Managing the Disruption’ Conference Brings World-Class Debate to Florida on the Massive Threat Technology Poses to Millions of Jobs

For Immediate Release March 3rd, 2017

‘Managing the Disruption’ Conference Brings World-Class Debate to Florida on the Massive Threat Technology Poses to Millions of Jobs

Google’s Ray Kurzweil, Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Thomas Friedman, Larry Kudlow and Star Jones Among Confirmed Speakers

PALM BEACH, FL – The Greene Institute announced today that it will host a world-class conference of leaders and innovators in Palm Beach from April 2nd and 3rd focused on the massive and severe disruption looming for millions of jobs due to technological advancements that will challenge business and government leaders and upend the economy. The ‘Managing the Disruption’ conference will bring together visionary thinkers like Google’s Ray Kurzweil and author Thomas Friedman with world-renowned leaders like former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, along with others from academia, the nonprofit sector, business, and government to identify solutions for this crisis. The Greene Institute announced the conference in an ad today in the Palm Beach Daily News.

“We can no longer apply band aids to the gushing wound our economy is about to face,” said Jeff Greene, founder of the Greene Institute and host of the conference. “Technological advancements like artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and robots are leading to a major disruption that will result in an unprecedented era of job destruction.”

Volatility at home and abroad with the rise of nationalism and populism caused by growing economic uncertainty are perceived as the new normal. Speakers at the conference are at the forefront of this debate, including Ray Kurzweil who has been described as “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes and is considered one of the world’s leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists, with a 30-year track record of accurate predictions. Columnist and author Thomas L. Friedman, who explores the dizzying acceleration of change and its impact in his book, “Thank You for Being Late,” will deliver a keynote address at the conference.

“I started out as a busboy and worked my way up,” added Greene. “I know firsthand the struggles hard-working people face every day, as well as the trends taking hold at every level of our economy. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. What globalization did to the blue-collar workforce over thirty to forty years, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and big data will do to the white-collar workforce in the next five to ten. This is a crisis.”

Greene wrote an op-ed for The Hill newspaper in Washington, DC to demand attention to this issue among the nation’s lawmakers and the new Administration. You can read it HERE.

The conference will be held at the Tideline Ocean Resort & Spa in Palm Beach, Florida. The Greene Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to finding, developing, and promoting strategies for increasing upward mobility in America, held the first conference of this kind in December 2015. Participants at ‘Managing the Disruption’ include:

 Business leaders looking for ways their organizations can adapt and prepare their workforce.  Educators seeking to understand the constantly changing role of education in the new economy.  Foundations looking to support their mission to combat economic volatility and inequality.  Nonprofits, NGOs and policy-makers who want to collaborate with stakeholders to define much-needed policy changes.  Consultants who can help organizations navigate the seismic shifts in a wide range of markets.

Confirmed speakers include:

Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and author David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey Kimberly Bryant, founder, Black Girls Code Arne Duncan, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education Larry Summers, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Ray Kurzweil, futurist and a Director of Engineering at Google Larry Kudlow, economist and CNBC Senior Contributor David Paterson, former Governor of New York Lois Frankel, U.S. Congresswomen, Florida’s 21st District John Sculley, former CEO, Apple Computer Star Jones, journalist and advocate for diversity and women Michael Cembalest, Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy, J.P. Morgan Asset Management Anthony Scaramucci, founder and former Co-Managing Director, Skybridge Capital