64th IIA Chicago Annual Seminar
 

64th Annual Seminar at the Donald E Stephens Convention Center

IIA Chicago 64th Annual Seminar

Date: Monday, March 31, 2025

Time: 7:00 am - 6:30 pm

Location: Donald Stevens Convention Center 5555 North River Road, Rosemont Illinois

Keynote Speakers

Zack Kass

AI Keynote Speaker, Futurist and Former Head of GTM at OpenAI

Keynote Session: Demystifying AI and Preparing for Impending Technological Revolution 

Zack Kass is a Futurist, keynote speaker, consultant, and the former Head of Go To Market for OpenAI. He has spent over 14 years in the field of AI with companies like Figure Eight, Lilt, and OpenAI. His mission is to ensure businesses and governments are active participants in the AI-powered future by demystifying AI, making it accessible and understandable for everyone, and helping leaders navigate the rapidly evolving environment.

While Head of Go To Market at OpenAI, Zack worked at the helm of the team key channeling OpenAI’s innovative research into tangible business solutions. Zack built the teams responsible for OpenAI’s sales, partnerships, and customer success and served as a personal advisor to countless executives deploying the technology across their business. 

Today, he is considered one of the foremost thinkers in Applied AI. His thought leadership and techno-optimist views have been featured in countless publications, such as Fortune, Newsweek, Entrepreneur, AdAge, and Business Insider to name a few. Zack has also advised many top companies on AI, including Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, and Agmen.

Beyond the corporate world, Zack is a staunch techno-optimist, an advocate for AI’s potential to revolutionize the human condition and reduce suffering. He works tirelessly to promote the promise of AI, serving as a counter-narrative to the prevailing media cynicism.

Zack received his BA from The University of California, Berkeley, and resides in Santa Barbara, California.

Session Description: In the age of Artificial Intelligence, everything is changing, from how we work to how we create. How can you take advantage of this change to improve your life and career? As the former Head of Go To Market for OpenAI, Zack Kass has been at the forefront of AI’s global transformation for over 15 years. In this compelling keynote, Zack counters the conventional dystopian narrative of AI, sharing a positive vision that offers the potential for game-changing innovation, opportunity, and human potential. Audiences will come away understanding how technology will reshape their industries, organizations, workforce, and lives for the better.

 

 

James Taylor

Keynote Session: SUPERCREATIVITY™: Accelerating Innovation In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence 

Award-winning entrepreneur, author and inspiring keynote speaker on a global mission to help people and organizations unlock creative potential, accelerate innovation and build a sustainable future. James Taylor M.B.A. F.R.S.A. – who started his career managing high profile rock stars – is now an in-demand keynote speaker and internationally recognized leader in creativity, sustainability, innovation and artificial intelligence. For over 20 years, he has been advising CEO’s, entrepreneurs, educators, governments and leaders from Silicon Valley to Dubai on how to design innovative organizations, unlock creative potential and build a sustainable future.

As the host of multiple global summits he has personally interviewed over 750 of the world’s leading creative minds including Silicon Valley tech CEO’s, New York Times bestselling authors, and artificial intelligence pioneers. Hundreds of thousands of people in over 120 countries have learned about creativity and innovation through his online courses, videos, media interviews and keynote speeches.

His clients have included Fortune Global 500 companies, government policy makers, industry associations and he was recently the subject of a 30 minute BBC documentary about his life and work. Companies including Apple, Cisco, Deloitte, Accenture, Caterpillar, UPS, Novartis, EY, Visa, McDonalds, ADNOC and Dell have all brought in James Taylor to inspire and educate through his thought-provoking keynotes and interactive workshops. 

James is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (F.R.S.A.) whose Fellows have included global innovators and leaders including President Benjamin Franklin, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Bob Dylan, Adam Smith, Nelson Mandela and Professor Stephen Hawking. 

Session Description: Business is changing at the speed of light. Exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics are creating new disruptive business models almost overnight. In this new world, one where McKinsey & Co predict that 45 percent of jobs will be automated over the next 20 years, there is one distinctly human competitive advantage you and your people must leverage – your creativity. In this tailored, entertaining and highly visual one-of-a-kind keynote, James Taylor takes the audience on a journey to discover the backstage secrets of the world’s most creative individuals and innovative organizations.