When your AI presentation needs bug spray

Most speaking gigs find me in a conference room or Zoom box. But last week, I found myself talking about AI’s near future - and disruptive technology’s ancient past - while standing in the gardens of a mind-boggling eco-architectural project an hour outside Mexico City. WTF.

The place is called El Nido de Quetzalcóatl. Conceived by architect Javier Senosiain, it’s a habitat that seeks to integrate humans into nature, with apartments seamlessly integrated into gardens, water mirrors, sculptures and forest. (a couple of the apartments are on Airbnb if you fancy it)

So how did a presentation on A.I end up here?

Pernod Ricard's House of Tequila team put together a wonderfully curated Creativity Conference exploring the frontiers of food science, Mexican artisanship, digital manufacturing, creativity and more. And they chose this amazing place to host it.

My role was to provide some relatable and applicable AI use cases, demystify some of the intimidating stuff, and chart how humans have grappled with disruptive shifts throughout history: from digital cameras; to oil pipelines; to the printing press and beyond.

It was lovely to have such a delightful crew, thoughtful questions, multiple formats, fantastic hospitality… and - for my session in the afternoon humidity - plenty of bug spray.

Shout outs to Antonio De La Rocha and Erin Hersey for producing a wonderful event, and fellow speakers Raul Cabra, Daniel Kurzrock, Nate Kolbeck, and the one and only Adam Katz.

Here’s to humans (and a bit of technology, too).