2025 Future Focus: HMCC Young Professional Event
This event engages emerging leaders and young professionals as an extension of the Chamber’s Annual Membership Meeting. Our renowned speaker, Paul Zikopoulos, will present to this audience as an opportunity to develop and encourage the future leadership of our community.
Preparing talent to lead our region in the future is a critical component of our long-term success and this event seeks to effectively engage those leaders for critical topics that will impact Huntsville/Madison County.
Paul Zikopoulos
Future Trends Expert, and VP of Technology Group Skills Vitality & Enablement at IBM
In a rapidly transforming world, data has become the new competitive advantage. And according to future trends expert Paul Zikopoulos, “Every day we walk by solvable problems, leaving opportunities untapped.” The VP of Technology Unit Skills & Enablement at IBM, Zikopoulos discusses how working these “solvable problems” creates disruption in the marketplace and how golden signals of opportunity can be found within mountains of noise. At IBM, Paul leads from the front, owning accountability and strategic direction in a “tech years are like dog years” world for the entire IBM Technology Unit’s (all IBM software and hardware) sales, tech sales, and partner ecosystem learning journeys, and upskilling programs.
Paul is changing the way audiences are looking at their businesses in terms of potential sales, obstacles, potential for growth, and how they utilize technology, such as generative AI and cloud applications, to support their organizations. He shares future trends that are starting to happen in real-time and have multiple applications: from garbage cans that alert sanitation departments when they need collection – saving cities millions – to shampoo brands that are connecting weather forecasts with personal consumer profiles to suggest the right mix of hair products for the day. He easily discusses the next generation of technological change from the power of machine learning and voice-to-text, to the opportunities in reading digital body language and joining the Internet of Things trillion sensor economy, and more.
Paul is an award-winning tech thought leader and writer who has shared his expertise on AI and big data on the popular TV show, 60 Minutes, as well as in publications such as Technopedia and Analytics Week. He has published 21 books, including Cloud Without Compromise, The AI Ladder, and three ‘For Dummies’ titles. Paul has taken an active role in bolstering Women in Technology, LGBT and general workplace inclusivity (completing an intensive D&I certificate at Cornell University), and Coding for Veterans. In addition to being the first and only male ever to be recognized as an IBM Canada “Women in Technology Ally of the Year” award winner, he is a seated board member for Switch (formerly known as Women 2.0), a global network and social platform for aspiring and current female founders of technology ventures who he became involved with after one of his tweets was mentioned on the TV show “The View.” He is also on the world-recognized Masters of Management Analytics and AI program boards at Canada’s prestigious Queen’s University.
Date and Time
Tuesday Feb 4, 2025
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM CST
Fees/Admission
Online registration
Member: $50
Non-member: $100
Refunds to credit cards will be charged a 6% processing fee. No refunds will be processed after January 27, 2025.
Contact Information
Kristy Drake
256-535-2036
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