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Cities have been the centres of innovation and economic growth throughout our history. By 2050, urban areas are expected to be home to 68% of the global population. As cities continue to evolve, transform and grow, technology has been playing an increasingly critical and differentiating role in the way that cities function. As next-generation digital technologies get more pervasive, they have the potential to transform the fundamental fabric of our cities and in turn deliver on key citizen outcomes – that of more efficient and inclusive services, more economic growth and opportunities, and a sustainable planet, thus driving better quality of life. The question is, what is beyond the horizon? Youths today are the architects of tomorrow’s reality, and it is imperative that we equip our young with the tools required to create the Cities of the Future that we envision. Hear from Dell Technologies’ President of Asia-Pacific & Japan and Global Digital Cities, Mr Amit Midha, on how the Cities of the Future will evolve and transform, accelerated by the increasing adoption of next-generation digital technologies, what skillsets will be in demand, and how you can leverage on resources available to you to thrive in this important growth sector. Mr Midha will join the panellists for a discussion on the potential blindspots which may come as we build these Digital Cities of the future: inequitable access, cybercrime, and sustainability are a few examples. The discussion will also address how some of these adverse impacts could be mitigated, and how the public-private partnership axis can help to ensure that we continue to develop technology in a way that leaves no one behind.

No one could have predicted the meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies. After all, who would have thought that a digital asset without any intrinsic value could achieve such traction? But as cryptocurrency becomes increasingly popular, the digital currency secured by cryptography has faced challenges. Some experts believe that regulation is necessary to safeguard investors and legitimise the currency.

Over the past few decades, with the rise of the Internet and now, the metaverse, navigating the seemingly endless deluge of options online feels almost like a full-time occupation.

From e-commerce to music and movie suggestions, recommender systems are responsible for powering our on- and off-line activities: from Amazon’s product recommendations, restaurant suggestions and Facebook’s newsfeed personalisation, to movies to watch — handpicked by Netflix’s Recommendation Engine.

Organised by the Retail Centre of Excellence (RCoE), the annual Asia Retail Leaders Conference was held on 17 November 2021 at the Singapore Management University Mochtar Riady Auditorium. The full-day hybrid conference brought together 11 industry experts from the retail and academia sectors, was attended by more than 300 participants.

The theme of the conference, Pivot or Perish, saw experts sharing insights on a range of topics, from the impact of digital transformation to changing consumer expectations and purchasing habits in a post-pandemic environment.

Depending on the headline of the day, cryptocurrency can be a villainous play for rookie investors (in the case of the Squid Game crypto scam) or a means of becoming an overnight billionaire (as with the “whale” who allegedly held on to US$5.7 billion worth of Shiba Inu crypto coins).

In recent years, blockchain technology has been hailed as a breakthrough disruptor, poised to drive innovation in virtually every industry ranging from legacy organisations to game-changing start-ups in the new digital economy. This revolutionary technology stems from the ability of blockchain to act as a decentralised distributed ledger. It promises more secure real-time transactions and record-keeping, making it harder for important data to be manipulated or falsified.
 

Employers have strong grounds to do so but should avoid differentiating for wrong reasons like presenteeism, Singapore Management University’s Jared Nai says.

When the Government again relaxes rules and allow more to return to the office in Singapore, we probably will not see huge swings in work arrangements.

At least not immediately, when many big business names around the world are allowing employees to continue working from home (WFH) on some days, likely prompting others to follow suit.