With four keynotes, dozens of panels and thousands of attendees, it would be easy to miss a thing or two at the fifth annual Synapse Summit.
We’ve gathered key takeaways from executives from Disney to Peloton below.
Ally Love, one of the conference’s keynotes, focused on the “Three Cs”:
“In order to really listen and truly create real change, your teacup has to be half full. There has to be space for curiosity, new ways to innovate cultivation within your community and a way for innovation and creativity to occur in a capacity to solve real problems. I implore you to look at your cup twice a year — we don’t want you running on empty, but leave space at the top to be truly creative where you can listen, understand and ask questions.”
Love is a Miami native, Peloton instructor and founder of Love Squad.
On culture: “I was Enron’s corporate bankruptcy attorney; I saw how it was top-down, and it didn’t work,” said Bruce Lucas, the founder of Heritage Insurance and current insurance tech company Slide Insurance. “The other thing is you have to empower people. No. 1, for me, is the best idea wins. I feel it’s really important to encourage a culture where people feel they’re valued, have an opinion, can contribute and at the end of the day, there’s no barrier to bringing ideas forward. After growth, you start managing leaders, not people; that’s a tough road. You have to have leaders who have the same core values, who pass it forward and it trickles through.”
On employee expectations: “It’s important to understand the whole person; maybe they’re not giving it their all because maybe they can’t. Maybe there is something going on outside of work. We’re removing the barriers because we’re seen as whole humans — we don’t get to walk in the door and leave everything in the past; that’s a thing of the past.” — Qualenta Kivett, executive vice president and chief people and talent officer of Tampa General Hospital
On hiring the right people: “We leverage our internship program. You can see how people end up, right away, responding to that work environment if you give them potential work and then add on more and more responsibility. If you can’t handle small responsibilities, you won’t be able to handle large responsibilities. And we look at the recommendation from others, where you can see how they’ve done in other environments. We also have a project hire program, which is bringing them on for a year, and sometimes we can spot the talent quickly as well.” — Michael Tschanz, director of engineering technology and analysis at the Walt Disney Co.
On shifting focuses to startups: “I spend a lot of time with mayors and governors and encourage them to shift their focus on economic development. It historically has been about big companies moving — which makes sense — but there’s way too little time focused on new companies. Some companies will fail, but some could be the companies of tomorrow. That became clear when Amazon was searching for a second headquarters, and 230 cities applied. I said, ‘If you spend even half the amount of time for the Amazon pitch and half the amount of money to lure them on startups, you might create the next Amazon.’” — Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and founder of Rise of the Rest, which focuses on tech talent beyond Silicon Valley
On the next emerging tech: “[Artificial intelligence] is a tool companies can use to increase productivity and lower costs, so I would be looking at what data you have from a proprietary point of view. But first, think of what to bring into an organization to increase efficiency. You might think AI is too expensive right now, but you don’t need too many 70% cost declines to get to an inexpensive solution.” — Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management
On media relations: “Instead of pitching a story, pitch a relationship — you will eventually get a story, but you’ll probably get stories with everything that happens. You reach out and can serve as a source for them. That dovetails into government. People think of government as the most powerful individuals; it's not, it’s the legislative aide, it’s the staffer because often they stay longer than the elected official.” — Cesar Hernandez, founder of Omni Public
On fintech and community banks: “This ecosystem that’s been developed is not a recent phenomenon; it’s been developing and now we’re seeing all the pieces. You have higher ed and fintech, enterprise organizations like Raymond James, and new investment firms like Ark and Dynasty Financial on the wealth side. Tampa Bay has attracted a lot of investments. And on the community bank side — the landscape has shrunk, and that’s been a function of the fallout from the last financial crisis and the FDIC being reluctant or founder groups being reluctant. But the ones that want in are incredibly innovative.” — Jeff Hunt, senior managing director of Skyway Capital
