How many times have you heard people sit around a table and talk about how the robots and computers will replace us? Seems silly now but it is starting to become a reality. If you don’t believe me go watch the documentary American Factory (it won an Oscar this year). You’ll very quickly see that the skills of today are easily replaced tomorrow. The world is changing faster than we can keep up. I mean, I commentate on video games for a living, if you’d told me that would be my job 10 years ago, or even 6, I’d have laughed at you.
Because these are all things I think about and discuss with my friends, when I heard about the My Future 4.0 summit, I felt I needed to share it and encourage you to go. Mainly because I think this can be really useful to anyone who is starting to worry about the direction of their career or the course of their studies.
So what is My Future 4.0
Simply put it is a digital skills and career summit. The focus of the summit is to create discourse around the 4th Industrial Revolution and the impact it will have on various (if not every) industry. The changes to industry will ultimately have a huge impact on your career as well – which the summit plans to highlight and explain. Part of My Future is to highlight “careers of tomorrow” – basically potential options for study and work that you might not even realise exists (like commentating video games! Haha). The focus on jobs and careers is just one bit of the summit.
My Future 4.0 also showcases South African inventions and people coming up with innovative and exciting ideas that will change the world. You’ll be able to learn from industry leaders in Finance, Environmental Affairs, Information Technology, Investing, Research and Science and Technology. Even if you’re not planning to visit for career advice, there’s just a great opportunity to learn from people in various sectors doing rad stuff.
VirtuoCITY on display
The summit will also feature VirtuoCITY which is touted as a “smart city of tomorrow”. The idea is to showcase what the world will look like in a few years, with a combination of technology, science and coding. You’ll get a feel for what an interconnected city is like and the various careers potentially on offer – with a focus on a range of sectors like AI, Aeronautics, Automation, Arts and Culture, Communication and City Planning. You’ll also get to play around with prototypes of the future. So this one is pretty fun for nerds like me.
When is it?
My Future 4.0 will run in Cape Town at the International Convention Centre from 19 to 21 March. It will also be in Johannesburg from 13 to 16 May. Tickets are R100 for adults (one ticket for the whole summit) while R80 for students. BUT, I happen to have a bunch of tickets for both the Cape Town and Johannesburg events. If you’d like a double ticket for you and friend, let me know in the comments below and I’ll arrange to get a double ticket to you!
