Deborah Perry Piscione has uncovered the DNA from the inspired cultures of the most innovative companies in the world. In doing so, she architected a bottom’s up innovation process called, Improvisational Innovation, where anyone in any corner of the company can bring forth new ideas and be rewarded for it. And for the companies that has heard her presentation and brought the Improvisational Innovation process internally? A record 10x growth in new or existing revenue streams! Read More >

New ideas and bold bets are essential for the livelihood and survival of any organization operating in today’s competitive marketplace and era of exponential growth. This presentation is for any leader or manager throughout the company who has been kept up at night and thought, “How do I know where the next big idea is? “ or “What are the incremental or groundbreaking ideas that can be cultivated from my employees?” This presentation is critical for those thinking about company growth and needs to harvest ideas that will either generate new revenue streams or save the company money.

Over 15 years of research and a passion for innovation + democratizing opportunity for everyone in every corner of the company, Deborah Perry Piscione is known for her secret sauce to create growth, a 12-step process over 4-9 months sprints that:

• Provides a framework for ideation + risk-taking
• Captures ideas from any person in every corner of the company in a safe + trusted environment
• Develops talent beyond their day-to-day job
• Rewards the employee and their team
• Creates an entrepreneurial + risk-taking culture
• Generates new revenue streams, products + services for the company

Through her interactive presentation, Deborah addresses the four ingredients of innovative success: 1) A corporate culture that fosters experimentation; 2) Leadership who understands that it is their job to take risks; 3) An environment that values people for all their talents and passions (not just the job they were hired for); and 4) An annual innovation process that allows people to submit ideas in a safe and trusted environment. As Deborah explains, leaders know that without nurturing big ideas, top line expansion is limited. This process helps an organization shift to a growth mode, and addresses the question on how to identify, source, data-mine, and execute upon new ideas from any employee in every corner of the company.

Attendees will learn how to take the annual 12-step Improvisational Innovation process back to their organizations and provide employees an opportunity to bring forth new ideas in a safe and trusted space and be recognized and rewarded for it.

Brought to large enterprises such as Qualcomm, Nike, Pfizer, Phillip Morris International and Accenture, the Improvisational Innovation process has been described as “the most effective means of allowing good ideas to bubble up from anyone at any time.” Read Less ^

It’s no coincidence that our most revered business icons are also the boldest risk-takers, such as Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. Yet with so much emphasis on short-term stock price gains and bottom line focus, organizations tend to act too safe, resulting in a stagnant business culture which generates entirely forgettable results in a world that demands significant solutions. Read More >

If ground-breaking innovation is about taking calculated risks, then why do companies not only set reams of policies and procedures to limit risk, but also spend no resources developing the key skills and systems for effective risk-taking? In this poignant presentation, Deborah discusses how to get back into the business of taking risk. Based on her series of books, including The Risk Factor: Why Every Organization Needs Big Bets, Bold Characters, and the Occasional Spectacular Failure, Deborah Perry Piscione explores risk-taking as a powerful tool for leaders and their organizations.

Exemplifying the heroes of risk, entrepreneurship, and venture capitalism, and the role risk-taking play in their success, Piscione makes the case that for your culture to act smarter, faster, with more agility in reacting to competition and developing innovative ways to grow, you must explore the one core leadership skill that has been completely ignored in corporate cultures. She explores both the individual skills and organization systems to unleash risk-taking. This is a very exciting speech for an entire audience. Read Less ^

1. Discover how to create a culture of risk-taking to generate next level business solutions
2. Develop skills for effective risk-taking and betting big on the creativity of employees
3. Explore new avenues for improving organizational culture to optimize risk-taking and encourage creative exploration

In this keynote, Deborah explores the mindset shift necessary to thrive in the metaverse, provides reasons why employees will eventually abandon traditional employment for the bounty of Web3, and outlines practical strategies that digital-first leaders can start implementing today to take advantage of this vast new world of endless possibilities. Read More >

This interactive session cuts through the myths of web3 and explores how forward-thinking, digital first leaders can navigate the impact that the metaverse will have on the future of work, by educating them on the advances in web3 technology and providing practical strategies for them to integrate the Metaverse into their current business practices.

Take a dive into the wonderful interoperability of the metaverse and the impact it will have on the way we view employment.

The metaverse and web3 technologies are rapidly emerging and have the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with the digital world. This introductory presentation will provide an overview of the concepts of the metaverse and web3 technologies and their potential impact on work.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Understanding the concept of the metaverse and its potential applications in work environments.
2. Exploring the basics of web3 technologies, including blockchain and cryptocurrency, and their potential impact on work.
3. Understanding how the metaverse and web3 technologies can impact the way we work, such as enabling decentralized work and creating new business models.
4. Identifying the potential challenges and risks associated with the adoption of these technologies in the workplace.
5. Developing a basic understanding of the skills and competencies that will be in demand in the metaverse and web3 era.

The metaverse and web3 technologies represent an exciting new frontier that will have a significant impact on work. By understanding the concepts of the metaverse and web3 technologies and their potential impact on work, we can prepare for the future and take advantage of the opportunities that these technologies offer. As the world of work continues to evolve, it is crucial to stay up to date with emerging technologies and be adaptable to change to thrive in the new digital era. Read Less ^

Leaders in business have two seminal jobs: to provide a vision for the business, and most importantly to create a company culture that values employees and provides customized experiences to them. Unfortunately, while most leaders provide a vision for the business, they fail at building a craveable culture. They’ve been taught to treat people like pawns on a chessboard, rather than human beings with feelings, dreams and goals. They fail to encourage risk-taking and innovation at every level of the organization. Read More >

In this keynote, Deborah helps leaders set the tone of the organization to ring loud and clear throughout the entire company, from the C-Suite to the newest entry-level employee. In the new world of work people’s emotions and ideas matter FIRST, not the mindless execution of a business leaders’ plans.

Deborah will lay out why traditional leadership strategies will continue to slip into obsolescence if they don’t transform and how digital-first leaders can adapt to the changing landscape of the Metaverse. In addition, she will make the case of how Web3 technologies will alleviate the persistent problems that employers often lose sleep to solve, such as employee engagement, productivity, innovation and growth. Participants will dig into the new dynamics of employee power and how it will reshape the employee-employer relationship for the better. Read Less ^

1. Understanding the concept of emerging technologies and their potential impact on the future of work.
2. Identifying the potential benefits and challenges of new work trends, such as increased collaboration, new business models, and potential privacy concerns.
3. Exploring the role of blockchain technology in enabling decentralized work and its potential impact on the future of work.
4. Learning about the skills and competencies that will be in high demand such as digital literacy, adaptability, and creativity.
5. Developing an action plan for preparing for the future of work as new technologies continue to disrupt the flow of work.

New ideas and bold bets are essential for the livelihood and survival of any organization + government operating in today’s competitive marketplace and era of exponential growth. On the minds of many leaders are the questions such as, “How do I know where the next big idea is?” and “What are the incremental or groundbreaking ideas that can be harvested from my employees?” Leaders know that without nurturing big ideas, topline expansion is limited. Deborah Perry Piscione created Improvisational Innovation™, a bottom-up methodology that engages all the talents of the entire organization, helps the organization shift to a growth mode, and addresses the question on how to identify, source, data-mine and execute upon new ideas from any employee. Read More >

Through her interactive and hands-on workshop, Deborah addresses the four Secrets of Innovative Success: 1) A corporate culture that fosters experimentation; 2) Leadership who understands that it is their job to take risks; 3) An environment that values people for all their talents and passions (not just the job they were hired for); and 4) An annual innovation process that allows people to submit ideas in a safe and trusted environment, a process she calls Improvisational Innovation.

A 12-step process over 4-9 months sprints that:

• Provides a framework for ideation + risk-taking
• Captures ideas from any person in every corner of the company in a safe + trusted environment
• Develops talent beyond their day-to-day job
• Rewards the investor and their team
• Creates an entrepreneurial + risk-taking culture
• Generates new revenue streams, products + services for the company

Deliverables: After your leadership team completes the Improvisational Innovation workshop, participants walk away with annual innovation goals to address your company’s opportunity spaces, pain points and under addressed needs for growth and cost-savings. The workshop arms you and your leadership team with a step-by-step, month-to-month, plan of deliverables, KPIs, and key motivators for inspiring your employees to participate.

After the workshop, participants have the opportunity to refresh with Deborah’s LinkedIn Learning courses, “Executing on Innovation” and “Risk-taking for Leaders,” Both of her courses have been reviewed and approved by LinkedIn Learning and the PMI® Authorized Training Partner Program and qualifies for professional development units (PDUs).

Improvisational Innovation has been adopted at Fortune 500 companies such as Qualcomm, Tata Enterprise, NetApp, Nike, Pfizer, Philip Morris International, Accenture, Coppel (Mexico), among others. On average, the process has yielded $200M USD in new and expanded revenue streams within 12-18 months of adoption. The Improvisational Innovation process has also been embraced by startups and fundamental for governments that are trying to diversify their economies and build regional ecosystems. Read Less ^

Healthcare stands at the precipice of an AI transformation that will render current medical practice as obsolete as bloodletting. As someone who has documented how disruptive technologies are revolutionizing work, I see medicine undergoing not mere augmentation but fundamental reinvention. Read More >

The most radical shift isn't happening in the digital realm but in the physical—AI systems are acquiring bodies. Surgical robots now execute movements beyond human capability while caregiving robots establish therapeutic relationships through persistent physical interaction. This isn't just automation; it's the birth of a new species of medical worker that never tires, never forgets, and learns at exponential rates.

The labor implications are seismic. Physicians aren't being replaced but transformed into AI interpreters, translating algorithmic recommendations into human contexts. Entirely new professional categories—algorithm ethicists, robotic surgical programmers, AI clinical supervisors—are emerging, creating a medical workforce unrecognizable from today's paradigm.

Those who merely "deploy AI tools" will fail. The future belongs to organizations that reconceptualize medical work around the complementary strengths of human intuition and embodied machine intelligence—not as separate domains but as a unified cognitive ecosystem.

Key Takeaways: Read Less ^

1. Physical embodiment of AI represents a more profound shift in healthcare than digital algorithms alone
2. Future healthcare professionals must develop expertise in directing and interpreting AI systems rather than competing with them
3. Healthcare organizations need to redesign clinical workflows around human-AI collaboration, not simply automate existing processes
4. Investment priorities should shift toward training for emergent roles that bridge human and artificial intelligence
5. The competitive advantage lies in creating seamless cognitive partnerships between clinicians and embodied AI systems

The reactive model of medicine—where treatment begins after symptoms appear—is being supplanted by continuous, predictive care powered by embodied AI systems that never sleep. This isn't incremental change; it's the emergence of "ambient medicine" where the environment itself becomes both diagnostician and therapist. Read More >

Smart homes track subtle changes in gait, sleep patterns, and vocal biomarkers, detecting diseases months before conventional screening. These embodied AI systems don't just monitor—they intervene through physical interfaces, from companion robots ensuring medication adherence to smart surfaces that deliver tactile therapy.

This shift dismantles healthcare economics. When AI predicts and prevents a stroke before it occurs, the entire financial structure of medicine—built around billable treatment episodes—collapses. Organizations clinging to the illness treatment model will perish; those monetizing health maintenance will thrive.

For medical professionals, this isn't just role evolution but paradigmatic reinvention. The most valuable healthcare workers won't compete with algorithms but excel at uniquely human elements of care—contextualizing AI insights within the psychological and social dimensions that machines cannot fully grasp.

Key Takeaways: Read Less ^

1. Health monitoring is shifting from episodic clinical encounters to continuous environmental surveillance
2. Future revenue models must be built around preventing illness rather than treating existing conditions
3. The most successful preventive interventions will blend seamlessly into patients' living environments
4. Healthcare professionals should develop expertise in interpreting complex, longitudinal data patterns
5. Organizations must prepare for a fundamental shift from treatment-based reimbursement to outcomes-based payment models

The existential question of our era isn't whether machines will replace us, but what we become when they permeate every dimension of human experience. As the author who documented how technologies are revolutionizing work, I see humanity itself undergoing a transformation more profound than any since we first developed language. Read More >

The conventional narrative frames humans and AI in competition—a zero-sum game where machine capability gains represent human relevance losses. This framing fundamentally misunderstands the emerging reality. We are witnessing not replacement but fusion—the birth of hybrid cognitive ecosystems where the boundary between human and machine intelligence becomes increasingly porous and eventually meaningless.

The first wave of this transformation is already visible in the augmented capabilities of those leveraging AI systems—knowledge workers who function as cyborgs, their cognitive capabilities extended by algorithms that serve as external cortices. But the more radical shift is occurring as AI systems acquire physical form and become embodied in our environments, creating continuous interfaces between human and machine cognition that effectively extend our nervous systems beyond biological boundaries.

The implications for human identity are profound. For millennia, we've defined ourselves through our unique capabilities—our reasoning, our creativity, our consciousness. As machines increasingly demonstrate these formerly exclusive attributes, we face fundamental questions about what constitutes humanness in a world where thinking and feeling are no longer solely biological phenomena.

Yet this transition offers not just identity crisis but unprecedented possibility. We stand at the threshold of what I call "augmented consciousness"—a state where human awareness, empathy, and meaning-making are amplified rather than diminished by symbiotic relationships with embodied AI. The most radical enhancement isn't happening to our productive capabilities but to our capacity for connection, creativity, and meaning.

Key Takeaways: Read Less ^

1. The future belongs not to those who compete against AI but to those who develop symbiotic relationships with intelligent systems
2. Human potential is being expanded rather than diminished through interfaces with embodied AI
3. Organizations should design their systems around enhancing uniquely human capabilities rather than replacing them
4. The most valuable skills in an AI-saturated world will be those requiring emotional intelligence, creativity, and meaning-making
5. We need new philosophical frameworks to understand human identity and potential in an era of increasingly porous boundaries between biological and artificial intelligence

The pharmaceutical industry stands on the brink of its most profound transformation since the birth of modern medicine. As the author who documented how disruptive technologies are revolutionizing work, I see the $1.3 trillion pharmaceutical sector facing a swift and merciless restructuring through embodied AI systems that will render the traditional drug development pipeline obsolete. Read More >

The core of this revolution isn't happening in clinical trials or marketing—it's occurring in the molecular foundry of drug discovery itself. AI systems are evolving from passive screening tools into autonomous molecular architects that can design, optimize, and test novel compounds at speeds that make human medicinal chemists appear glacially slow by comparison. These aren't mere prediction algorithms but physically embodied systems that can synthesize, test, and iterate compounds without human intervention—the equivalent of thousands of PhD chemists working continuously without fatigue or bias.

Laboratories once filled with hundreds of researchers are being replaced by autonomous discovery systems that can explore chemical space millions of times larger than human scientists could ever contemplate. A process that once took a decade and billions of dollars is being compressed into months at a fraction of the cost. The recent breakthrough of Design-Make-Test-Analyze (DMTA) autonomous laboratories represents not just automation but the creation of a new species of drug inventor that thinks in molecular possibilities humans cannot fathom.

The labor implications for pharmaceutical giants are existential. While AI won't eliminate the need for human scientists, it fundamentally transforms their role from frontline discoverers to strategic directors of autonomous systems. Medicinal chemists are becoming AI trainers. Computational biologists are evolving into algorithmic evaluators. The highest-paid pharmaceutical executives—those who rose through the ranks mastering the traditional discovery model—now find themselves navigating a landscape where their core expertise is rapidly depreciating.

For pharmaceutical business models, this represents a Darwinian inflection point. Companies that continue to invest primarily in traditional R&D infrastructure while treating AI as merely an enhancement tool will find themselves outpaced by more nimble competitors who rebuild their entire discovery process around autonomous systems.

Key Takeaways: Read Less ^

1. Pharmaceutical companies must redesign their R&D processes around autonomous AI systems rather than human researchers
2. The competitive advantage in drug discovery is shifting from human expertise to algorithmic sophistication and computational infrastructure
3. Organizations need to develop new metrics for evaluating R&D productivity in an era of autonomous discovery
4. Executive leadership requires expertise in directing AI systems rather than traditional drug development experience
5. The economic model is shifting from blockbuster drugs to precisely targeted therapies enabled by AI's ability to cost-effectively develop compounds for smaller patient populations

The traditional hospital—that monolithic complex where patients must journey for care—is becoming as obsolete as the mainframe computer. We're witnessing the emergence of "liquid healthcare"—medical expertise flowing to patients rather than patients flowing to medical facilities. Read More >

Portable diagnostic pods equipped with physical examination robots now bring hospital-grade capabilities directly to communities. These aren't mere telehealth screens but tangible extensions of medical intelligence that can touch, analyze, and treat patients without human intervention.

For healthcare real estate, this represents an extinction event. Massive hospital complexes are following shopping malls into obsolescence as care disperses into homes and mobile units. Systems that invested billions in centralized infrastructure face their "Kodak moment" as nimble competitors deploy capital toward AI-enabled distributed care.

The workforce transformation is total. Hospital administrators are becoming distributed healthcare orchestrators. Surgeons operate robot systems transported globally, creating a class of medical professionals who never physically touch patients. As healthcare unbundles from fixed locations, supporting jobs vanish while new roles emerge in maintaining these embodied AI networks.

The hospital, like the office, is becoming less a place and more a function—one performed anywhere through the extension of embodied artificial intelligence.

Key Takeaways: Read Less ^

1. Healthcare organizations should divert capital from fixed facilities toward mobile, AI-enabled care delivery systems
2. Future competitive advantage lies in deployment speed and geographic reach, not facility size or bed capacity
3. Healthcare leaders must develop expertise in coordinating distributed, autonomous care units rather than managing centralized facilities
4. Workforce development should focus on roles that manage networks of care rather than deliver care directly
5. Hospital systems need emergency strategic plans for the accelerating obsolescence of their physical infrastructure