Monday, January 30  |  Track 1: Trends and applications

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OPENING KEYNOTE: Conversational Interfaces and the Future of Customer Interaction

Sunil Vemuri, Product Manager, Google Assistant, Google (presentation not available)

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Digital assistants and bots: A range of options

• Smooth Interaction - why less is more even for conversational interfaces, Peter Boda, Creative Director, Infosys Ltd.

• Smart Bots for Frustration-Free Ordering: Balancing Conversational with Buttons, Ashu Dubey, Co-Founder and CTO, 12 Labs 

 

Customer service: Automation with natural language

• Unified Dynamic Data as the Keys to Omnichannel Engagement, Tim Prugar, Account Executive, Next Caller

• Hey Siri, should I have my own branded Intelligent Assistant?, Jay Wilpon, Senior VP, Natural Language Research, Interactions

 

Building bots and digital assistants for the messaging services and home devices

• Emerging Conversational UI Design Patterns, Paul Cutsinger, Head of Alexa Voice UX Education, Amazon (presentation not available)

• Bots: What, Why, How, Beerud Sheth, CEO, Gupshup

 

Digital assistants in customer service

• Natural language options in customer service, William Meisel, President, TMA Associates

• Blending Self-Service and Assisted Service to Deliver Effective Customer Service, John Heater, World Wide Head, Cognitive Innovation Group, Nuance

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Options in user interface design

• Cheap & Cheerful - Multimodal UX in the Agile Era, Ann Thyme-Gobbel, VUI Design Lead, D+M Holdings

• Connecting Humans and the Internet of Things, Diego Ventura, Founder and CEO, noHold, Inc.

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The voice and personality of your application

• Talking back: Give your application personality through voice, Dan Bagley, CEO, Cepstral

• Are Friends Electric: Robots, Intelligent Assistants and Personality, Wally Brill, Principal Consultant, 21 CONTACT

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Tuesday, January 31  |  Track 1: Trends and applications

 

Bot strategies in customer service

• How to Build Bots Customers Will Rely On and Love, Karthik Raghunathan, Director of Research, MindMeld

• Does my bot need a VUI?, Cathy Pearl, Director of User Experience, Sensely

 

Customer service with natural language

• Expectations vs. Reality: Observations of Edward in the Wild, Lisa Michaud, Data Architect, Aspect Software

• Speaking to companies, building experiences that don't suck, Nico Acosta, Director of Product - Voice, Twilio

 

Digital Assistants in the Enterprise

• Adaptive Role-based  Enterprise Assistants: Frictionless interaction with rapidly evolving  digital workspace, Raj Tumuluri, Principal, Openstream

• Conversational assistants in the Enterprise, Vinay Dwivedi, Product Management Director, Oracle

• Pardon My French & Other Adventures on the Road to Enterprise Voice, Editt Gonen-Friedman, Product Owner, Oracle Voice, Mobile Applications, Oracle

 

Major trends in conversational applications

• The Future of Conversation UI, Vera Tzoneva, Global Product Partnerships, Google Assistant (presentation not available)

• Voice in the Vehicle: the Next Frontier, Lisa Falkson, Lead Voice UX Designer, NextEV

 

Case studies: Conversational apps

• Case study: Fixing DSL connection issues using a mobile digital assistant, Ole Heydekamp, Creative Director, Deutsche Telekom Design

• Conversational Interaction in Video Games, Leslie Spring, CEO, Cognitive Code

• Building voice enabled web and mobile applications: a case study in 9 weeks, Marie Meteer, Associate Professor, Brandeis University

 

Fitting the context of the natural language interaction

• Bringing Voice and Artificial Intelligence into the Connected Car, Eric Montague, Senior Director Product Marketing & Strategy Automotive, Nuance Communications

• Conversational Interactions with Watson, Pablo Grodnitzky, IBM Watson, SaaS Leader, IBM

 

Interactive advertising and conversations with customers

• Persona defines the Brand (if not the other way around), Marcus Graham, Founder & CEO, GM Voices

• Customer Conversations Driven by AI - The Impact this New Channel Will Have on Customer Experience and the Contact Center, Monique Bozeman, Marketing Consultant/Analyst, Monique Bozeman Consulting

 

Monday, January 30  |  Track 2: How to do it right

 

Alternatives in natural language processing

• Conversations Have No Errors, Nandini Stocker, Conversation Design Lead, Google (presentation not available)

• Obstacles to Effective Conversation, Bruce Balentine, Chief Scientist, Enterprise Integration Group

• A pragmatic approach to bot development, Prasad Velamuri, Co-Founder, VoiceMonk

 

Building "bots" for messaging applications

• The Best Way to Bring Bots to Life, Omar Siddiqui, CEO, Kiwi, Inc / Sequel

• Build a Python Powered Slackbot with the VUID Toolkit, Phil Shinn, Senior UX Consultant, Voxgen

 

Building natural language applications

• Interacting with Intelligence, Phil Cohen, Chief Scientist, VoiceBox Technologies

• Providing Context with Vibes, Debra Cancro, CEO, VoiceVibes, Inc.

 

Putting it all together

• Standards for Virtual Agents, Deborah Dahl, Principal, Conversational Technologies

• Yesterday’s Enterprise - VUI design lessons from yesterday’s IVRs applied to today’s conversational IAs, Ann Thyme-Gobbel, VUI Design Lead, D+M Holdings

• Is voice on hardware worth it?, Leor Grebler, CEO, UCIC

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Creating effective Conversational User Interfaces

• The Balancing Act: Writing Naturally for an Unnatural Voice, Margaret Urban, Senior Interaction Designer, Google (presentation not available)

• The path to the CUI is heavily mined and booby-trapped, Wolf Paulus, Principal Engineer, Intuit

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Practical considerations in building conversational systems

• Usability Testing for Interactive agents, Nava Shaked, Engineering Faculty, HIT , Israel

• Teaming Up with Major Voice Tech Brands: Rules for Playing Nice, Manpreet Singh, President, TalkLocal

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Tuesday, January 31  |  Track 2: How to do it right

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Automating a conversation: Approaches to a full dialog

• Dialog Quality Assessment: a Tool for Measurement and Classification of Dialog Management Systems, Emmett Coin, Industrial Poet, ejTalk

• Conversational Commerce, Huma Shah, Research Fellow, Coventry University, UK

 

Your assistant in the home

• Using Voice to Empower the Modern Connected Smart Home, Kenn Harper, Vice President, Devices & Ecosystem, Nuance Communications

• Kids and Speech Recognition: Our early observations testing Google Cloud Speech and IBM using kid's speech, Tim Connelly, CEO and Co-Founder, Siliconic Home

 

Analytics: Understanding and categorizing user behavior

• Why the voice of your customer is the most important data you’ll ever analyze, Stephen Fletcher, Director, Artificial Solutions

• What Religion is Hello Barbie? Regulatory and Ethical Journeys in Conversational AI and Big Data, Robert Harris, President, Communications Advantage Inc.

 

Making text entry on mobile devices more efficient

• Mobile Keyboard Input, Francoise Beaufays, Principal Scientist, Manager, Google (presentation not available)

• Mobile Voice Interaction for Outdoor Workers: Case Study in Agriculture, John Swansey, Chief Design Officer, AgVoice

 

Building conversational systems

• "Are You Sitting Down?": the Cooperative Principle in  VUI Design, James Giangola, Creative Lead, Conversation Design & Voice Direction, Google (presentation not available)

• Creating task and enterprise-specific Intelligent Assistants for Healthcare, Charles Jankowski, Independent Contractor

• The magic formula of time and engagement for a long term brand chatbot, Tim Rodgers, Founding Partner, +rehabstudio

 

Natural language tools

• Building Cross-platform Conversational User Experiences, Ilya Gelfenbeyn, Product Manager, API.AI at Google (presentation not available)

• Why Are We Talking? How the Purpose of Conversation Impacts Bot Design, Sondra Ahlén, Principal VUI Consultant/Owner, SAVIC  

 

Options you should know about

• Putting the VUI in your GUI, Courtney Caldwell, UX Writer, Google (presentation not available)

• Now Trending: Voice Biometrics, Advait  Desphande, Sr. Product Manager, Security and Biometrics , Nuance Communications

• Intonation and Conversational AI, Joseph Tyler, Linguistic Advisor, ObEN, Inc

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