success

Moderator:

Steve Wolff

Chief Financial Officer

All Cell Technologies

Panelists:

Jabree Brooks, CFA, CPA

Chief Financial Officer

Six Peak Capital

Anna Gomez

Global Chief Financial Officer and Partner

Mischief USA and No Fixed Address

Arjun Mahalingam,CFA,CPA

Chief Accounting Officer, Executive Director

WP Carey

Alonso Ramos

Chief Financial Officer

The Intec Group, Inc.

This session will cover what best-in-class finance organizations are doing to modernize their billing systems, automate revenue recognition, and transform their order-to-cash processes.

Tune in to hear expertise from Laurie Fleet, partner at PwC who brings over 20 years of experience as PwC’s Co-Head of Billing Transformation and quote-to-cash competency lead.

In this session, Laurie will share:

• Best practices for organizations looking to implement automation
• How to raise the bar with a next-generation finance organization
• Criteria to consider when selecting a billing system

Laurie Fleet

Co-Head of Billing Transformation & Quote to Cash Competency Lead

PwC

Hear from leading finance executives on their experience as women in leadership and what barriers they’re fighting to overcome and gain a seat at the table.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• How to face the ‘glass cliff’ – taking over a CFO job when the probability for failure is high
• How to build a team of advocates and collaborators to ensure success
• Making a concerted effort to promote gender diversity in your organization

Moderator:

Brenna Albert

Global Controller

Medline Industries

Panelists:

Tiffany Harper

First Deputy Treasurer & Chief of Staff

City of Chicago

Ann Anthony

Chief Financial Officer and Board Observer

Oberon Fuels, LLC

Laura Kiernan

Chief Executive Officer & Founder

High Touch Investor Relations

Finance teams have been some of the most affected by the pandemic, but their work has never been more important. NetSuite’s Brainyard summer survey set out to determine how finance operations have changed and to learn their current priorities as they adjust to the world with coronavirus. During this session, Netsuite will explore key findings from the company’s Brainyard Winter 2020 Outlook Survey. Join us to discover how business strategies and finance priorities have changed halfway through 2020, and the implications for your company.

Some of the key findings that will be discussed include:

• The new normal for finance teams now: remote work and changing priorities
• How budgets have been reshaped by the pandemic and how finance teams are gaining influence over company direction
• The changing role of technology, changing product and service offerings, and how finance is reshaping itself based on the effect of COVID-19

Art Wittmann

Content Director - Brainyard

Oracle NetSuite

Megan O’Brien

Finance and Business Editor -Brainyard

Oracle NetSuite

The spread of the coronavirus quickly cut into global trade flows, and is, and has, caused great financial harm to companies and governments.  Understanding and preparing for the global pandemic is/was something none of us could have planned for.  That said, it’s absolutely necessary to develop business continuity plans for every aspect of a company, most notably within the finance function, and move forward in the uncertain times caused by the coronavirus.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• How to manage business continuity during and after a global disaster such as the coronavirus
• Putting into action strategic risk assessments for all kinds of catastrophic hazards
• Developing a plan to manage post-event consequences, such as workforce remobilization, employee and customer engagement and operational continuity

Katherine Motlagh

Chief Financial Officer, EMEA and LATAM Regions

American Tower Corporation

CFOs have always played an integral role in building strong relationships with the Board of an organization and board expectations have risen, especially during the global pandemic. Understanding the triangular relationship between the Board, CEO, and CFO is crucial to establishing best practices and discussing succession planning. Although CFO roles traditionally focus on finance management, today’s modern business requires CFOs to become a more strategic partner to the CEO within an organization.

This session will explore:

• Benefiting from CFOs having board knowledge or experience
• Maintaining a healthy triangular relationship between board, CFO, and CEO
• Helping CFOs establish a more strategic role within an organization

Lyndsey Zhang, MBA

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Boardroom&Beyond

Patrick Dunne

Chair

Boardelta, EY Foundation, ESSA, Visiting Professor Cranfield

Trying to expeditiously assemble financial plans and forecasts, FP&A executives struggle with traditional accounting processes that stall their work. Accounting teams present FP&A with an analysis of the financial figures, but it is produced in such a way that FP&A is left to ask multiple questions. This back and forth process is labor intensive and time-consuming.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Finding ways for FP&A teams and accounting to work together
• Exploring modern accounting processes and systems that make financial data transparent
• Recognizing the responsibilities of each role to streamline processes

Moderator:

Matt Poleski

Regional Chief Financial Officer

Arthur J. Gallagher

Panelists:

Christopher Hollinger

Chief Financial Officer

Rethink Food NYC

Mirek Purpura

Transformation Lead - FP&A and Business Decision Support

Baxter International Inc.

Nayab Siddiqi

Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy

REZY360 Inc.

Due to hyper-growth and an ever-changing regulatory landscape, the U.S. cannabis industry provides unique challenges to finance professionals entering the space. Consistent with the theme of evolution in today’s world of finance, leaders in this industry are required to maintain focus on long-term goals and core values, even when strategies may need to unexpectedly shift due to rapidly developing market factors and regulatory changes. However, broad lessons can be learned about navigating and managing change, building a diverse team with skill-sets needed for success in an evolving industry, and solving unexpected problems on a day-to-day basis.

This session will explore:

• Background of the regulated U.S. cannabis industry and the emergence of public companies in the space
• Navigating change and driving the evolution of a finance organization

Problem-solving and resourcefulness in the face of a unique set of circumstances or challenges

Brenna Albert

Global Controller

Medline Industries

The COVID-19 pandemic forced companies of all sizes to scrap their business plans for 2020 and attempt to come up with new ones even though so much is unknown and changing so fast.

Indeed, many companies are now faced with scenario planning at a level they’ve never done before. That’s not surprising given how much is unknown about what will happen when states reopen for business, the coronavirus remains unchecked by a vaccine, and consumers and workplaces settle into perhaps new norms. Still, finance teams have to surface meaningful data so critical business decisions can be made.  Based on our conversations with FP&A experts, we have learned how companies can adjust and keep adjusting to the “next new normal”.

Learning Objectives include:

• Anticipating pent-up demand and make strategic investments to capture growth upon reopening
• Recalibrating for the changing face of the workplace and managing spend in the interim
• Process efficiencies to facilitate rolling forecasts and create dynamic what-if scenarios

Kerman Lau

Planning Product Management

Workday

Tom Peff

Product Marketing Director

Workday

With unemployment at an all-time high, organizations are struggling with the painful reality of layoffs. The sustainability and societal impact of a company or business is a major determinant for many investors today. How can finance executives shoulder the responsibility to ensure social and environmental viability?

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Ensuring your organization has an ESG framework in place
• Navigating the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental
• Pursuing sustainable initiatives that produce both environmental and economic benefits

Lyndsey Zhang, MBA

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Boardroom&Beyond

Jessica Blume

Director for Publix and Centene

Artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled technology solutions continue to flood the market, forcing finance executives to evaluate the solutions available and the benefits they can bring forth. Understanding the challenges CFOs face and how AI and ML can help solve these issues for your organization is critical to the success of the finance function.

This session will explore:

• Understanding the top challenges CFOs face
• How to identify AI use cases and establish enterprise-wide data policies
• Real life examples of problem and solution impact

Moderator:

Amit Arora

Vice President of Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics Products

Genpact

Panelists:

Chris Ortega

Chief Executive Officer

Fresh FP&A

Tom Fencl

Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President of Operations

Price f(x)

Beaumont Vance

Head of AI, Advanced Analytics and Emerging Technology DevOps

TD Ameritrade

As the world faces new challenges such as COVID and has collectively awaken towards addressing racial discrimination and injustice, organizations must turn on a dime to embrace this new era and strengthen the finance organization.

So, what does it look like to lead an effective finance organization now? Building and leading a diverse team that is in line with the diversity of your customers and consumers is a top priority, and leadership critical responsibilities is integral to making it work in order to strive in the future.

This session will explore:

• Our responsibilities as Leaders to champion diversity and inclusion practices
• What does an Effective Finance Function looks like?
• Becoming an inspirational leader able to lead multi-generational workforce

Kevin Mpambou Do Dang

Chief Financial Officer

Away From Home, Kellogg Company

Whenever your organization takes on a transformation or improvement project, there is often a resistance to change. These transformations directly impact employees and jobs, which could increase frustrations and disrupt streamlined processes.  It is important to understand where to customize transformations and where you don’t, especially if your organization is on a global scale.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Operational strategy, process changes, and managing budget
• How to deliver transformation appropriately
• Budgeting for necessary finance transformations

Paul Smith

Chief Revenue Officer

Workforce.com

The requirements of today’s CFOs are ultimately more diverse, complicated, and sweeping.  They are expected to not only provide counsel to the CEO but to perform a key role in identifying strategic growth opportunities for the business. There is an absolute need for CFOs to evolve in their roles, even if not transitioning into a CEO position.  This means adopting a more left-brain right-brain balance where, as numbers people, they can also begin to embrace a more creative, problem solving, and intelligent risk-taking attitude when it’s needed.

This session will explore:

• Balancing fiscal prudence with a broader perspective on the benefits of investing in people, training and technologies
• Developing a more collaborate attitude
• Bringing a future-forward perspective that requires giving up control of some day-to-day details

Suk Shah

MBA, Chief Financial Officer

Guaranteed Rate

Ozan Kaya

Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer

ShopRunner

Walmart executives will discuss the company’s approach to developing a strong data foundation and curating data in a manner that members of its Finance team can access and use to drive value creating decisions within Walmart’s Supply Chain organization. These executives will provide a brief overview of Walmart’s data strategy and then focus on how the company has developed a Cost to Serve Model that allows access to data at the most granular level, which influences decision making among business partners.  This will be illustrated with specific use cases.

Key Takeaways:

• Participants will gain an understanding as to how Finance can partner with Data Scientists to drive Value

Bill Mines

Senior Vice President of Finance and Strategy, Supply Chain & Logistics

Walmart

Juan Gomez

Senior Director of Supply Chain Finance

Walmart

Jackie Guan

Senior Director II, US Supply Chain Data and Analytics

Walmart

The role of brands as strategic assets can be used to create long-term sustainable value and success for organizations. Based on their work and article titled “The Financial Value of Brand” Strategic Finance (October 2019), Bobby Calder and Mark L. Frigo will describe how evaluating the financial value of a brand can improve the connection  of marketing with the financial side of organizations. A primary focus is on creating brands with a strong corporate purpose that can drive financial results. This includes understanding the financial value of a brand, how companies can create relevant value-creating brands with a strong corporate purpose that addresses sustainability, and the information on brands and brand investments that is useful for boards and investors.

This session will also explore:

• How can CFOs and CMOs resist competitive fade by developing strategies for reinvestment in brands based on a Competitive Life-Cycle (CLC) analysis?
• What are the limitations of well-publicized brand rankings published yearly by BrandZ, Interbrand, Brand Finance, Forbes, and others that CFOs and management teams should consider when reviewing them?
• How can companies find better ways to measure and manage the financial value of brands internally?

Bobby J. Calder, Ph.D.

Kellstadt Professor of Marketing

Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Dr. Mark L. Frigo, PhD, CPA, CMA, CGMA

Founder of the Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation and the Strategic Risk Management Lab

Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University

As the finance leader of your organization, you are tasked with telling the company story on a periodic basis through various report outputs. The focus of the reporting discussion is typically on external reporting, yet the internal reports are arguably more crucial to driving strategic decision making – and the process is infinitely more painful, disparate, and recurring.

In this session, you will hear:

• Survey data around the impact of this inefficiency on organizations
• In-practice examples of how global finance teams have reduced risk and improved controls with a more comprehensive approach

Kevin Beckberger

Vice President, Global Solutions Engineering Disclosure Management

Certent

Due to the traumatic global pandemic, developed and talented finance teams are at risk of being downsized. Organizations must make difficult decisions and ultimately maintain the finance talent that will help position them for success. The future is unclear but holding onto the best and most seasoned finance professionals can sustain a company in the long run.

In this session, topics of discussion will include:

• Understanding the relationship between your organization’s performance and finance talent
• Retaining talented professionals to increase productivity and company value
• Avoiding the looming threat of layoffs and a downturn in the economy

Moderator:

Dipti Arora

Vice President of Finance

CircleCI

Panelists:

Kelly A. Garnes

Chief Financial Officer

Gill St. Bernard's School

Ann Anthony

Chief Financial Officer and Board Observer

Oberon Fuels, LLC

Corporate business development is a strategic framework used to identify, define, analyze and prioritize a list of relevant acquisition target opportunities.  The purpose is to strengthen the competitive position of the company and accelerate its growth through a proactive, calculated acquisition strategy.

Attend this insightful session to learn more about:

• Deal identification, sourcing, analysis and execution
• Best practices for deal flow productivity
• Expanding options for deal-maker effectiveness

Edward P. Richards, Jr.

Vice President, Corporate Business Development

The Lubrizol Corporation

In times of uncertainty and beyond, CFOs are being challenged to digitize finance. This need to reinvent is a journey on which many CFOs are travelling, embracing the challenges and the opportunities offered by today’s technologies. Finance leaders are playing instrumental roles in this ‘inside-out’ revolution of reinvention in order to achieve cost clarity, efficiently develop new business architectures, and reinvent finance processes by re-engineering cognitive-fueled workflows. Redesigning more intelligent workflows and processes is knitted together through the power of exponential technologies (including AI, advanced analytics, automaton, blockchain, IoT, etc.) and fresh combinations of data.

This chat will explore how today’s enterprises are radically changing both how work gets done and how new value is realized. Finance leaders are identifying differentiating and value-creating workflows and then reimagining them using exponential technologies across the people, processes and data framework.

In this fireside chat we will discuss:

• How CFOs in the most successful enterprises are realizing the strategic value of data to achieve material improvements in performance
• Examples of how CFOs are using data as a strategic asset to deliver deeply nuanced, individualized experiences powered by sophisticated, intelligent operations will be shared

Hosted by: IBM