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Dona Sarkar believes that you are one experiment away from being your most powerful self at work. And yes, in life!
Currently at her day job, she’s running 100 experiments as the Chief Troublemaker of the Microsoft AI and Copilot Extensibility Program. Her goal is that people all over the world can use Microsoft’s AI and Copilot programs to reason over their OWN data and truly make AI useful for their business.
Previously, Dona led the Accessibility tech program at Microsoft, implementing Generative AI in her products in an inclusive way. She also led the #WindowsInsiders program (20 million people globally) and worked on advocacy for the Metaverse via HoloLens and low-code development via Microsoft’s Power Platform.
Dona is also a keynote speaker (fave audience is corporate leaders like YOU), a multi-published author (it turns out fiction writing is useful in software!), the owner of the ethical luxury fashion brand called Prima Dona Studios, and she has recently become a wine bar co-owner and is studying to be a sommelier.
A few years ago, she was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Productive People and Cosmopolitan magazine’s Businessperson of the Year for her multi-faceted (aka weird) life. And yes, she is always ready to get on a plane and come see YOU.
How many of you have heard that AI is here to take your job? Yeah, exactly. Us too. Apparently, AI is here to take ALL the jobs.
Yet, here we are, employed and busier than EVER. Did you know that every large tech company has announced AI products this year with the promise to transform your business?
In this talk, you’ll learn:
“Yay. A Consultant.” – no one ever
Every company, especially when the economy takes a downturn immediately decides to hire a consultant to solve their latest business problem. Here is the real truth: the best ideas for your organization are already in your organization, hidden deep inside the brains of your quietest members. Your goal is to get these ideas out of brains and onto paper so that they can become experiments and then wins and then tangible business results.
Using my proven 5 Step SHENANIGANS framework, we will identify your most urgent business problems and solve them in an innovative and FUN way using your most valuable assets, your teams. This will not only save you million of dollars, but will also raise employee engagement and retention like you’ve never seen. Let’s go!
Who’s heard of ChatGPT and DallE?
These exist to be your copilot
They start stuff for you
They finish stuff for you
They’re here to make your life easier, NOT harder.
BUT they can very easily not represent what you believe and value. How can organizations and individuals make the best use of this amazing new technology when they’re NOT AI experts and don’t have the time or resources to become one?
Learn 5 techniques that your company can be doing today to maximize the usableness and usefulness of Generative AI and the 3 different roles everyone in your company can and should play a part in the AI revolution.
How many of you have heard of web 3.0? How about the Metaverse?
So…all of you. But what does it mean? And more importantly, what does it mean for YOUR business?
In this session, you’ll learn what exactly the metaverse is, how it can boost your business and most importantly, how you can start your journey to the Metaverse today. Dona has worked in the Augmented/Virtual Reality/Metaverse space for almost a decade and will give you a behind the scenes look at companies like Volvo, Lowe’s, Ford, NASA and others who are using this technology to thrive—and how you can do it too.
No one ever got promoted for organizing a “women’s mentoring ring”.
Harsh. But true.
Every senior woman knows this. So why don’t we coach and advise the next generation to stop doing this work unless it’s part of your job?
Around 2012, I stopped doing ALL non-promote-able work and instead started doing 10 *very specific experiments* at my job.
Lo and behold, my career *absolutely transformed* over the next 2 years. The opportunities started to show up and have not stopped to this day. I talked to a few of my other senior women friends and we agreed–these techniques WORK. In this 45 minute keynote, I will walk you through the 10 experiments I have done to become more powerful in the workplace and how you can do it too!
“Managers should be keeping their team’s mental health in mind.”
How many of you have heard this?
How many of you have absolutely NO IDEA what this means or even how to do this?
How do you make sure you’re not crossing the line into trying to be someone’s therapist?
Fear not, I have a simple 5 step strategy that will work for your organisation.
In this session, we will cover:
😬 Are you weirdly irritable with your colleagues?
🙅🏽♀️ Is the thought of checking your calendar just way too overwhelming?
🥺 Are you feeling like you’re not actually having *real* impact in your work but rather just doing “activity”?
You, my friend, might be facing Job Burnout. The World Health Organisation has defined this to be a real “occupational phenomenon” that’s impacting millions & billions of us. So…what are you going to do about it?
Come here to learn a process to figure out if you’re burned out…AND a formula for how to debug, root-cause and most importantly, banish it.
“You need to find product-market fit!” “Like, now!”
How many of you are so frustrated with hearing this? What if you could guarantee that the product or service you’re toiling away at will be AMAZINGLY received…not just by your target audience…but by surprising other audiences as well?
In this session you’ll learn about the 6 categories of audiences we think about and a 3 step SIMPLE and inclusive process to reach and delight them at any phase of your business.
Yes, yes we know…there has been WAY TOO MUCH TALK about AI in the past 18 months. But guess what? People who work in enterprises are actually using these things to do their actual jobs AND finding value in real business results.
In this workshop, you’ll get hands on and learn:
