10 tech all-stars to look for at Pluralsight LIVE
We’ve spent months building the agenda for Pluralsight LIVE, working hard to attract a deeper bench of tech all-stars than ever before. One result of all this elbow grease? The ratio of strong female technologists and thought leaders speaking at LIVE 2018 hit 41%.
Here are just a few of the speakers we’re most excited about, in order of appearance in the agenda.
Emily Tate | Product badass
Who she is:
Emily Tate is passionate about the craft of product management and loves talking about new ways to make products people love. Before acting as general manager of Mind the Product, Emily spent 10+ years in product leadership as a consultant in the tech space — so you know she’s got some stories to share.
What she’ll cover:
Relationships between product managers and engineers can be contentious. Emily will address common misconceptions about product managers and discuss how the two camps can work better together to reach a common goal — building great products.
Caitlin Kalinowski | Advocate and hardware innovator
Who she is:
Prior to heading up Product Design Engineering at Oculus, Caitlin Kalinowski was a technical lead at Apple on the Mac Pro and MacBook Air lines, and was part of the original unibody Macbook Pro team. Caitlin believes that in order to output innovative tech that knows no bounds, the next generation of products must be designed and engineered by people with different backgrounds and experiences. Amen!
What she’ll cover:
Who in tech doesn’t need a fresh take on innovation? In Caitlin’s session, learn the secrets behind building and shipping innovative products your customers will love.
Elizabeth van den Berg | Strategy and startup expert
Who she is:
Elizabeth van den Berg is a vice president at Insight Venture Partners, a leading firm that invests exclusively in growth-stage technology business. She has a passion for early-stage ventures, and serves as a mentor to founders and aspiring entrepreneurs.
What she’ll cover:
As part of a panel of experts, Elizabeth will help you know what you’re talking about when you’re talking crypto. Listen in to learn how to answer the question of the moment: Is your business cashing in on the money of the future?
April Wensel | Champion of humanity
Who she is:
April Wensel founded Compassionate Coding to promote humanity in everything we do — including, and maybe especially, software development. Because being an effective software developer requires so much more than coding ability, April devised a suite of strategies for harnessing the power of kindness and compassion to build effective software development teams.
What she’ll cover:
Join April as she leads the charge in changing the way we think about so-called “soft skills,” like communication, empathy and introspection. Leave with a practical framework for growing and applying them to become a more effective — and happier — developer.
Kesha Williams | Ahead-of-her-time tech MVP
Who she is:
As an award-winning software engineer with over 20 years of experience specializing in full-stack web development, to say that Kesha (pronounced key-sha) Williams is passionate about emerging technologies is an understatement. She foresaw the digital revolution — and determined to be at the helm of it — as a young child.
What she’ll cover:
The future is here; Kesha talks combining computer vision and machine learning to generate predictions, and the potential moral and ethical obligations of developers building AI systems.
Cathy O’Neil | The OG mathbabe
Who she is:
If you haven’t yet geeked-out over her blog at mathbabe.org or poured over her New York Times bestselling “Weapons of Math Destruction,” this appearance is sure to light a fire under you. After all, now is no time to be behind the times on the power and perils of an algorithmic world. Cathy O’Neil brings a Ph.D in math from Harvard and oodles of experience in finance and data science to the main stage in this can’t-miss moment at LIVE.
What she’ll cover:
“Algorithms aren’t inherently fair or trustworthy just because they’re mathematical,” Cathy tells Digitalist Magazine. Learn how to question and support processes for evaluating algorithms your company deploys, and why not doing so may soon have serious ramifications as the law catches up with technology.
Karen VanHouten | Problem solver to the stars
Who she is:
Karen VanHouten has spent years designing technical solutions for enterprise software. Karen believes that collaboration is the keystone of successful innovation. Karen uses her skills as a UX practitioner, researcher, information architect, facilitator, teacher, amateur therapist, and just all-around people watcher to help teams design better ways of working together.
What she’ll cover:
How to not suck at collaboration. ‘Nuff said.
Omoju Miller | GitHub guru
Who she is:
Omoju Miller is a Senior Machine Learning Data Scientist with Github. With experience in computational intelligence, and as part of Bloomberg’s Beta Future Founders Program, it’s no secret she is widely considered one to watch.
What she’ll cover:
Omoju is ready to reveal how GitHub is building the 21st century Augmented Computational Knowledge worker, and how to overcome the challenges of going from an engineering product development company to a data-product development company.
Sheree Atcheson | Future-maker
Who she is:
Despite there being just 24 hours in the day, 27-year old Sheree Atcheson manages to work as a tech business consultant, founder of I Am Lanka, global ambassador to Women Who Code — the world’s largest global non-profit dedicated to helping women excel in technical careers — and more. We give props.
What she’ll cover:
We’re counting on Sheree to bring her passion for ensuring everyone (regardless of gender, race or social stature) has a place at the table as she discusses the future of tech.
Mariah Hay | Product royalty, but maybe we’re a little biased
Who she is:
Feathers in VP of Product Mariah Hay’s cap include, but aren’t limited to, launching Pluralsight’s technology learning platform as leader of eight cross-functional domestic and international product teams and snagging the Excellence in Product award courtesy of the Women Tech Council in 2017.
What she’ll cover:
We paired Mariah with Sheree for a sneak peek of the changing tech landscape and a deep dive into the role developers and product play in shaping the future.
