We are a FREE Conference Series & Membership Community
Join us for our accessible and relatable explorations of the emerging future where EXPERTS and CURIOUS MINDS
come together to...
excite
interact
share
answer
express
highlight
curiosity
with tech
information
questions
concerns
potential
Here at XO we invite you to practice resilience, inquisitive optimism, and a commitment to action.
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Let's ride the waves of change together.
GET READY!
Innovations are radically changing our lives!
Gene editing and bioengineering, big data and artificial intelligence, quantum computing and robotics and blockchain, and, and, AND... so many life altering innovations. Yet the media struggles to surface these important stories in a relatable way for the every-person. This lack of understanding will leave most of us unready and unable to adapt and succeed in the new realities.
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Our aim is to prepare as many people as possible for the radical changes that are emerging in the future of our lives: work, money, health, security, education, family, environment, mobility, shelter and food.
We do this by connecting and engaging people from across all demographics with expert innovators and futurists from the disciplines of technology, science, and ethics. Future XO is for the people. We enable people to become future literate, to explore, question and have a voice in shaping our collective future.
Conferences + Community Membership
Conferences + Community Membership
Sponsor support allows FutureXO to offer free interactive conferences to the public in partnership with local libraries. FutureXO has built a membership community for those who desire continued access to this important information. Members have access to local tours to innovative companies, curated book clubs, webinar
interviews, exclusive content, and member conversations via posts and sharing.
you could make a living co-owning a fleet of service robots,
If
would you?
The XO Team
Sharon Elliott
Co-Founder
Growing up just outside Toronto, Sharon developed a love of science at an early age. One of her first experiments with genetics involved fruit flies. It also involved catching them when rogue flies escaped and swarmed the kitchen. Undeterred, Sharon placed second in the city science fair that year and went on to earn a bachelor of science degree in neurophysiology and molecular biology at McMaster University. After going on to earn a master’s degree in psychology from Boston University, Sharon moved into management consulting spending 13 years working at Deloitte and Slalom. It was there that she developed a passion for using technology and predictive analytics to transform organizations. The idea of transformation and change became a central part of Sharon’s work as she moved to Tribune Publishing (parent company, at the time, to the LA Times, Chicago Tribune and Hartford Courant) where she developed and executed initiatives designed to improve internal operations. A curious curator, Sharon views FutureXO as a way to get experts and community members talking to one another about the technologies that will change our world. Sharon loves to be on the tennis court in her spare time. Match play is playtime.
Emily Aiken
Co-Founder
A native of the Silicon Valley, Emily has always embraced the can-do attitude of the tech world believing that with enough energy and smarts, you can change the world. With FutureXO, Emily hopes to do just that, bringing information about the most exciting, world changing technologies to non-technical people. Emily got her start in the entertainment industry, producing on staff for NBC, CBS and KABC. In 1992, she returned to Silicon Valley to study business and innovation through the groundbreaking Hecht & Associates curriculum. Two years later, Emily founded Edgewise, an advertising and promotion boutique specializing in TV and trade campaigns for valuable entertainment properties: Friends, Oprah, WB Television Network Launch, Access Hollywood, and Good Morning America. Soon, leading-edge tech companies came calling and in 2000. Emily morphed Edgewise into The Story Studio where she puts her branding smarts to work helping all types of companies understand and share their values in a rapidly changing world. When Emily was asked to mentor select innovative TED Fellows by helping them develop and stage their stories, the seed for FutureXO was planted. In her spare time she likes to play tennis and search for reasons to laugh until she cries, which tennis pretty much does for her too .
Steven J Roy
CFO
Steven brings a deep expertise in the nuts and bolts of all things business from management and taxation, analysis and strategy to finance and real estate investment vehicles. Steven has served as a director, officer, or trustee for over thirty-five public and privately held companies. Steven supports not-for-profit organizations, civic and municipal activities, and church administrators. He currently serves on the Board and as CFO for Advanced Heliophysics (A joint research project of JPL, UCLA, Cal-Tech, NASA, and NOAA), and now FutureXO. He is a Board Member of the Los Angeles Mounted Police Foundation and a management advisor to The New Festival, New York's LGBTQ Film Festival. Steven has served on the board of directors for the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival, World Heart Association and over 50 other arts, social, and humanitarian organizations. He was a member of the IRS National Technology Task Force and a financial affairs consultant to the United States Green Building Council and the Los Angeles Public Safety Employee Division. Internationally (through Crisis Recovery International) Steven has assisted development projects in Nepal (Women for Human Rights), Sri Lanka (Association of War Affected Women), India, Viet Nam, and the Philippines.
If
you could augment your brain with a link to the network,
would you?
Dorothy Wood
Fitchink Media Producer
Dorothy Pomerantz is a writer, editor and strategist. She joined
Forbes‘ Los Angeles bureau as a reporter in 2001 and, over the next 15 years, rose to become the bureau’s chief, writing about a wide variety of topics, from real estate to Hollywood. In 2015 she left to become managing editor at FitchInk, a boutique content company where she helps companies such as Google and GE craft excellent thought leadership. Dorothy has a degree in political science from Vassar College and a master’s from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Dorothy is also a crochet enthusiast and a pretty decent mahjong player.
Cindy Brooks
Member Network Director
Cindy Brooks comes to us with more than a decade of experience developing and executing successful project plans across business operations. Cindy specializes in packaging and product development and creating programs from the ground up. She loves the strategy behind problem solving and the game of synthesizing the complexity of large project plans into manageable action steps. Cindy enjoys a good Netflix binge but also loves to hike for days on end, her favorite treks to date are the Kepler Trek at Milford Sound and the Jomson Trek on the Annapurna circuit.
Beth Lapides
Consulting Producer
Beth is Host, Producer and Creatrix of the UnCabaret, a live show that has been running on Sunday nights in Los Angeles almost continuously since 1982. Putting on her Producer hat is pretty much like breathing air - the ability to solve problems and put on a great show takes over effortlessly. In addition to UnCabaret, Beth has produced her own podcast and live one-women stage show, CD's, DV's and partnered with Amazon Video On Demand, Comedy Central, Comedy World Radio,audible.com. Beth sprinkles her talent around by helping writers, performers and other humans identify and develop their unique comic sensibility and use that perspective to generate ‘material’ for shows, books, blogs and life.
Board of Directors
Bill Tobin
Zubaida Bai
Juliette LeMontagne
Follow us on Social Media and Flipboard!
At the heart of FutureXO is a love of learning. We are not the experts or the innovators. We are the super curious citizens who connect you to the people and stories that matter most to your future. We invite you to plug into our "seeing" while we navigate change with our eyes wide open.
Talk to us.
When submitting an innovator or expert, keep in mind that we are looking for good storytellers too. Please submit two paragraphs showcasing your submission's expertise and, when possible, their relatable presentation style.