Quick Takes from the WSJ Future of Everything

Micro Macro Infinity’s PR & Comms specialist Linda Purpura attended the second day of the WSJ Future of Everything. I heard Chairman Powell and a variety of other speakers the first day. These are Linda's comments from the second day.

“For inspiration, hands down, I’d give it to iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg, who told the audience a favorite quote of hers from Nelson Mandela, ‘Either I win, or I learn’.” She quipped, “how good is that?” She also emphasized how you must “constantly adapt and own it.”

Of course, investing talks were center stage, including one with WSJ Finance News Editor, Crypto & Retail Investing Jenna Telesca interviewing Brian Shroder, President, and CEO of Binance.US. Schroder said they are focused on being customer centric with more coming to improve the customer experience. He said their goal was to have the best Net Promoter Score in Crypto. Schroder called education an important pillar, he was positive on regulation noting they do comply with complex rules in the states they do business, they will have a fully staffed government policy office with executives from traditional finance and had plans to go public in 2-3 years.

As Linda saw it, crypto is still evolving, with much yet to be defined.

Linda also attended the User Testing session called “How the Future Takes Shape through Understanding.” This was a favorite for her, especially because she is enthusiastic about how conversations with customers are the key to developing and enhancing products people love and talk about. She had the distinct pleasure of speaking to Janelle Estes, Chief Insights officer at UserTesting. Ms. Estes and User Testing CEO Andy MacMillan have a new book, “User Tested – How the World’s Top Companies Use Human Insight to Create Great Experiences.”

The Business of Healthy Food was another session Linda attended. Clean eating and superfoods will help drive longevity trends, which are finding their way into startups and established companies. Eating healthy is not simply good for you, it can also a plus for your portfolio.

Outside of the sessions, Linda bumped into Brian Elliott, SVP of Slack, who gave her a copy of his new book “How the Future Works, Leading flexible Teams to do their Best Work.” Flexible work will drive fundamental changes in quality of life while transforming how companies operate in the digital age.

Taking a few moments away from the sessions, Linda jumped to the Creative Lab where she donned a VR headset to check out the WSJ’s virtual reality world with specially curated NFTs. Working the controls was funky for a non-gamer but she liked it anyway.

Linda wrapped up the day speaking to Abby Zhang, Co-Founder and CEO of IVYForMe.io, a Web3 education platform.

“Web3 is just gaining ground and it was great to meet founders like Abby doing such cool projects,” Linda said.

Thanks to Linda for her contribution.