The 2022 edition of the Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence included an AI Talent Fair to connect companies with the best young talent in Portugal.
According to Roger L. Martin in the Harvard Business Review: “Over the past several decades managers have had to adapt to a stark reality: Individuals with unique talent can profoundly affect the value—and even the nature—of the work their organizations produce.“ Although there is an acute awareness that excellent HR is a big part of an industry’s success, it is also very clear that training, attracting, and keeping such valuable resources are not easy tasks and are very dynamic. Talented HR resources need to be trained, need to be challenged, need to think outside the box, need to be captured by missions and goals, need to constantly develop and grow intellectually.
The Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence (EPIA) has been the meeting place for AI talent – researchers, advanced students and companies – in Portugal since 1989. In EPIA 2022, the AI Talent Fair included a panel with C-level players in industry and key actors in training AI talented HR resources, to discuss the AI Talent in a holistic perspective: from the backbone of their training to the ways industry captures and engages with such talent. The title of the panel was “AI talent in the market: training, attracting, and engaging,” and the list of participants was as follows:
- Pedro Bizarro – Feedzai
- Paulo Dimas – Unbabel
- Pavão Martins – SISCOG
- Cristina Fonseca – Zendesk
- Julia Hirschberg – Columbia University & Amazon Scholar
After the panel, the EPIA 2022 attendees were invited to a cocktail, where companies were able to contact the participants in the conference, not only to hire new collaborators but also to establish partnerships with the Universities and Research Labs that make Portugal one of the most mature yet dynamic countries in the AI scene.
The sponsorship opportunities for the event were as follows:
- Main sponsor: 2500€ (only one accepted)
- Company description of max. 200 characters and logo at the conference website with a hyperlink to the company’s website.
- Company logo on a sponsor board placed within the registration area.
- Company logo in all publicity materials.
- Company had a 10min slot to present itself during the conference.
- Exhibition space up to 8m2 (2 tables, 3 chairs).
- Gold: 1000€
- Company logo at the conference website with a hyperlink to the company’s website.
- Company logo in all publicity materials.
- Exhibition space up to 2m2 (1 table, 1 chairs).
Participation in the AI Talent Fair required the registration in the EPIA conference.
AI Talent Fair Program
- 16:30 - 16:35 – Greetings to Participating Companies/Institutions (coordinated by Bernardete Ribeiro, University of Coimbra)
- 16:35 - 17:00 – Introduction of Panel Members
- 17:00 - 17:30 – Panel Discussion on “AI Talent in the Market: Training, Attracting, and Engaging” (moderated by Luis Paulo Reis, President of APPIA, University of Porto)
- 17:30 - 18:30 – Cocktail & Informal Meetings with the Companies/Institutions