Digital Transformation and Innovation are the biggest threats and opportunities of our age. And learning with and from pioneers and peers is a game-changer. It helps us transcend the limits that we think we have to realize our potential.

The second annual Wisconsin Digital Symposium, a special virtual program hosted by the UW E-Business Consortium, was held on May 25, 2023. While the event itself has concluded, you are still welcome to register for it – for free – and watch the content on demand. Use the register button below to get started!

During this event, we explored new and proven approaches and innovative technologies to address the practical and urgent challenges of digital transformation and the volatile business environment. This half-day program was packed with great ideas that will help you and your organization transcend perceived limits and realize the full potential of digital transformation.

It's a world-class program that is free to attend. This will ensure everyone on your team who might learn from the experiences and expertise of others can attend and benefit.

Register Now!

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Future Ready: The Four Pathways to Capturing Digital Value

Stephanie Woerner

Stephanie is Director and a Research Scientist at MIT's Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She is the co-author, with Peter Weill, of What's Your Digital Business Model?

She also co-authored Future Ready: The Four Pathways to Capturing Digital Value with Ina M. Sebastian and Peter Weill.

The book includes instructive examples, sharp analyses, assessments to help companies benchmark themselves against top performers, and many illuminating visuals to help crystallize the data and ideas, showing that the goal isn't digital transformation but rather a profound business transformation.

Combining Human and Artificial Intelligence to Solve Grand Challenges

Kyle Cranmer

Kyle Cranmer is the David R. Anderson Director of the Data Science Institute (DSI) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kyle leads the institute’s charge: advancing discoveries that benefit society through foundational and use-inspired data science research. He is a professor in the Physics Department with affiliate appointments in Computer Sciences and Statistics. One of Kyle’s goals for the DSI is to broaden engagement in data science across the UW-Madison campus. Drawing on his own experiences reaching across traditional academic boundaries, he aims to build partnerships between people working on data science methodology and those working in the natural, physical, and social sciences and the humanities.

Strategy Activation - Bringing Your Strategies to Life

Aric Wood

As the CEO of XPLANE and leader of our Strategic Planning and Strategy Activation practices, Aric helps non-profit, government, and Fortune 500 clients chart a clear strategy and a path to achieve it. 

He is an international keynote speaker, author of The Strategy Activation Playbook: A Practical Approach to Bringing Your Strategies to Life, and has appeared in publications and broadcasts including Forbes, CNN, Business Week, Entrepreneur, and Inc. Magazine.

Prior to XPLANE, Aric served in leadership roles at Intuit and Epinions.com, and as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company. 

Aric earned his MBA at Harvard Business School.

Doug Barton

As the Director of the UW E-Business Consortium, Doug oversees the development of new and expanded ways to serve our members' evolving needs for talent and organizational capability development, including leveraging the synergies between UWEBC and other UW-Madison campus units.With over 30 years of experience in technology and entrepreneurship, Doug brings a diverse background working with and leading mission-driven and values-rich companies, including senior leadership positions at UBIX.AI and IBM.

Doug has spoken at industry and IBM conferences around the globe and local venues on topics ranging from design thinking, entrepreneurship, disruptive technology, and innovation. Doug holds a BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University.

distinguished exEcutive panel

Intelligence, Platforms, and the Digital Workplace: Unleashing the Power of Digital Innovation and Transformation

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, digital transformation and innovation have emerged as pivotal factors that either propel organizations forward or render them obsolete. Our panelists are in the midst of that challenge. We will cover key topics including the integration of intelligence into processes and products, harnessing the power of digital platforms, and optimizing and supporting the digital workplace to enhance productivity and agility.

Meet our panelists:

**Justin Swenson**
Product Tech Lead II - Data Governance & Analytics
Sub-Zero Group, Inc.

**Kusum Rawat Verma**
Chief Information Officer, Workforce Digital Experience
GE HealthCare

**John Kreul**
Chief Information Officer
Jewelers Mutual Group

lIGHTNING TALKS

Let inspiration strike in one of our scintillating lightning talks! In just 15 minutes, you will expand your knowledge about hot topics in our rapidly emerging digital future. Watch one live and catch the other on demand!

Topics include:

Power and Possibility of Large Language Models (like ChatGPT)

Kangwook Lee
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Sciences,
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Kangwook Lee is an Assistant Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department and the Computer Sciences department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also leads deep learning research at Krafton. Prior to joining the UW team, Kangwook was a Research Assistant Professor at Information and Electronics Research Institute of KAIST, working with Professor Changho Suh, and was a postdoctoral scholar at the same institute. He received his PhD in May 2016 from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at UC Berkeley and his Master of Science degree in December 2012.

Digital Platforms and the New Economy

Allen Li
Michael and Mary Sue Shannon Professor and an Associate Professor, Department of Operations and Information Management, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professor Zhuoxin “Allen” Li is the Michael and Mary Sue Shannon Professor and an Associate Professor in the Department of Operations and Information Management. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s NSF CAREER Award (2022-2027), Poets & Quants Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors (2021), the Gordon B. Davis Young Scholar Award (2020), and the Nunamaker-Chen Dissertation Award (2016). Allen's research focuses on digital platforms. Digital platforms have profoundly reshaped the economy—they have created new distribution channels, reorganized supply chains, and transformed how businesses reach their customers. Allen's research seeks to improve the value creation process through the design of information and coordination strategies.

Agenda

This agenda is subject to change. All times listed below are for May 25, 2023.

8:30am - Networking and Sponsor Booth Visitation

9:00am - Welcome

9:10am - Keynote: Stephanie Woerner – Future Ready: The Four Pathways to Capturing Digital Value

9:45am - Keynote: Kyle Cranmer – Combining Human and Artificial Intelligence

10:10am - Break

10:20am - Distinguished Executive Panel – Intelligence, Platforms, and the Digital Workplace

11:00am - Keynote: Aric Wood – Strategy Activation: Bringing Your Strategies to Life

11:35am - Summing Up and Transition to UW-Madison Lightning Talks

11:45am - UW-Madison Lightning Talks

Power and Possibility of Large Language Models (like ChatGPT) with Kangwook Lee
Digital Platforms and the New Economy with Allen Li

12:00pm - Adjourn

Registration

This event has concluded, but registration remains open, as all the content was recorded and is now available on demand. Registration is free.

Register now using the button below!

Register now!

STEERING COMMITTEE

**David Cagigal**
Former CIO
State of Wisconsin, Alliant Energy

**Sheldon Cuffie**
Enterprise CIO
American Family Insurance

**Nicole Darden Ford**
Global VP & CISO
Rockwell Automation

**Tim Dickson**
CIO
Generac Power Systems

**Kusum Rawat Verma**
Chief Information Officer, Workforce Digital Experience
GE HealthCare

About UWEBC

For 25 years, the UW E-Business Consortium (UWEBC) has brought together executives, managers and senior practitioners from leading Wisconsin companies to learn from each other as well as from industry experts. As part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the UWEBC connects employees in more than 85 member companies to each other and to resources at the university.

We focus our efforts on five areas critical to a diverse range of businesses: customer service, human resources, information technology, marketing, and supply chain. Membership resources are open and available to executives and managers in all areas of your company.

Four Wisconsin governors have recognized the UWEBC as a model of university-industry collaboration advancing the competitiveness of Wisconsin business and the health of Wisconsin's economy.

Learn more about our offerings and how to become a member.

Campus partners

american family insurance data science institute

Questions about the digital symposium? Contact UWEBC Event Services at events@uwebc.wisc.edu.