By Wendy Macfarland
Scottsdale Insurance Company
Class 29 Blog: This is a blog series about the experience and impact of Scottsdale Leadership’s Core Program. The views expressed here represent those of class members and not those of Scottsdale Leadership.
Whew!! What an amazing day.
I was excited for this day to come from the first time I saw the schedule, and I wasn’t disappointed. Just the energy in the room when I arrived gave me some idea of the day ahead and the anticipation we all felt. We were hosted at Taser, and all day long the pace was electric.
I’ve always been a fan of blogs and podcasts that discuss the future and in particular those that address technological advancements and how they may influence our lives. I can vividly remember a class in college where we listened to a podcast that addressed cell phones and the explosion we’d see in our lifetime in regard to the use of mobile technologies and satellites for making the world a smaller place. And boy has that proved to be true! We are seeing more change in our lifetime than any generation before us. Interestingly, the inaugural SL Core Program Technology Day brought this back to mind.
The day flew by as we discussed topics and heard perspectives on how education and who is educating is changing, how women have a unique view of the world that should be leveraged more, to how innovation has produced concepts like Uber, Ruby Ride, etc. and how that in turn has caused innovation in other things like insurance products. Makes me wonder what will happen if the concept of wearable technology for example, becomes mainstream. How will that impact other areas of life? One area that seems to have sprung from our ever increasing reliance on technology is cyber security. The good things we can do with data have to be weighed against the threat of the bad things that can happen with that data being available.
How we adapt or respond to technology is an interesting topic when you consider that as humans we are driven to ‘construct things to make our lives better’ according to presenter Dr. David Bolman, Provost at University of Advancing Technology. But considering the, often fear-based, over-regulated responses to new technology and concepts, it would seem we try to temper our humanness and save ourselves from ourselves.
The Scottsdale Leader 
Great post, Wendy!! It was a great class day with TONS of info. My fiance and I went to check out the 3D printer at the Microsoft Store in Fashion Square after one of the presenters mentioned they had one. Soon enough, we’ll be fabricating little parts in the comfort of our own living rooms!! -Inga