Allison Thackston to speak at RoboBusiness’ Women in Robotics Luncheon

By Brianna Wessling | August 2, 2024

With 10-plus of experience in the robotics industry, Allison Thackston will bring her wide-ranging expertise to RoboBusiness for the show’s inaugural Women in Robotics Luncheon. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from Thackston’s industry experience and get to know other women in the industry.

Produced by The Robot Report, RoboBusiness takes place Oct. 16-17 in Santa Clara, Calif. and is the leading event focused on developing commercial robots and robotics businesses. The luncheon will take place on Oct. 17 at 12:45 PM. The talk will be moderated by Joyce Sidopoulos, co-founder and chief of operations at MassRobotics.

Today, women make up 48% of the total workforce, and just 34% of the STEM workforce, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project. When it comes to engineering and robotics roles, the number is even smaller, with women only making up about 16% of the workforce.

Women working within the industry often find they might be one of the only ones on their team or even at their company. This can be an isolating experience, making it difficult for women in robotics to find a community to support them.

During her expansive career, Thackston has held roles at Oceaneering, Toyota USA, Toyota Research Institute, Nuro, and Waymo. At Waymo, she worked as a senior staff manager, leading several teams working on vehicle behavior. She is now a senior manager of robotics at Blue River Technology, leading a team to solve some of the toughest problems in agtonomy. She has degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.

RoboBusiness will feature more than 60 speakers, over 100 exhibitors and demos on the expo floor, 10+ hours of dedicated networking time, the Pitchfire Robotics Startup Competition, and more. Thousands of robotics experts from around the world will convene at the event. In addition to enabling tech and robotics innovation, RoboBusiness 2024 focuses on investments and business topics related to running a robotics company.

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Keynote talks at the event include Rodney Brooks, the co-founder and chief technology officer at Robust AI, Sergey Levine, co-founder of Physical Intelligence and an associate professor at UC Berkeley, Claire Delaunay, the CTO at farm-ng, and Torrey Smith, the co-founder and CEO of Endiatx. The show will also include a keynote panel “Driving the Future of Robotics Innovation,” featuring Amit Goel, head of robotics at edge AI ecosystem at NVIDIA, John Bubnikovich, president of ABB Robotics US, Eric Truebenbach, managing director of Teradyne Robotics Ventures, and Joan-Wilhelm Schwarze, a senior global innovation manager at DHL. 

For information about sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, download the prospectus. Questions regarding sponsorship opportunities should be directed to Colleen Sepich at csepich[AT]wtwhmedia.com.