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OPEN Topics on Female Tech.
Get ready to be inspired by our female tech visionaries using their unique skills to impact their communities and the world. Introducing AI expert Elizabeth Kiehner, VR queen Resh Sidhu and AR space explorer Galit Ariel — this is your path forward in 2021.
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Artificial Intelligence
I think there’s definitely a certain level of jobs that will disappear over time, but with that, there’s going to be an emergence of new jobs.
— Elizabeth Kiehner
Global Design Practice Director, IBM
— It was that time of year. Outside on Myrtle Avenue, the local business district had hung the same tired holiday displays. The sky was gray, and everyone was wearing black—but not because it was stylish. It was the mood. And smack in the heart of this mood, I had a 3 p.m. appointment to call Elizabeth Kiehner, Global Design Practice Director at IBM. It took about 15 seconds on the phone and everything in the world was right again. I recall thinking: “This is what light sounds like…” Elizabeth could probably convince you of anything, but listening to her talk about Artificial Intelligence (or if you prefer, Augmented Intelligence) and that elephant in the global economy, human obsolescence, I didn’t need much convincing. Somehow, I suspect you won’t, either.
“I’m still working in the creative and design space, but with a very different focus in working with data scientists and engineers much more closely than I ever imagined I would.”
Virtual Reality
Brands should be thinking about VR, 100%. Should they be doing it? That’s a good question. There still needs to be an idea and strategy around it, same as with radio, TV, digital, mobile. There has to be a reason why it exists and why it is purposeful for your brand.
— Resh Sidhu
Creative Director at AKQA, Queen of VR, TEDx speaker, Cannes Lions 2018 judge and Top 50 Creative Leader
— On a recent Tuesday evening, an email popped up in my queue at home from Notify NYC, warning of severe thunderstorms. Imminently. Strong winds were expected. This wasn’t welcome news. I needed to hightail it out of there for Manhattan, no cocktail hour in the armchair, lost in conversation with a couple of fingers of Laphroaig. Luckily, with a little help from a car service and the M train, I arrived on time for my appointment with Resh Sidhu, creative director at AKQA, a global digital agency. Strong winds? Didn’t feel any — and then Resh started to talk, and, forgive the wordplay, blew my colleagues and me away. Resh is one of the world’s foremost experts on an emerging technology — virtual reality — and what it can do for you. You, yes. And you and you and you, at the same time. All of us, together, as it should be.
“Think of it: you can have company when you have no company in the world. You don’t have to be lonely. You can connect. VR can physically connect people, bringing some out of isolation. It is actually possibly the one medium that can bring us together.”
All interview photography shot exclusively by Chloe Sobel on location at the AKQA NYC office — thanks AKQA!
Augmented Reality
Emerging technologies are finally maturing. Brands that are not set up to be part of the game are going to be left behind. Brands should be thinking about how to integrate immersive technologies in a manner that would make sense to them, a stage that’s needed. And this is something that brands need to understand, especially with augmented reality, that this is not just a technology, it’s really a new interaction platform.
— Galit Ariel
Immersive Space Explorer, TechnoFutures, Human[ity]-Centred Tech & TED Speaker
— As my kid likes to say, I’m not gonna lie. I’m not going to tell you I knew what a Holodeck was before I talked with Galit Ariel, a well-renowned TechnoFuturist, author and immersive space explorer. Born in the startup nation—Israel—her career was forged across Europe—from London to Milan and Amsterdam—until she submerged herself in Toronto’s vibrant tech scene.
I’m also not going to tell you I know what it is now, even though I did look it up on Wikipedia, and watched a couple of YouTube videos on it, including one from Star Trek (see below), from which the Holodeck came. It wasn’t all that long ago that there was no YouTube (and no Wikipedia either). Go back further, there was no Star Trek (I don’t remember that time, but I've been told about it in oral histories and folktales). But there was always imagination. My imagination is limited by the same boundaries that keep me from grasping the beauty of the Holodeck. Galit’s imagination starts where mine ends. I envy her ingrained augmented reality.
“Everybody is sitting and waiting to see what AR will do, and for it to be more diffused. It’s still mostly used as a marketing stunt rather than a functional tool or an experiential environment. A lot of that comes from the fact that we still have limitations around AR and some behavioral gaps.”
Photo by Irina Efremova (Stocksy).
“There are a lot of things that we need to understand in terms of how people want to experience things via AR versus our perception of what they might like to do.”
DEAR FRIENDS,
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Every brand has a story—we tell yours, using powerful design, words and vision. Sometimes, we even work with multiple brands on a single, colossal project, like the deeply meaningful Google + SheSays + C/BY/C = Rare, a collaborative event at the Cannes Lions, which shared Stocksy’s story and commitment to diversity, inclusion and female empowerment.
What a year ahead! Look for more OPEN Topics, our powerful monthly conversations with global thought leaders, whose insights on a wide variety of topics help give meaning to your work and ours. We start 2021 by having Andy Sobel, writer of Creative by Collective’s OPEN Topics, share his vision for the year. We hope you will share your Vision 2021 with us as well and keep on. STRATEGY, CONTENT, DESIGN and SOLUTION, let’s create together!
Excelsior! Mia, Andy, Chloe + Anna.
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