Conference Program

TUESDAY - APRIL 7

all times Pacific Daylight Time

9:00 AM Welcome

Bradley Metrock (Host, This Week In Voice; Executive Producer, Voice of the Car Summit)

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9:10 AM - 9:40 AM Opening Keynote

How Mercedes Benz Is Embracing Voice In Cars

Robert Bruchhardt (Senior Software Engineer, Mercedes Benz R&D North America)

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9:40 AM  - 10:10 AM

Google Assistant In The Modern Connected Car

Austin Chang (Director, Product Management - Google Assistant Head of Automotive and Emerging Markets, Google)​

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10:10 AM - 10:30 AM Lessons Learned From Echo Auto: How Consumers Are Using Alexa In The Modern Automobile

Arianne Walker (Chief Evangelist, Alexa Auto)

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10:30 AM - 11:00 AM The Importance Of Audio Quality In The Modern Connected Car: A Case Study

Luis Arango (West Coast Account Manager, HEAD Acoustics)

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM Conversational AI In The Automobile

Katie McMahon (VP and General Manager, SoundHound Inc.)

11:30 AM - 11:50 AM The Future of Car Voice Personalization

Roy Baharav (CEO and Co-Founder, Hi Auto)

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11:50 AM - 12:20 PM Lunch Keynote

Making Your Voice Heard In The Car: Parsing Multiple Voices And Multiple Devices

Dani Cherkassky (CEO, Kardome)

12:20 PM - 12:45 PM Testing and Monitoring in the Connected Car

Emerson Sklar (Chief Evangelist, Bespoken); John Kelvie (CEO, Bespoken)

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12:45 PM - 1:00 PM Voice-Based Avatars In Cars: A Study

Mahesh Ramasubramanian (CEO, Loom.ai)

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1:00 PM - 1:20 PM 

Re-Inventing Navigation: Three Little Words Change Everything

Tom Blaksley (Voice Partnerships, what3words)

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1:20 PM - 1:40 PM Audio Curation In The Car

Rachel Batish (VP of Product Strategy, Audioburst)

1:40 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaking In Tongues: Bringing 36 Languages To The Modern Connected Car

David Colleen (CEO/Founder, SapientX)

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2:00 PM - 2:20 PM Implications For Audio Content In The Car: 2020 And Beyond

Michele Laven (President of Strategic Partnerships, iHeartMedia)

John Vermeer (SVP, Business Development and Partnerships, iHeartMedia)

iHeartRadio has been a first-mover content partner with Alexa, Google Assistant and many other voice assistants bringing its simulcast AM/FM broadcast stations, podcasts and artist stations into these environments. Specifically, iHeart Media has several initiatives underway to evolve the content experience. They’ve also been working with many of the leading OEMs directly on embedded, tethered and cloud-based app integrations for a number of years. Get an update from iHeartMedia on what they’re doing in this space and discover how OEMs are allowing voice assistants to control the terrestrial radio tuner on the vehicle (e.g. “Alexa, tune to 100.3 FM”). iHeartMedia will also offer predictions for the future, in terms of the connected car and content.

2:20 PM - 3:00 PM PANEL: Voice Tech Within The Travel Sector

Brandon Kaplan (CEO, Skilled Creative)

Meredith Corporation

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3:00 PM - 3:20 PM Connectivity Will Be A Necessity For All Future Cars

Scott J. McCormick (President, Connected Vehicle Trade Association)

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3:20 PM - 3:40 PM Building Brand Loyalty In The Modern Connected Car

Stephanie Hsu (Product Designer, Potato)

Tim Firmston-Williams (Product Lead , Potato)

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3:40 PM - 4:00 PM Prototyping Voice Experiences For Vehicles

Obaid Ahmed (CEO, Botmock)

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4:00 PM - 4:20 PM The Tail That Wags the Dog: Train VUI To Understand The Way We Actually Talk

David Code (AI/Machine Learning, LinkedIn)

Attention, All VUI Tech Folks!  Newsflash: the consumer doesn't care what you're doing! We in tech have started to believe our own press: "VUI is the next big thing and consumers will gladly spend their time and energy learning how to interact with the fabulous in-car voice experiences we are building!" NOT. Consumers are already fed-up with dealing with terrible IVR's and their smartphone assistants that chronically misunderstand what the user is saying. The fastest way to successful car VUI is to focus your energy on the front-end, and build a car VUI that "just works." We need to focus on a VUI that intuitively meets the consumer at HER point of need, rather than building out features that seem sexy, or get us press. This is already possible, but we need to focus like a laser beam on the paradigms we take for granted.

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4:20 PM - 4:40 PM Voice UX Considerations For The Connected Car

Laura Rosenbaun (Voice Interaction Designer, General Motors)

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4:40 PM - 5:00 PM CLOSING FIRESIDE CHAT

Noah Clemons (Senior Staff, Developer Technical Consulting, Intel)

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5:00 PM - 6:00 PM VIRTUAL HAPPY HOUR

Presented by Google and Skilled Creative

After brief comments by Google and Skilled Creative, each attendee will have 10 seconds to say their name, company, who they're looking to meet (if looking to interact with any particular type of company), and what they're drinking.

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WEDNESDAY - APRIL 8

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9:00 AM - 9:30 AM 

How Ford Motor Company Is Bringing Voice To The Connected Car

Shyamala Prayaga (Product Owner Digital Assistant, Ford Motor Company)

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9:30 AM - 10:00 AM 

Building Smarter Chatbots For The Car

Jason Gilbert (Lead AI Conversational Designer, Conversational Components)

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10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

FIRESIDE CHAT WITH BRIAN ROEMMELE

Exclusive conversation with the Bay Area legend who coined the term "voice-first"

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1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

LIVE RECORDING OF THIS WEEK IN VOICE

Special Automotive Episode of the #1 podcast to be released Thursday, April 9

Open to all Voice of the Car Summit registrants - will take live Q&A from audience

Carla Bailo (President and CEO, Center For Automotive Research)

Piyush Chandra (Director of Product Management, Artificial Intelligence, NAUTO)

Chandra Khatri (Lead Research Scientist, Artificial Intelligence, Uber)