Disruption Event Draws Positive Response

Disruption will continue to impact all industries, according to a panel of speakers at a Nov. 18 event about how technology, innovation and global competition are disrupting careers, companies, industries and markets.

“Your business is being turned upside down,” said keynote speaker Carlos Dominguez, senior vice president at Cisco Systems. “There is a freight train coming. … Hold on.”

About 200 people attended the Nov. 18 event, which was part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The event was sponsored by the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship. Dominguez’s lively presentation, which included an engaging slideshow, focused on the rapid pace of change and disruption, and he cited examples ranging from the bankruptcy of Kodak to the fact that the ubiquitous web, mobile phones and social media didn’t exist 25 years ago.

Dominguez also covered the future of robotics, where robots will one day be doing our chores, prompting Catherine O’Kane @swimcat820 to tweet: “Yes, please, I would like a robot to do my laundry.”

View photos from the event.
View video from the event.
View Carlos Dominguez’s slideshow.
Read NJBIZ story on the event.

Dominguez delivered the message that for companies to remain relevant, they should “leverage the present. Prepare for the future.”

“The future by @carlosdominguez was a wild ride,” tweeted @jameskkaiser after the Cisco exec’s presentation.

Mario Casabona, founder and CEO of TechLaunch LLC, was part of a panel with Dominguez. Casabona, who is an angel investor, also praised the power of change, saying some new ideas are incremental, but “I’m looking for disruptive.”

The third panelist, Donald Sebastian, senior vice president for research and development at NJIT, said the entrenched will fight disruption and change. “The message here is you can’t win that fight.”

All this disruption will lead to a good outcome, according to Dominguez. “I truly believe the best is yet to come,” Dominguez said.

Feedback from event attendees was positive, with members of the Montclair State Entrepreneurship Meetup posting comments.

“Listening to Carlos was getting to future faster,” wrote Adnan Rafique.

Mark Gavagan commented, “Carlos gave a riveting and informative talk that really opened my eyes to the tsunami of change bearing down upon us.”

“Excellent program. Disruption is coming! The pace of change continues to accelerate,” wrote Alan N. Walter on Meetup.

“I think the message is clear that the only constant is change. Whether slow or exponential, things must evolve and to be fearful of its evolution is the disruptive element; to embrace it and use what you can to make your life easier or you more efficient at your profession only makes sense! Good information!!” wrote David Stoll.

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