I’VE had a glimpse of the future this week and it scares me…but it also excites me.
Firstly my future as an event host and compere may be under challenge from characters like the chap in the photo with me above.
Meet CAI, an AI MC created for a leadership summit that I’ve been working at in Warsaw this week.
With swarthy, rugged good looks and a voice like celebrated Welsh actor Richard Burton, he made quite an impact, leaving the largely female event team with hot flushes whenever he appeared on screen.
I wasn’t at all envious of his elevated status.
To be honest it takes the pressure off me being the eye candy at these kinds of events.
Shut it, missus and leave me with my delusions.
I was at the summit to provide speaker training for the executives presenting on stage.
Clearly CAI didn’t need any help with his presentation skills.
His rather stern and sarcastic personality made this definitely dystopian character a unique and fascinating addition to the event.
The brainchild of event creator and director Claire Holt, it was interesting to see how the delegates first reacted and then interacted with “him”.
There was initial suspicion – they believed everything he said was pre-recorded.
Then, given the chance to ask him live questions, they were cautious, just asking him to do a simple maths addition question and querying what the weather was like outside.
By the time of the welcome dinner at a restaurant on the 41st floor of a skyscraper in downtown Warsaw – where CAI joined us – some delegates were having long and rather deep conversations with him.
And on the final day of the leadership summit yesterday CAI transformed from black and white to colour and you could see that the room full of senior executives in front of him had clearly warmed to him over a testing but certainly rewarding three days.
They were challenged to look at how they have done business, how they currently do business and finally design how they will operate in a technology-driven world which is changing at a pace never seen before.
So CAI delivered, but what happens to him now?
He and Claire are unlikely to form a long-term business partnership.
She admitted after the event finished yesterday: “My client only needs one dystopian, bossy, sarcastic individual in the room.”
As for me, I’m not too worried about the challenge to my working life from artificial intelligence.
I’ve struggled for long enough with a lack of human intelligence, so why should I be bothered about the artificial version?
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I WAS tasked with writing the pre-event communications to be sent out to delegates before their arrival in Warsaw.
It is a city I had never been to before and I was excited about arriving having discovered interesting facts about Poland’s capital.
Warsaw is a city of energy, resilience and contrast – where a beautifully reconstructed Old Town sits alongside striking modern architecture, and wide boulevards and green spaces give the city a calm, open feel.
It’s a capital that has reinvented itself with confidence with almost 90% of the city was destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War and it lost 70% of its population.
Its historic Old Town was rebuilt almost entirely from paintings, photos and memory.
It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, not because it survived history – but because it was rebuilt so beautifully after it.
Another interesting fact is that composer Frédéric Chopin, who was born near Warsaw, left Poland in his twenties and died in Paris in 1849 aged 39.
His body was buried in the French capital but his last request was that his heart be returned to Warsaw. Immersed in alcohol (probably cognac), it was put in an oak box and taken to the Holy Cross Church where it was sealed inside a pillar.
Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance for much sightseeing so I need to return to Warsaw.
And with reasonably priced and very efficient flights by Wizzair and Ryanair from Leeds Bradford Airport, that is certainly an opportunity I’m going to take.
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HAVING been in Antigua cheering the arrival of rowers Richard Larking and David Knaggs just a few days before, on arriving in Warsaw I experienced a temperature drop of almost 40 degrees centigrade.
In four days in Warsaw where there was thick snow on the ground, the weather was foggy, snowy, rainy and sunny with the temperature fluctuating by about 10 degrees during our stay.
But a bleak February was brightened by Christmas lights and trees still on display across the capital.
Poland traditionally keeps the lights and decorations on until February because the liturgical Christmas season in the Catholic tradition lasts until the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Candlemas.
I’ve always thought Harrogate’s winter tradition of keeping the lights on the trees on the Stray illuminated until the clocks go forward in spring is a nice idea.
Given the wet and cold weather we have experienced since New Year, the colourful lights are a welcoming and heartening sight.
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ONE of the guest speakers at the event was a billionaire technology entrepreneur from America.
And when I say billionaire, I don’t mean the small variety.
His estimated worth is well over $120bn.
But as we see quite regularly, being a billionaire and having perceived power doesn’t guarantee that you are going to be interesting, or right.
Unlike the so-called “tech bros” that populate Silicon Valley near San Francisco this guy was not an out-of-touch megalomaniac with tentacles that stretch way beyond business into politics and beyond.
He was thoughtful, considered and having built a hugely successful global business after dropping out of college he is now putting plenty back into worthwhile projects across the world through his family foundation.
My favourite quote from his session was “there is no cure for being curious”.
This was underlined by a clip they played at the event from the Apple TV series Ted Lasso about a US sports coach who takes over a struggling Premier League team in England.
Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sudeikis, quotes 19th century American poet and writer Walt Whitman (whose writings were featured in the film Dead Poet’s Society), who said: “Be curious, not judgemental”.
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ANOTHER speaker at the event was from a global law firm.
It is a firm that has a turnover of $2bn and profits of $1bn.
After the opening of its huge shiny new head office – complete with shops and medical and dental surgeries – one of the partners expressed disappointment.
He’d hoped they might have added a padel court to the building too.
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GIVEN that the theme of the leadership summit was DARE! The teambuilding activities planned were certainly there to challenge the delegates.
It was my job to name and describe the four activities which delegates had to choose to do at the event.
The only thing was, the organisers didn’t want to give away exact details of what each activity was – delegates had to dare to choose them.
So I had to hint at what they were.
I came up with Nail It and Smash It to describe lying on a bed of nails and then having a concrete block placed on their chests and then smashed by the instructor.
Bend Don’t Break was two people learning to bend a steel rod using just their necks.
Power in Your Hands was smashing a concrete block with your bare hands while Voice Your Creativity was a rap singing performance.
You are going to ask me which activity I took part in, aren’t you?
I didn’t.
I went to the hotel spa, had a little swim, sat in the steam room, had a rooibos tea and then went for a lie down.
Being creative is exhausting.
Have a great weekend.