Cathy Pearl is Head of Conversation Design Outreach at Google, and the author of the O’Reilly book, “Designing Voice User Interfaces”.  She’s been designing and creating Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) for nearly 20 years and is passionate about helping everyone make the best conversational experiences possible.  Past speaking engagements include Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity, O’Reilly Bot Day, SXSW, and TechCrunch Disrupt. Previously, Cathy was VP of User Experience at Sensely, whose virtual nurse avatar helps people stay healthy.  She has worked on everything from programming NASA helicopter pilot simulators to designing a conversational iPad app in which Esquire magazine’s style columnist tells users what they should wear on a first date.  She has an MS in Computer Science from Indiana University and a BS in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego.