We just finished off a hectic but interesting week at Almedalen, the annual Swedish politician week in Visby, Gotland. Our team member, Diana Mosa, was there to listen and discuss, but also to represent Talking to me on Google’s stage where she talked about Voice tech and why brands should focus on Voice, but also about the importance of diversity, a question we fight for every day. So what did we learn? Scroll down for a recap of the most inspiring moments and the people we met!
“How can Voice-AI be used for an inclusive society?” – FJORD
FJORD, a global design and innovation agency spoke about how Voice can be used to promote inclusiveness but also how it can strengthen negative stereotypes and how you can work around it. This was especially interesting for us since we constantly work with minimizing biases and raising awareness surrounding these issues (also talking about this topic at the Voice Summit 2019 soon!).
The Social Few – insights dinner
We were invited to The Social Few’s insights dinner were they shared their learnings and lessons about Sweden’s largest minority groups. The Social Few is a leading data-driven Diversity and Impact management agency in Scandinavia and the interesting (but also sometimes sad) data they presented created challenging discussions. Did you know that 1/4 of Sweden’s population has a foreign heritage or that anonymous application processes lead to a 5 times higher probability that a woman gets hired?
”How To Use Emotional Data In Order To Choose A Movie” – Vion Labs
Vion Labs utilizes computer vision and machine learning that creates a recommendation engine with a unique and accurate personal viewer experience. With their deep learning technology, they collect and use emotional data to help the viewer choose a movie based on that data. Want to learn more? https://vionlabs.com/
“How can the voice technology and conversational AI be used to cure loneliness?” – Stockholm Exergi & Accenture
Can Voice Technology be used to make life less lonely for older citizens and what is needed to succeed with the new technology? Accenture Interactive together with Stockholm Exergi discussed how conversation AI and Voice Technology can help us tackle societal challenges and how they worked with Memory Lane, a solution they created that interviews elderly and creates a book with their history.
“Put your money where your Voice is” – Talking to Me
Of course, we have to hype up our own seminar at the Google Sessions where Diana presented why it’s important for brands to start thinking about Voice and how the Voice era is happening now and not something that will happen in a distant future. We might also have been loud about the lack of diversity in big organizations and how we think there are only a few organizations that really work with diversity and equality. Those who know us, know that we grab every opportunity to raise the question.
What we liked about Almedalen
No hierarchies, titles, or any other barriers when connecting with others
Changers Hub <3
What we disliked about Almedalen
Lack of representation
