MCA Speaker Series

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• AI - Everything you wanted to know

  • When
    November 20, 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Nina Iser Center
  • Spaces left
    500

  Registration is closed

  

  Everything You Wanted to Know about AI

  
  

  By F. Zafar

  Registration opens 9/20/24

  This interactive presentation will explore AI’s remarkable evolution to the sophisticated systems that permeate our businesses and personal lives today. We will provide a clear understanding of how AI works, highlight its transformative impact across various industries, and discuss how it can meaningfully enrich our life experiences using a live demo.

  F. Zafar is Principal and Head of Corporate Innovation R&D at Bessemer Trust. He has over 20 years of experience evaluating strategic technologies, leading innovation, formulating technology strategy, leading product development, and transforming business processes. He is a frequent guest speaker on emerging technology trends. Before joining Bessemer, Zafar was a senior vice president and head of technology for wealth management at AllianceBernstein. Before that, he was a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton. 

  Zafar earned an MBA and an MS in electrical engineering from Yale University, and a BE, summa cum laude, in electrical engineering from City College of New York. He has completed executive programs in artificial intelligence, innovation management, and technology strategy at Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Wharton Business School.

  
  

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• A Brief History of Southwest Florida’s Indigenous People from a Western Perspective

  • When
    January 15, 2025
  •  
    1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

  

  
  

  Registration opens 11/15/24

  A Brief History of SWFL's Indigenous People from a Western Perspective

  
  

  Museum of the Everglades manager Thomas Lockyear will share the harrowing saga of our region’s native tribes and the hardships they endured as Florida’s population shifted, grew, and changed. He will discuss the impact of incoming European civilizations on the Calusa, Seminole, and Miccosukee Indians and address the evolution of the latter two tribes throughout the 20^th century. Mr. Lockyear will also share his experiences collaborating with elected officials from the Miccosukee Tribe to create a recent museum exhibit telling the Tribe’s history as they wish to have it told.

   

  
  

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• Special Speaker: Take a Pass on Plastics

  • When
    January 16, 2025
  •  
    1:00 PM
  • Location
    Iser Center

  Registration is closed

   

  Take a Pass on Plastics

  
  

  Registration opens 11/15/24

  Why we should reduce our single-use plastic waste

  A special presentation from the Plastics Task Force of the Leagues of Women's Voters of Collier County

  Plastic is everywhere – permeating our environment, our food chains and our bodies.  How did this happen, what are the implications and what can we do? The League of Women Voters’ extensively researched presentation will help answer these questions. 

  About our speakers Loralee LeBoeuf and Vicki Stoller:

  

    

  
  

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• Israel and War

  • When
    January 23, 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
  • Location
    Nina Iser Center - Schiff Hall
  • Spaces left
    350

  Registration is closed

  Israel and War

  MCA Member Steve Schreier

  Israel, the Middle East and the entire world have been in a state of turmoil and confusion since Oct 7, 2023.  For the past several years Steve has presented insights, analyses and predictions about the future for Israel.

  He will review his predictions and events since his last presentation in January 2024.  

  In addition, he will  present his thoughts into the current state of affairs between Israel and the world and predictions about what we might look for in the next period of time

  Presenter:  Steve Schreier, a resident of Southwest Florida since 2015, and the president of the Schreier Group, which provides consulting to non-profit organizations and philanthropic foundations. Prior to that, Steve served as consultant and Senior Vice President of the American Technion Society from 1986-2007, during which he was responsible for the conceptualization, creation and implementation of a comprehensive development structure and program throughout the United States. He has also served in executive positions in Jewish Federations and as a community and campaign consultant for the Council of Jewish Federations.

  Steve's personal ties to Israel are deep-rooted. He lived on a kibbutz for a year of work-study in 1962, and moved to Israel in 1970 to conduct research on his doctorate.

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• Special Speaker - Anthony Scaramucci

  • When
    February 12, 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Nina Iser Center
  • Spaces left
    500

  

  Registration opens 12/12/24

  The Global Geopolitical Landscape and Impact of the 2024 Election

  Anthony Scaramucci
  

   Financier and former Trump White House official Anthony Scaramucci will discuss the current global geopolitical landscape and how it could be affected by the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election. 

  
  

  Anthony Scaramucci is an American financier who briefly served as the White House Director of Communications from July 21 to July 31, 2017. 

  Scaramucci worked at Goldman Sachs's investment banking, equities, and private wealth management divisions between 1989 and 1996. After leaving Goldman Sachs, he founded Oscar Capital Management, and in 2005, he founded the investment firm SkyBridge Capital.

  On July 21, 2017, Scaramucci was appointed White House Director of Communication. Days into the job, Scaramucci provoked controversy after launching a strongly worded attack on members of the Trump administration in an interview with The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza that he believed was off the record. Ten days after his appointment, he was dismissed by President Donald Trump, at the recommendation of the new White House Chief of Staff, John F. Kelly. He has since been critical of Trump in the media and voiced his support for Joe Biden in 2020 and 2024 elections.

  
  

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