Keynotes & Briefings

Dr, Vivienne Ming is a storyteller, who stories come from her own life, research, and astonishing inventions, from cyborgs to purpose, diabetes to homelessness, wage gap to innovation itself. And it turns out she’s funny as shit too!

Speaking Topics*





Small Sacrifices

Small Sacrifices: The science, economics, and story of purpose.

Common Stories

  • *Measuring Purpose *: 1 sentence
  • Small sacrifices drive big companies: 1 sentence
  • Why Do Assholes Rise to the Top?: 1 sentence
  • The Practice fof Pluralism: ???

Professional Mad Scientist

Stories of how t build a better person.

Common Stories

  • Jitterbug: build the first AI for diabetes to help my son
  • East Coast Swing: Using AI and a phone to predict manic episodes
  • Transforming Education: 1 sentence
  • Innovation & Psychological Safety: ???
Professional Mad Scientist

How to Robot-Proof...Everything!
How to Robot-Proof...Everything!

A burb about AI and the future of work

Common Stories

  • AI & the Future of Work: 1 sentence
  • Meta-Learning: 1 sentence
  • Transforming Education: 1 sentence
  • Fiduciary AI: AI acting solely on your behalf must be a civil right
  • The Future of Creativity: ???

The Tax on Being Different

Leveraging massive amounts of data, Dr. Ming probes the realities of bias and discrimination in order to understand and quantify what your differences are costing you. Simultaneously didactic and richly autobiographical, The Tax on Being Different combines vibrant life stories with profound insights about people and, more importantly, how we can change them for the better.

Common Stories

  • Represent!: What driver gender and ethnic wage gaps? Dr. Ming built a webcrawling AI to analyze data from 60,000 companies to discovered an answer.
  • Joe vs Jose: What does it cost to be a "Jose" in the US tech industry? To be Black on Wall St., or a woman in engineering? It's the Tax on Being Different.
  • The Neuroscience of Trust: When we meet a stranger, our brains respond wildly differently depending on how similar they are to us.
  • The Diversity-Innovation Paradox: The more different an innovator is within their field, the more true novelty they are likely to bring...and the less likely they are to recieve credit.
  • Avuncular: “women can’t do math”--the story of the launch of Dr. Ming's first tech start-up...and all the men who patted her on the head.
The Tax on Being Different

Messy Human Problems

Why is innovation so hard? Because we pretend that its easy.

Common Stories

  • The information-Exploration Paradox: 1 sentence
  • Uncertainty Experts: 1 sentence
  • The Principals of Mad Science: 1 sentence


*Please note that each of Dr. Ming’s keynotes are tailored to the audience and the event context. These are the most popular themes but each talk is uniquely prepared.


Book Vivienne

Interested in booking Dr. Ming for a speaking engagement or interview? Have another idea or opportunity to share? Please complete this form and a Socos Labs team member will get back to you shortly!