On November 1, 2017, Talk Boutique hosted its latest and largest Salon yet! More than 200 people came to converse and hear speakers Jill McAbe and Sonny Kohli address the question: In order to preserve our humanity do we need to focus less on the invention of new technology and focus more on the creation of provocative questions?

Sponsored by BMO Wealth Management Tinnerman Wealth Group and SingularityU Canada Summit, Nick Kindler hosted the evening and engaged the audience with a compelling set up, “Are we as humans – with augmented technology – becoming more and more like the old kids game Speak and Spell – simple, easy to use and quickly out of date. Or, are we becoming like Siri – constantly evolving, improving, and learning? And if we are becoming Siri, who’s asking us the good questions so we can get better and better?”

Jill McAbe, a neuroscience-based strategy, performance, and growth expert then took the stage. She started with a riveting personal story and shared the most important question to ask yourself to clarify vision and ensure success: “How can we start asking questions that change our world as we see it?” She discussed the importance of empowering the people who are going to make these changes because the more people believe in themselves, the more likely they are to see results.

Then inventor, physician, and X-Prize Finalist Sonny Kohli shared his thoughts on the importance of good questions. Sonny posited that we have already basically given control of our lives to AI. “AI already knows what we are doing right now. Who we are with. What we are doing later, buying, eating, traveling. We worry about AI taking control. It already has!” And, Sonny suggests that we should begin questioning the amount of control we continue to give to AI. Finally, he suggested that, perhaps, we need to slow down the pace of innovation so that we can ensure we are asking the right questions first. A point, he noted, which may seem odd coming from someone who considers himself an innovator.

The evening continued with conversation and cocktails which went well into the night!

We thank our two incredible speakers and all who attended. It was a wonderful night with lots of impassioned conversation. Watch for videos of both Jill and Sonny coming soon! They will certainly be a must watch if you weren’t able to attend.

A special thank you to our generous sponsor, Mark Tinnerman of Tinnerman Wealth Group, BMO Nesbitt Burns and Oren Berkovich at SingularityU Canada Summit for helping make this night a success.

Our next Salon will be in February! Please subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when the date and topic are announced.