On January 19th, Meeting of the Minds hosted a live webinar, featuring Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, Vice President and General Manager of the Business Enablement and Strategy team at Cisco Systems.

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Media Coverage

Smart Cities Council: “Who will keep your smart City humming?” http://smartcitiescouncil.com/article/who-will-keep-your-smart-city-humming-skilled-talented-people-and-ciscos-it

TechRepublic. “16 Tech Jobs that Will Be Needed for the Future of Smart Cities.” http://www.techrepublic.com/article/16-tech-jobs-that-will-be-needed-for-the-future-of-smart-cities/

Program

What role will skills, talent and people play in realizing the goals set by those cities becoming smarter and more sustainable? With digitization impacting every single industry, there is an urgent need to help individuals reskill, and at the same time, upskill the next generation of talent to be ready.

Forty five percent of employers that are unable to find qualified candidates while 11 million people remain unemployed. It’s clear the system we have relied on in the past to cultivate talent will not provide a sustainable model for the future.

The implications of the talent deficit are impacting cities on a global scale:

• Global unemployment has topped 212 million, according to the International Labor Organization
• 42 million new jobs will need to be created each year if the world economy is to provide employment to the growing number of new entrants into the labor market.
• Meanwhile, last year, 36% of employers worldwide reported facing difficulties in finding talent, the highest percentage in seven years.

Source: World Economic Forum

The next generation of talent will require a next generation approach to make a difference in a digital economy.

The business outcomes, productivity gains and organizational efficiencies that are attainable through the Internet of Things can only be achieved with a skilled and competent workforce. There is a need for reskilling the existing talent pool and bringing new employees into the workforce to align with the skills needed for the future.

To address the digital talent equation head on, a coalition of powerhouse organizations – MIT, GE, Cisco, Rockwell, Pearson and the New York Academy of Sciences – have joined forces as part of a new non-profit organization – The Internet of Things Talent Consortium. The first of its kind in the industry, its mission to is to break down barriers to disrupt talent cultivation, educational models, and the system and process for acquiring and developing talent through the career life-cycle.

The IoT Talent Consortium exists for a single reason: to enable the workforce of the future to realize the value of the Internet of Things. The Talent Consortium intends to become the go-to reference for IoT professional qualifications, career and skills development and talent acquisition. We are building an IoT information marketplace, including learning and talent exchange platforms to achieve these goals.

No one organization or single solution can solve the talent crisis. It will take a village…

Speaker

Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn

Chief Knowledge Officer / VP and General Manager, Cisco Services
President and Chairman of the IoT Talent Consortium

Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn is a recognized thought-leader on the “Workforce of the Future” and an expert in workforce education, the social enterprise and knowledge systems.

Jeanne was recognized as one of “The 2015 Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology”, by the National Diversity Counsel, which features the most influential female executive leadership across America’s leading corporations.

Jeanne also serves as the President and CEO of The Internet of Things Talent Consortium to empower and accelerate a more agile workforce in the digital economy.

At Cisco, Jeanne leads several mission-critical businesses, including Learning@Cisco, Technical Services strategy and operations and The Office of Innovation. In 2008, she brought the first social education system in the industry to market – The Cisco Learning Network.