The Tech Blog Writer Podcast - Inspired Tech Startup Stories & Interviews With Tech Leaders, Entrepreneurs And Innovators

With hybrid work – or a flexible corporate environment that enables employees to operate both remotely and in a physical office – now a permanent professional fixture, workers have come to expect new levels of flexibility. However, employees now demand even more from their hybrid work experience – namely greater meeting equity. Simply defined, meeting equity ensures that remote employees receive the same level of engagement, collaboration and access to a meeting room experience as those who are physically seated around the table. As a new Barco ClickShare survey released today found, hybrid workers are growing more concerned about perceptions of an inequal and less productive meeting experience while apart from their colleagues, and many are going as far as to consider new opportunities at organizations where they believe they will be more included. The recently-released Barco ClickShare Hybrid Work Survey shows, businesses must now address the challenge of meeting equity in the hybrid environment. Simply def

DiMassimo Goldstein (DiGo) is the world's first creative agency focused exclusively on promoting better habits by building brands and businesses using Positive Behavior Change marketing. Becoming "Metamates" and dropping "news" from "feed" are just a few items off the long list of rebranding tactics Mark Zuckerberg has in mind as Facebook becomes Meta. But is it enough? Will this actually result in user habits that Zuckerberg is seeking for his vision of Meta? Mark DiMassimo, is the Founder & Creative Chief of DiGo, a creative agency promoting better habits by building businesses using Positive Behavior Change marketing. Mark joins me on Tech Talks Daily to take an in-depth look into the rebranding and marketing choices Facebook is making now, whether it's enough to change consumer habits, and ways to ensure not just behavior change, but positive behavior change among Meta users.

Camunda process orchestration software helps orchestrate complex business processes that span people, systems, and devices. With Camunda, business users collaborate with developers to model and automate end-to-end processes using BPMN-powered flowcharts that run with the speed, scale, and resiliency required to compete in today's digital-first world. Hundreds of enterprises such as Allianz, ING, and Vodafone design, automate, and improve mission-critical business processes with Camunda to drive digital transformation. Jakob Freund, CEO, and co-founder of process automation provider, Camunda, joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about the missed opportunity when organizations don't start small with automation and the criteria for organizations that can significantly benefit from bringing a Chief Automation Officer on board.

In February 2022, the UK Government released its 'Levelling Up' manifesto, revealing its plans to drive innovation and economic growth, while upskilling people and leading the way to a better society and more sustainable environment. In many ways, this is a microcosm of the wider world and organisations on all corners of the globe should too be striving to level up. Doing so is key to deliver digital products and services faster, to keep up with customer demands and remain competitive amid increased market pace and competition. IT is essential to this, but they in turn need the right architecture, underpinned by composable applications, which Gartner predicts will become a strategic objective for 60% of organisations by 2023, while 80% will use iterative, experimental methods like lean, agile and design-thinking for service design. To this end, IT / digital workflows will also play a pivotal role. So, in this podcast episode, we explore the non-negotiable need for workflows within organisations, and how compa

Wade Ellery, Senior Solution Architect at Radiant Logic, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how many organizations have an identity management crisis without realizing it and what they can do to solve the problem? For many organizations, identity data exists in multiple forms across different locations (such as LDAP, AD, SQL, and web services), which creates a fragmented infrastructure within the organization, resulting in a deceleration of the time it takes to authenticate a user and the expansion of the organization's attack surface. Many organizations see current Identity Access Management solutions as incapable of meeting the demands of scalability, performance, and security needed in the work-from-anywhere era. So, what can be done to solve the identity management crisis experienced by organizations today? We discuss how many realize too late that they suffer from a fragmented infrastructure that results in a sprawl and why digital transformation has exacerbated organizations' current identity manag

Cybersecurity can seem complicated, but the truth is, many cyberattacks could be stopped with something very simple: improving password security. In fact, over the last two years, passwords were at the heart of some of the most high-profile breaches, including SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline. And with an estimated 1 million passwords stolen every week, anyone could be the next target if they haven't taken steps to improve their password security. Darren James, a password security expert and Head of Internal IT at Specops Software, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. Darren discusses his role at Specops and what inspired him to pursue a career in security. We also discuss best practices that every business and individual should be using and why password breaches are so common.

IBM recently announced its fourth-quarter 2021 earnings results, which showcased significant growth in automation software, with revenue up 15 percent. Dinesh Nirmal, General Manager, of IBM Automation joins me on the Tech Talk Daily Podcast to discuss IBM's plans to accelerate automation adoption in 2022, We also discuss the following three key industry challenges and trends that businesses are facing today: Skills gap: Automation is helping close the skills gap by solving the shortage of data scientists and developers that the industry is currently experiencing. For example, new automation tools like Watson Orchestrate provide workers access to their own interactive AI to help them perform both mundane and mission-critical tasks faster – everything from scheduling meetings and procuring approvals to interacting with business systems and preparing proposals. Complexity of legacy systems: Many challenges arise for enterprises when dealing with the complexity of legacy systems. Instead of having to deal with

Gianna Scorsone, General Manager and Head of North America at global technology company Aircall ($1B valuation), joins me on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast.   We discuss the importance of mass personalization for business communications and how cloud-based, digital-first companies face fierce competition for customer loyalty. Potential and existing customer interactions with a company's sales and customer service team must be personalized and positive to distinguish a brand from similar products and services and continue driving sales growth. In the day and age of the Great Resignation and labor shortages, businesses are reassessing what's needed to retain and recruit employees. Gianna firmly believes employee retention is directly tied to the culture companies create in the workplace. As a GM, she believes in prioritizing people first, then sales. Finally, she offers advice to future sales leaders and women working in tech.  

Matt Pullen, EVP, Managing Director, CyrusOne, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. The premier global data center real estate investment trust (REIT) has over 50 data centers worldwide, including a range of facilities in London, Dublin, and Frankfurt, and some exciting expansion plans in Europe.  We discuss what the future data center will look like and how increased regulation and legislation will impact the landscape. Matt also shares his predictions for the future and explores sustainability in the industry, and I learn more about the founding of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact. About CyrusOne CyrusOne (NASDAQ: CONE) is a premier global REIT specializing in design, construction and operation of more than 50 high-performance data centers worldwide. The Company provides mission-critical facilities that ensure the continued operation of IT infrastructure for approximately 1,000 customers, including approximately 200 Fortune 1000 companies. A leader in hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud deployments, CyrusOne offers c

In April, Chili Piper, the leading inbound conversion platform for sales and marketing teams, announced a Series B of $33M led by marquee VC, Tiger Global and includes Google's Gradient Ventures as an investor. After the ongoing onset of the pandemic, Chili Piper's co-founder and CEO, Nicolas Vandenberghe, was able to win over investors in just 20 minutes.  Nicolas shares his origin story which includes a great anecdote of a conversation he had with Steve Jobs and his journey to ChiliPiper. I learn more about their playbook for success how customers can increase conversion and drive more leads with a "speed-to-lead" approach.

No matter who you are and what kind of organisations you've worked for, everyone knows the pressure to just get it done. It can be for the sake of stakeholders, the cause, or the bottom line, but the consequences are the same: eventually you amass organisational debt. Like technical debt, this has accelerated amid recent disruption, where the need to keep things moving, at any cost, was greater than ever. But if this isn't addressed, the knock-on effect on your culture, people and all-round effectiveness can be severe. Ultimately, everyone knows organisational debt is there, but no one wants to talk about it. However, this needs to change – and fast – if businesses are to rid themselves of complexity and inefficiency. So, herein lies the purpose of this podcast episode, where our experts will be exploring some of the key things to look out for to fathom if your organisation is suffering from this debt. Complete with a deep dive into the power of IT workflows and other ways to free yourself from these shackles

Today's guest, Jay Gibb, is a former software engineer and the Founder and CEO of B2B SaaS company, CloudSponge. Together with his team, Jay has helped thousands of e-commerce store owners optimize their word-of-mouth sales since 2010. With a unique blend of tech expertise and soft skills, Jay is an expert at helping e-commerce stores build the right features to reduce customer acquisition costs and increase sales Jay joins me on Tech Talks Daily to share his story and the critical role that their products have played in the growth stories of household name tech companies like Airbnb, Nextdoor, GoFundMe, Morning Brew and Yelp.

Mahyar Raissi, co-founder and CEO of OpenPhone, an app-based phone service that is disrupting the antiquated and clunky business telecommunications market, joins me on Tech Talks Daily. OpenPhone replaces traditional business phones designed primarily for voice communication with intuitive and full-featured mobile and desktop applications.  In the last five years, there has been an explosion in collaboration technologies, such as Slack and Zoom. However, there has been little innovation in phone services, particularly for startups and small businesses for which the phone remains the center of communications. As a result, SMBs typically have to choose between basic mobile services or expensive and complicated enterprise technologies until now. OpenPhone includes features such as messaging and collaborative tools to meet business needs and integrates with other productivity applications and tools on which businesses rely, such as HubSpot, Slack, email, and Zapier.  Mahyar shares his inspiring origin story where

Arthur Woods is a social entrepreneur, LGBTQ+ advocate working at the intersection of equity and technology. He is the author of the nationwide best-selling book Hiring for Diversity and most recently co-founded Mathison, a venture-backed technological platform equipping employers with all they need to manage their diversity hiring efforts. He has delivered over 300 keynote speeches and is a three-time TEDx speaker. He has advised multiple brands over his career including Disney, Sonos, the Smithsonian, and many more. Arthur was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and 40 Under 40 by BEQ. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, GCT Entrepreneur in Residence, and many more! He was the lead of Google's Education and Schools division. Since then he has been at the forefront of developing platforms such as Imperative, Out in Tech & Social Impact 360, a collegiate social enterprise education program.  Arthur joins me in a discussion about how technology can help companies reduce bias in hiring and the biggest probl

ZapBatt started with a simple experience that we have all been through, being stuck with a dead battery and having no time to charge it. Their story is centered around people who want to improve how we use energy, and how that impacts our planet. From backgrounds in waste energy regeneration, batteries for wildlife, e-bikes, and more, their team has helped shape the technology they have built and their impact on the world for both consumers and companies. Charlie Welch, founder, and CEO of ZapBatt joins me on Tech Talks Daily in a conversation about how they are creating a new kind of battery system to power a wide range of electrical products for both businesses and consumers. In addition to its software technology, I learn more about ZapBatt's utilizing unique battery chemistry with a nano-structured crystal compound called lithium-titanate. Compared to other batteries, a lithium-titanate battery charges faster lasts longer, and is better for the environment and the bottom line. Until now, this chemistry ha

Whether physical or digital, a good onboarding process should reflect and understand the needs, expectations, and – indeed – frustrations that come with being a fresh face. This is especially important for the key HR processes that accompany many of the critical first interactions a new hire has with their employer. George Dunnett from Zellis joins me on Tech Talks Daily about tech's role in transforming these processes. Zellis provides payroll, HR and managed services to UK and Ireland-based companies with over 500 employees. They are the largest business of this nature in the UK counting a third of the FTSE 100 as customers, serving over 5 million of our customers'​ employees and processing in excess of 60 million payslips a year. We discuss how hybrid working is positively changing the business landscape, but how many things are still missed that could be tweaked with good tech initiatives. We also explore where tech investments should go next.

To many organizations, endpoint detection and response (EDR) is seen as the latest cybersecurity innovation and the tool to keep their network safe. However, with attacks now only needing 60 seconds after executing to cause significant damage to an organization's network, EDR solutions give an organisation a false sense of security. With attackers now looking to cause as much damage as possible in the shortest time possible, security teams can no longer react to a cyberattack but must start preventing them altogether. So how can organizations start preventing cyberattacks and protecting themselves? Deep Instinct is the first company to apply deep learning to cybersecurity. Deep learning is inspired by the brain's ability to learn. Once a brain learns to identify an object, its identification becomes second nature. Similarly, as Deep Instinct's artificial brain learns to detect any type of cyber threat, its prediction capabilities become instinctive. As a result, zero-day and APT attacks are detected and preve

RJ Pittman is the CEO of Matterport, a leading company that develops digital twins. Think of it as a way to create a digital replica of the real world, where people can either visit locations virtually to keep track of their inventory. Matterport is also a company contributing to the metaverse conversation, which is a topic that will likely continue to evolve next year. RJ joins me in a conversation about using this technology across many verticals. We explore the role of digital twins across tourism, travel, and real estate and how it ties to a potential metaverse. I learn more about Matterport's spatial computing platform turns buildings into data making every space more valuable and accessible. Millions of buildings in more than 150 countries have been transformed into immersive Matterport digital twins to improve every part of the building lifecycle from planning, construction, and operations to documentation, appraisal, and marketing.

A 2021 EdScoop survey underwritten by Dell Technologies and Intel found that higher education officials believe the demand for AI training is outpacing both supply and the current ability of higher education institutions to meet that demand. Fifty-three percent of survey respondents suggested AI would account for the most significant increase in instructional demand over the next three years, and 50 percent said they would like support from a consortium/association of peer institutions. Intel, Dell Technologies and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) recently announced the AI Incubator Network. The new initiative from Intel's AI for Workforce program will design and build artificial intelligence (AI) labs across the country by utilizing the expertise and industry connections of America's community college system. The partnership is opening applications for community colleges that would like to participate in the AI Incubator Network by designing and building their own AI incubators as physic

imimobile, part of Webex by Cisco, provides cloud communications software and services that manage business-critical customer interactions at scale. Cisco Systems acquired the business in February 2021 and now forms an integral part of the Webex CX strategy. Since its foundation in 2000 at the start of the mobile internet era, the company has worked with many large enterprises across different industries to create superior customer experiences. Its API and low-code Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) offering, Webex Connect, enables large enterprises to automate, orchestrate and monitor their customer interactions all on one platform. This helps businesses to lower costs, reduce complexity and accelerate IT roadmaps. I invited Ramy Riad on Tech Talks Daily to learn more about how they are helping businesses stay connected to their customers in a world where every touchpoint, on every channel, is an opportunity to deliver rich, engaging, intuitive experiences. A world where every interaction matters.