Dan Berger, CEO of Social Tables, discusses how to future-proof your career in the age of automation. He outlines three steps: 1) Relax, as history shows that periods of automation created new jobs and prosperity; 2) Embrace automation by seeing how technology can augment human work rather than replace it; and 3) Reimagine one's career and job roles in light of emerging technologies. The document provides examples of how job roles in industries like hospitality may be redesigned as certain tasks are automated. It also discusses five career options - step up, step narrowly, step in, step forward, step aside - to consider in a changing work environment.

1. Dan Berger
CEO
Social Tables
October 2017
Staying Relevant in the Age of Automation
Futureproofing Your Career:

3. 100 employees
Raised $22.6 million
Founded in 2011

4. Boost event sales overnight.
Sales Success Platform
Fuel demand.
Attract Fortune 500
planners with the space
search engine.
Search
Win more.
Negotiate faster with
personalized proposals.
Propose→
Grow bookings.
Engage qualified
planners with interactive
content marketing.
Convert→
Deliver better.
Create accurate setups
that lead to repeat
business.
Diagram→

5. Free Social Tables
● Free diagramming, seating and
check-in capability
● 100% accurate floorplans
● 181,000 unique event spaces
● Live collaboration
● 700+ custom objects

6. 4,350 customers creating
2 million events with
250 million participants

8. Sample of the 40+ awards Social Tables and its leadership have received.
We envision a world where every face-
to-face event achieves great things

9. ● Discover opportunities to advance our professional
development
● Examine strategies to manage these changes
Learning Objectives

10. KEY THOUGHT
If so much has changed in
the past in 20 years, what are
the advances that will shape
the next 20 years?

11. Where machines could replace humans—and where they can’t (yet). McKinsey.

12. Internet Trends 2017 Report. Meeker, Mary.

13. Sapiens. Hariri, Yuval Noah.

14. OBSERVATION
We are becoming
increasingly reliant on
technology to do work.

15. KEY THOUGHT
What can we do prepare?

16. Step 1: Relax.

17. Farmers, a Case Study
● In 1900, 30 million people in the
United States were farmers.
● By 1990 that number had fallen to
under 3 million even as the
population more than tripled.
● 90% of American agriculture
workers lost their jobs, mostly due
to automation.
● Yet somehow, the 20th century
was still seen as an era of
unprecedented prosperity.
How to Win with Automation (Hint: It’s Not Chasing Efficiency)

18. Step 2: Embrace.

19. Automation starts with a
baseline of what people do in a
given job and subtracts from
that.
It deploys computers to chip
away at the tasks humans
perform.
Automation vs. Augmentation
Augmentation means starting
with what humans do today
and figuring out how that work
could be deepened rather than
diminished by a greater use of
machines.
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

20. Human-centered automation is a term used to characterize
the use of automation technologies (e. g., intelligent aids,
displays, warning devices) to enhance the capabilities and
compensate for the limitations of human operators.
Human-centered automation

21. Step 3: Reimagine.

22. Redesigning Jobs
How to Win with Automation (Hint: It’s Not Chasing Efficiency)
When doctors have the world’s
medical knowledge at their
fingertips, they can devote
more of their mental energy
to understanding the patient
as a person, not just a medical
diagnosis. This will help them
take lifestyle, family situation
and other factors into account
when prescribing care. This will
change how doctors will
interact with patients.

23. What Do Redesigned Jobs Look Like In Hospitality?
Hotel sales people Meeting consultants
Meeting planners Event strategists
Caterers Experience curators
AV techs Learning partners

24. The 5 Career Choices You
Can Make Right Now

25. Five Options for Career Advancement

26. Five Options for Career Advancement

27. ●
●
●
●
Step Up - Is it for me?
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

28. Step Up - Examples
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

29. Step Up - Ideal outcome
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

30. ●
●
●
Step Up - L&D opportunities
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

31. Five Options for Career Advancement

32. ●
●
●
Step Narrowly - Is it for me?
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

33. Step Step Narrowly - Example
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

34. Step Narrowly - Ideal outcome
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

35. Step Narrowly - L&D opportunities
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015
●
●
●

36. Five Options for Career Advancement

37. ●
●
●
Step In - Is it for me?
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

38. Step In - Example
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

39. Step In - Ideal outcome
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

40. Step In- L&D opportunities
●
●
●
●
●
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

41. Five Options for Career Advancement

42. Step Forward - Is it for me?
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

43. Step Forward - Example
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

44. Step Forward - Ideal outcome
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

45. Step Forward - L&D opportunities
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015
●
●

46. Five Options for Career Advancement

47. Automation Will Make Us Rethink What a “Job” Really Is

48. ●
●
●
●
Step Aside - Is it for me?
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

49. Step Aside - Example
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

50. Step Aside - Ideal outcome
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015

51. Step Aside - L&D opportunities
Adapted from Beyond Automation, HBR, 2015
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52. We’re all born with a natural curiosity. We want to learn.
But the demands of work and personal life often
diminish our time and will to engage that natural
curiosity. Developing specific learning habits can be a
route to both continued professional relevance and
deep personal happiness.
- John Coleman, Passion & Purpose
“

53. Staying in touch