Meet the Team: Dena

Name: Dena Levitz

Title: Head of Content

How long you have been at HumanX: Since February – I came on board as a contractor to help while Louise is on maternity leave

What’s your background, and what brought you to HumanX?

I spent many years as a journalist, working for daily newspapers and then as a freelancer (something I still do). A decade ago I decided to make a big change and move from D.C. to Dublin. To do so I pivoted to working in events and landed a job at Web Summit on the wonderful Speakers Team. That experience taught me so much about the editorial side of live events, and I was able to use my journalistic skills in a new way, programming and producing content for conferences. My amazing former colleague Brian Curran recruited me to come to HumanX, and I’m really happy he did. The experience has allowed me to learn so much about AI and its impact on our world as well as to collaborate with an amazing team.

What are you most excited about for this year’s HumanX event?

Amsterdam is a fantastic city for a European debut, and – I may be biased here – but the speaking lineup and program is really eclectic and exciting. Sessions span from robotics to music to the in’s and out’s of how humans are working with machines and even how known brands like Nestle are innovating thanks to AI.

How would you describe HumanX in 3 words?

Vibrant. Curated. High-level (hopefully a hyphenated word counts)

What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about your job?

How long it can take to actually book a speaker. Sometimes these conversations take weeks, months or even more than a year and, in the end, there's a little bit of magical stars aligning that needs to happen so that interest in being there and availability both line up.

What’s one tool or habit that helps you stay on top of your game, either personally or professionally?

Blocking off time for a certain task and really getting absorbed in it as opposed to trying to multi-task and toggle between different platforms and assignments. As humans we’re really not designed to juggle 8 million things at once. I’ll designate a few hours, for example, to just focusing on writing descriptions or briefs or just on sending off invites and doing more of the outreach portion of the job, since they’re engaging different parts of my brain and different skill sets. And then I’ll switch. Keeps it interesting.

What’s one thing that always makes your day better?

Listening to music and especially dancing to it. I try to start every morning by meditating to bring calm to my mind and then moving my body, getting the energy flowing with a little dance party in my apartment or a little bouncing on my mini trampoline.

What’s one playlist or podcast that gets you through the day?

I love podcasts. It’s hard to pick just one so I’ll say that I enjoy a mix of news, chat shows and pop culture including Good Hang with Amy Poehler, The Daily, Heavyweight, Song Exploder and even old episodes of WTF.

What’s something on your desk that tells us a little bit about you?

There’s a framed photo of former Irish president Michael D. Higgins that I was given for a holiday gift exchange when I lived in Dublin and worked for Web Summit. It instantly reminds me of the 4 years I spent as an adopted Irish person. I have no Irish ancestry but I really wanted to live there and it’s a place that’s always in my heart. Plus Michael D, this delightfully small poetic man, and his beloved dogs together just make me smile.