Byron Reese
Speaking across the globe, Byron brings great enthusiasm and talent for deciphering our common destiny and unlocking business opportunities within it. As a successful entrepreneur and award-winning futurist, 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. ...
read the restSpeaking across the globe, Byron brings great enthusiasm and talent for deciphering our common destiny and unlocking business opportunities within it. As a successful entrepreneur and award-winning futurist, 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.
As a futurist, he understands the unprecedented technological change upon us and explores the dramatic transformation of society it will bring. As a technologist and entrepreneur, he knows how to manage change and inspire innovation, while still meeting the immediate obligations and realities of operating a business.
Byron speaks around world to both technical and non-technical audiences,and his keynotes and appearances include SXSW, TEDx Austin, Google, Nvidia, FedEx and Fortune 1000 companies (Dell Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Oticon, Swisslog) and universities Rice (University of Texas, Queen’s University, TWU) and futurist conferences (TimeMachine, PICNIC Festival in Amsterdam, Wolfram Data Summit, and the IEEE Conference) among others.
Byron has enjoyed a wide range of success over 30 years, including two NASDAQ IPOs as well as the sale of three companies he founded.
Today Byron is the CEO of JJ Kent, a venture-backed technology company using proprietary AI tools to create new products that delight consumers. Byron has served on numerous public and private boards and presently resides on the board of directors for GigaOm, a technology research and analysis firm focused on helping business leaders understand the implications of emerging technologies and their impacts on business, media, and society.
A highly sought-after keynote speaker, enlightening attendees across nations, Byron is an in-demand forward thinker in his field.
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Speaker Programs
"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 ...more
"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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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? ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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? ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
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 ...more
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. ...less
"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 ...more
"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. ...less
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