RE•WORK End of Year Team Round Up 2018

by Nikita Johnson

2018 has been another fantastic year for the RE•WORK team heading to new locations such as Toronto and Houston and covering new trending topics such as Deep Learning for Robotics and AI for Government. Keeping our flagship Deep Learning Summits running alongside these new topics has given the team the opportunity to scope out emerging trends and expand workshops, panel sessions and fireside chats into full summits.

The past 12 months have not only seen our events grow, but we have grown our team to welcome new Conference Organisers (COs), Customer Relationship Executives, Marketing Executives amongst others. I’d like to take this opportunity to take a look at the year from the perspective of each team member, whether they’re new to the RE•WORK team or maturing in their roles having been with us for some time now.

As CEO and founder, it’s been fantastic to see the new team members we have had join this year grow and progress in their roles and bring lots of new ideas to RE•WORK. From my perspective, it was fantastic to go back to Canada to host our second annual Deep Learning Summit there, this year in Toronto for this first time. We met so many local inspiring attendees and speakers at the event, and are looking forward to going back to Montreal again next October for Canada take 3!

Looking to 2019, I’m looking forward to our 5th annual Deep Learning Summit which will be taking place in San Francisco in January! It’s always a highlight and a great way to kick off the year by going back to where the very first deep learning summit took place! Next year the event will be bigger and better than ever before and the team are all working hard on bringing together the brightest minds in AI, as well as new interactive experiences for attendees to enjoy over the 2 days! I can’t wait.

Let’s take a look at what the rest of the team have enjoyed about 2018, and what they’re most looking forward to next year:

Pip Curtis, Director, Business Development:

2018 has absolutely flown by. We've seen the team double in size and have had the opportunity to really grow together and put on some of our best events yet. We've also enjoyed some great days out - our Summer Fun Day was definitely a highlight! The rain slightly derailed our plans but it didn’t stop us having a lot of fun and laughter. We’ve also met lots of fantastic new partners this year but I’ve been particularly proud of how we’ve grown the Women in AI dinner series globally with the support of Facebook, Capital One, PROWLER.io and TD Bank. I’m looking forward to the Deep Reinforcement Learning Summit as the next step in our DL series. I like the excitement around building a new event especially one so niche and technical. The team has already confirmed some incredible speakers from OpenAI, Google Brain and UC Berkeley.

Katie Pollitt, Senior Summit Creator, Head of Learning & Development:

Over the last 12 months, I have moved from a full-time conference organiser and have taken on a new role as Head of Learning and Development for the team, which means I get to work even more closely with the fantastic team we have! The best thing about it is discovering the hidden talents of each team member outside of their usual job role, and working on ways these can be used to make our events even better.

Yaz How, Digital Content Manager:

It’s been great to see the marketing department double in size this past year and has given us the opportunity to experiment with lots of different types of content. I’ve really enjoyed working on white papers which have given me the opportunity to explore topics such as ethics and privacy and security in a lot more detail than I’ve previously been able to. Aside from this, it’s been great to travel with team members both new and old to some amazing destinations, something which I’m really looking forward to doing more of next year. Working across all events means I get the opportunity to work closely with the whole team, so we’re able to action lots of exciting ideas for different topics. The combination of working in the London office, on-site at events, and visiting different locations to record the Women in AI Podcast keeps me on my toes and makes the work exciting.  

Eunice Ma, Business Development:

Being back at RE•WORK after a year away has been amazing. I forgot how much I missed the adrenaline and the rush of a RE•WORK event. I decided to re-join the company after graduation as RE•WORK has always given me so many opportunities to grow my skillset and as a person, that I felt there was so much more I could still contribute. It’s been different being back, with a lot more responsibility and autonomy, but it’s been an exciting few months and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2019!

John McNicholas, Customer Relations Executive:

I joined RE•WORK at the start of 2018 as a Sales Executive - beginning by learning about our events, why we host them, who attends them and how we execute them. My role mainly consisted of reaching out to members of the AI Community in an effort to introduce them to RE•WORKs Summits in the hope that they could join us at an upcoming event.

Since January 2018, my role has developed into being RE•WORKs Customer Relationship Manager, which means I get to know our attendees quite well and always get to have great conversations with them when we meet on Event Day. I also get to help develop new ways our attendees can interact with each other before & after events, such as our Slack Community. Here attendees can share ideas, give advice & help others find new roles in which they can apply their skills and expertise. It is great to think that by doing this we are helping to bring experts together form all over the world, helping to provide a medium for the progression of AI.

Ellie Lucy, Global Summit Creator:

I loved running my first event in San Fran, my favourite thing was the huge buzz in the networking areas and seeing so many progressive discussions taking place

I'm really excited about the upcoming Deep Learning Summit in San Fran as it will be our biggest yet and not just in number of attendees and speakers, but we'll also be featuring 10 stages covering so many important topics like ethics & social responsibility, and inspiring women to join the field.

Charlie Wright, Sponsorship Executive:

My first 6 months at RE•WORK have been great! We’ve been able to organise great events while I’ve been here, and I’ve been amazed at what a good team we have. I found the array of people at our events intriguing, especially how far some travel to get to RE•WORK events, for example a man I met from Argentina had travelled to London for two days, just for the Deep Learning Summit!

This coming year I am excited to grow into my role at RE•WORK, and help to make events around the world a big success for all involved! Maybe even seeing some new places along the way.

Hollie Jaques, Global Summit Creator:

After attending two RE•WORK events in 2017, I was excited to become a full-time member of the team this year and start creating the agenda for the AI in Finance Summit. The summit, which took place in New York in September, was a great success; we heard in-depth case studies from leading financial companies as well as the latest research from professors in the field. I’m looking forward to continuing these conversations for the 2019 edition of the summit!

Apart from this, in 2019 I’ll also be working on our third Canadian Deep Learning Summit in Montreal (24 - 25 October). The summit will delve into the most up-to-date advancements in Deep Learning tools and techniques, as well as their applications across a variety of industries. There will be a multitude of workshops, new types of sessions and extremely interesting topics covered, of which I’m very excited to continue my research into!

Luke Kenworthy, Marketing Executive:

My first six months at RE•WORK has flown by and I have been incredibly lucky to have joined such a close-knit, conscientious and incredibly hard working team. The fast paced environment and variety of tasks at RE•WORK has aided my personal development substantially and I look forward to continuing this growth alongside the company in 2019.

2019 is set to be a big year for RE•WORK and I can't wait to get started in January with the Deep Learning Summit in San Francisco!

We’re really excited to be back on the road with our Summits again next year and hope you can join us. Check out the calendar of events here and register now to stay ahead of the trends in AI and Deep Learning next year.