May 14 Online Event: Back to the Office or Virtual Company?

Are we going back to the office or are we staying remote?

Leaders across industries are struggling to find the right compromise between business objectives of performance and creativity, efficiency and innovation, and employees voicing their wishes to return to an office or stay at home indefinitely.

In addition, the level of technological adoption across organizations and departments is creating a growing discrepancy between and within companies.

With the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), we offer this unique panel event to gain an international perspective on strategies that corporations are considering for the future of work. Hear from thought leaders from Europe and the U.S. to explore the opportunities and challenges of the workplace of the "New Normal."

Panelists

John O'Duinn, strategist, mentor and author of Distributed Teams: The Art and Practice to Work Together While Physically Apart
John is a computer guy who has written code and led teams in companies ranging from 4-person startups to non-profits to multinationals—including in the U.S. government as part of the U.S. Digital Service in the Obama White House. John has worked in distributed companies for 28 years, led distributed teams for 14 years, and ran workshops and mentored distributed companies for six years. John also helped write the State of Vermont's "Remote Worker" law, a very different approach to economic development; John is also now helping write policies for multiple other jurisdictions worldwide.

Jill Finlayson, Director, The Expanding Diversity and Gender Equity in Tech at UC
Jill is Director of the EDGE in Tech Initiative at UC (Expanding Diversity and Gender Equity in Tech), co-sponsored by CITRIS and Berkeley Engineering. Prior to Berkeley, she led mentorship and developed incubator and accelerator programs for Singularity University Ventures, whose mission is to increase the number of impact-focused tech startups. Jill ran the Toys category for five years at eBay and authored Fundraising on eBay. She managed a community of social entrepreneurs at the Skoll Foundation; led marketing at various startups; and consulted for the World Bank, Gates Foundation and Ford Foundation. Jill also judges and coaches founders of global startups for several startup competitions. She has mentored for TechWomen.org for the past nine years.

Dr. Anne Berthinier Poncet, Maître de Conférence Innovation Management CNAM
Dr. Anne Berthinier-Poncet holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management and is currently associate professor at the CNAM Paris (France), where she teaches innovation management at the Master and M.B.A. level, and supervises the Master in Innovation Management. Her main research topics focus on the management of collaborative innovation in various environments: innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, innovation clusters, Fablabs, innovation labs and innovation communities. She concentrates her research on SMEs and their abilities to develop open and collaborative innovation, mainly in the outdoor sports industry. Since 2020, she’s also engaged in pedagogic innovation as member of Erasmus + education project ArtIST, developing innovative educational modules, integrating arts for teaching innovation management and entrepreneurship. Prior to her academic career, she worked for 15 years in the furniture and paper industry where she held different managing positions in marketing, new-product development and international sales.

Moderators

Jean-Michel Raicovitch, Professor and Chair of Marketing at CNAM, co-President of ADETEM French Marketing Association
After a long and distinguished marketing career, including many years of management positions at Accenture and Accor, Jean-Michel Raicovitch is now fully dedicated to educating the marketers of tomorrow and marketing his non-profit association work.

Dr. Frederick T. Wehrle, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at UC Berkeley Extension
Dr. Frederick Wehrle is a researcher specializing in innate human behavior and an expert in academic innovation and design. At Berkeley, he is developing fully integrated, trans-disciplinary study programs that allow students and lifelong learners to acquire the specific skill set they need to succeed in their careers in the upcoming Fourth Industrial Revolution. With his team, he brings together world-leading researchers from Berkeley and industry experts from Silicon Valley who work and teach at the forefront of academic innovation. In his prior positions, Frederick founded the Center for Global Engagement of Planeta Education and Universities France; directed Accreditation and International Relations at Groupe EDC; and served as Academic Director at Groupe IGS. He founded the Eye-Tracking Lab of ICD International Business School and has lectured at UC Berkeley, Grupo Planeta, Groupe EDC, Groupe IGS, University of Paris 1, Toulouse Business School, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Groupe IAM.

 

Video of the Event