YourStory's Future of Work event sees the finest tech minds gather to discuss the role of tech in shaping our future
The second edition of YourStory’s flagship tech event Future of Work saw over a thousand technologists and experts participate in discussions on the role of tech in the workplace.
Commuting anywhere across traffic-ridden Bengaluru is a challenge, and a trip to Whitefield, which some call ‘the edge of the world’, can induce nightmares for even the most patient of us. And yet, over a thousand people came together to participate in the second edition of YourStory’s ‘Future of Work’ event on Saturday.
Whether it was to network with successful tech leaders, entrepreneurs, and startup founders, or meet fellow data analysts and techies, people were charged and excited even before they lined up for coffee at the Third Wave Coffee Roasters and Kingsman Coffee counters.
So what exactly is Future of Work?
Future of Work is YourStory’s initiative to bring together the finest minds redefining technology and product innovation, and build conversations around the new frontiers of technology. Three parallel tracks with 30+ talks and workshops ensured a highly engaging and resourceful day.
The day kicked off with Amod Malviya, Co-founder of Udaan, an online B2B marketplace and India’s fastest ‘unicorn’, taking the stage to talk about the 'Evolving role of engineers in an algorithmised world.'
In a few quick minutes, Amod demolished long-held beliefs about what engineers and companies both think are differentiators: “college degrees and mastery of specific programming languages”. He then shared a series of valuable tips to help differentiate great engineers from average ones.
Next, Pravin Jadhav, Director, Paytm Money, touched on the different mindsets needed to build products from scratch, and building products for scale.
Breaking myths and looking ahead
The event, which had an online reach of 20 million, brought together the best of technologists, tech and product innovators, key stakeholders from the ecosystem, and a dedicated pool of domain experts in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Internet of Things.
And many myths were broken during the course of the day. Kumar Rangarajan, Co-founder and CEO, Slang Labs, for instance, threw light on how voice will aid and rule apps. He said,
“Natural-language understanding will soon be able to understand emotions and voice modulations."
Go-Jek India MD Sidu Ponnappa decimated the belief that consistency helps one get lucky. Mona Gandhi, Airbnb’s first woman engineer rejected the idea that acquisition entails growth. “Retention is more important,” she said.
Sameer Dhanranjani, Chief Strategy Officer, Fractal Analytics, also explained how AI can transform business decision making and can be used to analyse data that is not obvious.
The speakers at Future of Work touched upon everything related to the role of technology in the future of work. Some of the other highlights include Srikrishnan Ganesan, Director - Products, Freshworks, talking about building a global product, Sandipan Chattopadhyay, CEO, Xelpmoc Design & Tech, about the culture of redundancies, as well as Ravi Garikipati, CTO, Flipkart, who delved into what exactly a trust machine is and Rishabh Kaul, Co-founder, Belong.co, who elaborated on what talent means in this digital age.
The conference also included a series of workshops on technology and future of work. Several tech-focused companies such as ThoughtWorks, Agara Labs, and Techl33T, and Postman also showcased their brands. There were also some amazing exhibits and experiences at the different stalls, including the one by GoJek, that kept people on their toes.
Much was discussed, debated, and shared over many cups of steaming hot coffee (not to mention croissants) on this rainy Saturday. We can’t wait to see you again at the next edition of Future of Work!
A big shout out to Future of Work 2019 sponsors – Deployment partner Harness.io, Super partner GO-JEK, our Women-in-Tech partner ThoughtWorks, Voice Tech partner Slang Labs, Technology partner Techl33t, AI/ML partner Agara Labs, API Partner Postman and Blockchain partner Koinex.
