In May we attended the Collision Conference 2019 in Toronto. Now in its fifth year, Collision is the fastest growing tech conference in North America, and for the first time, in Toronto. Over 25,000 attendees from 125 countries, 730 speakers, and 1100 startups. I learned a lot. Now that the dust has settled, I distilled my previously posted top daily summaries (found in my LinkedIn account) down to the top-3 things learned each day.

Day 1

  1. Snap (Snapchat): The community created 400,000 lenses which were used 15B times in the last ~8months. Their goal is to have the right lens available at the right time
  2. Amazon – To get developers to join your company you have to demonstrate you have an “awesome idea”
  3. “(it’s now) easier to broadcast, harder to get heard” – Dan Gardner

Day 2

  1. Now coining the term “Virtual Talent” (under perpetual employment with you, but 100% remote) instead of “freelancers”. The Future of Work prezo by Taso Du Val @ Toptal
  2. “We haven’t taught (citizens) how to learn new skills (to stay update in today’s employment climate).” – Daphne Koller @ Coursera
  3. Darren Hendler of Digital Domain (they worked on latest Avenger’s movie) asked us to guess which of 6 people (shown) was not human, but CGI generated (hint: none). The Digital Human technology will soon allow a digital version of you to speak autonomously, using content you didn’t necessarily generate. The “you” speaking will appear 100% authentic. Imagine where this could lead…

Day 3

  1. “The war for talent is over. Talent won”. – Sarah Nahm, CEO, Lever
  2. “Invest in your (company’s) culture early” & “Culture is not won & done” – Max Mullen, Co-founder, Instacart
  3. “70M US jobs to be impacted by AI by 2030” – Leagh Turner, President, Ceridian
  4. “Ensure your people understand their impact (on the business)” – Leagh Turner, President, Ceridian (couldn’t not include this 4th item)