INSIGHT for INCITE: Keran McKenzie

INCITE 2017 will be all about confronting the future head-on and embracing the possibilities. Here’s what add-on whiz Keran McKenzie is looking forward to.

One thing I know for sure

I look around the world and I’m taken by how technology is something that we have added into our lives and as much as it’s become the norm, it is in many ways still an addition to our lives.

The thing I know for sure is that technology will rapidly become more and more ubiquitous in our lives, however, it’ll be in a much less obvious way.

Technology over the next 10 years is going to become invisible. Everything will be aware, everything will be sharing data and we’ll have more information and options at our fingertips than ever before.

I find this fascinating and exciting – because as I’m a tech guy, the day I can stop experimenting with ‘new tech’ and just get on with using tech as part of my day seamlessly – that’s a day I can’t wait to wake up to.

I don’t want or need yet another device in my life, and I sure as heck don’t want yet another iPhone.

I do, however, want to share experiences faster, to communicate easier and do more in a much more integrated way.

One thing I have no idea about

One thing I have no idea about – hardware.

I’m a tech guy, I love technology and I adore the internet. In fact my entire 23+ year career has been building technology, businesses and solutions on or around the internet.

One area I’ve been fascinated by but actually know nothing about is the world of hardware. I’m deeply fascinated by the physical world, how things feel, how they react and how people can use tools like Kickstarter to bring early stage hardware to the world fast.

However I’ve never experimented in this space, I’ve no idea how they select materials, create internal electronics and what drives the product development and delivery of physical objects.

While I understand how technology works – it still blows my mind that the computers are basically sand, gold and copper … maybe some plastic and glass and yet they do… well, what can’t they do? Amazing really!

One thing that will change the world

One word – automation.

This one word will change the world in the coming years more than anything else.

Computer technology is at the point where they can closely mimic a human brain. Quantum computers (another thing I really know nothing about) allow for machine understanding and decision making at unprecedented speed.

Computers have access to insanely vast amounts of information, human behavior and media. Automation will go into overdrive.

From self-driving cars, to natural language recommendations, to houses that just know how you like the lights, heat and when to re-order your food.

This movement to automation is going to be liberating where many of the activities we’ve done because we have to, will go away, freeing us up to do things we to often say “I wish I had more time to do …..”.

I look forward to a world where I can get into a car and say “Take me home” and simply fall asleep, or play a game with my kids, or write a letter to my wife – things that are much better use of my time vs just driving home.

(Oh and yes, I’m a car nut through and through – one who loves driving – so this is a huge thing for me to say)

One thing I’m looking forward to at INCITE

In many ways, we at MYOB are enabling a transition in that through our open APIs and wider ecosystem we are bringing much of this simplification and automation to the accounting world.

I love INCITE as it’s an opportunity to dive into this world with our partners, accountants and add-on vendors in a deeper way.

This year we’re running ADD-ONS@INCITE as a special focus event from 1pm through 4pm to create space and time for partners and add-on vendors to deeply engage.

I love that already we can bring the promise of more efficiency and improved productivity to businesses through this ecosystem.

MYOB INCITE 2017 will reveal how technology is shaping the future of your industry. More importantly, it will challenge you to make a choice. Are you going to sit back and wait to see what tomorrow holds for you? Or are you going to step forward and own tomorrow?