Tech Talks Daily

There is a lot of talk around autonomous vehicles and electric cars right now, and I wanted to demystify this world. This path led me to Cyngn, a developer of innovative autonomous driving solutions for industrial and commercial enterprises that recently announced its partnership with Columbia Vehicle Group. Lior Tal shares the story behind the company, the road to the partnership with Columbia, and current trends shaping the market. I also learn more about how Cyngn's autonomous vehicle capabilities are powered by DriveMod, an end-to-end solution that can be integrated with Columbia vehicles – or any vehicle. DriveMod enables vehicles to switch easily between manual, remotely-controlled, and fully autonomous modes. Autonomous vehicle technology brings various benefits to industrial organizations by increasing efficiency, continuity and making it easier for workers to stay focused on their most mission-critical tasks. The pairing of Cyngn's DriveMod with Columbia's fleet of electric utility vehicles means material handling organizations can begin to implement autonomy today.

Dr. Chase Cunningham, CSO of Ericom Software released a techno-thriller book during Cyber Awareness Month titled "C:\>_gAbrIel." This book draws on Chase's real-world experience as a technologist and how cyber warfare, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged by bad actors. Although fiction, the information in this book offers a glimpse at what can potentially happen in the future if these technologies remain unchecked. Chase's background includes interacting with national security and intelligence communities, countering cybercriminal actions, and building and deploying secure systems to counter malicious cyber threats. About Chase Dr. Chase Cunningham primarily guides client initiatives related to security operations center (SOC) planning and optimization, counter-threat operations, encryption, network security, and strategic concepts and implementation. In addition, he helps senior technology executives with their plans to leverage comprehensive security controls and the use of a variety of standards, frameworks, and tools to enable secure business operations. Chase has served as a director of cyber threat intelligence operations at Armor. He was the computer network exploitation lead for Telecommunication Systems and the chief of cyber analytics for Decisive Analytics. Dr. Cunningham is also a retired U.S. Navy Chief with more than 20 years' experience in cyber forensic and cyber analytic operations. He has past operations experience, stemming from time spent in work centers within the NSA, CIA, FBI, and other government agencies.

Chris Harris from Couchbase joins me in a conversation about the challenges that businesses continue to face with legacy technology. Using the database industry as a case in point, we discuss how business' legacy arrangements hinder their chances of being competitive in the post-COVID, digital-first world. Chris argues that reliance on legacy database technology such as Oracle is holding them back from achieving their digital goals. We also talk about cloud and IoT to AI, and even 5G calls for a much higher level of data agility than legacy databases can provide. In Chris' view, one of the key reasons businesses struggle to move away from legacy tech is skills; often and companies lack the resources to adopt more modern alternatives that are better suited to meeting digital transformation requirements. Finally, Chris offers his thoughts on where he sees the database industry moving next, looking at emerging technologies that businesses increasingly demand, such as edge computing or real-time analytics, and explaining how the database industry is evolving to support them. At Couchbase, they believe data is at the heart of the enterprise. They empower developers and architects to build, deploy, and run their mission-critical applications. Many of the world's largest enterprises rely on Couchbase to power the core applications their businesses depend on.

Could the API revolution and the digital transformation be exposing everyone to security risks? An API is the connective tissue that binds together cloud-native architecture and enables us to enjoy digital services. While these are fundamental for the way we work and live, they're exposing organizations to a new domain of security risk. Peter Klimek, Director of Technology, Office of the CTO at Imperva joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast in a conversation about the benefits, and pitfalls, of APIs. Imperva is a cybersecurity leader with a mission to protect data and all paths to it. They protect the data of over 6,000 global customers from cyberattacks through all stages of their digital transformation. Their products are informed by the Imperva Research Lab, an international threat intelligence community that feeds the latest security and compliance expertise into our solutions.

Terra Virtua is the world's first fully immersive social digital collectables platform. Given your expertise in this area, I invited Jawad Ashraf, CTO, and Co-Founder of the company, onto the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. Launched in 2016, Terra Virtua is on a mission to turbo-charge fandom - from art to sports, music to movies, games to comics - with the world's first fully immersive platform for buying, sharing, trading, exhibiting, and interacting with digital collectibles. As the world has started shifting the digital realm – from working to shopping, entertaining, and connecting with friends and family Terra Virtua is at the start of using the internet as a virtual world. NFTs isn't an evolution of traditional collecting; it's a whole new form of entertainment. I learn how Terra Virtua is revolutionizing the way people experience digital tokens, and it's the only place where fans can buy and own 2D, 3D, or animated collectibles. We also discuss how Terra Virtua ensures that the environment doesn't pay a heavy price for this game-changing technology and has just switched to Polygon – a new, energy-efficient, scaled blockchain solution. Since launching, Terra Virtua has collaborated with numerous industry leaders, such as Paramount Pictures and Legendary Entertainment, to bring the best NFT content and collaborations to their platforms. The brand has big plans for growth and creating a whole new form of entertainment for its fans.

Firdosh Sheikh is the Co-founder and CEO of DRIFE, a decentralized Ride-hailing platform powered by blockchain to empower both the drivers and the riders without any existence of a central entity. Firdosh shares her powerful origin story that she calls 'the ride that changed my life.' I learn why ride-hailing is crying out for innovation. Despite being a huge global market, drivers, riders, and ride-hailing platforms are all struggling. Uber still is not making profits. So one of the original big disruptive industries is crying out for disruption itself. We discuss how DRIFE is breaking the vicious cycle of centralised ride-hailing platforms like Uber and the high commissions leaving drivers trapped with little to no profits.

Khaled Naim is Co-Founder & CEO of Onfleet a provider of last-mile delivery management software. Since its launch in 2015, Onfleet has grown to power millions of deliveries per month for thousands of businesses around the world. Clients include Gap, Total Wine & More, Capsule, Imperfect Foods, and United Supermarkets. Onfleet's software provides advanced route optimization, dispatching, real-time driver tracking, proof of delivery, analytics and customer communications. Onfleet was ranked #124 on the Inc 5000 list of America's fastest-growing companies in 2019 and #13 in San Francisco Business Times' Fast100 list of the Bay Area's 100 fastest growing companies. Khaled joins me on Tech Talks Daily and shares his story and how Onfleet's technology helps businesses streamline this onerous undertaking by efficiently connecting businesses, dispatchers, drivers, and deliveries to happy customers.

Scale is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital investment firm with $1.9B under management. They were early investors in SaaS pioneers like Bill.com (NYSE:BILL), DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU), HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS), JFrog (NASDAQ: FROG) and Root (NASDAQ: ROOT). Today they are focused on the next generation of enterprise software companies building Cognitive Applications like: Comet.ml, Observe.ai, Techsee and Viz.ai. Eric Anderson is a Partner at Scale Venture Partners, where he focuses on cloud infrastructure and security investments. He is a Board member at Scale portfolio companies Datastax and Upsolver and a Board observer at Matillion, BigID, Expel, Honeycomb, Tetrate, and AppOmni. Before Scale, Eric led early Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services product teams. At Google, he was a Product Manager in the Data Analytics and Machine Learning group. He led the team that launched Cloud Dataprep and critical components of Cloud Dataflow. Previously, Eric built aircraft engines in General Electric's Operation Management Leadership Program. Eric is a go-to resource on open source (he also moonlights as the host of the Contributor podcast) and has deep expertise in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and app development and contributed to the deal teams for Matillion and BigID and more recent deals like AppOmni, Comet, and Upsolver. I learn more about the early-stage VC investor that is focused on intelligent business software, and we discuss the trends he is seeing in the industry.

Blue Wireless was founded in Singapore in 2015 to solve what was missing in the market – a flexible connectivity solution and a provider able to guide enterprise customers and simplify their connectivity journey to focus on their business. Since then, it has grown its presence with offices across APAC, Europe, and the US. They serve 80 countries with LTE/5G connectivity and have doubled their customer base in the last year. I wanted to hear about the story behind the company, and how they are transforming the way Global Enterprises use LTE/5G services, so I invited Ivan LandenFounder and CEO of Blue Wireless, to find out more. I learn how founders come from a telco world. Hence, they know the faults and limitations of customer service, flexibility, and even connectivity (wired vs. wireless). Finally, we discuss the 5G boom and how enterprises are looking for alternatives to telcos and their challenges when it comes to connectivity.

In a recent viral video on TikTok, a Starbucks customer was waiting in a field for her Starbucks order to be delivered by drone. The video quickly garnered over 2.2 million views. (Video here https://bit.ly/30GQMCn). So I tracked down the company and invited their CEO onto the podcast to learn more. Yariv Bash, CEO, and Co-founder of Flytrex, a leading on-demand drone delivery service in the food and retail space, shares his take on the future of drone delivery. Drawing from his experience operating an on-demand drone delivery system since August 2017 and witnessing advancements in the space since Yariv discusses how technology and regulation have come together in recent years to create a viable framework for safe and secure drone innovation across applications. Flytrex expects to gain airworthiness certification from the FAA in the not-so-distant future -- once that happens, the sky's the limit. I learn more about Flytrex and its role in bringing about a future where drone delivery is the rule, not the exception.

Until recently, 90% of enterprise data was sent to the cloud. However, this number is dropping to only 25% over the next three years. By 2025, 75% of enterprise data is expected to be created and processed at the edge. With edge adoption increasing in adoption, bringing in the power of 5G should also be considered for improving energy efficiency. 5G has a positive impact on edge operations as it allows for the installation of lower power but faster computational power, making it a more sustainable option. Furthermore, by integrating 5G and edge computing, enterprises can harness meaningful data to drive better business decisions around sustainability and reduce carbon emissions. Chris Penrose, COO at FogHorn, a developer of edge AI software and solutions, discusses how 5G and edge capabilities drive sustainability, ultimately helping enterprises and communities achieve net zero emissions?

Rahul Singh from HCL Technologies discusses how covid has accelerated digital change in the financial services industry. Banks had to adjust in 2020, as the use of cash dropped off a cliff and mobile banking grew by 13%, while branches were forced to close overnight rapidly. As lockdowns were imposed without warning, some of the world's oldest, most cautious organizations were suddenly forced to change – do nothing, and they would surely see a mass customer exodus. HCL manages IT for Deutsche Bank, ING, and Metro Bank, so I asked Rahul to share his unique insight into the industry challenges faced during the pandemic. He also explores the three significant digital shifts that have occurred within the financial services industry: 1. An explosion in remote working. With existing ways of working, and the obvious privacy and security concerns, banking has been slow to adopt remote working compared to other industries. However, the pandemic made it a necessity – banks had to find a way to enable people to work remotely without damaging customer experience. Rahul talks about the key areas they had to address: removing entrenched rule-based processes to accommodate remote workers and providing the required collaborative tools for employees to complete the necessary functions. He also discusses how recent announcements from HSBC and JP Morgan indicate this isn't a temporary shift but a permanent change. 2. Pushing mobile payments to the top of the agenda. Paying through your phone was once a nice to have, but that all changed when the pandemic meant we had to avoid unnecessary physical contact – so chip and pin card machine use dropped. This meant banks had to speed up mobile payment roll-out and ensure mobile apps were reliable – they couldn't risk letting customers down at the crucial moment. Imagine queuing for half an hour to enter a supermarket, loading your trolley with essentials, and then finding payment doesn't go through when you arrive at the checkout… Rahul says this meant banks' contactless and phone payment options had to mature quicker than initially planned. IT projects had to be re-prioritized, with future-facing alternative payment projects now pushed front and center. The sudden introduction of new rules and directives, such as the FCA's decision to increase the single transaction contactless payment limit to £100, also means banks must be prepared to quickly update payment systems based on directives at short notice. 3. Adopting public cloud computing at breakneck speed. Financial services have been one of the slowest industries to adopt the public cloud, with regulations and restrictions keeping FS out of the fast lane. However, banks had to dramatically speed things up when they suddenly had large remote workforces to support, requiring computing beyond the current capabilities of many existing on-premise or private cloud systems. This led to many flexing their financial muscles to make a move and play catch-up. Rahul can explain how this move unfolded, with critical workloads shifting to the likes of Amazon and Google. He says that every bank around the world will emerge from the pandemic with a public cloud strategy, meaning it will become increasingly prevalent across the industry.

Companies are investing millions of dollars to digitally transform their entire operations. This involves deploying hundreds or thousands of applications. So if there's a business problem like in sales or HR, there's an app for it. Enterprises will spend half a trillion dollars on software this year alone— and they'll spend nearly three-quarters of a trillion in 3 years (by 2024). While software vendors are constantly delivering new features and improvements that enterprises continue to deploy, nobody focuses on software adoption. These actual people need to use the software for the digital transformation to be successful. That is why 90% of all digital transformation projects fail. Dan Adika is the co-founder and CEO of WalkMe, a software company that recently went public on NASDAQ, explains that's where WalkMe comes in. The company's Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) enables organizations to measure, drive and act to maximize the impact of their digital transformation to improve productivity, humanize technology and drive more effective use of all of the software. We discuss how WalkMe drives users to action as they use software or websites, providing step-by-step guidance without requiring the user to leave the screen, watch video tutorials, or read tedious manuals or FAQ pages.

DXC Technology and Qualtrics recently announced a new collaboration to make the Qualtrics' EmployeeXM™ experience management platform a part of DXC's Modern Workplace service solution. Blended with DXC's Modern Workplace operational data, DXC will capture and integrate experience data from Qualtrics–how employees feel about their technology experience at work–to provide valuable, real-time employee sentiment to drive greater engagement and collaboration, and productivity. Qualtrics research also found that employees' technology experience plays a larger role in the overall employee experience, particularly as the digital workplace continues to evolve. Over 90% of CIOs believe the IT experience is essential when it comes to attracting and retaining talent and building corporate culture. I invited Mike McDaniel back on to the podcast to talk about all this and also learn more about how DXC will be the first to use the Modern Workplace solution internally to transform the digital experiences for its more than 130,000 employees.

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I want to explore three of the most common questions that I am asked on this show. How do I launch a podcast without the hassle of editing audio files and submitting them to all the podcast platforms? How do I get high-quality guests on my new podcast? And if you are a business leader, how can I get invited onto more podcasts as a thought leader in 2022? Ryan Estes from Kitcaster joins me on the podcast to talk about all this and much more. He also discusses how to leverage podcast interviews to generate leads, validate new products, create new opportunities, and build brand awareness through personal connections. About Kitcaster Kitcaster books podcast interviews for funded start-up founders, entrepreneurs with exits, and C-suit execs. Get on-demand podcast placements scheduled for you by professionals. All growing businesses run into the same fundamental marketing problems. Automated bots, fake news, rampant amateurism. The good news? kitcaster™ solves them. Podcasts cut through the gobbledygook and make fundamentally authentic connections. Podcasts make business better. Where are you in your entrepreneur journey? Validation? Launch? Traction? Scale? Wherever you are, podcasts will take you further. They book you on top podcasts that speak directly to your ideal audience. These are your peeps – this is your influence. Podcasts are good for business and good for people.

Precisely is the global leader in data integrity software, providing accuracy, consistency, and the context in data for 12,000 customers in more than 100 countries, including 97 percent of the Fortune 100. Precisely's data integration, data quality, data governance, location intelligence, and data enrichment products power better business decisions to create better outcomes A Survey of 300 chief data officers revealed that worldwide adoption of digital initiatives continues to accelerate despite significant data quality, integration, and enrichment challenges. Precisely and Corinium Global Intelligence ran the independent study of more than 300 C-level data executives in the U.S., Europe, and the Asia Pacific. One of the biggest takeaways was 82% of Chief Data Officers have data quality concerns. Dan Adams, SVP Data and Operations at Precisely joins me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast and shares why businesses must rethink the path to trusted data as a foundation for digital transformation and business growth. Useful Links https://www.precisely.com/resource-center/analystreports/data-integrity-trends https://www.linkedin.com/company/preciselydata/

Dan Wallace-Brewster, Senior Vice President Marketing at Scalefast, joins me in a conversation on the state of the retail industry as we continue to navigate more waves of COVID and face the upcoming holiday season. Dan leads the content and lead generation engines for Scalefast as it accelerates an already-exponential growth curve. He has mechanized custom content throughput by enabling internal and external creative teams and focused messaging on defined ICPs and products in collaboration with sales leaders. Under his leadership, a new marketing technology stack has been deployed to ensure multi-touch attribution, maximum funnel velocity, and accountability for every B2B marketing investment. About Scalefast Scalefast is on a mission to change 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

The Smart Cube is a global provider of research and analytics solutions focused on CPG, retail, and life sciences. Nitin Aggarwal, Vice President of Data Analytics, discusses how to use data analytics to drive growth, including featured case studies/examples in retail and CPG. About The Smart Cube The company researches, analyses and addresses the needs of businesses in today's intelligence age with tailored sector-specific solutions and Amplifi – their organisational platform, rich with knowledge, cutting edge tools, and advanced analytics – delivered by talented minds. Primarily serving the CPG, Energy & Chemicals, Financial Services, Industrials, Life Sciences, and Retail sectors, they work with a third of companies in the Fortune 100, helping them make smarter decisions, accelerate value and gain a competitive edge.

Gridware was founded by Tim Barat, a former lineman, who developed the company out of frustration with the immense shortage of information available to the people responsible for providing reliable electricity to our society. Tim believes that this data shortage leaves grid operators forced to operate a fragile electricity grid to fail to identify problems. While the symptoms of this problem present themselves in many different ways across the globe, he believes the most chronic symptom is the increased risk of wildfire ignition occurring throughout the west. The company specializes in feeding real-time utility line tracking information to commercial and public utility companies to prevent wildfires and environmental damages due to powerline abnormalities. Gridware combines a cloud-based system with several different sensors connected to utility poles to provide consistent updates of environmental, mechanical, and temperature-related statuses. The device runs on solar power and uses patented wireless and satellite technology to provide a detailed account of the powerline's health 24/7 to the grid operator in milliseconds. Tim shares his inspirational story of going from an actual lineman to entrepreneur, trying to prevent issues and wildfires caused by utilities, and looking out for the safety of linemen with technology.

Free TON is a community-driven blockchain cultivating an open and free internet. I invited Alexander Filatov, Co-Founder, and Chief Executive Officer at TON Labs on Tech Talks Daily, to share how he oversees the development of Free TON, a community-driven blockchain underpinning an open and free internet. In this role, he leverages his extensive corporate and VC experience towards fostering meaningful partnerships and communities to build a decentralized 'WebFree' platform. Prior to co-founding TON Labs in 2018, Alexander held several Executive positions, heading three multibillion-dollar manufacturing corporations in the automotive, construction equipment, and oil & gas equipment industries. After more than 20 years in the corporate industry, Alexander turned to the world of private equity and venture capital, in 2018 co-founding Industry 4.0, a diversified venture fund focused on exponential technologies, including blockchain.

At Moderne, they automatically identify and patch security holes in your code, freeing you to create, build, and make exciting new things. Olga Kundzich and Jonathan Schneider join me on the Tech Talks Daily podcast to discuss the downsides of cloud-native application development and maintaining modern applications. It has become clear that modern cloud-native applications require a tremendous amount of maintenance to keep up with the constant changes to all of the components used to build them. This includes managing thousands of APIs and open source components. It is an enormous challenge for any size company, taking up to 30% of the development team's time, which acts as a tremendous drag on innovation and software quality. I learn how Moderne was founded to tackle this enormous problem. Moderne's technology is based on OpenRewrite, a large-scale tool for code maintenance that Moderne co-founder Jonathan Schneider developed while working at Netflix. Moderne has picked up OpenRewrite and expanded its scope.

Jed Corenthal, the CMO of Phenix (real-time streaming technology platform) returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss their unique OTT technology infrastructure. I learn how it allows for streaming video as close to real-time as possible without sacrificing broadcast quality and scale. We discuss their Syncwatch™ technology and how it ensures every user consumes the content simultaneously, regardless of location or connection. Trusted by Verizon, Racecourse Media Group, and many more, this technology helps avoid the 'Spoiler Alert' moment from a game lagging behind other streams/broadcasts. We also talk about how this technology allows for the 21st-century sports viewing experience through gamification and interactivity, such as offering 'Watch Together' features, in-game trivia, etc. Finally, Jed shares examples of interactive fan experiences and accurate game-day streams.

Here in 2021, Figma is a web-based design platform used by Uber, Deliveroo, and Bulb that's challenging the likes of Adobe and Sketch. Forget Unicorn status after Figma has received significant VC investment and also has a heavy-weight $10BN valuation. But what is the story behind Figma? Pierre Berlin shares the story and Figma's ambitions for growth in the UK and beyond, including expansion plans, hiring plans and new tools on the horizon, and the critical milestones made in the region to date. We also discuss reinventing remote collaboration and empowering diversity in design. I learn more about the new business model of design, how it's accelerated during the pandemic, and why design differentiates brands across every sector. We also discuss the USP of web-based tools which are enabling true remote collaboration across all locations, operating systems, and platforms – and why diversity is so important.

Jay Kulkarni founded Theorem in 2002. Over the last 12 years, Kulkarni has been the driving force behind the company's extraordinary expansion. Theorem works with top brands and publishers, including Tory Burch, Pandora, Roku, News Corp, Hearst, and the New York Times, to operate as a true extension to their in-house teams and support their overall business goals and marketing strategies. The company recently announced plans to challenge traditional working models by creating a flexible, full-service marketing solution offering. In addition, the company consolidated all its deep strategic talent into one Consultancy team while also expanding its six global operations teams to focus more on client servicing and delivery. Jay expands on the idea of the "flexible" working model, how the business ecosystem is evolving, and unpack what it means for the future of business. We also discuss how today's publishers, brand marketers, and advertisers can better leverage the marketing cloud and programmatic tech to rise to the next level.

Mongolia, a country of untapped mineral wealth, has become a target for the most advanced mining technology, but it does little for indigenous people. At erxes, they are working hard to prove that Mongolia can do better than trying to dig its way out. They believe in the untapped brilliant minds of young people who can start leading the way in the IT Industry on a global scale. It can be daunting to live in a world where everything is shifting, especially how we communicate. With apps like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, WeChat, and Instagram, consumers are communicating daily and on the go more than ever. This means that businesses need to keep up. But it doesn't have to be so hard. erxes Inc is the second generation of tech entrepreneurs in Mongolia. With over eight years of experience, they are proud to be a part of the pioneer movement to bring forth their country on the global stage. Nauren Batjargal, co-founder and COO of Erxes, shares the story behind the fully open-source growth marketing platform. We also discuss open-source vs. closed and proprietary.

Once the pandemic hit, stores became vulnerable, and retail headquarters began sending out 3X the amount of information to stores. Hy-Vee, L.L.Bean, Fjällräven, Sephora, and American Eagle Outfitters became customers during the pandemic, among others. People in the retail trenches created zipline. They have been there and know the execution struggle inside and out. This is not technology for the sake of technology. This solution was designed to truly help people (brands, operators, communicators, and stores) achieve their goals by a team that truly knows the grind, barriers, and struggle of achieving them. Their goal is to enable all customers to be the best version of themselves: every day, in every location. Melissa Wong, CEO & Co-Founder of Zipline, shares the inspirational tech startup story behind the company. She shares how they are helping a c-store be speedy, efficient, and contact-less.

Jason Illian, Managing Director of Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), the venture and investing arm of Koch Industries, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Artificial intelligence, blockchain and crypto, bio IT and genomics, and industrial robotics are just a few segments being explored by KDT. Since 2003, Koch has invested $133 billion in growth and improvements and has spent $30 billion on technology investments and acquisitions in the last six years. I learn how Koch's "Creative Destruction" philosophy guides the company's bets on transformative technologies that will bring long-term success to itself and its partners. Jason shares real-world examples of technologies that KDT has invested in and how Koch has learned from and empowered different technologies. We explore how KDT's role is to partner with entrepreneurs who are creating a "could-be" world, which includes investing in technology companies that disrupt and transform Koch's core businesses and expand into new platforms and capabilities.

As organizations begin to envision what the return to the office will look like – or in some cases, have put their plans into action – they have the unique opportunity to reimagine the layout and feel of their space. While the nature of on-site work has changed significantly since the start of the pandemic, the office still represents a prime forum to inform, engage and entertain employees and visitors. After spending so much time working remotely and away from their colleagues, workers want to feel more involved and connected with their counterparts and employers than ever before. While there are many ways to go about this, we're seeing more businesses turn to technology to create experiences employees and visitors will remember and take pride in. Barco designs and develops visualization and collaboration solutions for a variety of selected professional markets. Piet Vanhuyse, Barco's global segment marketing director for large video walls, shares his insights.

Are data privacy and compliance laws at risk of becoming speeding tickets for major enterprises? Progress from governing bodies like recent bipartisan data privacy bills in the US or the EU's new focus on unethical AI are all steps in the right direction. But recently levied fines and pushback against new regulations suggest compliance will not enforce protection so much as force companies to budget for its existence. Talend's Talend's CISO, Anne Hardy, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about data compliance. Anne shares her belief that there is an opportunity for both big tech and government regulators to set a precedent for good compliance and regulation. We discuss how outdated attitudes towards personal consumer data collection can lead to compliance breaches. We also talk about how international tech giants can turn compliance into teachable moments for smaller and burgeoning companies dealing in data and why compliance regulators need to focus on smaller companies and not just those offering major payouts.

Clark Lagemann is Co-CEO of Avidon Health, a platform for employers and healthcare providers to offer wellness and healthcare-related courses to help individuals improve health outcomes. Clark joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss how technology can help employees who are struggling with substance abuse. According to a recent survey, the pandemic has exacerbated substance use for employees. Among workers struggling with addiction or substance abuse issues, more than one-third say it has affected their work more since the pandemic began. Unfortunately, many employees are afraid to say they need help. They may end up leaving the workforce altogether or suffer in silence as their work deteriorates––and they may experience safety risks if their job entails driving or using heavy machinery. So what can employers and companies do to help if they don't know their employee is struggling? Fortunately, technology can make a difference for individuals needing to make a change and Avidon Health takes a different approach to online coaching through a hybrid approach

Murali Palanisamy, chief solutions officer of AppViewX, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. He shares why machine identity management is critical for today's enterprises and share some of the latest findings from AppViewX and Vanson Bourne's The Next-Gen Machine Identity Management Report. The report explores where the current machine identity market stands, the challenges and opportunities for organizations today, and what has been the true impact of sub-optimal digital identity management. Some of the key findings: 61% of organizations don't hold full awareness of certificates and keys across their digital assets 67% believe managing certificates is too complex 66% lack of skill sets within IT/security teams to properly manage digital identities and certificates After implementing a machine identity management strategy, 51% of enterprises have strengthened security credentials and 41% have reduced outages due to certificate expiry or human error About Murali Palanisamy Murali is responsible for the overall product vision, development and technical direction of AppViewX. Prior to AppViewX, he was a Senior Vice President at Bank of America, where he was leading the e-commerce application delivery's architecture and engineering team. He also served as VP of Architecture and Product Engineering for Merrill Lynch, where he designed and developed automation and integration solutions for servers, application delivery controllers, IP services and networking.

Fyma was founded by Karen Burns and Taavi Tammiste. They have created an AI platform that easily plugs into most retail, city, urban, and CCTV cameras, transforming your standard camera feed into deep insights into objects, people, and bahaviours in real-time. Use cases include The London LegacyDevelopment Corporation, using AI to keep building the Olympic park legacy; major retailers and shopping centres; the Dutch GranPrix; European city governments; urban planners and event spaces. It's more ethical - the AI is trained to not recognise faces, ever, in the training and deployment stages of AI, so there's no risk of facial/racial profiling. And, Fyma does not store any camera feed data, only the metadata. For businesses, it's good for unlocking data, getting new insights to create more tailored retail experiences, loyalty schemes, offers, etc., to improve in-store revenue. For venue owners and urban planners, it means getting the insights to adapt and create more accessible, inclusive, and efficient spaces. For citizens and consumers, it's all about protecting privacy, avoiding data being misused, no racial or facial profiling. Fyma is pushing ahead with AI learning in new ways and focusing on other things (movements, weather, gender, age, etc.). Taavi Tammiste, CTO and co-founder of Fyma joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to share the story behind the company.

Gary Goldberg is an entrepreneur and third-generation textile scientist who has combined his passion and unique knowledge of the craft with a relentless entrepreneurial spirit to disrupt the way sports leagues, teams and schools design and purchase customized gear for today's young athletes through his B2B and B2C business: SquadLocker. The company has grown phenomenally in recent years and raised $20 million in a Series C funding round in 2020, one of the largest institutional funding rounds in Rhode Island in recent years. SquadLocker leverages a sublimated printing technology that has allowed the company to circumvent the recent strains of the supply chain by dyeing fabric entirely through the printing process, and not relying on shipments of particular fabric colors to fulfill orders. They've also utilized a more streamlined production process so that orders can be placed directly by individuals rather than through coaches or school administrators, allowing for a better customer experience and direct shipping of goods (which became more important during the pandemic when social distancing was broadly recommended). Gary is also extremely passionate about the impact of mentoring when it comes to helping today's young athletes reach their full potential. He also believes coaches, teachers and mentors are the unsung heroes in the fabric of America's youth and has launched a podcast which dives deeper into the topic called On The Whistle.

We're entering a savings account crisis where millennials' uninvested cash will lose over $18.5B to inflation in 2022 alone. Investing is imperative. Did you know that the average portfolio of 25-35-year-olds consists of a broad range of assets, including stock, crypto, shoes, cards, whiskey, private equity, and more? I am fascinated by how people are turning away from savings accounts and 1% interest rates and turning to alternative investments. Firma is an investment platform built to support new generations of investors with different goals and behaviors than their predecessors. They offer public and private securities across asset classes so users can build a comprehensive and well-balanced portfolio. Anna Roubos shares how Firma helps investors manage and keep their portfolios healthy by providing access to tools and opportunities typically reserved for institutions and the ultra-wealthy. I also learn more about the technology that makes all this possible.

The automotive industry is in transformation. Whilst the sector has made huge strides to reduce its environmental impact, pressure to do more increases each day. The result is an engineering design process that is orders of magnitude more complex than anything faced before. Secondmind is on a mission to help automotive manufacturers navigate the increasing complexity of engineering design in its transition to electrification. The technology is underpinned by years of award-winning, practical machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to design cleaner cars, and achieve greater sustainability. Gary Brotman, the newly appointed CEO of Secondmind joins me on the Tech talks Daily Podcast. We discuss how the role of technology will continue to increase as automotive manufacturers move away from creating hardware to software. Gary also shares how AI/ML technology will gradually lead to new approaches like digital twinning and simulation-led manufacturing with AI/ML technology at the forefront. We also talk about the future of automotive and the transition to green will be a multi-decade journey for the industry. It's a complex problem facing the industry on the road to greener mobility beyond fuel emissions. But Gary reveals how Secondmind's technology is helping automotive brands prepare for this future.

Jake Athey, VP of Marketing and Customer Experience at Widen Enterprises, provider of digital asset management and product information solutions, joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast. We discuss the value of digital asset management (DAM) as part of core brand and marketing channel strategies and the technology that makes it all possible. We also talk about how effective management and efficient use of content is critical to maximizing return on marketing investments, ways to ensure brand consistency to increase revenue and drive customer retention.

Hoyin Cheung, founder, and CEO of Remo left an online meeting and couldn't shake the feeling that he couldn't connect with people in the same way he could connect with someone in the real world. Worse yet, he noticed time and again that social media had become anti-social. Hoyin asked a simple question: What's stopping us from cultivating online relationships that are every bit as deep, meaningful, and enriching as relationships that develop in-person? From there, he set out to transform the experience of connecting, communicating, and collaborating with people across the globe by "humanizing" online interactions. Remo Conference helps creators, coaches, and event organizers create immersive online events! Users can learn and connect with each other, just like in real life. The platform allows people to have face-to-face networking just like in-person events, building meaningful relationships and conversations. Hoyin joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story. We discuss how we can use technology for authentic conversations that build meaningful relationships. I also learn how Remo is leveraging technology with his online interactive events platform that connects people more authentically.

Everyone has talked about how much the world has changed in the last two years. But today, I want to explore how our home internet expectations have increased. Wi-fi is now fundamental to every aspect of the family home. In some cases, doorbells, lighting, heating, 4k streaming, online gaming, and a long list of smart devices are all hungry for a slice of bandwidth. Research from Zen Internet recently revealed that 75% of people are unaware microwaves could interfere with their internet connection, and one in seven regrets not switching broadband providers over the last year. I invited Paul Stobart on the podcast to learn more about the report. We also discuss how Zen is the first broadband provider to go Net Zero by 2028 – meaning it will remove more carbon emissions from the environment than it generates. I also learn more about why Zen has also been awarded the Cisco Powered SD-WAN Service accreditation for its SD-WAN solution. Finally, we talk about how CityFibre, with help from Zen, is extending its infrastructure to 216 additional towns and villages across Britain – delivering gigabit-speed broadband and ensuring everyone has access to full fiber.

Amnon Mishor is the CTO and founder of Leadspace, a leading B2B Customer Data Platform. He has designed and deployed innovative global data & AI solutions for some of the world's largest B2B tech organizations such as Zoom, Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and more. After successfully designing and deploying world-class technology to aid the military in catching terrorists, Amnon saw an opportunity to apply data and AI in another industry where leaders cannot afford to "fail": B2B enterprise software. He shares his experiences from his time heading up the Intelligence Systems and Data Mining Department of the Israel Defense Force's Technological Intelligence Unit. In 2010, he founded Leadspace to help Silicon Valley's biggest enterprise companies take full advantage of customer and prospect data — their most valuable business asset. Have you ever wondered what the vaccine rollout teaches us about AI and big data? Amnon Mishor believes there are key takeaways for B2B marketers. In this podcast, Amnon shares expert opinion as a data technologist to expose what the vaccine rollout teaches B2B companies about big data, AI and more. We also discuss what's wrong with applying big data solutions to small data sets - and how to get it right.

Anudit Vikram, former board member of the IAB Data Center of Excellence and Chief Product Officer, MediaMath joins me in a discussion about consumer privacy (amid Amazon fines), Google's FLoC (which recently wrapped up the first phase of testing), and addressable/scalable identity solutions to replace third-party cookies. Anudit explains, "While there has been a flurry of activity preparing for the demise of the third-party cookie, the pushback around it and signals from the EU hinted that it would not be smooth sailing for Google, so, ultimately, it's not a complete shock that the timing changed. There is no question that first-party data performs better, and that the quality of third-party data is questionable, but that is not the only factor driving transparency. Transparency to the actual user – what we call addressability – is directly affected too. To continue the momentum of creating a more transparent supply chain, industry leaders must continue work around the activation of first party identity options and creating cohort-based solutions. As far as next steps for the industry, marketers, advertisers, publishers and the like should use this time to start working with first party identity solutions and perfect the stack they will use, while still being able to leverage the scale provided by third-party cookies."

Modern banking hasn't changed since the 1400s, when financial institutions were established by Machiavelli's Medici family in Florence, Italy. Since, the power has long been in the hands of the intermediary. We've been at the mercy of market fluctuations and currency volatility. Today, with the rise of blockchain, the power is shifting. As Rob Frasca, Managing Partner at Cosimo Ventures and a holder of ndau, the world's first adaptive digital currency, states, "This is the single largest value creation event in our lifetime, because we're moving to a more resilient networked approach to value and trust exchange. It's a borderless resilient value exchange, putting financial control into the hands of the people. Consider this: less than 50% of people in the world have a bank account. Yet, 75% of the world's population have smartphones. More than 50% of those who have smartphones have prepaid accounts. We now have the technology to allow 75% of the world to have true cross-border banking. It's a personal property, a personal finance revolution: owning the property rights to your money versus bank control." Frasca discusses what this seismic shift means and dives into the realities of market volatility and the benefits of owning your savings for the long term.

MuleSoft is a trusted integration and API platform provider that can empower any company to quickly unlock and integrate their apps and data to create connected experiences faster. Paul Crerand joins me on the Tech Talks Daily Podcast to discuss the IT and Business Alignment Barometer report findings. Highlights from the report include: Significant hurdles preventing automation: Security and data governance issues, along with data siloes, are hindering automation initiatives for more than 70 percent of organisations Security concerns slow the pace of innovation: the majority (87 percent) of IT and business leaders say that security and governance concerns are slowing down the pace of innovation Seeing eye-to-eye? Almost nine in ten (87 percent) reported that IT and business alignment has improved over the past 12 months, suggesting there are opportunities to overcome security and governance challenges and enable faster innovation Disparate systems remain a key challenge: almost three quarters (73 percent) of organisations say the integration of disparate systems has increased their concerns around data security and governance – 34 percent say it had 'significantly' increased concerns Empowering non-technical users key to creating connected experiences: The vast majority (86%) of organisations agree business outcomes would improve if business users were able to use low or no code to securely connect apps and data on their own to create connected experiences We discuss the technological and operational challenges organizations face in achieving their business priorities. We also talk about what is behind these results and what businesses should take away from them.

Valeria Kogan, founder of the agritech startup Fermata built a scientific career in bioinformatics and worked as a hired employee in Gero (a Singapore-based longevity biotech company) for more than five years before founding her agrotech startup Fermata. The next-generation farming tool uses AI-based technology to provide farmers with precise monitoring of their greenhouses, preventing 30% of the harvest loss and reducing the monitoring time by 50%. Valeria Kogan joins me on the podcast to talk about how crop and livestock monitoring applications will hold a significant market share from 2020 to 2025. Fermata offers an integration within weather data, irrigation, nutrient, and other systems to improve resources used and boost output by more accurately identifying deficiencies. We discuss enhancing data quality in the ecosystem, and the potential use case for data in agriculture. Massive data volumes of mapping, variable rate seeding, soil testing, crop monitoring, and crop rotation must be stored and managed correctly as successful farming relies entirely on it for assessing the conditions and improving regular operations. At the same time, it is pretty hard for farmers to develop and fulfill data storage from scratch: that's where intelligent technologies are needed!

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the importance of timely, detailed, and comprehensive data to the forefront. To help curb or prevent the next pandemic, many leading institutions are actively discussing how global data-sharing could be established and governed to detect the risk of future pandemics and disease outbreaks more quickly. One company at the forefront of this new, collaborative approach is HSR.health. The health tech firm has successfully adapted its 'Health Risk Index' to improve pandemic emergency response efforts with hyper-focused risk indices that nations and public health agencies have adopted worldwide. Ajay Gupta, CEO of HSR.health, reveals the many benefits of health-focused geospatial analytics in aiding pandemic response and mitigating future risk.

The world of consumer goods is changing for the better – and technology is at the forefront of this transformation to answer demands for a more sustainable and ethical supply chain. CEO of Farmer connect® Michael Chrisment has already helped secure $9 million in a Series A investment round for the platform that uses blockchain to track the lifecycle of coffee and chocolate. He now continues his mission to transform the agriculture supply chains by cleverly connecting farmers to consumers and everyone in between. Michael joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss the importance of traceability. He also shares his insights on the company's vision and the future of the industry. We recorded the episode on World Coffee day. So, we also discuss the importance of supply chain traceability and why coffee/cocoa companies should be transparent in their product journey farmer connect® is a platform that allows consumers, farmers, and retailers to have insight into the complete supply chain of the coffee and chocolate products, using blockchain-based on IBM technology, self-sovereign identity, and artificial intelligence. It connects the user to farmers, traders, roasters, and brands. Its rapidly growing roster of clients and industry partnerships already includes some of the world's biggest coffee brands, such as UCC coffee, HEMA, and Massimo Zanetti Beverage.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the fastest-growing part of the AI industry. But it's is often overlooked by the media and misunderstood by the general public. RPA allows businesses to automate necessary processes, whether invoicing or data entry, without investing in lengthy and costly IT systems. While businesses and organizations like the NHS are already using RPA, many still view RPA simply as a threat to their jobs. The reality is that RPA is transforming how businesses function and the workforce of the future will be hybrid with human employees managing extensive team of digital workers. Blue Prism pioneered the concept of RPA, and Eric Tyree, their Head of AI, explains how RPA is already transforming how businesses work and what the workforce of the future will look like together. Eric also discusses how accessible AI and RPA are becoming, as systems are increasingly designed to be understood and used by everyone – not just IT or tech professionals. Eric Tyree biography Eric Tyree is the head of AI at Blue Prism and is an expert in the commercial application of AI and advanced analytics with over 20 years' experience in related product and technology leadership roles. Eric has led the development of a wide range of data driven products and services in travel, consumer analytics, HR, pensions & insurance, portfolio management, algorithmic trading, retail banking and equity exchanges. Eric is experienced in building and leading high-performance organizations and has worked with a wide range of companies ranging from some of the largest corporate institutions in the world to start-ups developing from the ground up. Before joining Blue Prism, Eric was CTO and chief data scientist for the data division of CWT where he was responsible for data products, personalization and data driven revenue management. Prior to that Eric was chief data scientist at Capita Plc responsible for new data products and services. Eric has also founded and/or advised a number of startups while serving in a range of senior AI/data science, product and technical roles. About Blue Prism Blue Prism has operations globally and is currently listed on London's AIM stock market. It has grown fast from around £50m when it listed in 2016. They have a great long-term perspective on the industry and its evolution, with a global client base – including EY, Jaguar Land Rover, Siemens and Google.

One of the big reasons I record this podcast every day is to try and feature as many voices and tech communities from around the world, NOT just silicon valley. So today, I am excited to take you on a trip to Bulgaria, where Hristo Borisov, Co-Founder & CEO of Payhawk, discusses how and why fragmentation in fintech is coming to an end. Payhawk is an all-in-one integrated finance platform for businesses, combining credit cards, payments, expenses, cash management and pre-accounting into one platform to give businesses maximum control and visibility over their spending. The company is London founded and headquartered, with Bulgarian roots, and recently raised $20m from Klarna's investors QED. Its customers include the likes of Zenloop, Nexo, and Telus. Due to Payhawk's technology, the average finance team saves 2-3 days of work each month and broadly speaking, a customer with approximately 100 expenses per month can save an extra $3,540 per month on average when switching from manual processes to Payhawk. We discuss how Payhawk reimagines how payment works (by simplifying and automating processes and building an end-to-end experience). We also talk about how banks and fintechs could coexist in the future? (working together rather than against them). Podcast Sponsor Download Hirect, the free app is trusted by 10,000+ startups who chat directly with ideal candidates and accelerate their hiring process 10x faster than traditional ways.

We now have employees recruited, onboarded, and working daily without ever meeting their teammates in person. So how do we bring everyone together and make them feel a valued part of a team well? In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, I explore how technology can help develop and train teams to innovate even when employees are working from home and the office. When a team is stuck in its comfort zone, growth and innovation are dead in the water. But a tech company believes that nothing inspires a new mindset more than adventure. But most teams can't drop everything to climb a mountain. At Vestigo, they are bringing the adventure to you: VR experiences that force employees to let go of fear and think differently, designed to help remote teams level up from fear to bravery, enabling radical innovation and adaptability. For example, Vestigo's AltspaceVR experience unites teams in an unforgettable Mt. Everest expedition. Marshall Mosher is a world-record-holding action sport poly athlete, tech futurist, and host of the Inside the Adventure podcast. As the Founder and CEO of Vestigo, he's bringing his passion for adventure into the digital world by building the future of virtual reality adventure by digitally recreating the world's most inspiring and daunting adventure environments. I learned how his recent VR team programs include work for enterprises and businesses like Microsoft and the CNN Emerging Product & Platform team. Marshall has tapped into something with his business as he evaluates how tech teams are tapping the power of virtual reality to harness their fearlessness to innovate and work together. Podcast Sponsor Download Hirect, the free app is trusted by 10,000+ startups who chat directly with ideal candidates and accelerate their hiring process 10x faster than traditional ways.

In the wake of major breaches over the last few months, organizations across industries are re-evaluating their cybersecurity strategies, with many realigning priorities to ensure their security team and technology solutions can meet the needs of an evolving threat landscape. Mark Logan, CEO of LogRhythm, talks about the importance of the CSO reporting directly to the CEO. Mark explains why this reporting structure demonstrates the value a company places on cybersecurity as an enabler of business performance at a time when cyber breach headlines are top of mind for the public and maintaining trust is crucial. Cybersecurity is now a board-level initiative for all companies, not just those in the software and security spaces. We talk about why enterprises that do not get on board with this shift in organizational structure that brings CSOs to the forefront could lose out on key talent. Perhaps more concerningly, they also stand to see a weakening of consumer trust and business value, especially if the organization ultimately experiences a damaging breach because security was not prioritized. Mark discusses how this reporting structure fosters trust among consumers and future business partners that security and data privacy are taken seriously and given the highest priority within the company. Podcast Sponsor Download Hirect, the free app is trusted by 10,000+ startups who chat directly with ideal candidates and accelerate their hiring process 10x faster than traditional ways.

AVID empowers media creators with innovative technology and collaborative tools to entertain, inform, educate and enlighten the world. For example, AvidPlay, Avid's subscription-based, independent music distribution service, now allows independent artists and labels to distribute their Dolby Atmos tracks directly to Apple Music's Spatial Audio. Apple Music is the latest streaming service with the largest user base to receive Atmos tracks directly from AvidPlay. In addition, the distribution service has delivered immersive audio to Amazon Music and TIDAL since 2020. Avid is the only provider of both music production tools and an independent distribution service where Dolby Atmos tracks can be made and delivered from the same setup. AvidPlay makes it extremely easy for artists and labels to distribute and monetize the music they're creating with Pro Tools, Avid's industry-leading, Rob D'Amico joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his lifelong passion for audio and production informed his position and goals at Avid. I learn more about AvidPlay: what it is, who uses it, and details about the audio formats and quality it enables artists and producers to work with, as well as details about how compensation, splits, and fees work with other independent distribution services in the market. Rob shares a few use cases to illustrate how AvidPlay works and a detailed description of the process from production suite to streaming services. We discuss why today's creators need AvidPlay; the opportunities it provides artists, labels, audio engineers, and how AvidLink fosters community amongst users by enabling feedback and questions. We talk about how an artist can start using AvidPlay and make the most out of the service, along with how customer demands and feedback are informing future offerings. Podcast Sponsor Download Hirect, the free app is trusted by 10,000+ startups who chat directly with ideal candidates and accelerate their hiring process 10x faster than traditional ways.