Edgar Perez Technology and Business Author and Strategy Consultant: AI, Web3, Metaverse and Quantum

The world of work is undergoing a radical transformation as automation and artificial intelligence (AI) reshape various industries and occupations. How can we prepare ourselves and our organizations for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead? In this keynote, Edgar will share his insights and recommendations on how to adapt and thrive in the age of automation and AI. He will cover the current and future trends and impacts of automation and AI on the workforce and the economy, and the best practices and strategies for leveraging automation and AI to enhance productivity, creativity, and innovation. He will also review the essential skills and mindsets that are needed to succeed in the new world of work. You will learn how to confidently navigate the changing landscape of work and to seize the opportunities that automation and AI offer.

Innovation is the key to success in today's competitive and dynamic world. But how can you measure and optimize the quality and value of your innovation projects? Learn from soccer, the world's most popular sport, and the xG factor. xG, or expected goals, is a metric that global broadcasters such as Sky Sports, BBC, Bein Sports and NBC use regularly. It measures the quality of a chance by calculating the likelihood of scoring based on historical shot information. It provides a more objective measure of a team’s attacking prowess than simply counting the number of goals scored. In this keynote, Edgar will show you how to apply the xG factor to unleash innovation in your organization. Look forward to be entertained and inspired with the knowledge to transform your organization into a hub of innovation and excellence.

In today's fast-paced, ever-changing world, staying ahead of the curve means embracing innovation in every aspect of your business. But how do you create an environment where creativity thrives, risk-taking is encouraged, and collaboration fuels breakthrough ideas? In this talk, Edgar shares his proven strategies for fostering a culture of innovation within your organization. You'll learn how to overcome common obstacles and pitfalls, and discover best practices for empowering employees to think outside the box, take calculated risks, and work together to drive groundbreaking solutions. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500 company, Edgar will help you unlock the full potential of your team and turn your organization into a hub of innovation that sets you apart from the competition.

Technology is a powerful force of innovation and disruption. It can help businesses create new value propositions that can satisfy the needs and wants of their customers, as well as challenge the status quo and reshape the competitive landscape. Technology can also help businesses to explore new opportunities and overcome new challenges in the market, as well as scale up globally. Edgar will discuss how companies can use technology to identify and exploit new opportunities and challenges in the market, to develop and test innovative solutions that can meet the changing demands and expectations of your customers, and to scale up and expand your business across different regions and sectors.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model designed to understand natural language and respond to user queries, providing human-like conversation in text form. ChatGPT can be used to automate customer service, answer frequently asked questions, and gain insights from customer interactions; it can also be used to analyze large amounts of data and generate reports. While ChatGPT is a machine, it was created by humans, and it has important implications for the relationship between humans and machines. Mr. Perez will explore the ways in which ChatGPT blurs the line between human and machine, and what that means for the future of work and our relationship with technology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way since its inception in the mid-20th century. One of the most exciting and promising developments is Generative AI, a rapidly evolving field that focuses on teaching computers to create original content such as music, images, text, video, or protein structures. Unlike traditional AI, where the focus is on classification, prediction, and optimization, Generative AI aims to enable machines to learn from patterns in data and then use that knowledge to create something entirely new. The applications of Generative AI are vast and far-reaching, and its potential to revolutionize industries such as life sciences, fashion, design, healthcare, journalism, and music is significant. Mr. Perez will inspire your team as he explores a future that we can experience today.

Web3 promises a better internet built on the blockchain, the distributed ledger systems that form the basis of cryptocurrencies. Backers promise it will cut out traditional middlemen, letting users transact directly and have a greater stake in the applications they use. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, for example, make their money through advertising; yet, they share zero of it. Users are supposed to be happy with likes! If the sirens’ songs are to be believed, Web3 will bring more power into the hands of end users. Some people have different views though. Is Web3 just really a land grab underway by already powerful people? Is it a dystopian vision of a pay-to-play internet? Is Web3 ultimately a mere rebranding of crypto with the aim of convincing people that blockchains are the natural next phase of computing? Mr. Perez will inspire you as he cuts to the Web3 chase.

The Metaverse is where our digital and physical lives will converge. It will include a virtual world interoperating with the physical world where we live, and generate a robust economy that spans entertainment, commerce, education and work, while transforming long-standing industries such as finance, retail, healthcare fitness, and more. Today, every major company is staking a claim on the Metaverse, from social media giants Meta (formerly Facebook) and Snap to gaming powerhouses Tencent, Microsoft and Epic Games, to hardware providers Nvidia and TSMC. Gear up to embrace the possibilities the Metaverse will bring during this fascinating futuristic session with Mr. Edgar Perez.

The blockchain has been declared as a big revolution in business technology; it is indeed a game-changer for a global financial system that needs an upgrade. A more exciting development has been the booming rise in speculative cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology, from Bitcoin to Ether. This surge has attracted a new generation of crypto bulls who see these crypto currencies as the cash of the future. Meanwhile, central banks and policymakers around the world explore ways to introduce Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). If you buy Bitcoin now, Mr. Edgar Perez says, do it at your own peril. Instead, he explains, it is time to explore the future with Ethereum or other platforms that implement smart contracts; ultimately, let’s be prepared to embrace the new realities of CBDCs’ widespread deployment.

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet now sit on top of the list of most valuable tech companies in the world, as each is worth more than $1 trillion. Significantly, these four companies have all looked at cloud computing for growth. In turn, the market has rewarded their shareholders richly, as each of these companies’ market values have climbed to record levels. What is it about the cloud computing paradigm that makes these companies so valuable? Could your clients apply this philosophy to their own businesses? The answer is yes. You only have to look at Porsche Passport, the most streamlined way to drive a Porsche by including most of the aspects of ownership or leasing into one convenient package and payment plan. Notably, 80% of subscribers never owned or leased a Porsche prior to the Passport program. Mr. Edgar Perez will share key lessons and insights to explore this new business model regardless of your industry.

Google recently announced that their most advanced quantum computer, a radically new design to manipulate and process information, has achieved “quantum supremacy” for the first time. The technology giant's Sycamore quantum processor was able to perform an incredibly complex task in 200 seconds, a feat that would take the world's fastest supercomputers 10,000 years to complete. The ultimate development and commercialization of this technology will tremendously accelerate difficult tasks across all industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and the upcoming space exploration. Are we really there yet?

Mr. Edgar Perez will enlighten your audience with the latest head-turning business applications of this revolutionary technology.

Artificial intelligence has been referred as the general ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. Since the development of the digital computer in the 1940s, it has been demonstrated that computers can be programmed to carry out very complex tasks with great proficiency. Through a comprehensive review of the latest artificial intelligence breakthroughs, Mr. Perez will offer his insights on how these advancements will impact businesses and the human race in general for years to come, and more specifically, how companies can leverage the plethora of available resources to start implementing solutions to problems that only a few years ago belonged to the real of science fiction. Mr. Perez will reveal why artificial intelligence is the present and the future.

Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are virtual certificates built on blockchain technology. The blockchain offers a secure record of transactions, serving as an incorruptible proof of ownership. An oil painting can only be displayed in one place and has an identifiable owner. However, a digital image or video can be infinitely duplicated and enjoyed on screens around the world for free. NFTs offer today two things that the physical art market has always depended on: scarcity and authenticity. Therefore, “original” artworks and their owners can always be identified via the blockchain. NFTs can be sold or traded; often gaining value in the secondary market, so far. Should users jump on the NFT bandwagon? “Two words,” says Mr. Edgar Perez. “Be cautious.” Mr. Perez will explain why the current NFT mania might be obscuring the beginning of a bubble.

Social engineering involves tricking your employees into breaching security protocols or giving away information, most often over the telephone or via email. Social engineering exploits human weaknesses rather than technology, preying upon people’s propensity towards trust in particular. Often, these exploits are used to gather information to support a more targeted cyberattack, with the initial forays based on the premise of ‘little and often’ so as not to cause concern. Employees at all levels, including senior executives, are vulnerable. Mr. Perez will explain why by improving employee awareness and introducing simple technical measures, organizations can protect themselves against social engineering techniques and the risk of a cyberattack and its potential impact on business, customers and data.

An email embedded with malware. Security systems hacked by thieves. Credit card numbers stolen from store purchases. There’s certainly no shortage of examples when it comes to data security breaches and the havoc they wreak on business. No wonder then that nearly a third of CEOs in KPMG’s latest global survey identified cyber security as the issue having the biggest impact on their companies today. Every organization should apply a Cybersecurity Framework for analyzing cyber security, and ideally it should be integrated into an organization’s existing enterprise risk framework. The key is making it part of the mainstream of risk management within an organization. The most innovative companies today have recognized that cyber security is a customer experience and revenue opportunity, not just a risk that needs to be managed. Mr. Perez will explain why this must done across the entire organization and why the CEO and Board of Directors have the most important role to play.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which was drafted by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), comprises leading practices from various standards bodies that have proved to be successful when implemented, and it also may deliver regulatory and legal advantages that extend well beyond improved cybersecurity for organizations that adopt it early. Its adoption may prove advantageous for businesses across virtually all industries. Mr. Perez will explain why a proper Cybersecurity Program will build on the analysis of the possible areas of concern, an understanding of the company’s most critical assets, and a thorough review of Information Technology’s policies and procedures when faced with cybercrime.

The Internet of Things (IoT) explosion will see 20.8 billion connected devices deployed by 2020. The volumes of data generated will become a tsunami that firms will need to transform into actionable information. Unfortunately, most firms only look at the easy information they can get from structured data while ignoring their unstructured data, which accounts for 90 percent of content generated globally, making unstructured data a tremendous source of untapped value. Artificial Intelligence is making it possible and affordable to sift through and find meaning in vast amounts of unstructured data obtained from video, audio, emails, logs, social media posts and IoT devices. All of this data can bring about enormous benefits; Mr. Perez will show organizations how to reap these benefits today.

Deep learning has enabled many practical applications of artificial intelligence in today’s organizations. Deep learning breaks down tasks in ways that makes all kinds of machine aids seem possible, even likely. Driverless cars, better image recognition, more effective medical diagnoses, even better movie recommendations, are all here today. Mr. Perez will identify what organizations need to do today to embrace the future, starting with the basics: empowering their employees and turbocharging the organization’s data strategy. Once these two important tasks are accomplished, organizations can then launch pilots for the most promising opportunities, leveraging “state of the art” cases from today’s global innovators such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Tesla. Mr. Perez will show organizations how to kick start their deep learning transformation.

Classical computing was invented in the 1940s; the advent of Quantum Computing (QC) will render all what we have learned about these computers obsolete. Calculations that would take longer than a human’s life span to work out on a classic computer can be completed in a matter of days or hours with QC. Furthermore, QC will enable solving a set of problems that couldn’t be solved before. QC’s benefits include efficiently simulating new drug molecules and dramatically reducing the time complex financial calculations take, among many others. For optimization, sampling or search problems, this promises dramatic speedups. Mr. Perez will entertain your audience while revealing why Quantum Computing will disrupt every industry.

Neuromorphic Computing (NC) emulates the human brain’s neural structure and operation as it attempts to match a human's flexibility and ability to learn from unstructured stimuli with the energy efficiency displayed by our brain. NC has grown at the intersection of diverse research disciplines, including computational neuroscience, machine learning, microelectronics, and computer architecture, among others. It seeks to produce a cognition machine that not just reaches decisions, but memorizes information and even deduces facts. Mr. Perez will enthrall your audience with the possibilities created by computers that will behave as though they were originally engineered for the tasks they are executing, rather than as general-purpose computers taking their instructions from electronic programs.