Keynote Speakers

Matt Beane

Assistant Professor, Technology Management, University of California, Santa Barbara
Digital Fellow, Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Digital Fellow, MIT
Author, "The Skill Code"

Matt Beane studies work involving robots and AI to uncover systematic positive exceptions that we can use across the broader world of work. His book "The Skill Code" was published by HarperCollins in June, and is endorsed by Adam Grant, Amy Edmondson, Ethan Mollick, and others. His award-winning research has been published in top management journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly and Harvard Business Review, and he has spoken on the TED stage. He is also co-founder and CEO of SkillBench, a startup that helps firms deploy AI in ways that upskills their workforce. In 2012 he was selected as a Human-Robot Interaction Pioneer, and in 2021 was named to the Thinkers50 Radar list. Beane is an assistant professor in the Technology Management department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Digital Fellow with Stanford's Digital Economy Lab and MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy.

Shivang Desai and Chandralike Hazarika

Co-founders, Bigthinkx

Shivang is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and successfully exited three tech companies. He realizes products at the intersection of technology and business with deep expertise in 3D, AI, Spatial, and anatomic modeling. His extensive global business experience includes project management, finance & strategy, and immersive content creation. He is also a published author and global keynote speaker on the themes of emerging tech and enterprise innovation. Shivang co-founded Bigthinx to bring digital innovation to fashion, bridging 3D and interactive entertainment. Today, Bigthinx is a massively disruptive AI company and its products are revolutionizing the global fashion and gaming industries with a vision to make digital 3D as much a part of regular life as the physical world.

Chandralika is an entrepreneur that brings an empathetic understanding of consumer outcomes to her role as a co-founder at Bigthinx. Her superpower lies in coalescing a deep understanding of human nature with sharp business acumen to solve inherently human problems at scale through technology. With business experience that includes multinational leadership roles, nurturing cross cultural relationships, and fostering enterprise operations, her bold outlook on business and life is one of a kind. She is a strong advocate for equality without distinction, and giving back with generosity. She received the distinguished Accenture "Women in Tech" 2021 award and has been selected by Google as one of their "Women in AI 2024". She is also involved with educational institutions globally to familiarize students with new job opportunities being created as a result of technological evolution.