One of the most exciting things about being a marketing executive is having a finger on the pulse of change. This expands beyond the marketing sphere and into all kinds of adjacent topics including science, politics, the economy and, of course, technology. The All-In Summit embraces all of those aspects of society and more to ask the question: Where are we, and where are we going?

Sitting at the airport and reflecting on the past two incredible days, hHere are my insights and takeaways from the All-In Summit, a gathering that’s just as likely to offer a cyberpunk rave as a chance to quiz a prominent physicist!

Working Towards a Better World

Various speakers at the summit recognized that major challenges are coming and changes need to be made in order to mitigate the consequences of those difficulties. Ray Dalio, a global macro investor, took a big-picture look at shifting world politics, and predicted radical changing of the world order within five years connected to climate change, debt, and advancing technologies. However, he has hope in the possibility of bipartisan action to engineer the structural change required to build a stronger society.  He shared a brief clip of this longer video on his theory that I highly recommend taking the 40 minutes to watch. 

Also connecting to climate change, Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, spoke about the possibility and importance of power plants that run without fuel or emissions. We need five times more energy by the end of the century, so it’s critical to invest in fossil fuel alternatives now to hit global goals of cutting emissions in half by 2030.

Dr. Nicole Paulk, PhD, of Siren Biotechnology was one of the most inspiring speakers. She highlighted various potential applications of gene therapy, including alleviating blindness and cancer. However, her notes on the possibility of universal gene therapy to treat multiple if not all illnesses were truly aspirational.

Harnessing Probability

All-In is a poker term and it means taking the ultimate risk—putting everything on the table in the hopes of big returns. Poker is a game of chance, but it’s all about calculating those chances and figuring out the probabilities of outcomes.

Well-known chess streamer Alexandra Botez (an entrepreneur) took on all of the Besties in a round of speed chess which was incredible and awesome to watch (50/50 results) Afterward, she spoke on how she learned to play strategic games, including chess, as young as six. She recognizes that chess is a matter of pattern recognition—expert planning using the best data you can get your hands on.

Jenny Just talked about poker as training for business success. Women want to be 90% qualified for a promotion whereas men, only 60% qualified.  Why is this?  She believes the continued practice of taking on micro-risks, versus just taking on large risks every so often is the key to this.  And what better play to practice taking risks than playing poker. Gender equality is a real issue here: with men accounting for over 90% of poker players, women potentially don’t learn as much about strategy, taking risks, and probability. She has built Power Poker to teach women poker.  See you at the tables!

During the “Ask Me Anything” section, the power of probability came up again. For the best outcomes, it’s all about doing as much research as possible with the time and resources you have, so that you truly understand the probabilities associated with the risks you’re thinking of taking.

Final Word

My key takeaway from this year’s All-In Summit is that founders, marketers, and entrepreneurs have to take risks. Those risks can be big or small, but they should be calculated and backed up by data that shows the probability for success. Just like a great poker player, you’ve got to be willing to raise your bets on a great proposition that’s backed by data. But you’ve also got to be willing to fold when a risk doesn’t pay off, and pivot to a new idea or way of working.

On top of these speakers there were so many thought-provoking people - Elon Musk, Graham Allison, Vinod Khosla, I could write hundreds of blogs on what I learned. 

In addition, I met so many incredible people in between the speakers and at the evening dinners and parties.  This even further reinforced that hosting The Collective Table series is exactly what we need to further progress and inspire discussions in the space. Sign up for The Collective Table waitlist to be notified of the next event first so you don’t miss out.

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