Thursday at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s State of Workforce and Talent, local cyber expert David Keely offered a sobering statistic regarding the impact of cyberattacks on the U.S. economy.

“Two years ago was the first year that the largest claims that were filed from businesses were for cybersecurity intrusions,” Keely said, citing information from the American brokerage firm Brown & Brown. “The number one loss leader for U.S. businesses is now cybersecurity. It’s not fire, flood, theft, any of that other stuff. Let that sink in for a moment.

“That means every business is now facing a headwind of cyber piracy. ... If you’re a small business in Oklahoma and you’re a victim of a malware attack, there’s a 60 percent chance that you will be bankrupt inside 12 months.”

That nugget from Keely, executive director of the Oklahoma Cyber Innovation Institute (OCII) at the University of Tulsa, was among the many produced at the event, which attracted about 400 people to the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel & Convention Center.

OCII representatives wowed a networking-hour crowd with demonstrations that included a drone and a robotic dog that could perform nearly as many tricks as its flesh-and-blood counterpart.

Those presentations gave way to programming that featured opening remarks from Ryne Sherman, chief science officer at Hogan Assessments, and two panel discussions that focused on the event’s theme of how emerging industries are shaping employers and the workforce.

In his address, Sherman said companies should focus less on current technical knowledge and more on such things as decision-making, interpersonal skills and adaptability.

OCII works to mitigate the risks associated with new technologies. It was funded by $12 million from the American Rescue Plan Act through the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, with matching funds from the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

“Northeastern Oklahoma is a tribe, and we have a lot of clans within that tribe,” Keely said. “If we want our corner of the world to thrive, to be a place where our children grow up and stay here...we have to pull together as a team.

“We have to work with one another. The difference in building an ecosystem is that it is full of eager partners who will help each other out.”

Joining Keely on the workforce panel was Jason George, general manager of Skyway Range, and Lawrence Ganti, director of workforce intermediary at Tulsa Innovation Labs.

Tulsa Innovation Labs helped recruit Manna, an autonomous drone delivery company that recently announced that it is establishing its U.S. headquarters in Tulsa and plans to create 1,000 jobs.

Collaboration among organizations, exemplified by the landing of Manna, is what sets Tulsa apart, Ganti said.

“I’ve never seen a city or regional culture that was so adept at this,” he said. “That’s a huge advantage for Tulsa going forward because that is how things are going to get done.”

Another emerging industry in the local pipeline is space, which was represented Thursday by Jim Vasher, general manager of the Space Test Center. Agile Space Industries is building the $20 million hot-fire rocket engine test facility near Tulsa International Airport.

The transferable skills people possess in the area was a big selling point for Agile in Tulsa, said Vasher, adding that the company values innovation.

“When Agile is part of your name, everybody has that attitude of what can we do to go faster, different and really move the industry beyond what it could be doing. ... When you have that foundation that you’re beginning with, it really helps drive the organization.”

Vasher participated in an employers’ panel discussion that included Sherman, Jarrod Cavner, director of sales at JMARK and Tzeitel Buchanan, director of public sector programs and community partnerships at Lumen Technologies.

Culture is central to how JMARK operates, and the company rewards inspiration through an idea nomination process open to every employee, Cavner said.

“If it’s a really great idea, we’ll pool resources to help them get where they want to go,” he said. “... We call it our ideas backlog. There are 150 ideas in our backlog right now.”

Asked whether AI will be a job-killer, Cavner said, “organizations that lead with humanity and scale with intelligence, they will win every time.”

The event was presented by Rogers State University.