Tech Talks Daily

Creative thinking—humankind's unique ability to combine unrelated and abstract ideas—has been utilized in countless ways since the dawn of humanity. Every day, people in creative and non-creative fields take advantage of creative thinking to reach all kinds of goals, personally and professionally. Joey Cofone, founder of Baronfig and author of The Laws of Creativity: Unlock Your Originality and Awaken Your Creative Genius, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to share the inspiring tech startup story behind Baronfig. We all began our lives creative, and many let go of it as they got older. But how can you reawaken your creative side? Together we dispel the myth that only a select few people are creative. In his book, Joey defines creativity, how it works, and how you can harness it in your everyday life. He demystifies the creative process by uncovering the thinking and science behind it. We explore the 39 laws that contain illuminating concepts and powerful instruction. Each law is illustrated with inspiring, enlightening, and surprising stories of iconic creators across history—including Albert Einstein, Serena Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Houdini, Grace Hopper, Bruce Lee, and many more by simply breaking down how they wielded creativity to reach incredible heights.

After the fourth GDPR anniversary, what's changed since its inception? And what is the best way forwards for companies to navigate the complexity? These are just a few topics that I explore with Dave Horton from Odaseva. We discuss the API challenges of backing up SaaS data, data subject access requests, and right of access. We also talk about how residency-as-a-service helps organizations navigate complex and evolving Data residency laws, e.g., PIPL in China. Finally, we discuss ransomcloud – what it is, attackers' techniques, which organizations are most at risk, and how preparation is key for organizations to protect themselves.

Have you heard James Blake's album version of Wind Down done in collaboration with sound and wellness company, Endel? Inspired by the science of sound and sleep, Wind Down is a prelude to bedtime, helping listeners shift gradually from the activity of day to the calm of night. It uses the same AI technology and sounds found in the adaptive experience, available exclusively in Endel apps for iOS, Android, Mac, Apple TV, and Amazon Alexa. It's no secret that more and more people are turning towards ambient music as an effective tool to help improve relaxation, focus, movement and sleep. What is interesting about the Wind Down album in particular is that it is the first ambient music album constructed via AI to be released by a Universal label. Blake's musical artistry blends seamlessly with Endel's patented AI technology. This method of composition has the ability to give ambient music an enhanced functional edge that is actually backed by neuroscience. This prompts a bigger question: Has AI technology ushered in a new era of ambient music that can more effectively serve specific wellness and mental health purposes? Oleg Stavitsky, CEO & Co-Founder at Endeljoins me in exploring the answer to this question as we discuss the growing intersection of science, technology, sound, and wellness. If you are interested in trying Endel for free for 1 month, Oleg kindly shares the following link that unlocks a free 1-month subscription, no card is needed. https://code.endel.io/?code=dailytech

In recent years, thousands of companies have voluntarily pledged to meet sustainability targets, but many of them likely lack the knowledge and the tools to properly measure progress and how to optimise their carbon and energy footprints. Honeywell is working to help solve this problem with its new Carbon & Energy Management, a carbon energy management software, that enables building owners to track and optimise energy performance against carbon reduction goals, down to a device or asset level. Companies face increasing pressure today – from stakeholders as well as regulatory agencies – to curb energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions and create more sustainable, healthier facilities. There's an urgent reason for this: commercial buildings currently account for almost a third of global energy consumption and 37% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. While 28% of those emissions are related to building operations – or the energy used to heat, cool and power the building – many building owners likely don't have device or asset level insight into energy consumption or carbon impact. Through using the Honeywell Forge enterprise performance management software solution's artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, Carbon & Energy Management autonomously identifies and implements energy conservation measures to help drive efficiency, resiliency and accountability throughout a real estate portfolio. It continuously investigates, analyses, and optimises building performance, down to an asset-specific level, measuring critical sustainability KPIs including carbon emissions. Manish Sharma, VP & general manager of sustainable building technologies at Honeywell, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss this topic in more detail.

With the hyper digitalisation of business, electronic signatures have become a necessity. Contracts are a crucial element of every business; when overlooked, they can be detrimental, especially when renewal season comes around. And, as we feel the fallout of Brexit, businesses need to ensure their service agreements, employment contracts, etc., are all up to scratch, or it could mean lost revenue and costly legal penalties. Ronan Copeland, Group Vice President & General Manager EMEA at DocuSign, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the present and future of digital identities. In addition, we explore how AI can be implemented to improve and augment workflows, freeing employees to focus on creative or strategic priorities. We also discuss how paper contracts are not only outdated but dangerous and the value of AI and automation in the context of contract lifecycle management. But how implementing CLM and AI-driven tools could make a business more agile and impact a business's bottom line As we look to the future, we talk about how many people now see automation and the integration of ML and AI into our daily working lives as the next frontier of the future of work. I learn how these technologies will reshape the way we work and how leaders are overcoming the fear factor when integrating AI in the workplace.

In KPMG's recent UK CEO Outlook Survey, 81% of leaders said that protecting their partner ecosystem and supply chain is just as important as building their own organisation's cyber defences. Given the numerous high-profile supply chain cyber-attacks seen in 2021, this will not come as a surprise. However, as enterprises continue to prioritise digital transformation, the sharing of data throughout a complex and connected ecosystem of partners and suppliers will only get more convoluted. Already, they have incredibly complex ecosystem structures and may not have clear obligations for establishing adequate controls to protect their partners' data, leaving the entire network vulnerable to cyberattacks. Furthermore, existing vetting processes for suppliers requires tremendous and perhaps infeasible due diligence by each ecosystem partner. Some existing approaches aren't even fit for purpose. As a result, many businesses, third-party vendors, and even regulators are under increased pressure to provide continuous assurance over the security of their ecosystems. This is only going to become more challenging as the complexity of the supplier ecosystem increases, and fourth parties, shadow-IT, and a lack of SaaS provider oversight demand more and more attention.

As Google announces its intention to test new AR glasses prototypes, the reality that AR may be our future is finally starting to settle in. Unlike the traditional virtual reality (VR) metaverse we have come to know, augmented reality (AR) technology gives users the best of both worlds, merging the real world with the technological advances, interactivity, and information of the web. OVER, is a company building the first augmented reality open metaverse and enabling users to create unique geolocalised experiences that bridge the gap between our physical and digital worlds. Utilising world-class, community driven 3D mapping, OVER provides users and builders alike with the opportunity to own AR metaverse real estate, map their local areas to earn OVR tokens, and explore Web3 like never before. In light of this recent announcement and the growing groundswell for information related to the emerging AR market, I invited Diego De Tommaso, Co-founder, and COO of OVER to join me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story and vision for the future.

Stevie Hopkins – CEO and founder of merch company SCP, shares the inspirational story that began with him working with big names such as Billie Eilish, Freddie Gibbs, and Louis the Child. Here in 2022, we discuss how he is building an NFT-powered, fan-guided community that will resemble a city in its cultural complexity and offerings called Dropolis. From Hopkins' professional career in merchandising and fan engagement, he has seen the massive potential web3 can have for those often unseen in the existing community. So he is bringing that idea to those interested in everything from music, food, and fashion, offering up IRL experiences/physical rewards through NFT drops. Building a "city-like" structure removes the facade and narrative NFT projects have created for web3. This way, finding a home for NFTs makes an authentic-safe space for everyone. Something Hopkins believes web3 has longed for. I learn how Dropolis will be nothing like you've seen as it breaks through the chaotic noise of digital collectible marketplaces lacking tangible, real-life experiences.

Software intelligence company Dynatrace (NYSE: DT) recently announced the findings of an independent global survey of 1,300 chief information security officers (CISOs) in large-size organizations. The research reveals that the speed and complexity created by using multi-cloud environments, multiple coding languages, and open-source software libraries make vulnerability management more difficult. In addition, 75% of CISOs say that despite having a multi-layered security posture, persistent coverage gaps allow vulnerabilities into production. The report highlights the growing need for observability and security to converge, paving the way toward AISecDevOps practices. This will empower organizations with a more effective way of managing vulnerabilities at runtime and the ability to detect and block attacks in real-time. Daniel Kaar joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss these findings in more detail.

Bill Burns from Zebra Technologies defines what the on-demand economy is and what it takes to be a successful business and leader in it. We also discuss why reacting faster in an on-demand environment is no longer good enough and how leaders in major industries – like retail, logistics/warehousing, and healthcare – can plan better for what's coming next. Finally, we explore what emerging technologies or techniques organizations can use to have a more accurate picture of what's happening in their business and move forward with innovation strategies and digital transformation initiatives. About Bill Burns Bill Burns joined Zebra in 2015 and today leads the product & solutions group. In his role, Mr. Burns oversees product and solutions strategy, investments, and development operations for the company's expansive technology portfolio which includes mobile computing, specialty printers, data capture solutions, location solutions, and intelligent edge solutions. Mr. Burns is also responsible for the chief technology office - focused on emerging technologies and solution incubation. Mr. Burns has more than 25 years of experience in the high-tech sector. Before joining Zebra, he served as chief executive officer of Embrane, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital-backed startup Cisco acquired in April 2015. Before joining Embrane, Mr. Burns served as chief executive officer of Spirent Communications, a global leader in test and measurement solutions publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange. He has also held various executive and sales leadership roles at Tellabs, Inc., now Coriant.

Pool CEO Shiv Malik - a technologist, award-nominated broadcaster, author of two books, former Guardian investigative journalist, and co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank joins me on Tech Talks Daily. UK-based Pool, currently valued at $39m, is building a data marketplace and associated payment rails for new data-sharing entities called data unions. These new data-sharing organisations seek to leverage shifts in privacy, the end of consumer data following Chrome's deletion of third-party cookies, and new EU rules for data portability which are due to come into effect next year. The most powerful companies on Earth are those who monopolise vast swaths of humanity's information. Pool's purpose is to redistribute the control and value of that knowledge and thereby completely reconstitute power relationships in the political economy of the 21st century. I learn how Pool is doing this by taking an old-fashioned organisational structure - the trust - and evolving it with Web3 technology to make it fit for the digital era. This straightforward model allows Data Unions to align incentives around data creation. It's why the model is backed not just by EU regulators through the upcoming Data Governance Act.

Biotechnology is leading the most important scientific revolution since computing. R&D is the key to unleashing biotechnology's potential to transform our world radically, but software hasn't kept up with science. Scientists deserve and urgently need technology that's designed for what they do. But I invited Paul Robson to join me on the podcast to discuss how Benchling R&D Cloud is built for scientific work. We talk about the shortcomings currently present within life sciences R&D that inspired its creation and the role of the cloud, and how its transforming R&D in life sciences to speed up scientific discoveries, including Covid-19 research. About Paul Paul Robson is Head of Field Operations at Benchling, overseeing all aspects of global sales, from deployment and customer success to strategic partnerships and regional expansion. Paul brings more than 25 years of experience scaling high-performing field organizations. Most recently, as President of International at Adobe, he led global business across 160 countries. He joined Adobe in 2011 and played a key role in the company's transformation from packaged desktop software to a cloud subscription model. Prior to Adobe, Paul held leadership roles at Hewlett-Packard and Compaq. Paul is an advisory member on Telecoms and Technology for UK Trade & Investment and board member of techUK. Originally from Australia, Paul graduated from Western Sydney University and holds graduate degrees from INSEAD and University of Helsinki.

Unity is the world's leading platform for creating and operating interactive real-time 3D content and one of the main drivers within the XR space as the evolution of the internet continues. By using technology such as AR, Unity has the digital tools to bring this parallel world to life to help create beautiful, immersive experiences that engage from the very first pixels. Antonia Forster, Unity's Senior XR Technical Specialist joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss everything from "the metaverse" and emerging technology to business cases for VR/AR to my work on the LGBTQ+ VR Museum. About Antonia Antonia Forster is an award-winning VR/AR developer, TEDx speaker, and advocate for women, LGBTQ+ people, and marginalised voices in tech. A self-taught coder with expertise in emerging and immersive technology, Antonia is Senior XR Technical Specialist at Unity; and the founder of DiVRse Technologies Ltd, an innovation studio "using virtual worlds to change the real world for the better". Antonia has also been shortlisted for Nature's John Maddox Prize, the WiIT Advocate of the Year award, and won the YTKO Breaking Barriers award for her impactful work; including the creation of the world's first LGBTQ+ VR museum, which won Tribeca Film Festival's New Voices Award.

Arne Schepker is Babbel's CEO, the world's top-grossing language learning platform. But I wanted to learn more about how he has leveraged technology and implemented a rather exciting approach to growing his business. Babbel is a whole ecosystem of language learning offerings, with over 10 million subscriptions sold and over 60,000 courses for 14 languages. Arne joined Babbel as CMO in 2015, and later became CEO in 2019, successfully scaling it from a start-up of 250 employees to a household brand, with now 750 employees across more than 60 nationalities. Arne is passionate about the transparency and authenticity of the Babbel workplace. Before he took up the position of CEO, he did job shadowing every single team at Babbel to experience what his colleagues were going through daily. Overall, this played a pivotal role in helping him better understand the necessary measures required to scale and grow his business even further. Arne joins me o Tech Talks Daily to share how Babbel evolved its services from a mobile app to a multi-product ecosystem and how the pandemic ultimately digitized skill building. We also discussed the importance of integrating diversity and inclusion guidelines into your work culture and product offering and how to maintain a positive workplace culture across a team of over 750 employees in a tech company.

Ryan Wines has consistently advocated for creators, makers, and artists and once gave a TED Talk about leading creatives amidst a modern landscape. Today, the founder and CEO of Marmoset shares the story of turning this bootstrapped startup into industry-leading tech-powered music licensing company. I learn more about how they set out to become the Patagonia of music licensing, bring transparency into the industry, and how Web 3.0 will impact the future of music licensing. We discuss Track Club: Marmoset's subscription app for the creator economy. The platform knows what creators need when they look for music. As a rule, they want to get in, get exceptional music, and get out quickly — and they want the music to feel custom-made for their content. We also discuss MixLab: Track Club's new stem mixer technology, empowering creators to mix, arrange & produce music.

CircleCI is one of the biggest players in a relatively unknown but increasingly important corner of the developer world known as Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD). Its value lies in giving companies like Samsung, Ford Motor Company, Spotify, Lyft, Coinbase, and Stitch Fix the ability to release software more frequently to constantly improve features and function. In today's episode, I am joined by Rob Zuber, CTO at CircleCI, a position he has held since 2014. As a 20-year veteran of software startups, a four-time founder, and a five-time CTO, Rob has the technical software knowledge and proven leadership in managing infrastructure and engineering operations. Since joining CircleCI, Rob has seen the company through multiple funding rounds and an acquisition while leading a team of 200+ engineers distributed worldwide. Rob discusses how the constant pressure to innovate faster and the competition for developer talent is leading companies to look towards no-code and low-code solutions to help developers get more done. We also discuss how this might be building tools for people who already know how to make software but neglecting those who don't want to be programmers. We also explore CircleCI's 2022 State of Software Delivery Report, highlighting the state of software delivery and providing insights into the qualities of the most successful engineering teams. Finally, we discuss why organizations need to stop focusing on hiring talent based on degrees and qualifications, what it means to be a good coder and the benefits of diverse dev teams.

Zapata Computing is a Boston-based company that branched out from Harvard, where its founders pioneered the field of near-term quantum algorithms. As a leading enterprise software company for quantum solutions, Zapata Computing is helping various industries prepare for a quantum future. Christopher Savoie discusses what companies can do to be quantum-ready, what a quantum future could look like, the industries that can benefit from quantum (including supply chain, automotive, security, etc.), and potential use cases for quantum. Christopher also shares exciting insights from their partnership with Andretti Autosport.

Dirk Schrader, VP of security research at Netwrix, joins me on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the cybersecurity firm's latest research into cloud vulnerabilities and what more organizations can do to better protect data in the cloud. Dirk shares insights from Netwrix's new Cloud Security Report. The report's findings show that 88 percent of UK organizations store sensitive data in the cloud, where it can be left vulnerable to cyberattacks. Of this data, 65 percent was personally identifiable information (PII) of customers, 42 percent was the PII of company employees, and 31 percent was corporate financial information. Furthermore, threats to this data were ubiquitous, with 52 percent of surveyed UK companies reporting a cyberattack on their cloud infrastructure within the last 12 months. Of these attacks, phishing was the most widespread at 69 percent of reported incidents, followed by account compromise at 35 percent and targeted attacks against cloud infrastructure at 31 percent. In this climate of constant cybersecurity risk, 65 percent of UK respondents named integration with the existing IT environment as the main factor that slows down cloud adoption in their organizations. In the interview, Dirk also discusses the research findings and what more companies can do to take full advantage of the cloud and all it can bring while remaining safe from cloud cyber risk.

Wärtsilä Voyage develops the technology that enables the maritime industry's digital transformation. Responsible for the carriage of around 90% of world trade, shipping is the lifeblood of the global economy. Sarah Barret shares with me how the industry is waking up to the reality of data-enabled decision-making and how it holds the key to optimizing every vessel and voyage. I learned more about how the volume of data we have at our fingertips has never been greater, but as more data is generated, it becomes increasingly complex to store, manage, and analyze. Finally, Sarah discusses how data can help connect the dots across the entire maritime ecosystem and how shipowners and operators can use data to their advantage. Wärtsilä Voyage has also developed a whitepaper outlining seven key benefits of data-driven decision-making in the maritime industry. The benefits include achieving long-term regulatory compliance, enabling transparency and accountability, allowing for timely decisions to optimize operations, and providing greater tracking of iterative changes. These offer feedback loops to support shipping's data evolution, augmenting crew activity and ultimately unlocking commercial benefits.

Elijah Allan-Blitz and Brie Larson have an innovative recently released on Disney+ called REMEMBERING. The short film uses first-of-its-kind technology via a companion Augmented Reality app that allows viewers to interact with the story by scanning the TV to extend the World of Imagination into your room. Elijah joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss REMEMBERING, the technology behind it, why it was created, and the inspiration behind it. I also learned more about how Brie & Elijah's VR experience, The Messy Truth, won them an Emmy in 2020. We discuss bringing the future of storytelling to audiences through innovative technology -- a pillar that is core to their joint production company, The Great Unknown Productions.

The future is electric. The automobile and the supporting industries are investing heavily in electric battery technology, testing, and manufacturing. This is happening locally in the Detroit area as well as abroad. Leaders in the industry are saying we are at the beginning of an Electrical Revolution. At HED, they believe great design is about thinking creatively to overcome challenges and improve tangible outcomes. So, I wanted to learn more about how they improve every facet of design, from architecture, consulting, engineering, and planning to creating a positive impact through responsive, innovative, and sustainable design solutions. Todd Drouillard shares how technology and facility updates are changing how organizations conduct business. We also discuss how the pandemic and increased shipping issues have forced companies to rethink their real estate needs. Finally, we explore how manufacturers are investing in new and existing facilities to build products in the United States.

DIMO is an open platform that connects data producers (like cars) and consumers (applications and businesses) to unlock next-generation mobility services. So I invited Andy Chatham to join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the converging tech trends around cars, IoT, data, crypto, and software development. Andy Chatham has worked in the mobility industry for ten years, overseeing some of the largest autonomous and electric vehicle fleets and developing software used by millions of passengers. Before DIMO, he managed a team of hundreds of people working on Waymo, Google's self-driving car division. He's also worked in many other areas of mobility, assisting transportation and real estate partners in leveraging emerging technology and deploying mobility-as-a-service solutions. We explore the future of mobility for transit-dense cities, reinventing the digital infrastructure for moving objects, the importance of growing decentralized IoT networks and how blockchain and IoT technologies are powering innovation in the auto industry.

Despite the acceleration of tech developments, it can often seem like consumer expectations outpace every industry. Whether outlandish or reasonable, consumers want intuitive, tech-enabled experiences in the here and now. It's all well talking about what's possible in 2030 or even 2050, but how much of that is readily available for us to use currently – what technologies are turning vision into reality? On this podcast, I enjoy exploring how those expectations transform areas you don't associate with tech, and a great example of this is car parks. For instance, it's not uncommon to pay for your parking space using a smartphone app. Today's guest takes that a step further and believes that today's cars do much more than get you from A to B, as integrated tech experiences are revolutionizing travel on our roads by making transport greener and more innovative while turning cars into smartphones on wheels. Peter O'Driscoll, Managing Director of RingGo, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the future of parking, mobility, and the automotive industry. We discuss the impact of the technological age with the increased prevalence of tech and easy accessibility and tackling the rising CX demands. We also talk about the knock-on effect reflected in car trends towards tech-enabled, sustainable transport, with one in five buyers looking to go electric, according to SMMT.

Nathan Howe, VP of emerging technology and 5G at Zscaler, once again joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Nathan discusses how AI and ML-based capabilities can secure and manage cloud infrastructure, sensitive data, and native applications deployed across multi-cloud environments. Lean-running IT and security teams are experiencing security alert fatigue with increasing exposure to real-time threats and often don't have the resources or skills to effectively investigate and respond to the mounting volume of threats. Nathan shares how to address these challenges by providing one-click root cause analysis to instantly identify the issues behind poor digital experience, freeing up IT and security teams from troubleshooting to focus on preventing attacks. On the topic of AI-powered phishing prevention, we talk about how to detect and stop credential theft and browser exploitation from phishing pages with real-time analytics on threat intelligence from 300 trillion daily signals. We also discuss AI-powered segmentation and how to simplify user-to-app segmentation to minimise the attack surface and stop lateral movement with AI-based policy recommendations. These are trained by millions of cross-customer signals across private app telemetry, user context, behaviour, and location. Finally, we discuss how to dynamically adapt security and access policies in real-time to maintain network integrity against rapidly-evolving cyber threats and how to accelerate mean time to resolution. All by putting impacted end users back to work in a matter of seconds by identifying root causes of poor user experiences 180 times faster, freeing IT from time-consuming troubleshooting and analysis.

More than one billion people use messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger to connect with businesses. This is proving to be a significant consumer behavior shift that requires businesses of all sizes to adapt quickly to their customers' rising expectations. Dan Levy, VP, Business Messaging at Meta, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss the future of tech, the Metaverse, and business messaging. We discuss why conversational commerce looks set to be the next big thing in online shopping and why Facebook is doubling down on business messaging. We also explore how businesses can expect to meet these demands of having a fluid conversation across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. With one eye on the future, we also talk about how business-to-consumer messaging and business messaging will evolve with metaverse and the brave new world of Web 3.

Peter Coppinger, Co-Founder, and CEO at Teamwork, a Cork, Ireland-based project management platform, with hubs in Boston, Belfast, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. Started in 2007 by Peter and his fellow developer pal Dan, they now have a global workforce of over 350 employees. Their platform is used by over 20K companies worldwide, including Disney, Spotify, and Paypal. Peter joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind Teamwork which is currently the only scalable project management platform built for client work and founded by former agency owners. We discuss the importance of understanding the efficiency of your organization is key to unlocking the next level of success and avoiding burnout. We also discuss how businesses that deliver client work should work smarter, not harder, by getting organized and managing all of their work in one tool that scales with you as you grow. Finally, we explore how process drives efficiency and profitability and why it's the only way to confidently scale your business with the future of work, rise in remote work, and The Great Resignation.

New research shows automation demand surged in more than 90% of companies. With macroeconomic uncertainty — across markets, hiring, costs, and more — now firmly top of mind, CEOs and leaders across the business focus on efficient growth, cost savings, and increased productivity. As a result, companies are turning to automation more than ever to drive immediate value across all parts of the business, from technical to non-technical departments like sales, customer service, marketing, and commerce. To understand how IT is approaching these demands and some of the challenges businesses face, I invited Matt McLarty from MuleSoft to join me on Tech Talks Daily. Matt shares how organizations across every industry want to automate processes and customer experiences as quickly as possible. However, they'll impede true innovation if they try to go fast with the wrong tools and techniques. Matt discusses why it's vital that organizations become more adaptable to technological change, enabling them to build automation and connect data and applications in a holistic manner. As a result, organizations risk compounding rather than reducing their technical debt without a more composable approach. But we explore how when automation is done right; it fuels efficient growth.

Mobility programs often rely on carrier-provided devices or, if corporate-owned, represent a high CapEx burden. Internal IT resources have to deal with staging, MDM, help desk, and logistics, while repair shops and insurers are used to mitigate unforeseen device defects. This often leads to an outdated device inventory that's often a patchwork of different models and operating system versions resulting in security risks, sub-par staff productivity, cost spikes, accounting challenges, and problematic sustainability and DE&I situations. These are just a few examples of how enterprises face many challenges regarding mobile device management and maintaining employee satisfaction/productivity. Tillmann Schwabe, General Manager of Everphone US joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about overcoming these challenges, what's coming next, and the solutions available. We also discuss the circular economy and how device-as-a-service is the most sustainable solution for enterprises and how Everphone's model reduces each device's CO2 footprint by 120 lbs.

Before Flowout was born in April 2021, they were just a friendly bunch of freelancers. Each of them with a startup story, a passion for bootstrapping products, and a love for Webflow. But this passion for launching new products led them to seek how they can help brands stand out on the internet. With a mission to help brands create unique and superior user experiences, they created Flowout, a business focused on all things Webflow. Today, Flowout is currently in full growth mode, successfully conquering the US market. From building a new SaaS tool, giving back to the community, and sharing free templates to gaining bigger clients with exciting projects. Ziga Fajfar shares his story and what differentiates Flowout from other Webflow companies. We also talk about the thriving tech startup scene in Slovenia. He also shares tips on successfully conquering the US market from Europe and the lessons they have learned in scaling Flowout and other ventures.

Polymer is a no-code Data Loss Prevention (DLP) platform that allows companies to monitor, auto-remediate & apply behavioral techniques to reduce the risk of insider threats, sensitive data misuse & leakage over 3rd Party SaaS platforms. It focuses on SaaS platform data security because that is a 'dark web' of sorts for organizations where data controls generally do not exist. Additionally, most SaaS applications' high collaboration focus makes it easy to lose or exfiltrate sensitive data. Data Loss Prevention is no longer a technical problem but a business risk, especially in a remote/hybrid work environment. In addition, information security resiliency is critical in the cloud-first infrastructure where the tech stack is no longer a clear set of boxes (like it used to be for on-premises tech architecture) but rather a mishmash of SaaS and an overlapping set of technology services. Often in infosec, teams view security as a 0 or 1 problem-either I am secured (check box) or I am not. As an ex-wall street bond trader, Yasir Ali looks at risk on a more probabilistic gradient. By deploying mitigating controls and nudging the workforce to behave responsibly, one can make any organization's information security posture resilient.

Jon Gregory started his career as a finance guy, working around the clock on algorithmic trading and high-frequency computing and squeezing in workouts in the company training room, which consisted of a bunch of metal weights. Surely, we can do something better, Jon thought. Using his degree in applied physics, Jon dedicated himself to making training more effective, efficient, engaging, and beneficial by transforming the traditional gym using 21st-century technology. And, just like that, Jon exchanged the trading floor for the weight room and created Vitruvian, one of the fastest growing connected fitness brands in the world, on a mission to disrupt human health and wellness. Delivering up to 440 lbs. of digital weight, the Vitruvian Trainer+ uses artificial intelligence to adjust its weight to individual users in real-time, loading and unloading the optimal resistance up to 50 times per second, all in a slim carbon fiber platform that can easily slide under a couch or bed. Jon joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his startup story while also discussing entrepreneurship, technology, and how Vitruvian is revolutionizing the in-home gym and the future of the fitness industry.

PraSaga is a Swiss Foundation building the next generation of Layer One blockchain. Its technology solution is on a mission to solve many of the limitations that plague first-generation Layer One blockchains. The SagaChain™ successfully addresses lowering transaction fees and extensibility for supply chains and significantly lowers development costs. We've designed the next evolution of blockchain architecture. A Layer One blockchain achieves the promise that all blockchains aspire to. One that provides the highest level of resistance against attacks. Rewards its ecosystem of contributors. And most importantly, it scales in throughput as more resources are added to the network, providing the maximum possible increases in speed. Any additional information: Rich Phillips, Chief Product Officer of PraSaga, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about all this and the recent announcement of SagaPython at Consensus 202

Women make up 64% of the 40 lowest paying jobs in the US despite being less than 50% of the overall workforce. Additionally, the pandemic pushed women's labor force participation rate to 1993 levels, and the US lost 11 years of progress toward parity throughout the pandemic. Katica Roy is a Gender Economist and CEO of Pipeline, a technology platform that uses AI to weed out unconscious bias and help companies create gender equity in the workplace by analyzing employee hiring, pay, performance, potential, and promotion data. Katica joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share story. We discuss how a recession might disproportionately impact women as they are typically the first to lose their jobs during a recession and the last to gain them back. Katica also shares how Pipeline found through its implementations that men receive promotions at a 21% greater rate than women, and the promotion gap doubles for Black women (men are promoted at a rate of 42% greater than Black women). I learn more about the steps companies can take to change inequitable systems in the workplace, including embedding equity into the employee lifecycle and creating workplace cultures that facilitate authenticity without retaliation. But also how Pipeline is using technology to help make the process easier.

What is the Metaverse? The metaverse is a persistent shared virtual environment where you, as an avatar, can meet and interact with other people and engage in a wide array of virtual activities. The metaverse can be used to work, play, learn, or all three — and its applications in the enterprise are limitless. The metaverse is a topic that is becoming impossible to ignore. It promises to present a virtual world and extended reality of possibilities for enterprises. Many believe that companies that master the metaverse can reap business benefits by exploiting the power of shared virtual environments. But what does this mean for the future of the workplace? Mike McDaniel, president of Modern Workplace at DXC, and Nathalie Vancluysen, DXC's Head of Extended Reality, join me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about all things virtual reality, extended reality, and the metaverse regarding businesses. In addition, we explore the different services, virtual environments, and how easily they can be deployed.

Video chat doesn't work as well for large groups or social situations. By letting participants move around the space and collaborate with others, GroupRoom gives individuals their freedom back. Three people on one side of the room can have a group conversation with a whiteboard or google doc etc completely separate from a group of two people on the other side. Chris Matthieu, founder & CEO of XRPA.NET, and Chris Fleck, Vice President and Technical Fellow at Citrix Systems, join Neil C. Hughes in a conversation about digital hybrid workspaces. We also discuss how businesses can leverage technology to re-enable those moments of serendipity in the workplace that are the lifeblood of every organization. About Chris Matthieu Chris Matthieu is the founder & CEO of XRPA.NET inc., a metaverse company. We build and market spatially-aware alternative communications platforms including: GroupRoom.io (2D digital twin virtual offices for digital hybrid workplaces) andMetaverses.io (3D metaverse platform allowing users to build, explore, and host their own metaverses). Prior to XRPANET, Chris co-founded Computes Inc. (a decentralized supercomputing platform company) which was acquired by MagicLeap and co-founded Octoblu Inc. (an enterprise IoT platform company) which was acquired by Citrix. About Chris Chris Fleck is Vice President and Technical Fellow at Citrix Systems. In this role he is responsible for Emerging Technology, IP, and driving innovation. Previously, Mr. Fleck was CEO and a founder of 14 South Networks, an IBM Spin-off and pioneer in the application of Blade Technology for the IT industry. He was a NYS Licensed Professional Engineer and has twelve patents issued, he graduated from NYU Poly and has an MBA from Union College

Scalefast is changing the way brands do direct-to-consumer eCommerce, by empowering them to regain the control and simplicity they need to create an exceptional shopping experience, directly from their online storefront. By joining forces through the Scalefast Commerce Cloud, brands can deliver localized and personalized direct-to-consumer shopping experiences while leveraging the volume and data of an entire brand ecosystem. Scalefast's modern approach to eCommerce has generated award-winning success for their clients and has allowed them to become the fastest-growing eCommerce platform in the U.S. Its full-stack enterprise solution brings together a cloud-based eCommerce platform, global business services and an international footprint of logistics, payment, tax and business partners. Amandine Soares shares her inspirational story with me on Tech Talks Daily. She's an absolute rockstar and pro on Scalefast's Air360 platform, a US analytics solution that helps reduce friction in the customer experience, increase conversions and improve loyalty.

Ryan Cloutier, CISSP and president of Security Studio joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about their mission to help simplify cybersecurity. In particular, Security Studio is passionate about working with underserved/under-resourced organizations like local governments and public educational institutions to improve their cybersecurity. Ryan discusses why public organizations like schools and local governments find themselves woefully unprepared for cyberattacks and how hybrid workplaces have affected them. We also discuss the importance of taking a holistic approach to risk assessments and simple steps that organizations (and individuals) can take to improve their cyber-resilience (or ability to recover from a cyber-attack). Ryan shares real-world examples of how cybersecurity risks in public institutions (on both sides of the pond) affect us all. For example, from recent FOI requests in the UK, just five government departments confirmed they have a data backup in place. The Department for Education (DfE) also confirmed it had lost or reported 116 stolen devices between September 2020 and September 2021.

Most CEOs have difficulty answering the most critical question in business: "Are we going to meet, beat, or miss on revenue?" Why? After more than $1 Trillion spent on ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence, spreadsheets, and collaboration software, there is no enterprise approach to revenue. As a result, there is no way for "Revenue-critical" people, processes, and systems to work together. Andy Byrne, CEO, and Co-Founder of Clari joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how RevOps is a rapidly emerging concept in the UK. We talk about the importance of business unification and the end of siloed operations. Andy also shares how he put a deck on LinkedIn detailing his recommendations for how companies can not just thrive during the downturn but thrive and how it went viral. I also learned how Clari is helping companies including Zoom, Equinix, Atlassian, and Okta forecast revenue growth, manage operations efficiently, and how they have achieved a valuation of $2.6 billion.

Fehintolu Olaogun, the CEO of CredPal joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. This consumer credit startup has offered BNPL infrastructure to African retail merchants since 2018 and has garnered interest insights in the niche. Fehintolu was just in DC last month at the Africa Fintech Summit, where his panel discussed embedded finance. For example, one exciting perspective he shares is that while BNPL is often regarded as a tool for impulse buying elsewhere in Africa, it's a necessity because many cannot afford upfront payment for essential items. Having served over 4000 merchants and now looking to scale across Africa, CredPal has a great vantage on BNPL and consumer credit in Africa.

Digital commerce expert Spryker recently released research into the grocery shopping habits of 2,500 UK consumers. The company found that 60% of UK consumers now order their groceries online, and 16% now do most of their food shopping via the internet. With the cost-of-living crisis shrinking consumers' budgets, shoppers at low-cost supermarkets are crying out for online services from the likes of Aldi and LIDL – with almost half (43%) of consumers keen to see their low-cost providers operate online. Other findings include: Spryker CEO and co-founder Boris Lokschin reveals more findings from the report with me as we explore the broader trends in the digital grocery space – such as checkout-less shopping and Q-commerce apps. About Spryker Spryker is a composable digital commerce platform that enables enterprises to future-proof their business and accelerate growth at any point in their commerce journey. Spryker's headless, API-first model allows companies to adapt, scale, and quickly go to market while facilitating a lower cost of ownership and higher return on investment. As a leading platform for Enterprise Marketplaces, IoT Commerce, B2B, and D2C, Spryker has empowered 150+ customers in more than 200 countries worldwide to differentiate based on how they sell best and is trusted by brands such as Aldi, Siemens, Hilti, and Ricoh. Gartner® recognized Spryker as a Visionary in the 2021 Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce, just one year after it first appeared (2020), and it has also been named a major player in B2B e-Commerce by IDC. Spryker is a privately held technology company headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and New York, USA.

Sarah Larner, Executive Vice President of Strategy & Innovation, Wejo joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Sarah is responsible for the formulation and management of the strategic initiatives at Wejo. She has been at Wejo since 2015, playing an integral role in the organization's growth and success. Sarah shares her story and discusses the connected vehicle landscape across automotive and the marketplace. Wejo is a UK-headquartered company publicly listed on NASDAQ. It's also a global leader in connected vehicle data, revolutionizing how we live, work and travel by transforming and interpreting real-time vehicle data. The company enables smarter mobility by organizing 12 trillion data points from approximately 12 million vehicles and more than 59 billion journeys globally, across multiple brands, makes, and models, and then standardizing and enhancing those streams of data on a vast scale. Wejo partners with ethical, like-minded companies and organizations to turn that data into insights that unlock value for consumers. With the most comprehensive and trusted data, underpinned by leadership in data privacy, Wejo is creating a smarter, safer, more sustainable world for all.

Tally builds tools for DAOs. The company helps people join decentralized orgs and help user-owned communities make decisions together. Tally CEO, Dennison Bertram is an avid futurist, artist, and serial entrepreneur with a keen eye for the future of technology and its social impacts. He's also an early block-chain technologist, having founded the first Bitcoin Exchange for Czech Crowns (BuyBTC.cz), a technologically advanced physical bitcoin wallet (Aeternum Key-Vault), and a paypal like digital currency wallet (Terrawallet). Dennison joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss what are DAOs? How do they work and why should you care about them? He also shares the most interesting uses of DAOs right now and why he believes DAOs will replace corporations and become the dominant organizational form for human capital and creativity. Finally, Dennison also shares his tips on how to invest in DAOs without losing your money or becoming a victim of fraud.

Semtech's LoRa device-to-Cloud platform is a globally adopted long-range, low-power solution for IoT applications, enabling the rapid development and deployment of ultra-low power, cost-efficient, long-range IoT networks, gateways, sensors, module products, and IoT services worldwide. Semtech's LoRa technology provides the communication layer for the LoRaWAN® standard, which the LoRa Alliance® maintains, an open IoT alliance for Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) applications that have been used to deploy IoT networks in over 170 countries. With the proliferation of LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN standard, the LoRa Developer Portal is a place to learn, connect, collaborate, and find resources to help accelerate your LoRa development process. Semtech is a founding member of the LoRa Alliance. Steven Hegenderfer, senior director of developer ecosystems at Semtech, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss Semtech's LoRa Developer Portal. The portal allows developers of all levels to quickly build and test IoT devices connecting with LoRaWan. In addition, I learn how it aims to help developers bring their ideas to life and close the skills gap many companies are facing by offering resources for education and training purposes. This portal comes at a time when building IoT devices and solutions are more complex than ever before, and developers need additional resources to build and test device connectivity efficiently.

Shawn Vo is the CTO and co-founder of Axle, the all-in-one financial platform for modern freight brokers. Back in May, they completed a $10 million Series A round of funding led by Crosslink Capital. This financing follows a record year for Axle, during which volume grew 850% on their payments and financing platform. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Shawn spent seven years in financial technology, building software for fast-growing startups and consulting for the top 20 largest banks before starting Axle with his longtime business partner and friend, Bharath Krishnamoorthy. He is also member of the Forbes Technology Council, as well as an angel investor in fintech and developer tools. We discuss the importance of digital transformation initiatives, integrations and personalization in freight brokers' tech stacks. I also learn how moving toward open platform tools will benefit brokers so they can continue to build a tech stack that's personalized specifically for their back-end, data-driven processes.

Rachel Berry of eG Innovations and Richard Faulkner from the Conversant Group join Neil C. Hughes on the Tech Fusion Podcast. They discuss the importance of performance monitoring for Citrix deployments. Rachel shares where eG Innovations adds value to Citrix customers and how it relates to Citrix built-in tools. Richard shares more about the problems they solve for businesses at Conversant Group and how they work with eG Innovations. We also talk about what changes they have seen from Citrix customers' needs in terms of monitoring throughout the last year.

Pave is on a mission to improve access to credit for millions of people by building the world's best credit builder. They already have close to 500,000 registered users and are helping their members improve their credit health. But I wanted to learn more about the company's story, and this is where things got interesting. Co-Founder and CEO Sho Sugihara spent the first half of his life in Japan. He started his career working for The Big Issue to help the homeless by delivering magazines to newspaper vendors. Then, at 18, he went to Brazil to work for an NGO, helping underprivileged families keep their children in school through a state-sponsored microfinance and daycare program. These experiences opened his eyes to the power of financial inclusion. After university, he worked at McKinsey for three years to save up cash to finally start his own business before leaving to co-found Pave out of Entrepreneur First in 2017. Fast forward to 2022, we're seeing extreme income volatility and an unprecedented surge in energy prices and living costs. In times like these, Sho believes there are new opportunities to help consumers and businesses. As a result, they launched Fuse, a credit analytics B2B service that helps businesses make better lending decisions using our state-of-the-art analytics capabilities. Combining Open Banking data, Credit File data, and tangible outcomes data, the company can help enterprises to make the best affordability decisions with powerful insights. I invited Sho on the podcast to share his inspiring story and how it led to two products aimed at helping Pave solve the inefficiencies they see in the credit system faster and at a critical time.

Payment Orchestration continues to be a hot topic in digital payments. It has become even more prevalent post-COVID-19 with increased demand from consumers for more digitized payment methods, combined with the push from merchants to drive global growth ambitions with efficient cross-border services. CellPoint Digital is a leader in payment orchestration and has a longstanding history of delivering payment orchestration services for brands in the air travel sector. One of the most complex markets from a cross-border payments perspective – it bosts Virgin Atlantic, Cebu Pacific, and Avianca (one of the oldest airlines in Latam) as its clients and has transformed their payment architecture. I invited Kristian Gjerding to share the company's story and explore how to navigate complex payments data with a payment orchestration's proprietary rules engine that can optimize existing payments relationships. We also discuss how they are on a mission to make life easier for organizations that take payments. For example, they don't have to renegotiate with payment providers and make system changes.

Quantinuum, the largest full-stack quantum computing company, recently revealed its quantum chemistry platform. InQuanto makes it easy for computational chemists to explore and experiment with quantum computing. This quantum computing offers a path to rapid and cost-effective development of new molecules and materials, which in turn, could generate novel answers to some of the biggest challenges we face in sustainability, climate change, drug discovery, and more. Quantinuum's quantum chemistry team developed InQuanto to support collaborations with partners such as BMW, JSR, Nippon Steel Corporation, and TotalEnergies. Through these collaborations, InQuanto has already led to the achievement of many firsts. I invited Jenni Strabley and Simon McAdams to share some of these and talk about the opportunities that Quantum computing will unlock.

Ben Coffin is a Solutions Marketing Manager for PHY and ORAN emulators at Keysight Technologies. Having spent the last decade in the test and measurement industry, Ben has spent his time in business development, product management, and systems engineering roles across the wireless communications space. Ben is also enthusiastic about telling stories about how the technology in the wireless world is advancing and how the bleeding edge finds root through research and industry and academic collaboration. In a nutshell, he's a perfect fit for the Tech Talks Daily podcast. Is it too early to be talking about 6G? We discuss 5G, 6G research, Open RAN, academic research on communications, research, and policy initiatives. We also explore how wireless communications will evolve how we communicate and the type of partnerships needed to exist (private/public, government) to make research in the wireless space successful.

When the pandemic hit, the need to touch as few things as possible to slow the spread of the virus meant QR codes took off quicker than Netflix stock. Now that we as consumers are programmed to scan them without a second thought, we find ourselves in a vulnerable situation. The FBI has even issued a formal warning about faked QR codes. In his new research, Len Noe, aka 'the Biohacker' and White Hat Hacker at CyberArk, has revealed three ways that any QR code can be spoofed to provide an attack vector. Crucially, Len's research has shown how mobile devices can be taken over and used to provide an attack vector in corporate environments to launch advanced attacks. Len discusses why we should be wary rather than blindly trusting forms. For example, a fake job ad containing a malicious QR code offers a perfect opportunity to send all that personal sign-up information straight to an attacker, not a prospective employer. We also discuss the importance of vigilance when installing new apps from a QR code. Len shares how he spoofed the Google Play Store to gain ultimate access to a user's phone – including reading personal messages and taking pictures with the camera. Finally, he shares how even scanning a rogue QR code to order takeout could result in your details getting phished. In one fell swoop, Len had access to a user's phone, leaving their GPS location and sensitive user information open to play with.