Three Events on Technology, Employment and the Economy

If you’re interested in technology, employment and the economy, you might be interested in three events happening in the next few weeks.

The first is the Compass Summit in Palos Verdes, California, on October 23-26. There will be an impressive array of technologists, business leaders, visionaries and policymakers coming together to discussion how innovation can lead us out of some of messes we’ve created lately. I’ll be giving a talk called “Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution Irreversibly Transforms Employment and the Economy” and my colleagues Tom Malone, Andy McAfee and many others will also be participating.

The second event is a whole symposium on technology and employment that the MIT Center for Digital Business is hosting on October 31 (yes, Halloween), followed by a game of Jeopardy! between a team from the MIT Sloan School, a team from Harvard Business School, and IBM’s Watson. Dave Ferrucci, the “father” of Watson will be speaking, along with some amazing technologists and economists. We’ll look at how technologies like Watson, Google’s self-driving car, Apple’s Siri, Heartland Robots and other amazing technologies have gone from fiction to reality, and what it means for jobs, wealth and the economy.

The morning sessions are at the new MIT Media Lab building on October 31, starting at 9:00 am. In the afternoon, we’ll head over to Harvard Business School. Space is limited, so if you’d like to attend please email Joanne Batziotegos (jtegos at mit dot edu) to reserve a spot.

The third event is Techonomy. This was the best non-MIT conference I went to last year and I’m really looking forward to it this year. It will be in Tucson this year, from November 13-15. I’m going to debate Tyler Cowen, the uber-blogger and economist, on the question “Can Technology Be Society’s Economic Engine?” It should be a lot of fun.

Let me know if you plan to attend any or all of the events, but if you miss them, watch this space for a summary of some of the highlights afterwards.

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