Recover and Thrive: Part 4 and 5

This webinar is part 4 & 5 of the Emerging Technologies Speaker Series – Recover and Thrive Program. A virtual journey of entrepreneurship, skills for success, technology and community. It is brought to you by the WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation in partnership with the WindsorEssex Small Business Centre and WEtech Alliance.

This program is being offered as part of the region’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, funded by the Federal Government. This strategy, in collaboration with 5 partners, encourages and promotes women entrepreneurs to start and grow emerging technology businesses. The project also enhances data and knowledge banks to develop a clearer picture of the women entrepreneur ecosystem and increase representation of women entrepreneurs in emerging technology sectors.

* Please note attendance to this webinar is limited to 500 registrants.

Part 4: Into the Mysterious World of a Thinking Business

No question about it, we live in a world that collects data: every action, reaction, and process can be instantly digitized but does that yield knowledge? After all, Big Data without insights is, well, just a bunch of data. And if we are collecting more and more data, and we aren’t getting more and more insightful, then quite simply, we are getting dumber as organizations: we are more and more guilty about not knowing what we could already know!

What’s more, we’ve left a world where everyone talks to everyone and morphed into one where everything can talk to everything; the Internet of Things (IOT) is truly the birth of the trillion-sensor economy and this will make that data collection curve we can’t tame even steeper. Enter chat bots, weather, drones, 5-G communications, wearables, autonomous, and more to our technology years (which are like dog years in terms of advancement) and there is cause for concern but also optimism for opportunity.

Pause for a moment and consider the analytics journey in the last two decades. We started by finding needles in haystacks (data warehousing, columnar databases); then we thought we could find the needle if we added more hay (Hadoop and the big data lake); today we are left to find needles in stacks of needles and this conundrum quite simply has presented us with a pivotal moment: LIFT, SHIFT, RIFT, or CLIFF?

S.O.S. We’re going to need some help: enter the world of deep learning, cognitive computing, and AI. After this talk, you’ll have a good foundation on the trends and opportunities that have created this unprecedented era of ideation, innovation, and renovation. You’ll learn about Deep Learning and AI, bots, streaming data, IOT (and a couple of other buzz words people tried to impress you with but never do) and how these technologies have been applied across a myriad of forward thinkers across multiple industries – including your own.

Part 5: How to Raise Funding to Grow Your Business

The inspiration behind what I do and EnrichHER’s dedication and purpose comes from the story of a woman named “Barbara Jones,” who built her IT consultancy into a $1.2M business from the ground up. But when it was time to get capital for her business, she wasn’t able to access it from the banks. It wasn’t because she didn’t have revenue or cash flow — it’s because there aren’t enough resources dedicated to women led businesses.

As the CEO and founder of EnrichHER, I’m going to share with you my tips and tricks about getting financing for your company! I’ve learned this must have know how through my experience raising money for my own education (which includes a PhD in Systems Engineering and three other degrees) and business. You’re going to hear about proven strategies for accessing capital from all kinds of avenues, philanthropic, venture, and so on.

About the Speakers

Paul Zikopoulos , VP Cognitive Systems – IBM, Professional Speaker & Author

Paul Zikopoulos is an award-winning professional writer and speaker who has been consulted on the topic of AI & Big Data by the popular TV show “60 Minutes”. Most recently, Paul was named to Analytics Insights’ “2019 Top 100 Global AI & Big Data Influencers” list and has appeared on over a dozen other global “Experts to Follow” and “Influencers” lists. You’ll also find Paul taking a very active role around Women in Technology (including a seated board member for Women 2.0 … who he became involved with after his tweet was mentioned on “The View” TV show), general workplace inclusivity (completing an intensive D&I certificate at Cornell University), and Coding for Veterans. In addition, he sits on the Masters of Management Analytics & AI program boards at Canada’s prestigious Queen’s University.

Paul’s written 20 books on data analytics, Big Data, and AI (including 3 ‘For Dummies’ titles) and 360+ articles during the over 25 years he’s been focused on data; he’s technical enough to know that NoSQL isn’t something you put on a resume if you don’t have SQL skills and he knows JSON is a technology … not a person in his department.

Paul’s always keeping with his grass roots … a newbie with no computer courses before coming to IBM. He knows on his dumbest days he’s never as dumb as he feels, and on his smartest days, he’s never as smart as he feels either. Ultimately, Paul is trying to figure out the world according to Chloë —his daughter, whom he notes didn’t come with a handbook and is more complex than that topic of Big Data and AI, but more fun too. Biographies tend to get blah, blah, blah, so find and follow him on Twitter: @BigData_paulz.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus , Founder and CEO – EnrichHER

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial platform that connects female entrepreneurs with lenders who want to earn a return on their investment while fueling the growth of women-led businesses.

Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a PhD in systems engineering with a minor in finance, a Masters of Science in information technology emphasizing information system engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in business management economics, and a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering — achieving Summa Cum Laude in each.

Dr. Novellus served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the “Women Who Means Business” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the “40 Under 40” by Georgia Trend, a Halcyon Fellow for Social Impact, one of the “Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech”, one of the “27 Black Founders and Investors to watch in 2019” by PitchBook, and LinkedIn Top Voice in Technology.