Shawn Du‍‍‍bravac

Dr. Shawn DuBravac is author of the New York Times Best Seller Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Transform the Way We Work, Live, and Communicate (Regnery, 2015), which explores how the world’s mass adoption of digital technologies portends the beginning of a new era for humanity in the realms of business, healthcare, finance, transportation and culture.

DuBravac is a well-regarded futurist and trendcaster who writes frequently on disruptive technological shifts. He advises companies and C-level executives on market opportunities and industry strategy. He is president and founder of Astra Insights which provides consulting, research and advisory services to CxOs on a myriad of topics including digital transformation strategies, business model disruptions, the pace of technological change and overcoming myopic thinking. For over a dozen years DuBravac served as chief economist for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,000 consumer tech companies and owner and producer of CES.

He was the primary driver of smartphone and cyber-security equity indexes, developed in partnership with NASDAQ, and the CTA consumer confidence index. In 2012, DuBravac was named to Dealerscope’s “40 under 40” list of people to watch in the consumer technology industry. He is a member of the National Association of Business Economists and currently serves as the president of the Conference of Business Economists.   ‍‍‍

Founder of ‍‍‍Trend Hunter‍‍‍

‍‍‍Former CMO of Air‍‍‍BnB

Futurist

Fee: $$

The Digitization of Healthcare

Wearables, telemedi‍‍‍cine and artificial intelligence are just the start of a technological tsunami disrupting one of the m‍‍‍ost broken business models in America. Healthcare reform and escalating demand continues to put new pressures on hospitals, physician and medical service providers and savvy organizations are turning to technological solutions to gain competitive advantages, enable innovative capabilities, contain costs and enhance efficiencies. At the same time patients are living ever digitized lives and demanding more of medical providers. Explore the most promising and pronounced trends impacting healthcare. Big questions regarding the efficacy of technology to cut costs, improve accuracy, and raise quality remain but the future of healthcare is digital and organizations need to prepare now for the coming transformation.

Finance and Risk Management in a New Digital Age‍‍‍

The next era of financial intermediation is upon us. The coming digital decade will transform every aspect of finance. Digitization is opening new market opportunities from AI-driven decision making to cryptocurrencies. Bots and other emerging technologies are influencing how individuals interact and changing the advisor-client relationship. Mounting cyber attacks, the rise of artificial intelligence and digitized data are altering risk management and mitigation, how decisions are made, and how valuations are derived. Every element of the financial community will be impacted by disruptive digital forces, creating both havoc and opportunities for incumbent firms and start-ups alike.

Are We Ready For Smart Cities?

Technological shifts are reshaping the urban landscape and producing social change in cities around the global. Municipalities are rethinking infrastructure and transportation investments while seeking ways to protect and optimize scarce resources to improve the quality of life for it’s residents. At the same time consumers are embedding smart technologies throughout their home and personal lives. Wearable sensors are facilitating robust and dynamic real-time data while technological transformations like self-driving vehicles are poised to massively change structural elements of cities throughout the world.

Voice, AR, and ‍‍‍Blockchain: Challenges and Opportunities of Emerging Technologies

A profusion of technological changes on the horizon are poised to forever change the way we work, live and communicate. Voice computing is ushering in a new user interface and changing the way we compute. Virtual reality and augmented reality are altering the way we interact and blurring the lines between the physical and digital worlds. New use-cases for drones, 3D-printers and wearables are arising daily. Self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and the blockchain are fundamentally changing business processes. Increasing swaths of our lives are connected but cybersecurity and privacy concerns are just some of the challenges as we usher a new world filled with technological innovations.