--- title: "Microsoft Canada FutureNow: Make the technology convergence understandable. | Jim Carroll — Customized Keynotes" canonical_url: https://customization.jimcarroll.com/examples/microsoft-futurenow/ entity_id: https://jimcarroll.com/#person source: "https://customization.jimcarroll.com/examples/microsoft-futurenow/" --- # Microsoft Canada FutureNow: Make the technology convergence understandable. | Jim Carroll — Customized Keynotes [Customization in practice](https://customization.jimcarroll.com/examples/) / Microsoft Canada FutureNow Microsoft Canada FutureNow # Make the technology convergence understandable. Help a broad executive and IT audience see how multiple technology waves connect. [Stage image: Jim Carroll on stage at Microsoft 2019] Microsoft 2019 THE STARTING POINT ## What this audience needed. Help a broad executive and IT audience see how multiple technology waves connect. WHAT MADE IT SPECIFIC ## The audience shaped the research. At FutureNow 2019, the keynote brought AI, robotics, connected systems, virtualization and augmented reality into one story. The customization task was to connect technological capability to the industries represented in the audience. - AI and robotics - Connected systems - Virtualization - Industry convergence HOW THE KEYNOTE CONNECTED THE ISSUES ## What made the content specific. 01 ### Explain convergence across several technologies The FutureNow audience included more than 2,000 executives and IT professionals. The opening keynote linked AI, robotics, connected systems, virtualization and augmented reality, helping participants consider the combined effect of developments often discussed separately. 02 ### Translate capability into industry relevance A broad technology audience serves many different sectors. The story connected emerging capabilities with changes in industries and business models, providing a strategic context for the technologies participants would encounter. 03 ### Open the event with a shared perspective An opening keynote can establish a language for the discussions that follow. The emphasis on convergence and acceleration helped frame the event around the wider changes affecting organizations, rather than a succession of isolated technologies. FROM THE PUBLISHED CASE STUDY ## Inside the engagement. At Microsoft Canada’s largest event, with more than 2,000 senior executives and IT professionals, futurist Jim Carroll opened FutureNow 2019 with a fast tour of the technologies redefining industries. Leaders need to make sense of multiple technology waves arriving at once — not one trend at a time. Jim’s opening keynote made the point directly: AI, robotics, IoT, virtualization and augmented reality are converging into one accelerating future. The real disruption is not any one technology, Jim told the FutureNow audience. It is the speed of their convergence. It’s the framing that opened three days of sessions built around a single accelerating story. Explore more keynote case studies. Source: [Read Jim’s original case study ↗](https://jimcarroll.com/2019/02/microsoft-futurenow-2019-past/). This profile describes the keynote’s content and approach; it does not claim business results beyond those documented in the source. BUILD ON THE INDUSTRY CONTEXT ### AI has a physical future. The AI build-out depends on much more than software. Compute, optics, energy, cooling and components create connected infrastructure challenges and commercial opportunities. [Explore technology & ai ↗](https://customization.jimcarroll.com/industries/technology/) ## Source and interpretation This companion site explains keynote customization, client consultation, research and industry experience. JimCarroll.com remains authoritative for biography, current fees, availability and booking. Career experience: 2,000+ events, 2 million+ people, five continents and 33 years. These are career-wide figures; this site contains 21 industry guides, 18 detailed engagement profiles and 231 published case-study links. The archive is a curated index, not a claim to contain every engagement. Industry PDFs describe illustrative briefing scenarios, not actual client inquiries. Featured engagement pages link to their published sources; topic explanations describe the keynote's scope, not measured client results. A stage photograph caption identifies where the photo was taken; representative archive photos do not establish that the pictured event is the engagement described beside them. Logos identify past clients, not endorsements or current contracts. Consult Jim to confirm event fit, fees, dates and current details.