Quick Overview:

• With recent advances in Artificial Intelligence, many organizations and technology leaders wonder if the technology is ready for business adoption and, if so, how they can best use it. Other organizations are worried about potential AI disruption or the risk it may create in their business. This SIM panel will focus on the current status of AI in businesses today, the short and long-term opportunities and risks it may create, and how others plan to take advantage of AI and related technologies.

Quick Overview:

• Join a candid panel discussion with experts from various Puget Sound organizations with experience in local government, manufacturing, finance, large enterprises, and small businesses to understand the most common cyberattack perpetrators, their intent and methods.  This panel will discuss ways to prepare your Executives and Staff for different attacks and how to arm them for the attacks coming their way in 2023 and tactics for protecting your organization.

Quick Overview:

• The pandemic has taught us that for many technology companies, the employees can be as productive working distributed as they were when working in a shared office. In addition, for a competitive market for talent like Seattle, distributed teams can help find the best talent, wherever it is, and bring opportunities to developers away from the tech centers. 
  
  However, leading a distributed team presents unique challenges, interpersonal and technical. What makes distributed teams especially challenging? How can we address these challenges to make our distributed organizations more effective? Kevin Goldsmith, Kari Escobedo, and Judith Henderson will discuss the challenges of leading high-performing remote teams on this panel. Internationally recognized Technology Industry thought leader Dan Roberts will moderate

Quick Overview:

• Trent brings hands-on operational and innovation experience across Tech, Product, Finance, Legal, and other processes with over 20 years of technical leadership experience, including almost 9 years in Senior Technology Management at Amazon. During his Amazon tenure, he managed global expansion efforts across all businesses and geographies, led the global Alexa Privacy Risk, Compliance, and Technology group, and managed the global innovation and project portfolios for Amazon Last Mile Technology (e.g., Amazon Logistics, Fresh, Restaurants, etc.) and Finance Operations.

Quick Overview:

• While Cynthia’s day job is SVP of Engineering for Smartsheet, she’ll be spending her evening sharing with us high level tips from her Ally Skills Workshop! You’ll learn everyday ways to use your privilege and influence to be a better ally to those who are often subjects of systemic oppression in their workplaces and communities. This includes women of all races, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ folks, parents, caregivers of all sorts, and people of all ages.

Quick Overview:

• We are thrilled to announce that we are transitioning SIM meetings back to in-person! To kick this off, we are starting with a small fundraising event for YearUp at Mischief Distillery where we'll have a private tasting followed by craft cocktails and snacks! This event is all about bringing our community back together and raising money for Year Up! Space is limited to only 35 Members and guests, so RSVP with your $30 donation NOW before we book up!

Quick Overview:

• Establishing, cultivating, and reinforcing your personal brand will accelerate your career. Whether you’re already an executive or aim to be one, a personal brand will make you a more inspiring leader, enable you to directly influence your company’s strategy, and open career opportunities at your current and future employer. 

Quick Overview:

• Healthcare is fragmented and built off of disparate data sources. COVID-19 has exposed this vulnerability and the need for structural and technological transformation within healthcare is paramount. This while balancing other industry demands, like the radical shift by means of multiple regulatory levers to advance interoperability and transparency. Along with the effects of consumerism, innovation and value-based care, increasing everyone’s desire for seamless and secured data exchange for use of their protected information. Faced with this watershed moment, now is the most exciting time to be in this sector as change agents.
  
  

Quick Overview:

• Engage with world-class technology leaders, openly sharing business-technology strategies and innovation, reshaping the customer experience. Hear from industry leaders thinking differently, demonstrating courageous leadership and fearless reinvention. These top-tier executives will offer stories of successes and share advice on leaning in and leading into the C-suite and line of business, driving disruption and innovations that reshape and reinvent their go-to-market, while fostering a culture of trust and compassionate guidance for their teams.

Quick Overview:

• Career paths are almost never linear and while changes are important and expected, that does not mean they are easy. Join us for our November talk with Aseem Datar, Partner at Madrona Venture Group, to learn about how his many career evolutions, from a developer writing deep installer level code, to building the fastest growing business in Microsoft’s history - Microsoft Azure that brings tens of billions in ARR - have led to his current role as a venture capitalist at Madrona Venture Group!
  
  

Quick Overview:

• In this Artificial Intelligence session, Luis Vargas, advisor to the CTO of Microsoft, will go into the current trend of increasingly larger AI models that empower a wider range of tasks in the language, vision, speech, and multi-modality space. He will explain the research and engineering efforts supporting this trend, its product and engineering impact at Microsoft, and the larger implications these have for other companies.
  
  

Quick Overview:

• John Xiao, the VP of Data and Analytics at Nordstrom, brings to SIM a discussion on Nordstrom’s journey building their Analytical Platform -- a real-time event streaming based machine learning platform that provides deeper insights and better predictions. Their bleeding edge platform drives revenue in an age where personalization is the best way to drive traffic. He will dig into analytical profiles, prediction engines and the organizational challenges his team faced.
  

Quick Overview:

• As we grapple with what the post-COVID-19 “new normal” looks like, we must acknowledge that there were (and remain) several populations disproportionately affected, and those discrepancies have long-term implications. As of January 2021, over 2.3 million women had left the workforce in the U.S., setting back years of progress in gender equality and representation. Hear from prominent local Women Technology Leaders how the pandemic affected their careers and teams, and plans to recalibrate.
  

Quick Overview:

• Trey comes to us as a security specialist excited to share his experience and insight on the most significant changes in the threat landscape and how best to respond to them! He will go through real examples of new attack methods and the combating tools and defense strategies to utilize in protecting your organization. This is sure to be thrilling for any security geek and those tasked with protecting their organization from the thousands of cyber threats out there.
  

Quick Overview:

• In this event you will hear about Digital Transformation initiatives that drive revenue and productivity from leaders who have been successful in both start-up and large enterprises. Our panel will discuss how they focused on digital transformation from a customer standpoint, reducing friction and boosting loyalty. They will deep dive into topics like executive project sponsorship, measuring ROI, including security, and when to use outside help.
  

Quick Overview:

• In this talk, Microsoft CTO David Totten will take a deep dive into the ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI relative to social media tools such as Facebook has been in the spotlight recently, and has raised broad ethical concerns. Could your company's use of new technology put them in the spotlight if ethical use isn't a consideration from the start? A deeper look at enterprise technology trends, most notably around big data and artificial intelligence and how identifying and agreeing to the ethical use of information and systems is more difficult than it seemingly should be.
  

Quick Overview:

• In this presentation, Kevin Morrison, Managing Director & CISO at Alaska Air Group will share stories, insights, and recommendations that both Technical Leaders and CISO's can take away for building a strategy of influence and improving their Security program’s success.

Quick Overview:

• RLF is rigorous and immersive and this is key to what makes this program unique to leadership development.

• Personal thoughts and perspectives on RLF and its impact from Seattle CIO's/Technology leaders including: Chris Putur, REI, EVP Technology and Operations Tanya Hannah, King County, CIO Lowell Millard, Lone Wolf Distributors Inc, President Barend Brink, F5, Senior Manager

Event Detail-

This year looks a bit different for everyone, but as Seattle SIM Chapter members, we would still like to do something to celebrate the holidays together!

On Wednesday, December 16th at 4:00pm, in lieu of our annual holiday party, we will be hosting a mixology class followed by virtual games! For this event we will be sending you a box of the relevant supplies, for either the mocktail or cocktail -- please identify which you are interested in receiving.

Because we need to send you supplies, we need your RSVP by Monday, December 7th!

This event is free and exclusive for SIM Seattle members! We're excited to come together and just have fun!

We hoped by keeping our usual, before dinner time slot, this wouldn't interfere in your Hanukkah night-- please let us know if it does and we'll find a way to include you in a different way!



Our mixologist Robert Rowland has been in the hospitality industry for over 15 years in Seattle. Along the way he has worked at some of the most respected cocktail establishments in the city while creating and running successful bar programs at multiple fine Bars and Restaurants. He was also runner up for Bartender of the Year by Eater Magazine.

Quick Overview:

• Praerit will discuss his experience building large scale solutions at Amazon and Smartsheet

• Praerit's talk will highlight the importance of creating engineering talent, curating a culture, and building high performance teams.

Quick Overview:

• Bill will discuss how a strong security focus can be the ultimate business enabler

• He will highlight how high performing organizations focus on security engineering

• He will share how all IT leaders can help empower the organization to manage risk effectively, without compromising agility

Quick Overview:

• David will discuss REI's Cloud journey, and the
  successes and learnings they have experienced 

• David's talk will highlight how technology
  change is just the tip of the iceberg

Quick Overview:

• Stephen will discuss why leading through a pandemic 
  requires sound leadership skills and habits

• Stephen's talk will highlight that being prepared isn't an
  accident and often is based on many past decisions 

Quick Takeaway:

• Attend the July 20th Global event with award winning and bestselling author
  Ibram X Kendi, as he discuses ‘How to be an Anti-Racist  (Sign-up below)

• Attend the SeattleSIM discussion, post event, to discuss how Kendi’s theories
  apply to our role as technology leaders (Register Below)