Does This Look Familiar?

Can you function without your phone? Computer? Video Games?

Technology and devices like laptops, tablets, and cell phones have long been praised for making our lives more efficient, productive, and interconnected. Until very recently, we haven’t deeply considered the societal and personal trade-offs we’ve made for the luxuries of technology.

The latest headlines surrounding the tech industry have started to grapple with those trade-offs, specifically around the issue of tech addiction. Our growing addiction to our smart-technology is starting to take notice as a health crisis and is being compared to the addiction of cigarettes that gained attention in the 1960s. The world's largest technology companies are starting to get scrutinized from profiting on our attention. Companies likeApple have tried to get ahead of the issue by creating features to address our smartphone use. Business leaders like Arianna Huffington have made it their bully pulpit issue to bring awareness to tech addiction and challenge us to get unplugged.

This panel will bring together local tech and human resources leaders to challenge us to think about how tech addiction is affecting our lives both personally and professionally and what to do about it.

 Meet our panelists: 

Jessica Mitsch: Jessica is the CEO and co-founder of Momentum Learning, a progressive training, and development company in North Carolina focused on providing skills for the modern workforce.  Jessica was part of the founding team and executive leadership team of one of the first tech education companies to scale nationally, The Iron Yard (TIY). She helped build and scale TIY in over 22 cities across the US and in the UK. Jessica has spoken on a national stage on the topics of tech education. She most recently spoke at SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX and appeared on Fox Business News. Jessica also worked alongside the Obama Administration in 2016 to create a national scholarship promoting access to code education. Jessica earned Triangle Business Journal “40 under 40” award recognition, along with being named a TBJ “Person on the Move”.

Lori Osborne:  Lori Osborne is the Director of People at PrecisionHawk.

Sarah Morgan:  Sarah Morgan has been a practicing HR Executive for 20 years. She is currently the Chief Excellence Officer of BuzzARooney LLC, a leadership, management and human resources consulting boutique, and the Senior Director of Human Resources for SafeStreets USA, an international home security dealer headquartered outside Raleigh NC. In 2011, Sarah burst on the social media scene as “Buzz Rooney,” with her blog, The Buzz on HR. Nearly 8 years later, the pen name is gone and her blog posts over 10,000 readers each month. She has amassed more than 20,000 followers across LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. She has been named to the Best HR Practitioner Blogs, the Top Women in HR Tech and the Global Voices of HR lists for more than consecutive years.

Maria Jankovics: Maria Jankovics, Cofounder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), leads The Social Institute’s technology vision for positive, gamified social media education in schools nationwide. A web developer specializing in front-end and with basic knowledge of backend, Maria is responsible for leading website development, digitizing our curriculum, and helping TheSocial Institute continue to be the gold standard in social media education. Prior to The Social Institute, Maria built cutting-edge websites for some of the world’s leading brands. She was a Front-End Web Specialist at the SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services. Prior to SAS, she was a Front-End Developer at the award-winning ad agency McKinney, where she built interactive sites for companies like Sherwin Williams, Mizuno, GNC, and Carmax. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts & Design and a Bachelor of Business with Honors from North Carolina State University. Maria joined The Social Institute as a cofounder in August 2018 because, both as a Mom and as one of North Carolina’s leading developers, she felt a calling to help empower millions of kids nationwide through the power of technology. 

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