In recent years, Sibos has offered delegates the opportunity to hear from many high-profile speakers with expertise and insights beyond the finance sector. These talks can help to enhance our understanding of the industry’s place in the wider society, as well as our individual roles, both in the workplace and outside. This year, in keeping with Sibos 2018’s core theme of ‘Enabling the digital economy’, our keynote speakers from other fields will address a common thread: how to harness the potential of both humans and technology.</p> The topic will be developed first by speakers at our breakfast keynote sessions, held at 9am from Tuesday to Thursday</a>. These sessions are a new feature for Sydney and aim to provide the intellectual equivalent of an early-morning espresso shot, helping to get our minds in gear for the day ahead. The three presentations will examine big picture global trends, before delving deeper into the implications of technology innovation, then highlighting the continued importance of human qualities and characteristics.</p> On Tuesday, Parag Khanna</a> will take a look at how mega-trends are reshaping the established world order, providing an evolving and uncertain backdrop and context to our strategic and tactical decisions. Renowned as a prolific author, speaker and advisor on international relations and related topics, Khanna specialises in explaining geopolitical shifts, but he also explores the increasing influence of technology on the organisation of society, including the development of ‘smart cities’. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and bachelors and masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.</p> </p> </div> </div> </div> Wednesday’s breakfast keynote speaker, Dr Ayesha Khanna</a>, will focus on artificial intelligence (AI), and how it can improve our quality of life and work. Co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based AI advisory firm and incubator ADDO AI, Dr Khanna will highlight the scale and impact of AI, and explain how embedding new technologies into existing processes will transform business and redefine customer experience and trust. Dr Khanna has advised many government agencies, financial institutions and corporates on AI, smart cities and fintech, including SMRT, Singapore's largest public transport company, Japanese insurance giant SOMPO, and Smart Dubai, the government agency tasked to transform Dubai into a leading smart city.</p> </p> </div> </div> </div> In Thursday’s closing plenary, anthropologist, technologist and futurist Genevieve Bell</a> will pull together some of the threads discussed earlier in the week, and share several more of her own. A distinguished professor at the Australian National University (ANU), and a vice president and senior fellow at Intel Corporation, she will examine the tensions between technological progress and humanity in the age of artificial intelligence. Professor Bell’s presentation will draw on almost two decades of experience in research and development at Intel, as well as her current role as director of the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance (3A) Institute, launched last year by the ANU in collaboration with Data61, a research unit within Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. The 3A Institute aims to build a new applied science around the management of AI, data, technology and their impact on humanity.</p> Professor Bell completed her PhD in cultural anthropology at Stanford University, has given a number of TED talks and was inducted into the Women in Technology hall of fame in 2012.</p> </p> </div> </div> </div> </p> </p>