Looking forward to hosting Scaleup Showcase, March 11th with Kurtis Scissons for University of Toronto #UofTEntrepreneurshipWeek! Teams to check out joining us: Ada, Hypercare, erthos™ , Winterlight Labs, #Kepler, AmacaThera, Blue J, EBT Medical, Inc., ODAIA This free, virtual event is open to all members of the U of T community and the public. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3usVlKz #Entrepreneurship #Startups #UofTStartups The Hosts:
Startups: erthos™ uses the power of plants, to simply edit the way we make and use single-use plastics. Learn more. Presenter: Nuha Sidiqui, CEO & Co-founder Hypercare is a mobile-first communication and collaboration app for healthcare professionals within hospitals. Learn more. Presenter: Albert Tai, CEO & Co-founder Blue J Legal‘s AI-powered software accurately predicts legal outcomes in challenging areas of US tax law. Learn more. Presenter: Benjamin Alarie, Co-founder & CEO EBT Medical is a venture-backed, clinical-stage company pursuing disruptive neuromodulation technologies, focused on pelvic health disorders. Learn more. Presenter: Keith R. Carlton, CEO AmacaThera is commercializing combination products at the interface of biomaterials and pharmaceuticals. Learn more. Presenter: Mike Cooke, CEO & Co-founder Winterlight has developed a tablet-based speech assessment to detect cognitive impairment associated with dementia and mental illness. Learn more. Presenter: Liam Kaufman, CEO & Co-founder OTI Lumionics develops advanced materials for next-generation OLED displays using quantum simulations, machine learning, and pilot production testing. Learn more. Presenter: Michael G. Helander, President & CEO Ada Support is empowering businesses to provide personalized experiences at scale using AI chatbot to improve CX, reduce costs, and drive revenue. Learn more. Presenter: Mike Murchison, Co-founder & CEO Kepler is using existing and emerging technology to reshape the satellite communications industry, developing groundbreaking technology and providing real solutions for global gaps in connectivity. Learn more. Presenter: Wen Cheng Chong, Co-founder & CEO ODAIA Intelligence is the leading AI-powered Customer Data Platform (CDP) that pioneered the combination of process mining, customer journey mapping and AI to deliver goal-driven commercial insights and process automation as a SaaS platform. Learn more. Presenter: Helen Kontozopoulos, Chief Evangelist & Co-founder #UniversityofTorontoStartup #UofTStartup #Startups #CanadaStartup #AI
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Join us for a week of conversations, mentorship, and workshops with Canadian female entrepreneurs and founders. Event link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/female-foundry-presents-forging-new-frontiers-tickets-141123846223 About this Event Dentsu Canada’s recent study of women in business, found that women are fundamentally treated differently when attaining funding for their business. In the wake of COVID-19, this problem has only worsened. To combat this trajectory, we're launching Female Foundry and you're invited to the inaugural conference! This series of workshops and discussions focusing on empowering Canadian female entrepreneurs with the tools and resources needed to launch and grow their businesses. Here's just a snippet of the key topics we'll be covering: 1. The Capital Challenge: Exploring the unique challenges faced by women founders when raising and securing venture capital and the right funders. 2. The Leadership Challenge: Shining a light on the transferable and new skills that female founders need to adapt as they go from creating value as a start-up to managing a growing company with employees, customer bases and stakeholders. 3. The Management Challenge: Expanding on the evolving management and operational systems women founders need to put into place to sustain profitable and scalable growth. ************************************************************************************************ Conference Schedule Monday, March 8: Women in a Post-Covid WorldTo kick things off, we’ll be covering the business challenges disproportionately affecting women from all walks of life and backgrounds before and during the pandemic and what we can all do to uplift each other now and into the future. 12:00pm | Opening & Welcome 12:15pm ET | Keynote: Women in a Post-Covid World with Michelle Scarborough (Managing Partner, BDC Capital's Women in Technology Venture Fund) 12:30pm - 1:30pm ET | Panel Discussion featuring:
Moderated by: Sarah Armstrong, SVP, Client Solutions Dentsu Canada 1:30pm -2:00pm ET| Keynote: Women in a Covid World with Dawn Desjardins (Vice President, Deputy Chief Economist, RBC Economics) ************************************************************************************************ Tuesday, March 9: The Future of Work Today, we ask: how do we plan for a challenging and changing workplace? Join us as women technologists, investors and advisors will be sharing their experiences and knowledge to help attendees find and raise the right capital for their firm and their future. 12: 15pm ET | Keynote: The Future of Work with Takara Small (CBC Technology Journalist, Founder of VentureKids) 12:30pm - 1:00pm ET| Panel Discussion featuring:
Moderated by: Helen Kontozopoulos, Chief Evangelist & Co-Founder ODAIA Intelligence 1:00pm - 2:00pm ET | Open Panel: The Challenges of Funding Women-Led Technology Companies Session Focus: Women founders face many of the same challenges their male counterparts face when raising venture capital: demonstrating the strength of the tech, market, team, strategy and so on.However, women face additional challenges when facing venture capital. For example, women are underrepresented in VC firms, women-led technology companies raise significantly less then their male-counterparts. This session will address these challenges head-on, and highlight the experience and knowledge of women technologists, investors and advisors, to help attendees find and raise the right capital for their firm and their future. ************************************************************************************************ Wednesday, March 10: Scaling For Growth Going from Founder to CEO has its pros and cons – so let’s talk about them! In this session, we engage with female founders who either currently lead a company or have attained an exit and talk about what leadership looks like at each stage of your company’s growth. 12:00pm - 12:30pm ET | Fireside Chat: Scaling for Growth with Michelle McBane (Managing Director, StandUp Ventures) 12:30pm - 2:00pm ET | EXCLUSIVE Workshop: Leading A Scaling Company Session Focus: A founder-led session, with female founders who either currently lead a company or have attained an exit. We believe this session should be focused on leadership. ************************************************************************************************ Thursday, March 11: The Power of Your Network Great ideas are often rallied behind, yet for women entrepreneurs, this can be particularly challenging. In this session, we look at how win-win partnerships and sustainable networks can help build your business and be equally powerful. 12:00 - 12:30pm ET | Fireside Chat: The Power of Your Network with Anar Simpson, Board Member, CARE Canada 12:30pm - 2:00pm ET | EXCLUSIVE Workshop: Building A Company You Don’t Want To Sell Session Focus: Venture-funded companies tend to reorient themselves to a liquidation event, which is usually an acquisition. We think that orientation is limiting and causes some founders to focus on the wrong metrics (like users and growth) without building the company itself. EXCLUSIVE CLOSED WORKSHOP *Part of Female Founder Mentorship Program: Building a Company You Don’t Want to Sell. Session Focus: Venture-funded companies tend to reorient themselves to a liquidation event, which is usually an acquisition. We think that orientation is limiting and causes some founders to focus on the wrong metrics (like users and growth) without building the company itself. ************************************************************************************************ Friday, March 12: The Week In Review In this session, we take a reflective look back on the conversations from the past week and explore the road ahead together. 12:15pm - 1:15pm ET | Keynote: The Week In Review Panel Discussion featuring
Moderated by: Helen Kontozopoulos (Chief Evangelist & Co-Founder ODAIA Intelligence) ************************************************************************************************ Meet The Hosts Kate Dobrucki, VP Communications Dentsu Canada A lifelong storyteller, brands can count on Kate to get to the point and spread the word. Kate is an industry-leading VP, with 15+ years of strategic PR experience across experiential, social and digital. Kate balances her tenacity with distinctly collaborative approach to execute award-winning programs for beloved brands. As a champion for female empowerment, Kate is also the founder of Womxn Who, a dentsu initiative dedicated to the empowerment and elevation of female leaders. Her prowess as a marathon runner is mirrored in her positive working relationships. Sarah Armstrong, SVP Client Solutions Dentsu Canada A collaborative, optimist who embraces change, Sarah has spent her career leading multi-agency teams for some of Canada’s largest blue-chip accounts. Sarah has built a solid reputation for providing strategic and integrated marketing solutions while also driving innovation and collaborative with clients to drive business growth. Her experience in strategic planning through to activation nails client KPIs time over time. An active mentor in the industry, Sarah has served as a judge for the Ad Club of Toronto’s OOH competition, the Canadian Young Lions Media competition as well as Canada’s Next Top Ad Executive. She is also on the Steering Committee of Womxn Who, a dentsu initiative dedicated to the empowerment and elevation of female leaders. Helen Kontozopoulos, Chief Evangelist & Co-founder at ODAIA.ai Helen co-founded ODAIA.ai, an AI-powered customer segmentation, commercial automation and predictive analytics SaaS platform for Pharma and eCommerce in 2018 out of the University of Toronto. As Chief Evangelist, she brings her understanding of AI, customer analytics, and digital transformation, to help sales and marketing teams adopt artificial intelligence in their work. She has been teaching product development, design, and entrepreneurship for 8 years at the University of Toronto at the Department of Computer Science (St. George Campus), and the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (UTSC). Helen co-founded UofT's Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL), an incubator that supports students and faculty to commercialize their innovations in emerging technologies. In her spare time, she teaches women about AI, data and digital skills, and is leading program development for Forging New Frontiers. ************************************************************************************************ Speakers list: Michelle Scarborough, Partner, BDC Capital's Women In Technology Venture Fund Takara Small, Journalist Melissa Sariffodeen, CEO and Co-founder, Canada Learning Code Simren Deogun, VP, Solutions, Dentsu Canada Anar Simpson, Board Member: CARE Canada, Technovation Girls Michelle McBain, Managing Director, Standup Ventures Lily Tse, CEO and Founder, Think Dirty Alex Panousis, CEO, Carat Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder, ODAIA.ai Jeff Greenspoon, CEO, Dentsu Canada Melissa Kartick, Co-Chair Canada's Next Top Ad Exec Jeffrey Yateman, Co-Chair Canada's Next Top Ad Exec ************************************************************************************************ Interested in joining the Female Foundry mentorship program? The Female Foundry is a global initiative developed by iProspect and powered by dentsu to drive diversity and inclusion in business. It provides access to tools, training, connections, and resources, empowering female entrepreneurs to build successful businesses for the digital age. Reach out to Kate Dobrucki (kate.dobrucki@dentsu.com) for more information on how you can apply. Spaces are limited, mentors are motivated – don’t miss out! #InternationalWomensWeek #InternationalWomensDay #IWW2021 #FutureofWork #FutureofEntrepreneurship #FemaleFounders This webinar explored the new ways to discover to grow your CRM, capture your audience's undivided attention, and continue the conversation all the way to purchase. To make this possible we need to create personal experiences, using customer's unique data to make it happen. Here’s an example of how you can personalize your customer communication by gathering proper data and leveraging your CRM. With a deeper understanding and proper data collection, you're able to set-up your CRM to support personalizing your marketing campaigns. Effective personalization requires brands to understand their customers in order to communicate with them at different stages of their life, and build a more tailored brand experience from beginning to end. Historically, retail stores have played the middle man, making it impossible to gather data from consumers. Today, we're now entering a new digital era where gathering data is not the challenge anymore, but gathering it correctly, organizing it, and managing is. About Sampler: Sampler is the leading self-serve digital product sampling solution for brand and agency marketers. Since founded in 2013, Sampler's mission has always been to make product sampling targeted, measurable and turnkey. Sampler has worked with over 200 brands of all shapes and sizes including Kraft-Heinz, Mondelez and L'Oreal. www.sampler.io
About Multitüd by ODAIA: Multitüd gives merchants visibility into who their customers are by using an AI-enabled customer segmentation and analytics platform. This allows Shopify merchants to inform their campaign creative, improve their audience targeting and media activations. www.multitud.ai Presenters: Kelly Stewart, Director of Marketing, Sampler Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder, Multitüd by ODAIA #CRM #customerdata #customeranalytics #shopifymerchants #artificialintellence #customerjourneys Source of images: Sampler Join me July 9th for this exciting 1/2 day (1pm to 5:30pm EDT) online event for designers looking to extend their UX skills with five amazing talks and Q&A from Google, Adobe, Asana, Center Centre – UIE, and the Nielsen Norman Group. User experience and interface (UX/UI) design is still one of the fastest growing fields of web design, and the discipline is constantly changing and innovating. Everybody relies on great UX – from commercial and retail platforms needing to keep up with the user’s habits of scrolling and shopping on the go, to medical and scientific applications, virtual and augmented reality, and entertainment fields all looking to advance their apps and websites with an intuitive and functional user experience. A recent study showed that the average user engages in over 2,600 daily interactions with their phone, spending 145 minutes a day across 76 sessions a day. How do you ensure your clients, customers, users, and fans all get the easiest, and most rewarding (for you and them) experience in only a few clicks, swipes, or scrolls? I'm really looking forward to Catt Small's talk: Like a Phoenix: Becoming a More Resilient Designer A digital product designer’s story of failure, self-empowerment, and redemption. Over the span of two years, Catt Small experienced the highs and lows of product development—all on the same team. She will share ways to improve your persuasion skills, create a better working relationship with your peers, conduct more holistic research, and ultimately create and release a better product. My Speaker spotlight:
About FITC:
Future. Innovation. Technology. Creativity. FITC is the #Future of #Innovation, #Technology and #Creativity. We host events that inspire, educate and connect digital creators around the globe. https://fitc.ca/ About Tribal Scale:
A digital innovation firm with a mission to right the future. Not a massive development shop, VC firm, or design agency. But a unique group of skilled individuals, all feeding on one another's talent. Empowering businesses to grow their success; whether that's transforming their process, building products from a vision, establishing a brand, or supporting from the back-end. #tribalscale #artificialintelligence #customerjourneys #AI #CX June 22, 2020 Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder, ODAIA.ai Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto I was really looking forward to traveling to Cannes, France this year to attend the Cannes Lions. My startup ODAIA.ai was accepted to attend in the startup access program.
I have been working and researching in marketing analytics for the past 8 years, and recently how to integrate emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence into the mix - especially at the early stages of product development. My focus is to figure out how can AI discovery WHO your customer is from data, WHY they do what do, WHAT platforms and mediums do they use the most, and WHEN will they be most responsive to your brand message? We've been working with the Dentsu Aegis Network team for a few months to understand deeper how advertising and marketing teams can successfully use artificial intelligence in their customer experience audit. The goal is to create a stronger connection between brand and customer. This is going to be an interesting online conference where we can listen and learn from the best in the advertising and marketing industry and on how they responding to the accelerated shifts in society, culture, and technology we are facing at the moment. We can't be at Cannes Lions this year but we can watch it live online! Here are some talks I recommend you check out! Talks to check out this week: Monday at #CannesLions Creative Business Transformation Lions - Isobar's Ronald Ng Presented by: Ronald Ng, Simon Cook Every year at Cannes Lions each Jury President is asked to put together a President’s briefing for their jury - a set of guiding principles used to assess every piece of work. Looking ahead to 2021, Simon Cook, MD of Cannes Lions invites the President of the Creative Business Transformation Lions, Isobar's Ronald Ng to share what that briefing looks like today and how the category is set to evolve in response to changes in the wider world at present. Ronald will shed light on the new trends he's keeping an eye on, and look back at some of the award-winners that moved the industry forward, helping set the standards of exceptional creativity that the Creative Business Transformation Lions demand today. Agile Storytelling - Creating Beyond the Jargon Panelists: Bill Simmons, Courtney Holt, Mallory Rubin Storytellers have long entertained us, kept us informed, helped ignite movements and framed our history. As technology, culture and society evolve, so have the ways their stories reach the world and the substance of their messages. Today’s environment demands nimbleness, accessibility and depth. Podcasts are ripe for this moment and it’s no wonder they are the emerging medium of our time. Join Spotify’s Global Head of Studios, Courtney Holt, for an enriching conversation with Bill Simmons, Founder of The Ringer and Mallory Rubin, The Ringer’s Executive Editor, as they unpack the secrets behind agile storytelling, their content development process during times of change, and how they are making swift decisions without sacrificing the quality that their listeners love and expect. Tuesday at #CannesLions Effectiveness in the Age of E-commerce Presented by: David Tiltman COVID-19 is forcing brands across categories to shift faster into e-commerce. What does this long-term change in distribution mean for the effective investment of marketing budget? “Dear White People and Men” Presented by: Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Stephan Loerke Stephan Loerke, CEO of WFA, interviews Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Executive Director of UN Women and Chair of the Unstereotype Alliance. In this captivating interview, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka shares a personal account of living through the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa. She recounts similarities to the Black Lives Matter movement happening today and calls for white people and men to not waste their privilege in society and use it for the collective good. Stephan asks what measures can be taken by the advertising industry to catalyse change. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka delivers a clear message in response: Brands standing on the side-lines are perpetuating stereotypes, diversity and accountability is paramount and “there isn’t any more time or patience for incremental change”. Wednesday at #CannesLions Unity Presents Immersive Media and Storytelling’s Renaissance Presented by: Tony Parisi While digital advertising has enabled a whole new scale of consumer messaging, creative storytelling has unfortunately taken a backseat. But there’s an exciting counter-revolution underway, powered by technologies like real-time 3D, AR and VR. Join Unity’s Tony Parisi to learn how creative storytelling and immersive media are opening massive possibilities for marketing and brands across entertainment, events, retail, fashion, e-commerce and more. P&G Presents Stepping Up - Creativity as a Force for Good Presented by: Marc Pritchard The twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism have once again revealed the deep cracks of systemic inequality that remain in our society, and have brought clarity to what matters. The role of brands and companies in the world has been forever disrupted, making it inescapably clear they have a responsibility to lead change. Thursday at #CannesLions Cannes Lions Presents the LIONS Live Debate: How Will These Crises Affect our Industry?Panelists: David Droga, Jean Lin, Lorraine Twohill, Mark Read, Philip Thomas, Steve Stoute As the industry — and the world — faces the crisis of Covid-19 and its economic fall-out, as well as the challenges of representation and equality thrown into the spotlight by the recent Black Lives Matter protests, Cannes Lions Chairman, Philip Thomas, leads a debate with five industry leaders from across the globe on how our industry will emerge. Among the subjects will be; how will creativity retain centre stage? How can great talent be attracted and retained? What is the future for the agency model? And where does social media go from here? UWG'S Monique Nelson - What We’ve Learned About Injustice, Inclusion, and Inspiration Amidst Two Pandemics Presented by: Monique Nelson 2020 is a pivotal turning point for America. Tumultuous times marked by the deadly viruses of COVID-19 and racial injustice have unmasked grave disparities in our society. Monique Nelson, chair & CEO of UWG, the longest-standing multicultural marketing and advertising agency in the United States, and her team are learning and leading to overcome injustice and drive relevant inclusion while finding great inspiration from the perseverance of our community. Creativity is more necessary than ever to accomplish justice, equity, and change. In that spirit, Monique brings together key members of her team to share their ideas, insight, and inspiration in our journey towards progress. Friday at #CannesLions Lions Intelligence Presents a Guide to Creative Survival Presented by: Susie Walker Since the virus hit, brands have been forced to pivot at breakneck speed in order to meet changing consumer demand. Communications, supply chains, and core product lines have been rethought. The industry has weathered tough times before. Creativity bounces back. But is this recovery different? What can history tell us? Susie Walker, Head of Awards at Cannes Lions, has trawled thousands of Cannes Lions winners in The Work to identify how creative communications responded to periods of economic turmoil, from the 80s to the 2000s. What trends and tactics worked then, and which will work now? Which creative trends are set to accelerate? Will the aftermath of this recovery see the creation of new, iconic work? "Put Your Motherhood on the Table." From Harshada Thakerdusai Category: Advice That Worked From See It Be It, in partnership with Spotify Alumni from the Cannes Lions initiative working towards equal gender representation among creative directors share advice that genuinely helped them. You can find a the whole schedule here: https://lionslive.canneslions.com/schedule Twitter handles to follow: @Cannes_Lions #LIONSLive About Cannes Lions: Is the world’s most prestigious and coveted advertising and marketing awards, Cannes Lions celebrates creativity through spotlighting best-in-class work from over 100 countries around the world. #helenissocial at #LIONSlive #LIONSlive2020 #Artificialintelligence in #advertising #customerjourneys #nextbestaudience I was part of this month's #SaaSChats over on Twitter (@LSPARKGlobal). It was dedicated to Leaders in Tech and our Keys to Success.
Check out the whole chat here: https://www.l-spark.com/saaschats-recap-leaders-in-tech-keys-to-success/ #WomeninSaaS #SaaS #WomeninTech #Diversity #Resiliency Customer surveys and focus groups are the typical tools for understanding customer needs, but they don't accurately reflect the customer experience. ODAIA Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer Helen Kontozopoulos explains how artificial intelligence can help businesses better assess how customers interact with their brand and improve customer experiences as a result.
Host: Michael Bancroft, Globalive Media Supported by BDC Capital's Women in Technology Venture Fund. #BDCWit #BDC #GlobaliveMedia #WomeninTech #WomenStartups #Womenfounders #startupfounders About Globalive Media: Globalive Media is co-founded by venture capitalist and entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera and media executive and journalist Michael Bancroft. We are a premiere curator and producer of multimedia content focused on business, innovation and technology. Globalive Media produces the globally-broadcast television series Beyond Innovation, which delves into the most exciting technological innovations coming to market that can transform our world for the better. About BDC Capital: BDC Capital is the investment arm of BDC- Canada’s only bank devoted exclusively to entrepreneurs. With $3 billion under management, BDC Capital serves as a strategic partner to the country’s most innovative firms. It offers a full spectrum of risk capital, from seed investments to transition capital, supporting Canadian entrepreneurs who wish to scale their businesses into global champions. Visit bdc.ca/capital. About ODAIA: ODAIA is a pioneer in combining process mining, customer journey mapping and AI to deliver sales and marketing insights and process automation tools to enterprise companies globally. ODAIA is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with offices in Switzerland. The aim is to provide a space for women and allies in the AI community to get together in a relaxed, social environment
About this Event UPDATE MARCH 12TH: in order to ensure our community's safety, we have moved this event to be online. Join through the Zoom meeting We’d like to facilitate networking and authentic conversations through a series of lightning talks. The topics can be: career journeys, interesting technical topics, research problems that the speaker is working / has worked on, and so on. For this Women in AI Social, the aim is to provide a space for women-identified folks and allies in the AI community to get together in a relaxed, social environment, and learn from each other’s journeys. People of all genders are welcome to attend this event, but should respect that the event centers on women’s voices and stories. Confirmed Guests:
6:30 - 6:45 welcoming remarks 6:45 - 7:30 lightning talks 7:30 - 8: breakouts with invited guests 8 - 8:15: closing remarks Link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/aisc-women-in-ai-social-spring-edition-tickets-91934589833# #IEEE Women in Leadership - My first keynote through Zoom (self-isolating because of #covid19)3/12/2020 Monday, March 9, 2020
In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 9, 2020, the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology at Humber College in Toronto hosted “Women in Leadership: Creating a Vision for an Automated World”. I had to do the talk from home, because I was self isolating, here is the event breakdown: The event was coordinated by Professor Maryam Davoudpour, Chair IEEE Women in Engineering Toronto Section, and Adriana Ieraci, CEO and Founder of Conveyor Built, Founder of the GYBO Robotics Network and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto. Guests from the engineering community heard from an impressive list of women leaders:
Sharing their fearless stories about overcoming obstacles in their careers were discussed by:
The Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology thanks these women for making a difference and being great role models for women! #futureofwork #IEEE #automation #artificialintelligence #womenintech #womeninAI #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2020 |
Helen Kontozopoulos
I'm the Co-Founder at ODAIA.ai & an Adjunct Professor, at the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada Archives
February 2021
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