TechNExt’s Post

What makes an MC a "great" MC? Sticking to time? Funny anecdotes? Nice clothes? Pithy one-liners? Sharp speaker intros and summaries? All of that, sure. But more than anything, an MC is a culture-setter. People take their cue from the MC about how to behave. They are the lighthouse for your event. We want our events to have connection, authenticity and value, right? An MC should shine their light so everybody else can see how to make that a reality. ... I recently MCed my first conference in aaages, and absolutely loved it. I'd like to MC three conferences in the next 6 months. Maybe yours could be one of them? (I'm happy to reduce my rate as I grow this part of my practice. Probably shouldn't admit that, but meh.) If you're interested, flick me a message.

My first attempt at startup in my final year of Uni failed! We had built a general transcription product that listens to and transcribes speeches in real time and then sends a PDF version with brilliant images and infographics to every member of your audience almost at the same time you’re getting off the stage. It was a great product that no one would pay for, not the public speakers or the conference organizers we built our ideal customer persona around. But that’s not the main gist. I would leave the university with a resolve to go build capacity and knowledge to do it better next time such that I’ll be ready by the time another problem opens up to be solved. This mindset was key to how I went about my work at Microsoft, at Wema bank, at ALAT as the product launched into the market as Nigeria’s first fully digital bank and at WayaPayChat. I operated pretty much as an intrapreneur, taking on tasks that doesn’t necessarily add anything to my KPIs, but valuable to the bigger goal of the business. Made me such a reliable and solid employee but more importantly expanded my capacity in ways I can’t quantify for my second shot at entrepreneurship with truQ (Techstars '22) where we are now building the operating system and financial infrastructure for commercial logistics fleet operators. I’m particularly excited about this event coming up this weekend cos it a perfect platform to share my experience with jobseekers around searching for jobs with a strategic mindset that aligns your jobhunt with your purpose, and more importantly when you do get the job, how do you approach work as an employee to be valuable to your employer than the average employee while laying critical blocks as you build up yourself towards your purpose. Promises to be a great time!

Serving on a professional panel is a big opportunity. It’s a chance to showcase your expertise, network, and contribute to industry dialogue. How can you take advantage of it? First, make sure to prepare. You should understand the host and their goals for the event, including the topic of discussion and what areas they’d like to focus on. It’s also useful to research the other panelists and audience to see where you each connect (or don’t). I You should have three to five talking points you want to make throughout the event, and cater them to the demographic of the audience. On the day of the event, show up early and connect with the moderator. Stick to the main subject matter and avoid going off on tangents. Be respectful to other panelists by allowing them time to talk, and send a thank-you note to organizers a couple days after.

This is a brief snippet from a video being shown at what looks like an amazing conference coming up with people like Porges, Bessel, Pat Ogden, Paul Gilbert, Dan Seigel, many more, details here https://zurl.co/u2EY

How they attend a conference and what I go through to get to attend a conference are two very separate experiences

An important topic for healthcare professionals. Catholic Health Australia St Vincent's Health Australia Catholic Healthcare Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Mercy Health Australia Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea Calvary Health Care

🔍 My Takeaways from Privacy + Security Forum 2024 🔍 I wrapped up two packed days at the PSF Conference in DC last week with a delightful happy hour. Here are some of the conference topics that stuck out to me: 1.       AI, cybersecurity & privacy assessments still catch us by surprise Even when we regularly schedule internal audits, they can still seem to come out of nowhere and end up at risk of being deprioritized. As AI risk and impact assessments become the norm, practitioners may be wary of adding compliance burdens that might slow development. But AI’s broad-ranging risks call for specific attention to things like transparency, ethical checks, and a values-aligned development process. How can we keep these assessments from becoming formalities? Is the traditional, annual assessment a sustainable approach today? One suggestion was to have “ethics sprints” alongside dev sprints to ensure these considerations are top of mind without slowing things down. Does it make sense to group together internal and external privacy assessments to get them done in one go? 2.       Move over Data Mapping… Make room for Data Security Posture Management Data mapping has always been a challenge for organizations and Data Security Posture Management, the new paradigm for data management, seems to take a multipronged approach to data security. Data management for privacy is essential when it comes to data sharing. The FTC stressed the importance of vetting partners and conducting quick assessments (within 30 days of entering data-sharing agreements) in the X Mode case. The challenges of data mapping won’t go away soon but maybe a refresh is what we need. 3.       Algorithmic accountability – what does it look like? Who takes accountability when AI is deployed? While concerns about overregulation are real (do we really want to regulate Excel formulas?), one panelist pointed out that, at scale, even a simple formula can have major implications. The tech industry has often expanded quickly without robust controls and has faced tough consequences as a result. Ten years ago, few expected a $200M cyberattack to start from a compromised HVAC vendor’s credentials. The panelist’s point was that the cyber attack surface is broad, and as a parallel, so is the equity and algorithmic “fairness” attack surface. 4.       Privacy pros have fun There was so much laughter last week and I felt lucky to laugh AND wax philosophical with both new and old friends.

Read our newest blog post about Eddy's journey to become a public speaker!

ALERT 🚨 for all current law students or young lawyers: Kozyak Minority Mentoring Foundation, Inc. is hosting this virtual lunch webinar this Friday focused “Building Relationships for Law Career Success”. Please join us for the conversation and sharing of ideas of how to support each other on the professional journey. REGISTER BELOW👇🏾👇🏾 #LawMentoring #LawMentors