4:15 p.m. | LaRose Digital Theatre
Entrepreneurship, Data & How to Speak Search Engine
Today’s entrepreneurs and innovators are challenging everything from personal transportation to health care where every decision they make involves generating data, analyzing relationships therein, and acting decisively and efficiently to maximize their success. More and more devices – smartphones, wearables and Internet of things devices – are generating vast amounts of data. To be leveraged effectively, data needs to be accurate, secure and portable across a range of platforms and devices.
In this discussion, Christian J. Ward, EVP of Partnerships for Yext, a New York City startup that specializes in location data, will walk you through how today’s innovators are leveraging data and mobile in powerful ways to drastically increase their chances of long-term success and value to investors. With customers increasingly putting a premium on convenience and ease of access (Uber, Amazon Prime, OpenTable, Waze), brands need to be nimble in how they reach users. At the same time, regulators are increasingly examining how sensitive location data can be – with the FTC hitting companies like ad-network inMobi with record fines for tracking the GPS locations of users, including minors, after those users had opted not to be tracked.
With a background in creating and leading information and data companies, Ward’s focus is to help other businesses leverage the power of the Yext platform in their own strategies. Yext has been featured in Forbes’ Most Promising Companies List, Fortune’s Great Places To Works and CNBC’s Top 50 Disruptors.
Prior to joining Yext, Ward was the chief data officer at Infogroup as well as the global head of content innovation at Thomson Reuters. He founded his first data company with his college friends when he was 24 and has been building ever since.
This presentation is part of the C. Ashton Newhall Endowed Lecture Series. A reception will follow.