CG Talks & Events

Talks from the last month are below. If you’re looking for all of them, please see our archive page here, or view our YouTube Channel where talks are sorted by category – Product, Leadership Development, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Skill-building/Practitioner Content, COVID-19 Thought Leadership and Take A Break Videos.

Upcoming Talks

  • More coming soon!

Recent Talks and Activity Recordings

  • Elder Fraud, Financial Mistakes and Caregiving
    Thu, Dec 2, 2021
    Howard Tischler, Co-Founder and CEO, and Liz Loewy, Co-Founder and COO, EverSafe
    Talk Type: In the Moment, Health/Wellness
    Audience/Roles: All RolesFinancial exploitation is the most common forms of “abuse” in later life. One in five over the age of 65 are victims; the average loss is over $120K, and caregivers lose over $36K. In addition, self-neglect and financial mistakes are a tremendous threat to a lifetime of savings. This impacts the older individual and their families, and working while caring brings tremendous stress to the workplace and the employer. Come hear Liz Loewy and Howard Tischler, the co-founders of EverSafe, a technology company addressing these issues, speak about their experiences.
    Before joining EverSafe, Liz was a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the founder of the Office’s first Elder Abuse Unit, where 800 elder abuse cases were prosecuted annually. In 2009, Liz served as trial counsel in the prosecution involving the late philanthropist, Brooke Astor, against her only son, Anthony Marshall, and his attorney. In addition, Liz has served as a caregiver for her parents and grandparents.Howard co-founded EverSafe after his mother was financially exploited and she lost her life savings. Little did he know that the loss of financial capacity can begin before there are any signs of dementia. Howard will discuss what happened to his mother and how he managed his joint corporate and caregiving responsibilities. Howard was a Group President and the Lead Director in public companies.Caregiving is hard, even on the good days when it brings joy and fulfillment. It requires dedication, determination, and time. Situations change quickly from one day to another. It may be a fall or other illness; it may be the realization of cognitive decline; or it may be the discovery that a loved one has lost most, if not all, of their life’s savings. Being a caregiver can be exhausting and complex, and there is no “caregiver-in-training” course. Financial exploitation, self-neglect and financial mistakes only serve to exacerbate the situation. Liz and Howard’s experiences and stories can help you prepare for what may lie ahead for you, your employer, and your employees.
  • The Hows and Whys of Hybrid Work
    Nov 11, 2021
    Jaime Teevan, Chief Scientist for Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices
    with moderator Ron Pessner, Vice President of Product Microsoft Office

    Talk Type: In the Moment, Leadership Development, Culture
    Audience/Roles: All RolesJaime Teevan, Chief Scientist for Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices, is charged with creating the future of productivity at Microsoft and for its customers. As part of that effort, she helps lead the New Future of Work: the largest research initiative in Microsoft’s history with hundreds of researchers from across Microsoft, LinkedIn, and GitHub. Their task is simple (and very hard): make this new future of work – in office, remote, and especially hybrid – possible and productive. Jaime Teevan, and moderator Ron Pessner, will provide an overview of what Microsoft has learned and will offer tips for effective and inclusive hybrid work.Bio:
    Jaime Teevan is Chief Scientist for Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices, where she is responsible for driving research-backed innovation in the company’s core products. Previously she was the Technical Advisor to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, where she led the Productivity team. Dr. Teevan uses AI to help people accomplish their goals, developing the first personalized search algorithm used by Bing and introducing microproductivity into Office. Her groundbreaking research has earned her numerous awards, including the Technology Review TR35 Young Innovator and Karen Spärck Jones awards. She holds a Ph.D. from MIT and a B.S. from Yale, and is an affiliate professor at the University of Washington.Ron Pessner, a longtime council member, is in charge of collaboration across the Microsoft 365 collaboration suite (th that span across Word, Excel, PPT, etc). He has spent 18 years at Microsoft and has done a number of things including GM for Games for Windows, senior role at Xbox, led Windows 10 for Window Phone, and multiple roles in the Office organization. Prior to Microsoft he worked with a number of startups in the early days of the web and mobile internet.
  • Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind 
    Oct 6, 2021
    Barbara Becker, Author and Interfaith Minister
    Talk Type: Leadership Development, Culture, Wellness
    Audience/Roles: All RolesFor our second Fall Meeting keynote, Barbara Becker, author of Heartwood invites us into a conversation about the art of living.Members of our Councils are facing difficult life moments now, as they have in the past and as we each will in the future. With this talk we help to further deepen the trust and safe space needed for members to be vulnerable, to find support and connection, and, of course, to ask for help throughout the meetings and beyond.We also hope to reveal, for your own reflection, the individuals and events in your life that shaped who you have become as a person. In work, and in our daily lives, we aren’t often granted the opportunity to name and to process the people we love, the challenges we face, and the difficulties that become part of us – that become our own Heartwood.Bio:
    Barbara Becker is an ordained interfaith minister and has sat with hundreds of people at the end of their lives. Barbara speaks on a wide range of topics, including deepening our sense of meaning and spirituality and mid-career pivots. She has dedicated more than twenty-five years to partnering with human-rights advocates around the world in pursuit of peace and interreligious understanding. She has worked with the United Nations, Human Rights First, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, and teaches at Columbia University.
  • The What & Why of Continuous Discovery
    Sept 29, 2021
    Teresa Torres, Author & Product Coach, Product Talk
    Talk Type: Product
    Audience/Roles: All RolesMost product teams are starting to adopt discovery best practices (e.g. interviewing customers, usability testing, experimenting). However, many of us are still stuck in a project world. We do research to kick off a project, we usability test right before we hand off to engineers, and our primary means for experimenting is a/b testing. These methods are better than nothing, but the best product teams are shifting from a project mindset to a continuous mindset. In this talk, we’ll explore the key differences between project-based discovery and continuous discovery and give your team a clear benchmark to aspire to.Bio: Teresa Torres is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and coach. She teaches a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery that helps product teams infuse their daily product decisions with customer input. She’s coached hundreds of teams at companies of all sizes, from early-stage start-ups to global enterprises, in a variety of industries. She has taught over 7,000 product people discovery skills through the Product Talk Academy. She’s the author of the book Continuous Discovery Habits and blogs at ProductTalk.org.
  • Clubhouse and the Audio Revolution – [No Recording]
    June 23, 2021
    Jonathan Ehrlich, Partner, Foundation Capital
    Talk Type: In the Moment
    Audience/Roles: All RolesTwo things to know about Jonathan Ehrlich:
    1) he co-led the seed round in Clubhouse and was thus the first venture capitalist to spot its potential;
    2) he’s a Councils alum with an interesting career arc.Join us for an informal conversation with Jonathan about Clubhouse, the future of audio, and Jonathan’s career journey from Indigo Books and Music in Canada to the early days of Facebook to entrepreneur-in-residence at Foundation Capital to today being a leading partner at that same VC firm.
    About Jonathan EhrlichJonathan Ehrlich is a Partner at Foundation Capital who invests in early early-stage consumer, marketplace, commerce, and SaaS startups and technologies. He joined Foundation Capital in 2013 as a partner after spending nine months with the firm as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Before joining Foundation Capital, Jonathan spent 17 years as an operator during which he founded three companies, built a $100M+ revenue business, and ran marketing for Facebook. He is the first institutional investor in Clubhouse and currently sits on the board of Bulletin and Chord. His Foundation and personal investments include Shelf Engine, Mainstreet, Truepill, Hooked, WayUp, League, Front and Flexport. When not working, he can be found on his bike or chasing his four kids around.
  • No Ego, Part 2 with Cy Wakeman
    June 11, 2021
    Cy Wakeman, Author, No Ego
    Talk Type: Leadership Development, Culture
    Audience/Roles: All RolesNote: No recording…Given the sensitivity of many of the questions, it will not be recorded. You gotta be live with us.Best-selling author of No Ego and other books, Cy joined us in April for a fun, enlightening, and provocative session with live case studies from members.Members loved it so much that they asked for more.So, come to this follow-up session with your “burning questions” about drama in your workplace.What do we mean by “drama”?We’re talking specifically about drama that keeps you up at night, that derails teams, and businesses. Hard emails. Bad meetings. Difficult relationships.Wakeman’s philosophy offers a new lens through which employees and executives alike, can sharpen their focus on personal accountability, and ditch the drama.This will be an action-oriented session, geared towards helping members with their org “drama” questions.Come with your questions.Cy will answer live. We’ll get to as many as we can in the hour. Let me know if you can join us!
  • Battle Buddies – A Way to Support Your Teams
    May 28, 2021
    Craig Hopkins, CIO, City of San Antonio
    Talk Type: Leadership Development, Culture
    Audience/Roles: All RolesJoin Craig Hopkins for this short webinar focused on Q&A to introduce an idea that has taken off in Craig’s org, the City of San Antonio, where he is the CIO.It’s called Battle Buddies. So, what is a Battle Buddy?Adapted from the US Army, a battle buddy is a partner assigned to an employee in an organization who is expected to assist his or her partner.Even though we are not in military combat, Craig says our corporate responsibilities can feel just as stressful and overwhelming at times.A battle buddy is not only intended for comradery and support, but also to help reduce stress, provide professional and leadership guidance, and at times, get into the trenches together to get things done. Since we will each be watching each other’s actions, we are all battle buddies to each other, as partners and as a leadership team, driven by our mission while adhering to our Core Values.Craig will talk about how this has worked in his organization and how to set it up in yours.
  • About Craig HopkinsToday, Craig is the CIO of the City of San Antonio, the 7th largest city in the country. He has helped this major city navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, this last winter’s freeze/electricity shut off, and a myriad of many other challenges.Before this role, Craig spent 20 years in senior roles at USAA, the large and very well-run financial services organization that serves the military and their extended families.He started his career in the Coast Guard where he spent 4 years as an NCO in a variety of roles including small boat captain (“coxswain”).
  • Spring Keynote: No Ego with Cy Wakeman
    Apr 28, 2021
    Cy Wakeman, Author, No Ego

    Talk Type: Leadership Development, Culture
    Audience/Roles: All RolesCy Wakeman, author of several best-selling books, including “No Ego”, is a drama researcher. Now when I first read that, I thought “does this mean she’s in the theater world?”No. It turns out that Wakeman researches drama in the workplace, especially unnecessary drama – the kind that derails teams, and businesses.Further, she comes highly recommended from several council members, including one who knows her personally and made the connection.Cy Wakeman’s Official Bio:
    Cy Wakeman is a drama researcher, global thought-leader, and New York Times best-selling author who is recognized for cultivating a counter-intuitive, reality-based approach to leadership. Backed by over 20 years of unparalleled experience, Wakeman’s philosophy offers a new lens through which employees and executives alike, can shift their attention inward, sharpen their focus on personal accountability, and uncover their natural state of innovation simply by ditching the drama.Deemed “the secret weapon to restoring sanity to the workplace,” Wakeman has helped companies such as Google, Facebook, Viacom, Uber, NBC Universal, NASA, Pfizer, Johns Hopkins, Stanford Health Care, Keurig Dr. Pepper, AMC Theatres, White Castle, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and countless others learn to navigate our rapidly changing world using good mental processes to harness energy wasted in workplace drama and reinvest that effort into achieving profound business results.As a highly sought-after conference headliner, Cy Wakeman holds a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation from the National Speaker’s Association, placing her within the top 3% of speakers. She’s a regular contributor on Forbes.com, Success.com, The Huffington Post, and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global. She’s been featured on the TODAY Show, the AskGaryVee Show with Gary Vaynerchuk, Cheddar TV, The New York Times, Business Insider, The Daily Muse, SHRM.com and many more. Voted in the top 100 leadership professionals to follow on Twitter for 7 years in a row and named to The 2019 Most Inclusive HR Influencer List, Wakeman also came in at #2 on the Global Gurus 2020 List of top 30 Leadership Professionals around the world.Wakeman has published three books, the latest of which is No Ego: How to Cut the Cost of Drama, End Entitlement and Drive Big Results (2017). Cy also hosts her own No Ego podcast, a Facebook Watch show, Life’s Messy, Live Happy, and adds weekly video content on YouTube to address leaders’ biggest challenges in the workplace. For more information, please visit Realitybasedleadership.com or follow Cy on social at @cywakeman.
  • See talks from the last month and beyond here.

CG Life Events Calendar

Anything notated with CG Life and CG Talk in the calendar below is open to the public.

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/b/1/embed?height=600&wkst=1&bgcolor=%23ffffff&ctz=America%2FDenver&src=Y2dAY29sbGFib3JhdGl2ZWdhaW4uY29t&color=%23039BE5

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