Byron Reese

Futurist, Technologist, Founder Of Several High-tech Companies; Expert On Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain And The Effect Of Technology On The Workplace

Categories: Future, Innovation, Technology, Trends, TED / TEDx Tag: Texas

Bio
Videos
Topics
Testimonials
Past Clients

An accomplished high-tech trailblazer, author, inventor, entrepreneur, and eternal optimist, Byron Reese delivers audiences and readers an infectious sense of possibility and wonder. Byron employs his perspective as a historian, futurist, and technologist to illuminate how the technology of today can solve some of our most daunting global challenges.

“The new challenge for humanity will not be how to chip away at the old problems,” says Byron, “but what to do in a world where we can do anything.” His first book, “Infinite Progress: How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Poverty, Hunger, and War” has been called “a prophetic book,” “an essential road map,” and “an antidote to the harmful gloom and moralizing that pervades most discussions of the future.”

Referring to his time as Chief Innovation Officer at Demand Media, Bloomberg Businessweek credits Byron with having “quietly pioneered a new breed of media company.” Wired Magazine described him as “a tall Texan who … created the idea-spawning algorithm that lies at the heart of Demand’s process.” The Financial Times of London reported that he “is typical of the new wave of internet entrepreneurs out to turn the economics of the media industry on its head.” And Business Insider concluded that Byron “seems like a kooky – and awesome guy … We’d love to buy him a beer.”

Byron started his first business as an undergraduate at Rice University. He later founded and sold two companies: Hot Data, ultimately to Pitney Bowes; and PageWise to Demand Media. Byron currently is the publisher and CEO of Gigaom, a technology research and analysis firm helping business leaders understand the implications of emerging technologies and their impacts on business, media, and society.

Videos

Topics

AI & Employment – “How Robots Create Human Jobs”

“Daily, the media greets readers with a variant of “THE ROBOTS ARE COMING FOR YOUR JOB!” The logic is simple: Everyday Robots get smarter, learn faster, and they will never ask for a raise. But Byron believes this simplistic reasoning is entirely wrong. “Just as electricity and the assembly line weren’t bad for workers, in spite of shrill predictions otherwise, AI and robots won’t be either,” he says. “In fact, they will create so many new jobs that our bigger problem will be a labor shortage.”

Sharing insights from his upcoming book, “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of Humanity,” to be released Nov. 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Byron invites his audience to meet him at the start of the Industrial Revolution, to explore from there the many advances leading to today’s technological age, and then to dare to explore the vast possibilities of the future, the coming Fourth Age.

This talk is structured to be highly customizable to specific industries or can be presented to a general audience. Byron delivers a calm and factual analysis concluding that our best days are certainly ahead of us.

AI & Employment – “The Future Of Work”

While audience members once commonly asked, “What should I teach my kids to make sure they have a job in the future,” today, says Byron they ask, ‘What do I need to learn to stay relevant in the future?’ And, ‘How do I keep from falling behind?’ Everyone agrees that technology is changing the world. The question is how should we change in response to it? In this talk, Byron tells the story of technology’s advancement from the invention of language until today. He explores what’s to come in the next decade, and examines what we individuals can do to make the most of changing times.

What skills are useful to have? Which technologies should we adopt? How will technology affect the workplace, the home, and society in general? In this empowering talk, Byron suggests that the future is not going to be a frightening place where humans become displaced, but rather “one in which the things that make us human become incredibly valuable. We are entering a world of more choice and more opportunity than ever before,” says Bryon, and “the best response is to expand our dreams and expectations, not our fears and concerns.”

This highly customizable talk can be tailored to specific industries or can be presented to a general audience.

Techno-optimism – “The Coming Golden Age Of Humanity”

In this compelling talk, Byron demonstrates how current technological changes will ultimately bring about the end of poverty, disease, hunger, ignorance, and war. Byron explores how these historical problems of humanity are fundamentally problems of technology, and thus will have technological solutions, solutions we will find much sooner than is commonly believed.

Techno-optimism – “How To Change The World For Centuries To Come”

The world has, throughout human history, changed. Almost always, this change is for the better. Through civilization, we have raised life expectancy, the standard of living, access to education, and political liberty. How has this change been brought about? Largely through the actions of individuals driven to change the world. This talk focuses on how that change happens and looks at how virtually any individual can literally have worldwide effect on the history of the planet.

Techno-optimism – “Big Data And The Perfectibility Of Humanity”

More data is created every day that was created in the entire 19th Century. And within that data lies to the answers to the vexing problems of life. Automatic computer programs will scour the data for associations that will be turned into algorithms to optimize every decision we have to make in life. And while we may not always choose to do those things, it will effectively make every person on the planet vastly wiser than the wisest person who has ever lived. In the future, no one will ever need to make a mistake again. While this sounds like a technical talk, the wide use of real examples makes it suitable for any audience.

Business & Leadership – “How To Innovate In A Rapidly Changing World”

No matter what industry you are in, you probably have a sense that you are in one of those radical disruptive periods where everything seems to be changing. You might be wondering when it is all going to settle down so you can take a bit of a breather.

This talk explores how businesses that operate in industries that are undergoing dramatic changes can function and be successful. While traditional futurists seldom bridge the gap between “here is what is going to happen” and “here is how you profit from it,” Byron explores how it is that radical technology advance creates new multi-billion dollar companies, and destroys old ones.

Business & Leadership – “The Next Seven Years”

What would you have foreseen seven years ago? There were no self-driving cars or Apple watches. Would you have seen the transformative effect that tablets and smartphones would have? The next seven years will have much more change than the prior seven years. We know this. And this is the change we need to begin preparing for.

Technology & Education – “The Future Of Education”

The University system is a 12th Century French invention that remains to this day largely unchanged from it origins in the Middle Ages. Our K-12 system is a 19th Century German invention designed to produce homogenous factory workers. It too remains unchanged since the late 1800s. Now, we find ourselves in a world that has changed in ways no one expected. Now, the two most important job skills are teaching yourself new skills and working collaboratively with a team, neither of which are taught in our existing framework. How should education change? How will it? What skills will ensure that a person can economically contribute in a world of radical technological change?

Testimonials

“Byron kicked-off our event with a great, future-focused Keynote presentation, giving us his predictions for technology’s influence on small business lending. Attendees enjoyed his well-informed outlook for our industry and continued the conversation for the duration of the conference. Both engaging and informative, I would recommend Byron as a speaker for anyone hosting a similar event.”
Orion First, Small Business Lending Forum

“Byron was awesome! His session has gotten very positive feedback on our post-meeting survey, and it’s been fun to hear references to his presentation come up in meetings over the past week. And as a communicator I’m still in awe of his deck. So awesome!”
JP Morgan

“It was a pleasure having Byron Reese on our campus.
Not only was his presentation to nearly 400 faculty stimulating and well-received, he also was personable and generous with his time in discussing ideas with faculty before and after the presentation. Byron’s visionary approach and dynamic style provided an instant connection to the audience.”
Texas Woman’s University

“Byron’s talk was spectacular. He took the time to speak with me in advance about our event and crafted a presentation that perfectly fit our theme. He kept the audience engaged throughout the presentation both through the thought provoking topics he discussed as well as the visual images he included. On top of all this, he was exceptionally easy to work with before, during and after his presentation. He truly made my job easier.”
Johnson & Johnson

“Byron was an absolute hit and everyone truly enjoyed hearing his insights on the intersection of history, technology and our future. His passion and energy on the subject matter is unmatched! Further, we greatly appreciated all of the time he spent with our team and guests.”
Crestone Capital Advisors