What’s the future of work—and how do you thrive in any industry?
At BVRAcceleratorBOS our incredible panel of speakers tackled these questions and shared their advice on preparing and succeeding in a world that is ever-changing. The event was moderated by Beaver junior Eliana Verde and included a closing keynote from Head of School Peter Hutton.
Below are some things our panelists shared on the topic:
“A lot of the future is about flexibility and listening. It’s very much about changing with what’s happening. If you stay still, people run past you. You have to stay one step ahead.”
— Cheryl Kaplan, President/Co-founder, M.Gemi
“I’m not sure what the future is going to be but businesses have to pay attention and give their employees a purpose. It always comes down to purpose. How do we give the newer workforce some purpose for being there?”
— Eric Berke ’79, Managing Partner, Torquest
“This concept of rapidly-changing skills, rapidly-changing jobs, industries that are always changing—this means people need to be adaptable. The 20th century model of you go to school for the first 20 years and then you work for the rest of your life, that’s going to change. How do we help people go back to school to acquire new skills?”
— Al Fitzpayne ’89, Executive Director, Future of the Work Initiative, The Aspen Institute
“There is no greater time to be growing up. Everything is to be re-made … And the future can seem pretty daunting and pretty frightening, but you have to have fun. If it’s not fun making then it’s not going to be made. The people who are making a difference—they’re having fun.”
— David Edwards P’17, ’19, ’20, Writer + Inventor + Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Idea Translation, Harvard University
“If you’re still buying into that linear model of education, you’re going to be left behind. This is not a linear world, this is a figure-it-out world. And we’ve got to give kids figure-it-out experiences. If it’s about creating things that matter, then we have to expose kids to things that matter. To solve real-world problems. Give them purpose and passion—and nobody ever found purpose or passion in a textbook.”
— Peter Hutton, Head of School
Started in 2017, BVRaccelerator is a breakfast event series for Beaver alumni with the goal of inspiring, connecting, and educating. Read more.