Innovation Week - SISU: The Innovation Institute at NMU

One of the most popular keynote speakers on trends, Armida leads Trend Hunter’s content and Futurist Team and is one of our best keynote speakers. She has been relied upon for trend workshops and innovation keynote speeches at more than 100 of the world’s iconic brands, including: Red Bull, Domino’s, Panasonic Starbucks, Johnson & Johnson, Bacardi, Mastercard, Viacom, Universal and Toms Shoes. Her expertise is in getting high performance teams to think differently about their customer segmentation and opportunities. Armida joined Trend Hunter in 2010 as an editor, where she oversaw the creation of 50,000 articles and one billion views of traffic. Today she coaches our best innovation keynote speakers and develops frameworks on the future of innovation, technology, marketing, lifestyle and culture.

Micro-Generations, Post-Pandemic
The New Formative Years

Generational behavior is based in how people within a certain age group internalized shared experiences. The pandemic introduces a new shared experience across the board. This will change generational identities forever, which we approach through a microsegmented lens to get to the nuances of what it means to exist in a post-pandemic world.

As Trend Hunter's Director of Special Projects, Sean Watson wears many different hats. Whether helping Fortune 500 brands refine their approach to innovation through our Patterned Thinking workshop, or outlining ways a tech startup can get ahead through his Futuristic Tech presentation, Sean approaches public speaking with the mission to inform the mind and inspire the imagination. He has honed this skill through his extensive background at companies like Rogers, Bertelsmann and American Express. As Trend Hunter's resident tech specialist, Sean has run private keynotes and innovation sessions with brands such as Coca-Cola, Kraft-Heinz, and Google. His expertise is in getting highly knowledgeable teams to employ a new perspective of the trend content they deem relevant to them, consequently encouraging them to reset and rethink their approach to innovation.

Future Tech
AI, Automation, Metaverse and The Super Future

Technology has advanced in an accelerated pace this past few years. Over the pandemic, AI, metaverse and NFTs all became technologies your everyday consumer not only knew of, but were possibly using on a regular basis. Outside of consumer use, how will these technologies impact the world we live in?

Dr. Garret Westlake is leading the transformation of Virginia Commonwealth University into one of the nation’s leading universities for cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation. As assistant vice provost for innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University and executive director of the da Vinci Center for Innovation, Dr. Westlake advances university-wide student innovation and entrepreneurship through curriculum as well as through curated experiential education opportunities. Dr. Westlake is also a Visiting Scholar at SISU: The Innovation Institute at NMU.

As a technology entrepreneur, Dr. Westlake founded a social impact company that employed individuals with autism in STEM. Prior to joining VCU, Dr. Westlake served as the associate dean of student entrepreneurship for Arizona State University’s #1 ranked Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He has worked closely with Ashoka U, the Clinton Global Initiative University, and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Students and startups he has mentored have been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Healthcare Innovation, awarded Rhodes Scholarships, named Resolution Project Fellows, and have been accepted to SXSW and Y Combinator. Dr. Westlake is also a certified facilitator of design thinking.

Innovation with Lego Serious Play

Did you know that some of America's most successful companies unlock innovative solutions using Legos? Well, it's true! Participants in this session will experience Lego Serious Play, a research-backed approach used by Fortune 500 companies around the world to unlock creativity and innovation through structured activities with something we all know and love - Legos. Come "build to think" with a Lego Master Facilitator.

Exploring the Role of AI in Human Centered Design

What will be the impact of ChatGPT and other AIs on human centered design? Participants will learn the principles of human centered design and how emerging AI tools might shape the future of this discipline. Explore questions like whether AI can replace user interviews and offer meaningful feedback or if human centered design is more important than ever in an AI world.