The pandemic has undoubtedly affected the world economy. In 2021, even as the pandemic drags on, the global economy has proven remarkably resilient. However, many countries including India are still trying to fully contain the pandemic, which is holding their economic recovery back. At the same time, many advanced economies have introduced massive fiscal and monetary stimuli to stabilize economic growth, and consumption demand has remained resilient. Education, jobs, consumer demand, healthcare continue to be severely impacted in developing countries.

In this keynote, an expert will walk us through the major macro trends that will shape the future of the New Normal and will have a major impact on both global and Indian economies in the long run.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been extensively disruptive in terms of economic activity and loss of human lives across the globe. At the same time, this crisis has presented us with unique opportunities that can be leveraged to build back differently, which is more inclusive and more just, than our economies currently are. India must take the lead to build new industries that will accelerate growth and create jobs in a way that can stay resilient in the face of such future disruptions.

This riveting keynote talk by an industry veteran will share insights on how countries around the globe are unleashing new waves of reforms for sustained economic growth for long periods and how we can change the old normal economy towards a new one, driven by good economics for the new normal economic growth of India.

The circular economy is a bold ambition for tomorrow, and today, leaders across industries can play a vital role to increase resilience, mitigate climate risks, and unlock new business opportunities. The technology sector has a vital role in delivering a net-zero world. Leading into a new, sustainable future requires businesses to rethink parts, if not all, of their business. We need new definitive actions, new ways of collaborating and open innovation among all stakeholders, if we are to reach the ultimate goal of having a net-zero world.

In this coffee chat, we hear from a global CEO who has spearheaded sustainability initiatives and touches upon what decarbonization means for companies, how the R&D value chain has evolved to facilitate sustainability, the right talent required to enable decarbonization, and how the ecosystem needs to be rearchitected to enable this.

2020 brought in unexpected rapid disruptions in work that emphasised the need for the workforce to be responsive to the needs and requirements of the changing times. With favourability towards remote working and demand for cost and time-efficient employment, gig workers and freelancers are expected to witness a resurgence in their services. The future is becoming reality with individual tasks getting automatable through AI and sophisticated algorithms, and the days are not far behind when jobs will be redefined and recategorized.

How will the job scenario change in the new normal? How can the collective workforce and graduates prepare for this disruptive future? How can employees remain relevant and perform tasks that automation can’t yet crack? Which will be the new skills across functions and roles that will be prioritized by employers? Get insights into the new future of work in this riveting coffee chat session.

The pandemic overwhelmed the healthcare delivery systems across the globe. The industry is relooking at innovative and cost-effective ways to deliver patient-centric and technology-driven solutions to patients, both at home and in hospitals. The rapid disruption has accelerated technological investments and adoption of new tech such as telemedicine, AI, 3D printing, VR/AR, etc., creating transformative opportunities for players across the Healthcare industry value chain.

The global trends are playing out on a similar vein in India, which has a very diverse set of regulations, demographics, and disease profiles to address, with many of the patients’ needs in rural areas being unmet. The severity of the second wave that put tremendous pressure on the healthcare infrastructure and intermittent vaccine availability have brought in several imperatives for the healthcare system to consider and reconsider.

This riveting panel will host leaders from the Healthcare ecosystem who will deliberate on the new healthcare system that will be based on a patient-centric approach, that leverages new tech, ensures data interoperability, explores newer operating models and new partnerships to reimagine the healthcare in India for the new future.

COVID-19 has fundamentally altered the world. It has significantly increased the digital maturity of enterprises, making geographical location immaterial and inconsequential in many aspects. When it comes to innovation, ideally, this shift should present an opportunity for teams across geographies to create new products and solutions and accelerate their go-to-market. However, has digital maturity actually helped in overcoming underlying barriers and been effective in facilitating innovation from a distributed environment? Can we build a Culture of Innovation that can drive meaningful innovation outcomes from across the globe? What are the underlying challenges that leaders and organizations need to overcome to build a truly innovation-first culture to improve the odds of success?

This exciting keynote talk by a Zinnov leader will set the stage for the rest of the sessions, by addressing some of the burning questions that organizations are faced with, when maximizing their return on innovation.

As a result of the global pandemic, many enterprises around the world had to transform overnight into virtual organizations. The digital transformation initiatives they had either started or that were still in planning mode became essential for survival. Though this specific crisis will eventually abate, organizations now understand the likelihood of something else causing another major disruption has not, resulting in an increased urgency for speed, agility, and scalability that will persist long after this current crisis is over.

In this keynote, Alan Trefler will discuss how organizations need to change their approach to technology to not just survive but to thrive in both good times and bad.

The investor community and organizations tracking an active innovation portfolio usually speak of ‘The Portfolio Approach.’ Although most of us look at the basket of investments made by investors or innovation leaders and term that basket the Portfolio, the Portfolio Approach is much more than that.

At the beginning of an organization’s innovation journey, they are mainly looking at a few ideas and possibilities, and active investments in a portfolio of projects are still sometime away. But even in the early days the portfolio mindset is critical. So how can organizations take a portfolio approach right from the early days and improve the odds of success? What are the inherent challenges that innovation leaders need to overcome to get the portfolio approach right?

This coffee chat with eminent innovation leaders and experts explores this portfolio mindset, its importance, and tenets in depth. It aims to enable any innovation leader with critical insights they must keep in mind to diversify and improve the odds of innovation success.

While leaders often speak about ‘rapid experimentation,’ it is equally essential for organizations to focus on ‘effective experimentation.’ While corporate teams across units validate multiple assumptions about their ideas through experimentation, the most common gap is their ability to answer questions on why an idea is valuable to a customer.

The story might be different for start-ups. They usually have limited resources, less investment in research, small teams, and a powerful understanding of customers. The pivots witnessed in the past year are additional proof that customer experience is central to start-up strategies.

However, many corporate teams work in silos and lack the ability, systems, and infrastructure to be guided by customer evidence on the ground, making experimentation ineffective or half-baked. How can organizations build systems for effective experimentation? How can leaders ensure customer alignment in their ways of working and collaborating within a large organization? What are the core tenets of a successful and ‘effective experimentation’? This keynote talk by an innovation expert will address these pertinent questions and will also lay out the ways in which organizations can jumpstart their fearless experimentations.

On one hand, with the COVID-19 effect, global MNCs are increasing their engagement with start-ups as they look for innovative digital solutions. On the other hand, India is emerging as a globally recognized technology start-up ecosystem because of the increased support from policymakers, expanding base of niche talent, and exposure to technology applications. Over the past year, we have witnessed many Indian start-ups going global much earlier than expected, proving that location is no longer a barrier to servicing businesses and customers across the globe.

With this background in mind, is the Indian start-up ecosystem becoming a center of gravity for corporates? Can we expect more winning collaborations between corporates and Indian start-ups? How can organizations remove the barriers for greater collaboration to make innovation the central agenda? This panel of innovation experts and veterans will throw light on these aspects of collaboration and much more.

There are seismic shifts underway, in the way organizations operate. Especially in the aftermath of the global pandemic, which has forced companies to rethink, re-evaluate, and redefine their business models, digitalization agendas, and put the focus on future-proofing businesses against disruptions. Technologies – new-age ones such as Hyper Intelligent Automation – catalyzed the acceleration of digitalization across verticals, paving the way for the next-gen enterprise, which is not only digital-ready, but autonomous in its own right. Organizations will need to traverse the journey from Automation to autonomous digital enterprise, by delivering value through organizational agility, customer centricity, and actionable insights.

But what are the challenges that organizations will need to overcome in their journey to become truly next-gen digital, autonomous enterprises? What are the tools and strategies that will help leaders traverse this journey? What role will leadership play as organizations make this transformative shift? These questions and more will be answered in this Zinnov keynote by experienced technology leader.

Even before the pandemic, many significant changes were transforming the nature of work. The recent unprecedented disruptions have led to a deeper integration of technology into the workplace and changed how employees and businesses look at work. Additionally, given the new paradigm of work, employees’ expectations have begun to change as they search for greater flexibility as well as more meaning in their day-to-day job roles.

While the future remains uncertain, innovation and technology continue to lead instrumental change in the nature of work. But is the new model and newer expectations from employees sustainable in the long run? How can companies prepare for a future that is not yet defined? How do we create a sustainable future of work which continues to use technology to build a more effective workplace while also catering to employees’ evolving needs and expectations? This riveting coffee chat will touch upon these aspects and more.

While technology played a pivotal role in enabling organizations to move to remote operations, it will also play a strategic role in acting as the digital bridge between what was to what will be, in the new normal. Organizations have already started to redefine their entire employee experience value chain for the new normal. But leaders cannot ignore the role of technologies as organizations gradually bring their workforces back to office, post vaccination. From touchless entry, social distancing sensors, employee wellness programs, to cybersecurity and network security, technology will be key in ensuring a new normal employee experience.

What are the challenges that leaders will have to overcome in ensuring a tech-enabled experience for the new normal workforce? What is the role of leaders in fostering a uniform work culture in the new normal? Which are the new-age technologies that will bridge the gap between what was to what will be in the new normal employee experience? Eminent leaders from the industry will discuss these challenges and more in this exciting coffee chat.

Qubits will be the next big thing in technology jargon. Or so some technology enthusiasts will have you believe. Some studies estimate a multi-billion-dollar quantum industry by 2030, which is a pretty tall order. Although quantum theory has been around for over a century, the current quantum revolution hinges on the more recent realization that uncertainty – a fundamental property of quantum particles – can be a powerful resource. This uncertainty and imprecision are at the core of security in a quantum computer.

While Quantum Computing promises a revolution, are our existing systems geared to operate in a hyper computing scenario? What are the use cases that quantum computing can address, across industries? What role will responsible design play in the impending quantum computing revolution? This absolutely exciting topic will be addressed by a through and through technologist, who will not only answer these question, but will also leave you wanting more about this revolutionary technology.

Evolving security threats demand a new response from IT and security leaders, especially in the post-pandemic era. Organizations will need to pivot quickly to meet the new requirements from a hybrid workforce, while also combating newer, more malicious threats across the board. This is especially true given that organizations are now Cloud-first in their bid to bring in organizational agility. However, the new working models have created security whitespaces that need to be addressed at the earliest.

So, how can leaders re-envision their security strategy, given these newer aspects? How can these leaders address newer threats while also ensuring seamless access to real-time data for internal purposes? What are the top challenges that leaders are losing sleep over? How can they address them efficiently, and in a cost effective manner? This panel of illustrious leaders will shed light on this pertinent topic that is top of mind for most CXOs.