Tech Talks Daily

Larry Williams is the President and CEO of The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), one of the largest tech associations in North America with 30,000+ members. His role is to help strengthen the innovation ecosystem of Georgia, a state particularly well-known for its booming technology industry. Through TAG-Ed, Larry also works tirelessly to promote STEAM education and support workforce development for tech professionals. Larry shares with me his insights about supporting the technology ecosystems that help innovative companies bridge the gap between their customers, partners, products, technologies and markets. Larry also shares insights about educating, building and supporting the technology workforce of tomorrow. Finally, he reflects from his experience as the Founder and President of the National Technology Security Coalition, a non-profit, non-partisan trade association serving as the voice of CISOs to help improve national cybersecurity. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

Issuu is the world's largest SaaS content publishing and marketing platform. The Issuu Story Cloud empowers content creators to transform creative designs from static files into web-optimized assets for every marketing channel, including web, mobile, social, email, and more. Joe Hyrkin, CEO of Issuu, the Omni-channel content tools and publishing platform, joins me on today's episode of Tech Talks Daily. We discuss how the Issuu Story Cloud enables millions of global marketers, brands, creators, and publishers to digitally share and monetize their longer-form quality content and create marketing materials. We discuss big tech's responsibilities for the future of marketing & publishing, the workflow mentality shift among enterprises, and streamlining processes strategically amidst a recession. Finally, we discuss what is driving the creator economy, the future of publishing, and what's next for Issuu and other brands in this space. About Joe Joe joined Issuu in early 2013 after more than 20 years of leading startup/growth companies in executive, business development, and product roles. He served as CEO of Reverb during two rounds of financing; in addition, as head of SingleFeed, Joe oversaw that firm's acquisition by Alibaba. Before that, Joe held sales and leadership positions at Gala Interactive, Yahoo, Flickr, and Virage. He directed the Economist Group's business in China and has extensive board and tech-advisor experience. Joe was educated at the State University of New York in Albany and as a foreign student at Beijing Normal University in China. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

Linden Tibbets, Founder and CEO of IFTTT (If This Then That), shares the story behind the platform that allows users to integrate different apps, devices, and services to create automated responses and routines. I learned more about his vision to empower everyone to automate and integrate their favorite apps and smart devices to work together by launching IFTTT in 2010. Before that, he worked as a communications designer at IDEO, a renowned product design firm. Did you know there are over 700+ apps, services, and devices, including the world's biggest brands like Google, Discord, Slack, Dropbox, Alexa, and Fitbit, as well as millions of their users rely on IFTTT for their most essential integrations? From notifications (letting your spouse know you've left work and are heading home automatically), to tapping into the Internet of Things (turning on your lights when you unlock the front door) — IFTTT makes it easy to control and customize their world. To date, they've also raised $62.5M from investors, including Salesforce and IBM, and their users perform 1B+ automation and integrations monthly. Listen in as Linden shares how he built his company from the ground up to become one of the leading IoT solution platforms with million-dollar revenues. We also explore the top IoT trends we can expect to see in the next five years and the future of human-computer interaction. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

On Dec. 3, 1992, a 22-year-old Papworth texted "Merry Christmas" to Richard Jarvis, a director at Vodafone who was at a company Christmas party. It was the first time a cellphone user had ever received words instead of a voice call on their device. Papworth was a developer and test engineer for Sema Group, which was rolling out the world's first short message service (SMS) center for Vodafone U.K. This noteworthy event later led to Papworth being featured in a Best Buy Super Bowl commercial, a Jeopardy! question, a book and the Museum of Global Communications. It also gave rise to an important new medium now used regularly by most Americans and employed by billions of people globally. Neil Papworth discusses the changes he has seen since sending the first text message. Best known as the first person ever to send a text, Neil made his indelible mark on the world of communications – and the annals of tech and text history – early in his career. In addition, Infobip recently revealed insights from their 30th Anniversary of the SMS report, so I invited Ivan Ostojic back on the podcast to join the discussion. In 2020, Infobip became the first Croatian company to reach unicorn status. In the past 12 months alone, over 5 billion people have used Infobip solutions and services. Ivan shares insights from the report and discusses the future of SMS and other means of messaging for business purposes. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

Arun Kumar is a regional director at ManageEngine, the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corporation. With almost two decades of global experience in enterprise IT, Arun has a deep knowledge and peer network in the IT management industry. He has been working with ManageEngine since 2003. In his current role, he leads all channel and partner-related initiatives for the company in the United Kingdom (UK) and Asia Pacific (APAC) markets. Arun joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share insights from their global survey around the empowerment and democratization of IT with 3,300 decision-makers from across IT and business decision-makers. On the topics of IT Leadership, Autonomy + Expectations we explore the relationship between IT and the C Suite, and levels of consultation. We also discuss the influence and importance of the IT department and how they collaborate with other internal teams. We also talk abot IT Sovereignty and decentralization in UK companies versus the global average. Why companies are choosing to decentralize their IT, their motivation for doing so, and the levels of independence for IT decision-making. Finally, we discuss the perceived role of IT in preventing security attacks and how the UK compares with the global market regarding educating its workforce about security threats. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

With a legal and finance background, Andrew Wilkins founded the first international wealth management platform, which he sold in 2015, going on to start an early-stage incubator, Fintecho. Futr.ai was born in 2017 when Andy and co-founder Lee Skyrme saw the massive opportunity to use cutting edge artificial intelligence to transform the way we access public services. Five years later, with the support of an amazing team and fantastic VCs, Futr is proud to include the police, the NHS, and many amazing charities and social services as well as private organisations as valued customers. Over the past year, Futr has accelerated its work with a myriad of organisations as they have all implemented AI chatbots to ensure increased engagement with their end-users and deliver a seamless customer service experience. From government to business, their chatbots are used by over 1,000 organisations across the world. We discuss their work with the NHS, various UK police forces (recently launching the first live chat support service for domestic abuse victims), UK housing associations and the charity CALM. I also learn how Futr is also now integrated with the social media profiles of the UK police divisions as well as CALM (among others), so they not only have access to real-time data, but past historical data as well. Andy shares his knowledgeable insights into current AI chatbot technology as well as practical guidance based on a wealth of experience for implementing digital transformation in the future. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

William McKnight has been recognized as the #1 global influencer in big data, cloud, and data center by Thinkers 360 and the #1 global influencer in master data management by Onalytica in 2022. He is the Founder and President of McKnight Consulting Group, which advises many of the Global 2000 companies, including Pfizer, Verizon, UnitedHealth Group, Dell, Oracle, and Scotiabank, on ways to grow their businesses with big data faster. They've been recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US two times and their clients in 14+ countries have reaped tremendous ROI and turned data into a real corporate asset. With over 30 years of experience, William is a highly sought-after speaker who has spoken on four continents for various organizations, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Bank of America, Orange South Africa, and SAP. Listen in as we discuss personal data, who's watching you, and how they can use the data collected from you. We also discuss new analytic uses of master data management in the enterprise, how AI will significantly impact users and how organizations think about their data resources. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

The brains behind Couchbase's leading data platform, CTO Ravi Mayuram, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how businesses can avoid the $8.75m cloud overspend revealed in the company's latest cloud evolution report. Ravi shares that even though companies now view the move to the cloud as inevitable, enterprises are still caught out by issues such as inflexible pricing plans, ineffective management tools, and data not stored where it needs to be. We also explore how businesses can make the cloud live up to its promise and how new tech adoption impacts companies. Despite the current reputation of Web 3.0 being tarnished by Crypto-bros, NFTs, and Mega – Ravi believes there is definite potential for companies to explore blockchain technology. We also talk about how businesses can unlock this potential and what it will mean for data. While it's no surprise that the decentralization concept has extended to the IT industry, business infrastructure must be in place to achieve the benefits. Finally, Ravi shares his thoughts on how the future of IT must mean managing data anywhere, including on the edge, a server, or the cloud. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

Cybersecurity is now recognized as a critical priority for businesses around the world. However, cybersecurity threats are evolving as risks, and the responses necessary to mitigate them, change rapidly. As a result, staying ahead of bad actors is a continuous challenge, and businesses, despite their intentions, are only sometimes keeping pace. To solve these problems, IT leaders must understand why. They need answers to questions such as, how is cybersecurity transforming? How are cyberattacks harming businesses? Where must investments in preventative training and tools be focused? Is cybersecurity being prioritized by leadership? And how does cybersecurity fit within an organizational culture? In partnership with Sapio Research, Keeper's second annual Cybersecurity Census report maps the transforming landscape of cybersecurity based on these expert insights. It provides leaders with a forensic assessment of their businesses' threats and details the urgent strategies necessary to overcome them. Darren Guccione, CEO & Co-founder at Keeper Security, returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share insights from the report. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

Ben Uprcoft, VP of Technology at Oxbotica, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Today's guest has extensive experience in perception systems for field robotics ranging from commercial passenger vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, draglines, haul trucks, and underwater platforms to unmanned aerial vehicles. At Oxbotica, Ben is responsible for technology development and our team of skilled engineers, balancing state-of-the-art algorithms with real-world system implementation to achieve intelligence in self-driving platforms - on and off road. Ben's previous life was as a tenured academic in Computer Vision and Robotics at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia where he focussed on machine learning for field robotics. He led the Robotics and Autonomous Systems group of over 150 postgraduate students, postdocs, and academics. Today, we explore delivering safe and sustainable AV technology that will reshape the future of transportation and mobility. I learn more about Oxbotica's software, Oxbotica Driver, which brings flexibility to its fleet customers and partners, such as the Ocado Group, enabling a unique last-mile delivery service. We discuss how Oxbotica is accelerating the adoption of its full-stack Oxbotica Driver by revolutionizing last-mile delivery not just in the UK but in the US, as the company plans to go global and work towards its mission of 'Universal Autonomy.' Earlier this year, the all-electric AppliedEV vehicle, driven by Oxbotica, completed a journey in Oxford with no onboard driver, marking the next step in commercializing AV technology. The target for the first public on-road business deployment with Ocado Group, with a goods delivery variant, completing customer orders will be from 2023 onwards.

Mike McCarron is a partner at PwC, where he helps C-suite executives in a range of industries drive transformation across all aspects of business operations through IT strategy and governance. Mike has spent his career advising and supporting leaders as they navigate technology, investments, and operations. Prior to PwC, he was a CIO at Bain Capital, GE Capital, and Fidelity, among other companies. In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Mike discusses why so many CIOs struggle to make an impact (and turnover in the role is so high). He also reveals why so many companies treat technology simply as a series of risks to be managed, not as a key lever of corporate strategy. We also explore why corporate boards should create tech subcommittees, and he reveals the two years in the military (when he was in his early 20s) that taught him more about leadership than any other experience.

It is estimated that the sportswear industry is worth approximately $33bn, and counterfeiting is a growing issue, especially during globally renowned events such as the World Cup which has already seen multiple seizure operations of counterfeit merchandise. Connected garments are the future of sportswear. Innovations in sportwear such as 'smart' numbers and invisible digital triggers which can be scanned with a smart phone. These innovations exist to boost consumer engagement as they have the power to unlock exclusive content such as match day information, quizzes and competitions for fans. They are also used to prove authenticity of the garments. Michael Colarossi is the vice president of Innovation and Product Line Management for Avery Dennison RBIS. In this role, Michael is responsible for RBIS' portfolio of products and solutions, product line strategies, and technical product innovation. He also leads the division's sustainability, social, and product compliance efforts. Listen in as we discuss how digital solutions can help brands and consumers, especially from a sustainability point of view, and stop fake merch.

Aaron Goldman, CMO, Mediaocean joins me in a discussion about "The Golden Crunch Point". As we are all aware, we are entering that time in the marketing calendar where for many brands, the majority of their revenue and sales are made – the Golden Quarter. These three months have always been huge but this year it has been amplified with the continued unpredictable headwinds of cost of living, changing consumer confidence and a potential recession. The crunch point for brands is that, while retail sales are expected to be lower this year - while consumers are more cautious of what they spend their money on - they still to need to make revenue. Aaron discusses "the four must haves" brands and retailers need for their Golden Quarter campaigns this year to entice new and existing customers outside discount and deals. With $200 billion in annualized ad spend running through its software, I also learn more about how Mediaocean provides foundational solutions to connect brands, agencies, media, technology, and data. About Mediaocean Mediaocean is the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising. With more than $200 billion in annualized media spend managed through its software, Mediaocean connects brands, agencies, media, technology, and data. Using AI and machine learning technology to control marketing investments and optimize business outcomes, Mediaocean powers campaigns from planning, buying, ad serving, and creative personalization to analysis, optimization, invoices, and payments. Mediaocean employs 1,700 staff across 30 global offices and supports over 100,000 people using its products

Sergio Esteve De Miguel is the co-founder of Bigle Legal, an innovative legaltech startup from Barcelona. Together with his brother, he wanted to combine their expertise in business and technology to transform the legal industry. Sergio believes technology can change how legal professionals approach their jobs and make their work lives much more enjoyable and productive. In today's episode, Sergio shares his story, the problems they are trying to solve, the future of legal operations, and how intuitiveness is critical in a contract lifecycle management or tech solution. About Bigle Legal Bigle Legal is a Contract Lifecycle Management Software, provides an AI-powered, cloud-based solution that automates the legal operations of a company while improving safety and minimizing the risk of legal contingencies. A pioneer tech company and leader in the field of document automation from Spain, with a presence in the UK, Austria, Netherlands and Italy, and has a network reseller across Europe and Latin America. Its clients include real estate companies, corporations, and large law firms. The platform is precise, flexible, and intuitive, providing full control over the entire document life cycle.

Philipp Pointner leads Jumio's digital identity strategy and the initiative to enable multiple digital identity providers in its ecosystem. Prior to Jumio, Philipp was responsible for paysafecard, Europe's most popular prepaid solution for online purchases. As well as sharing his personal experience in the technology industry and the projects he's worked on, Philipp discusses how digital identity for identity verification is a great place to start when it comes to building an ecosystem of trust. Listen in as we explore the different ways digital identity can make everyday transactions safer and easier for consumers while also improving people's online experience with brands Finally, we discuss why it's important to not just 'Know Your Customer' but 'Know Your Business' in order to navigate business challenges without compromising on security.

In July, Gartner introduced Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). In practice, CTEM is a set of processes and capabilities that allow organizations to evaluate the accessibility, exposure and exploitability of all digital and physical assets. The objective of CTEM is to create an actionable security posture remediation and improvement plan that business executives can understand, and architecture teams can act on. Haggai Polak, CPO of Skybox Security discusses what this new process means for enterprise security. Haggai also shares how Skybox has observed the approach in practice to help organizations better understand how exposure management can help stay ahead of today's cybersecurity threats.

Simon Mellin and his friends founded Modern Milkman in 2018 to reduce waste while making sustainable choices convenient and accessible to all. Modern Milkman set out to tackle the problem of single-use plastic packaging and food waste to ultimately protect the environment by reinventing the milk round. In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Simon shares how his inspiration came after watching David Attenborough's 'Blue Planet' TV show and the global aim of cutting single-use plastics from ending up in the ocean in a trash area five times the size of France. I also learn more about how sustainability, supporting independent suppliers, farmers, and plastic waste reduction remain at the heart of his mission. But it's data and AI that make all this possible. We discuss how Modern Milkman uses technology to deliver on its mission and transform the consumer experience. I learn how critical it is for customers to have what they ordered on time and the key to execution is capturing all the data points and running live analytics on the data so that Modern Milkman can map deliveries and predict demand and order flows to ensure no waste. Simon also speaks about the role of ThoughtSpot as part of the Modern Milkman data story and how it powers both business growth as well as Modern Milkman's mission.

Måns Ulvestam and his co-founders, Karl Rosander and Markus Ahlstrand, sold their shares in Acast to launch a new book, audio, and news platform, Sesamy. The platform allows users to buy only what they need, when they need it, and access it on any device or app through single purchases. In addition, no subscription is needed to access (and own) digital content. They've already rolled out in Sweden and Denmark, and have significant expansion plans in place. By using their own unique SmartID software, Sesamy can ensure a single-purchase option does not cannibalize existing subscription income. Instead, it creates an additional, incremental revenue stream to support publishers and provide consumers with flexible options in a time of considerable financial uncertainty. Sesamy have exciting upcoming plans for this software in the news/magazine sectors in particular. With inflation through the roof, and troubles ahead, the worst is arguably yet to come for those wedded to subscription models. It plausibly figures that the publishing sector, already facing a downturn in ad revenues, will also see the same trend as consumers cut back and grow ever tired of 'peak subscription'. Given these developments, subscription-dependent sectors are crying out for an alternative and are now increasingly finding they've optimized their own subscriber numbers. Growth is tailing off, and at risk of declining rapidly with these self-evident economic pressures.

Greg Sloan, CFP®, CEPA, CPM™, is a Chief Purpose Officer and Co-Founder of Go Beyond. This People Development company combines Behavioral Science and Technology to improve well-being in the workplace. With over 25+ years of experience in financial services, Greg is a serial founder who discovered his purpose and wants to share the knowledge of how to achieve this same goal with others. He is a thought leader who centers his time and energy on purpose and people, focusing on purpose in the workplace, the future of work, and financial wellness. Go Beyond's mission is to create scalable, science-based tools and content that can be easily distributed worldwide to enable people to live better lives. They accomplish this by activating purpose in the workplace to help companies recruit, grow, and retain workers. Research shows that aligning company and personal goals improves productivity, retention, and overall wellness in the workplace. After consecutive pandemic years, employee burnout has become a ubiquitous problem, impacting companies of every size, industry, and level. The consequences are devastating and far-reaching, negatively impacting people's personal and professional lives. For example, one employee survey found that a staggering 77 percent of employees are experiencing burnout at their current job. This reality is exacerbating already-high employee turnover rates, which reached historic highs this year, reorienting the workforce in real-time. As a result, four in five HR leaders say that mental health and employee well-being are top priorities for their companies. Today's episode discusses how Purpose Pulse enables companies and coaches to measure individual and organizational well-being. In addition, we explore how the combination of behavioral science and technology can help diagnose the root causes of disengagement, turnover, and burnout to allow organizations to allocate resources effectively to the most needed employee assistance programs.

Businesses across the country are already cutting costs amid the looming recession. From hiring freezes to trimming headcount, difficult decisions are already being made. As customers and clients try to cancel and tighten contracts, Kraig Swensrud shares the hardest questions he's getting in the sales and renewals conversations right now, and how to handle them. Kraig has led two companies through acquisition and is now the CEO of Qualified, which just raise $95M for their Series C. Even with an average 4,000% ROI across customers, Kraig is still having to navigate customers trying to cut costs.

Arjun Rai, serial entrepreneur and founder of the crowdsource-funded HelloWoofy.com joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. His passion for technology and helping entrepreneurs and small businesses compete with the unlimited marketing budgets of their corporate competitors through digital marketing and equity fundraising make him a perfect fit for the show. Arjun offers tips for anyone struggling to keep up with post creation, scheduling, integrations etc. For startup founders, he also shares his experiences with equity crowdfunding, scaling a startup and how to survive and thrive as a founder.

Sparkseeker is a new, healthy alternative to current social apps that combines humane data practices, emotional wellness, and social good in one video-centric platform. It's fully built and launched its crowdfunding campaign earlier this summer, and crowdfunding contributors will receive early access to the app's private beta testing phase. As more and more people look to social media to share and further the causes most important to them, Sparkseeker's unique, action-focused features make online advocacy easy. At the same time, Seekers (the app's term for users) can post freely about their everyday lives without worrying about anonymous comments or bots, thanks to the app's fully video-based model. In addition, Sparkseeker's use of responsible technology and neuroscience-supported features ensures a healthier Seeker experience without invasive data practices, harmful algorithms, or in-stream ads. Sparkseeker's Founder and CEO, Kalista Zackhariyas, shares her incredibly engaging story about building a new healthy alternative to current social media apps.

Claire Vo, Chief Product Officer at Color, shares how she went from tech to healthcare. At Color, Claire leads the engineering, product management, data, and design teams to develop the company's population health platform, services, and technology. She joined Color from Optimizely, where she was Chief Product Officer, building enterprise-grade experimentation and progressive delivery products. After spending her entire career in tech, Claire made the jump into healthcare when she realized how the pandemic revealed just how inaccessible much of the U.S. health infrastructure is for people who need it most. The digital health industry boomed during the pandemic, with a proliferation of new services to address every part of the care ecosystem, but it also revealed just how inaccessible much of the U.S. health infrastructure is for people who need it most. Based on her current position at Color, a company focused on delivering a scalable public health infrastructure for millions, Claire discusses what it means to build a healthcare product focused on increasing access for millions and how companies can build infrastructure for scaled impact. Within digital health, Claire is passionate about the fact that software alone cannot solve public health crises – a notion which was proven through many companies' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare. There is a tendency to believe better tech is always the answer, but while the right software can reduce friction and drive better insights, healthcare is essentially a human interaction at the end of the day. It requires a hybrid model that incorporates both better technology and the personal touch of a visit to the doctor's office or a pharmacy.

François Candelon, Global Director of the BCG Henderson Institute – BCG's research think tank, joins me in a conversation about the growth of the many metaverses. Listen in as we talk about how the race is on to capture digital engagement. With 30 years in tech and as a global team leader analyzing the impact of the Metaverse through research, François discusses what metaverses actually exist and their purpose in shaping the future, from full-second digital lives (for work and play) to gaming communities and even crypto-centric marketplaces. We also talk about how organizations across industries can and must understand these rival metaverses before engaging. Finally, we look into who is winning the Metaverse and who the wild card contenders will be. About François Candelon: François Candelon is the Global Director of the BCG Henderson Institute, Boston Consulting Group's think tank dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. He is also a leader of BCG GAMMA's AI@Scale effort for technology, media, and telecommunications companies. GAMMA is BCG's data science and advanced analytics unit. François joined BCG in 1993. He has worked in several European countries, led BCG's global telecommunications work from 2008 to 2012, and spent seven years in China, where he worked with the most advanced tech companies. His research is focused on AI and digital as a source of competitive advantage for businesses and national economies. His work has been published in several prestigious reviews (Harvard Business Review, MIT, and Sloan Management Review). He has also been a speaker in global conferences like Mobile World Congress, TED@BCG, Web Summit, Politico AI Summit, and Wuzhen Internet Conference.

Research from Accenture found that most CEOs list becoming a sustainable and responsible business as a top priority, even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, companies with higher sustainability performance also perform better financially than their peers. As meeting ESG benchmarks becomes a requirement, not simply a goal, Accenture recently shared its sustainability roadmap, including priorities, learnings, and best practices. I invited Accenture's internal global IT organization/Accenture CIO Penelope Prett to join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss her strategy that focuses on three key pillars: Data: Sustainability commitments require greater access to sustainability data and environmental sustainability reporting tools that can identify trends in specific products or locations and build bridges to end goals. Cloud optimization: Optimizing migrations to the public cloud can reduce global carbon emissions by 59 million tons of CO2 annually. Accenture runs 95% of its infrastructure in the cloud, which led to an estimated reduction of 220 metric tons of carbon emissions in only nine months. Value Chains: Driving supplier engagement through data platforms and procurement hubs to influence responsible buying decisions and help businesses optimize their supplier base. We discuss how delivering on the promise of sustainable technology means that CIOs must embed sustainability into the core of operations to help the business achieve sustainability goals while also managing the environmental impact of the technology itself.

Venafi®, the inventor and leading provider of machine identity management, recently announced new research findings that evaluate the security impact of the increasing number of nation-state attacks and recent shifts in geopolitics. The survey of over 1,100 security decision-makers (SDMs) globally found that 66% of organizations have changed their cybersecurity strategy as a direct response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, while nearly two-thirds (64%) suspect their organization has been either directly targeted or impacted by a nation-state cyberattack. I invited Kevin Bocek to join me on the podcast to discuss how cybersecurity has become intertwined with geopolitics, with state-backed hackers using cybercrime to advance their nation's wider political, economic, and military goals. I learn how everyone is a target, and unlike a kinetic warfare attack, only you can defend your business against nation-state cyberattacks. There is no cyber-Iron Dome or cyber-NORAD. Every CEO and board must recognize that cybersecurity is one of the top three business risks for everyone, regardless of industry." We also discuss the Venafi research into the methods used by nation-state threat actors shows the use of machine identities is growing in state-sponsored cyberattacks. The digital certificates and cryptographic keys that serve as machine identities are the foundation of security for all secure digital transactions. Machine identities are used by everything from physical devices and to software to communicate securely.

Idit Levine, founder, and CEO of Solo.io, shares her inspirational tech startup story with me on Tech Talks Daily. Her journey took her from playing basketball professionally in her home country of Israel to founding Solo.io in 2017, the modern service connectivity company that's already valued at $1 billion! Idit shares with me the lessons she has learned along the way including how to scale as a CEO, hiring in the current market, and how to monetize open-source services.

Greg Gould is the COO of Dexioprotocol (DEXI), a crypto-based gaming company with several utilities. Their flagship product, DexiHunter, aims to be the "Pokemon Go" of cryptocurrency, and it allows players to earn crypto by hunting and collecting bounties around their cities. I invited Greg to join me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about Dexioprotocol and the worldwide adoption of crypto bounty hunting. We discuss how gaming is helping to get more people interested in cryptocurrencies and the future of blockchain, and we reflect on what's happening in the market.

Many B2B companies are struggling to truly innovate their operating models. As a result, leading companies in high-tech, industrial, medical device, and other B2B tech markets are hesitating to take the steps necessary to change how they build and deliver their solutions. They are carrying too much baggage―high labor costs, slow time to customer value, under-responsive sales and services―into a future that won't stand for it. That's true even though the technologies are available to enable the changes NOW. Digital Hesitation is a technology business book that examines why most B2B companies fail to reach the full potential of their digital transformation efforts. The authors join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how the book is written from the perspectives of a dozen experts who interact with and advise the world's top technology companies daily. About J.B. Wood J.B. Wood is president and CEO of the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), the leading association for today's technology and services organizations. Through TSIA, Wood advises the world's largest B2B technology companies on strategies to increase growth and profitability by optimizing their services, sales, product, and channel operations. Wood is a best-selling author and frequent industry speaker on the topics of business outcome engineering, X-as-a-Service (XaaS) business models, transformations in the traditional customer-supplier relationship, and TSIA's LAER customer engagement model (Land, Adopt, Expand, and Renew). He has also appeared in such leading publications as Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. About Thomas E. Lah Thomas Lah is the executive director and executive vice president of the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), the leading association for today's technology and services organizations. For over 20 years, he has been helping some of the world's largest technology. About TSIA The Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA) is the world's leading research organization dedicated to helping technology companies achieve profitable growth and solve their top business challenges. 80% of the Fortune 100 technology companies have a TSIA membership, and executives from these companies look to TSIA for data and guidance that helps them make the right business decisions to ensure success.

Four years ago, I spoke with Todd Olson, millionaire CEO and co-founder of software development platform Pendo - the man on a mission to elevate the world's experiences with software. The serial entrepreneur famously teamed up with product leaders and technologists from Red Hat, Cisco, and Google to launch Pendo in October 2013. Fast forward to 2022, and Pendo has gone on to raise $356 million in venture capital, land more than 2,300 customers, and employ 900 people across seven offices around the globe. Pendo also landed on the Forbes Cloud 100 and Inc. Best Workplaces lists for the fourth year in a row in 2021. Todd returns to Tech Talks Daly to share further insights around the recently released fourth annual State of Product Leadership Report. We explore trends impacting product management, the evolution of the Product Manager role, and how Europe is faring in terms of product-led digital transformation. Todd also talks about how he used his knowledge of the digital economy to help community banks meet surge of demand for online services and encourage schools to make the most out of their educational software throughout the height of the pandemic.

One is the largest generation in the US, and the other is at the forefront of shaping expectations for brands — so how does marketing to Gen Z and millennials really work? Millennials, born between 1981-1996, make up 23% of the global population and 21% of the US population, meaning they are the largest demographic by age. Gen Z refers to people born between the mid to late '90s and the 2010s and is the most diverse generation in human history. Despite some being close in age, they vary significantly in the type of marketing that resonates with them. For example, Millennials are known for driving a perfect aesthetic, while Gen Z rejected the trend by actively trying to avoid it. This means that to appeal to both generations, businesses must strike the perfect balance of authentic and 'real' while also offering the same sense of aspiration. Carissa Flinders shares with me her insights on what technology each generation is using and how brands can leverage tech to better communicate with audiences.

I have invited Mark Hughes from DXC technology to join me on Tech Talks Daily to share insights around best practices for securing complex IT environments. We also discuss cyber security approaches for fighting the enemy within and how to make cyber security a top priority for boards and CFOs. Finally, we dare to explore smart security in the metaverse, and Mark shares a few Cyber security tales from the trenches. About Mark: Mark Hughes is president of Security for DXC Technology. He is responsible for DXC's Security business including cyber defense, digital identity, secured infrastructure and security risk management. Mark joined DXC from BT, a world-leading global telecommunications provider, where he most recently served as chief executive of BT Security. He joined BT in 2002 and held a variety of senior appointments, including key government customer-facing roles. In 2013 Mark led the formation of BT Security, which has become a global leader with 3,000 cyber security experts across 15 security operation centers globally and double-digit annual revenue growth. Earlier in his career, Mark was the commercial director at MWB Business Exchange. He began his career in the British Army. Mark has served on national boards, including the Cyber Growth Partnership for the United KingdomKingdom, and the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Cybersecurity Board. Awarded a BS with honors by the University of Leicester, Mark trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and the Junior Division of Staff College. He was awarded advanced military certificates in French and German from the University of Westminster.

CBRE Group's Chief Digital and Technology Officer Sandeep Dave joins me on Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss how technology impacts the commercial real estate industry. I also learn more about how they recently piloted a program to test collaborative tools used in virtual worlds for onboarding, training, and hybrid work. About Sandeep Dave Sandeep Dave leads the company's digital strategy and execution globally. He and his team provide the technology capabilities and infrastructure to support CBRE and CBRE's clients and professionals across the globe. He is also a member of CBRE's Global Executive Committee. Prior to his current role, Dave served as Chief Digital and Technology Officer for CBRE's Global Workplace Solutions business with responsibility for digital enablement and transformation of the business. Prior to CBRE, Dave headed digital strategy and transformation for Citibank leading the firm's digital agenda across businesses and geographies globally. In his role, he helped Citi respond to digital trends and effectively compete and win in the face of changing customer expectations and emerging disruption. About CBRE Group CBRE group is one of world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. With deep market knowledge, superior data and proprietary technology, their multi-dimensional perspective helps you use real estate to transform your business and find greater success. Their mission is to realize the potential of clients, professionals and partners by building the real estate solutions of the future. From instilling confidence in today's decisions to re-imagining tomorrow's spaces, they thrive in complex and ever-changing environments.

MailChimp recently decided to clamp down on crypto companies. Given the ramifications of this move for web3 projects, I invited Gerald Heydenreich of EtherMail on the podcast. We discuss how the first Web 3.0 email solution is setting the standard for anonymous and encrypted wallet-to-wallet communication. Think Gmail + MailChimp + Metamask and you have EtherMail. EtherMail recently closed a $3 million seed round, led by top Web3 investors Fabric Ventures and Greenfield One. Founded in Q4 2021 by serial entrepreneurs Shant Kevonian and Gerald Heydenreich, EtherMail is the first web3 tool to allow web3 companies to send rich, relevant content directly to their asset holders based on blockchain-synced real-time information.

When you stream your favorite songs on Spotify, the owners (rightsholders) of that music are eligible to receive money (royalties). On anotherblock, owners of music sell NFTs containing a share of the streaming royalty rights of your favorite songs. As an NFT owner, you will receive your share of the streaming royalties. anotherblock is a community of music lovers building music rights catalogs. The company was founded in 2021 by entrepreneurs Michel D. Traore, Sebastian Ljungberg, and Filip Strömsten. anotherblock was built upon the idea that accessing music rights should be easy and democratic. By connecting music rights to NFTs, anotherblock creates a smooth and easy way to both buy and sell music rights - a community of music lovers building music rights catalogs together with artists. Michel D. Traore joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about the story behind the company and improving the value of music by introducing it to a free and open market. I learn more about their mission to solve the institutionalized imbalance of power within the industry with technology. We also talk about how the marketplace for music royalty NFTs is following on its first rapid-fire sell-out drops to offer shares in the streaming income from Alan Walker's track, "Alone, Pt. II," a pop-perfect ballad with vocals by Ava Max. Each of the 500 anotherblook NFTs gives holders the rights to 0.001% share of streaming revenue from the song.

Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of enterprise tech/IoT company Software AG joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss why successful digital transformation hinges on two criteria. I learn more about the importance of cultural transformation and talent – and how to leverage both to modernize your enterprise. We also talk about the roadblocks businesses face when undergoing company-wide strategic changes, and how to get buy-in from leaders to push forth that change. He also shares the leadership lessons he's learned, including resilience and patience in the face of such a large, strategic transformation. About Sanjay Joining Software AG in 2018, Sanjay initiated a multi-year journey to convert the business to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based model. Called the Helix transformation, the strategic shift has required buy-in from stakeholders and employees and a change in sales models, processes and internal culture. The five-year transformation, undeterred by the challenges brought on the COVID-19 pandemic, recently celebrate its third year. The program has been successful to date, seeing total recurring revenue growing, with 2021 seeing a 10% YOY increase, driven by six consecutive quarters of double-digit bookings growth within its Digital Business. The proportion of Subscription and SaaS bookings in the Digital Business – a key indicator of the transformation – continued to increase to 88% for 2021.

In its latest SMB technology forecast, Analysys Mason predicted that IT spending by SMBs will grow at a growth rate of 7.5% between 2022 and 2027. In addition, cloud-based categories are expected to grow from USD $600 billion in 2022 to USD $1.0 trillion in 2027. Bob Takacs, Research Director and SMB IT practice leader at Analysys Mason, commented on the forecast, "Our latest forecast reveals the shift in SMBs' behavior and priorities since the pandemic. We see increased investments in categories driving resiliency and efficiency. This is an important release because we accounted for the impact of three critical drivers, including SMB's changing behaviors post-pandemic, macroeconomic headwinds, and the global political unrest." Bob joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how the report suggests that SMB's spending priorities include IT solutions that support efficiency, resiliency, and business continuity. We also discuss how three categories will account for almost half of all spending; managed services, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Finally, we talk about how a distributed workforce and hybrid working practices will continue to influence IT spending.

HarperDB's CEO Stephen Goldberg shared the story behind the company with me in July on episode #2028. We discussed how their technology is changing other companies in unique and innovative ways. But this time, I have invited Jaxon Repp, Head of Product, on the podcast to learn more from his twenty-five years of experience architecting, designing, and developing enterprise software. Jaxon is the founder of three technology startups and has consulted with multiple Fortune 500 companies on IoT and Digital Transformation initiatives. The partially-reformed developer understands what it's like to wrestle with technology instead of benefiting from it, He also believes that if the Jetsons never had an episode where a config file error brought down the food-o-Matic, it surely should not be a problem now. Join me in learning more from Jaxon Repp.

Rakesh Jayaprakash from ManageEngine joins me on Tech Talks Daily as discuss how Analytics Plus was originally an on-premises IT analytics solution. Recently though, Rakesh and his team finished transforming the product into a SaaS solution that allows IT to connect several data sources into an integrated analytics platform that can be deployed on private and public clouds including AWS and Azure. This will help organizations attain faster time to market, increase productivity, curb expenditure, and garner more revenue. Rakesh also discusses the decision to evolve Analytics plus into a SaaS offering, share the journey of doing so, and the value this update will bring to IT teams.

There is so much hype around emerging technologies, but I want to move beyond the buzzwords, demystify the technology, and understand the business value and tangible results it can offer. So today, I want to talk about Edge Computing. AtlasEdge, the leading pan-European edge data centre provider, recently appeared on my radar after they announced the acquisition of Datacenter One ("DC1"), the leading German provider for data centre development. The company is also rapidly gaining a reputation as a leading European Edge data centre platform with over 100 locations across 13 countries. Giuliano Di Vitantonio, CEO of AtlasEdge, joins me on Tech Talks Dailyto discuss how their distributed data centre portfolio allows their customers to plan and shape their technology and network infrastructure to meet the growing requirements for lower latency, higher performance, and localised solutions.

Experts are predicting an economic downturn in the coming months. Tech companies across the US have already implemented hiring freezes and are trimming up to 20% of their workforce. Unfortunately, this means that corporate sustainability initiatives will also likely fall by the wayside to save cash. In the wake of the recession and the new wave of globalization, Jag Lamba, founder of Certa, discusses specific practices that businesses can implement to prioritize ESG, mitigate risk, and maintain visibility into their supply chain, where 70% of all risk lies. Jag also shares the story behind Certa's no-code platform and how it was designed to make it easy to digitize and manage the lifecycle of all suppliers, partners, and customers. With automated onboarding, contract lifecycle management, and ESG management, Certa eliminates the procurement bottleneck and allows companies to onboard third-parties 3x faster.

On this podcast, I pride myself on sharing stories from all over the world and have interviewed guests from more than 75 countries. Today, I am going to take you on a trip to the Czech Republic, where Artur Kane from Good Access is going to discuss the importance of establishing an encrypted connection between employees and business systems from wherever they're working. Artur is also regarded as a passionate speaker on protecting remote workers and company data in a digital world at industry events and often contributes to security/networking magazines. We discuss how zero trust access control provides a more secure alternative to corporate VPN for remote working security and how companies can move from VPN to zero trust access.

According to a recent Gartner study, DEI is one of the top five business priorities for businesses in 2022. However, hybrid and in-person work environments could jeopardize company access to talent. So while more organizations are doubling down on diversity and inclusion efforts and implementing consequential reporting, meeting those goals still remains a challenge for many corporations. One way to help increase diversity in an organization is to provide opportunities for growth from the entry-level employee sector. Ahva Sadeghi, Co-Founder & CEO of Symba shares with me how remote internship programs allow employers to access diverse talent and fill their future hiring pipeline. Ahva also shares her inspirational tech startup story and ways remote positions can feed an overall DEI strategy, and how they contribute to tenure, culture, and overall company wellness.

Lugano's Plan ₿ Forum is a Bitcoin conference bringing together world leaders, technologists, and entrepreneurs to discuss nation-state Bitcoin adoption, economics, financial freedom, and freedom of speech. Although I am not attending the event, I did get to spend a little time with Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether and Bitfinex to discuss the Plan B forum. We discuss how Bitfinex and Tether's actions for financial freedom might influence the rest of the world and fight for innovation through governmental, corporate, individual, and technological tracks. We also talk about how Bitfinex is participating in Adopting Bitcoin in El Salvador in November. Finally, we dare to imagine IT without any infrastructure or reliance on the cloud.

Many are citing open source as the future. The UK Government's National Data Strategy even talks about the importance of opening public sector datasets to form the backbone of innovation, efficiency, and growth. This is a trend that Databricks is betting on in a big way. Databricks is the lakehouse company. More than 7,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, H&M, and over 40% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform to unify their data, analytics and AI. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe. Founded by the original creators of Apache Spark™, Delta Lake and MLflow, Databricks is on a mission to help data teams solve the world's toughest problems. I have invited Dael Williamson, EMEA CTO, Field Advisory & Engineering at Databricks, to join me on Tech Talks Daily to share the story behind the company and how they are helping data teams solve the world's most challenging problems.

Kenny William is the "Senior Director of Distribution Center Wizardry" at Parts Town, the world's largest distributer of OEM parts for the food service industry. Parts Town has made significant automation improvements at its recently expanded 300,000 sq. ft. distribution center. The company implemented AutoStore, an automatic storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) that has helped improve picking accuracy by more than 50% and handles 72% of parts picks in only 7% of the total distribution center space. The distribution center also features over 100 robots and an elevated conveyor belt that moves parts throughout the space without taking up additional floor space. Kenny joins me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about their supply chain innovations in this unique market segment and discuss how these investments are transforming Parts Town team members into tech-savvy professionals. Kenny shares with me how they are using technology to circumvent supply chain challenges for OEMs and the purchasers of these parts (restaurant owners, service companies, etc.).

NETSCOUT recently announced findings from its DDoS Threat Intelligence Report. The findings demonstrate how sophisticated cybercriminals have become at bypassing defences with new DDoS attack vectors and successful methodologies. "By constantly innovating and adapting, attackers are designing new, more effective DDoS attack vectors or doubling down on existing effective methodologies," said Richard Hummel, threat intelligence lead at NETSCOUT. "In the first half of 2022, attackers conducted more pre-attack reconnaissance, exercised a new attack vector called TP240 PhoneHome, created a tsunami of TCP flooding attacks, and rapidly expanded high-powered botnets to plague network-connected resources. In addition, bad actors have openly embraced online aggression with high-profile DDoS attack campaigns related to geopolitical unrest, which have had global implications." NETSCOUT's Active Level Threat Analysis System (ATLAS™) compiles DDoS attack statistics from most of the world's ISPs, large data centres, and government and enterprise networks. This data represents intelligence on attacks occurring in over 190 countries, 550 industries, and 50,000 autonomous system numbers (ASNs). NETSCOUT's ATLAS Security Engineering and Response Team (ASERT) analyses and curates this data to provide unique insights in its biannual report. When I hear phrases such as DNS water-torture attacks and carpet-bombing attacks on the rise combined with a new Netscout Threat Intelligence report, I immediately reached out to my go-to guy for cybersecurity threats. Richard Hummel rejoins me on Tech TAlks Daily to discuss the news in more detail and demystify some of the terminologies around the threat landscape.

Today, every B2B omnichannel retail user experience is expected to be seamless, without boundaries for users, with well-aligned journeys and a fully integrated experience across all channels. But can one truly achieve that in a big company, with a huge history and complex processes, while keeping customers happy and engaged? Rehan Saleem, Product Manager, and Tobias Schröder, Ph.D., Product Manager, joined me in a conversation on the show floor at Sitecore Symposium 2022 about powering brand experiences. At the event, their presentation, "How to (not) ruin a B2B organization," focused on the challenges of creating and maintaining a seamless user experience and keeping a great relationship with our customers. Tobias and Rehan share with me how their teams manage to build human-centered solutions while handling business models and METRO shops in 23 countries. We also discuss personalization technology and experience platforms.

As Chief Technology Officer and Senior PE for Intel Corporation, Steve Orrin orchestrates and executes customer engagements in the Federal space, overseeing the development of federal solution architectures to address challenges in a government enterprise, national security, and other federal areas of focus. In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, Steve joins me in a discussion about the key trends in cybersecurity. Steve reveals the latest threats and techniques used against corporations and governments and shares the best practices to help. We also discuss the security/risk concerns around supply chain security and what organizations can do today and in the future to address or reduce this risk. With trust being top of mind for CISOs, Steve also advises how organizations can adopt Zero Trust Architectures and what new security innovations are waiting on the horizon. About Steve Orrin Steve Orrin offers three decades of extraordinary success in a series of high-level roles at top-tier companies that include Intel Corporation, Sarvega, Watchfire Inc., Sanctum Inc., First Genetic Trust Inc., Lockstar Inc., and SynData Technologies Inc. He has developed a reputation as an industry leader, leveraging a history of delivering results in Innovation, Intrapreneurship, and Entrepreneurship. He is a Tech-enabled business professional who has launched and scaled companies and brought innovative industry-leading products to market. Steve's invaluable expertise and broad business range have powered a history of developing successful products, technologies, and new markets. Such traits have consistently enabled Steve to achieve an impressive command of the skills needed to manage ongoing business planning processes while developing strategies to meet future challenges.

I have been watching many keynotes at Symposium, and two of the speakers from Sitecore's leadership team are joining me on the podcast today. First of all, we are going to speak to Dave O'Flanagan, CPO at Sitecore, who will walk me through the big announcements at this year's event. We discuss Content Hub One, a new AI-powered standalone search derived from Sitecore's Reflektion acquisition and Sitecore Connect. We will then meet Nick Malone, COO, who has some great insights to share with me about how enterprises can create superior digital experiences. We discuss the need to operate in a state of always-on innovation and adapt to the ever-evolving expectations of consumers. About Nick Malone Nick is a proven executive with 24 years of leadership experience within both client and vendor roles spanning UK, Europe, Middle East, USA, Russia and Central Asia. Extensive experience in sales leadership and business development within both mature & emerging markets and in the management of diverse cultures, complex business environments and an extended ecosystem of national and international alliance partners & national & global corporations About Dave O'Flanagan Dave O'Flanagan is the Chief Product Officer in Sitecore. Sitecore delivers a digital experience platform that empowers the world's smartest brands to build lifelong relationships with their customers. An industry leader, Sitecore is the only company bringing together content, commerce, and data into one connected platform that delivers millions of digital experiences every day. Leading companies including American Express, ASOS, Kimberly-Clark, L'Oréal and Volvo Cars rely on Sitecore to provide more engaging, personalised experiences for their customers. Previously the CEO & Co-Founder of Boxever, a personalisation platform that uses data and AI to help the world's biggest brands make every customer interaction smarter and deliver game-changing customer experience.