Technology is always advancing, if you don’t advance with it, your competition will end up leaving you behind. With advances in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Augmented Reality and the Internet of Things there are numerous new technologies available to solve any issue that your business may be having.
Emerging technologies, if used appropriately, can be used to reach new goals. These technologies can be used to help organisations scale rapidly, minimise infrastructure investment, automate long-standing processes, enrich their data sets and reach new capabilities.
But instead of telling you what businesses can do, we’ve gone and asked business leaders to demonstrate the capabilities of their Emerging Technology, listen to these 15 podcasts and see what new heights you can reach.
1. Dev Stories: The Coding Journey with Ashley Firth | Octopus Energy
Ashley Firth built and leads the Front-end department at Octopus Energy, crafting sites and internal tools, building new products and campaigns, and expanding into other countries. Their aim is to combat climate change, use technology to build a better standard of energy supplier, and make renewable energy more affordable for everyone. In May 2020, Octopus Energy became the 15th UK tech “unicorn” after achieving a valuation of over £1 billion.
Ashley has also written a book: 'Practical Web Inclusion & Accessibility', a new book, designed as a practical guide to access needs, which is a huge passion for Ashley.
2. Leading the Flutter Transformation @ Very Good Ventures | David DeRemer
David DeRemer is the Founder and President of Very Good Ventures, a Flutter development consultancy with offices in New York, Chicago, and teammates around the world.
Very Good Ventures is the World’s leading Flutter development team. They have been working with Flutter longer than anyone and on the biggest Flutter apps, including the first commercial app outside of Google in 2017 — the Hamilton app.
Flutter is a UI toolkit created by Google for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase.
In prior roles at Posse, Chobani, frog design, and Accenture, David has developed innovative products and solutions for companies such as Chobani, The Rock Clock, Jet.com, Sixpoint Brewery, Shoptiques, Spring, Gatorade + Smart Design, Best Buy, Staples, GE, AT&T, Bloomberg, TouchTunes, Humana, Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Mobility, CNN.com, Crocs, Estée Lauder Companies, ETS, GE Healthcare, GE Money, IMAX, KLA Tencor, Nokia, Philip Morris, WalMart, Accenture, Sony, and many more.
3. The Virtual Festival Experience @ The World's Online Festival | Gary Knight & Martin Rosinski
Martin Rosinski is Founder & Chief of Tech at The World's Online Festival, with an impressive previous technical history having created Palringo, which was the first ever chat app to launch on the Apple App Store (2008), and then became the first mobile app to introduce chatbots – and the first to introduce sticker packs (2011). Building on its proven heritage of world-first innovation, and leveraging its state-of-the-art technology platform, Palringo has now introduced a breakthrough market offering – the World's Online Festival, which is an incredible user-created world filled with Group Chat, Live Audio Shows, Friendship and Entertainment. WOLF has over 35 million downloads and more than 350,000 user-created social groups.
Gary Knight is CEO of WOLF, building a user-created world filled with group chat, live audio shows, friendship and entertainment. The app delivers the festival experience to your pocket – users can interact with the people on stage, create their own audio shows and experience the magic of real-world festivals on their phones.
We spoke about the considerations when re-launching an app, and from a technical point of view, how to rebuild the foundations of an app.
4. Autonomous Economic Agents @ Fetch.ai | David Minarsch
David Minarsch holds a PhD in Applied Game Theory from the University of Cambridge, is a researcher at Fetch.AI where he researches and prototypes consensus mechanisms and smart markets, combining game theory expertise with engineering and product experience in machine learning and blockchain. He has conducted cutting-edge research on the Economics of Networks, the Strategy of Conflict and Political Competition and is a co-founder of Panopy.
Fetch.ai is building an open access, tokenized, decentralized machine learning network to enable smart infrastructure built around a decentralized digital economy.
5. Tech for Good @ FlixBus | Anna Derinova-Hartmann
Anna Derinova-Hartmann is Charter Tech Domain Lead at FlixBus. Anna is an M.A. educated Programme Manager, Project Manager and Change Manager with a track record of achievement within International Relations and Global Politics.
We spoke about the importance of leveraging tech in society and the impact this can have. Anna shares advice on how it's best to attract talent as an aspiring entrepreneur, and advice for developers looking to put together a pitch to potential investors, along with some of the common pitfalls to be aware of.
6. Dealing with Unforeseen Popularity @ Postmates | Sanket Agarwal
Sanket Agarwal has an impressive career history working with Google in Silicon Valley followed by a stint at a start-up and now finds himself as an Engineering Manager at Postmates.
Founded in 2011, Postmates was one of the first to let customers in the U.S. order meal delivery using a mobile app. In the latest development, Uber has announced that it has acquired Postmates in a $2.65 billion, all-stock deal.
We spoke about what the company was like in its early stages and how the app has developed into what it is today. We also spoke about the cultural differences of Tech Giants and small, intense Tech startups, how these differences can impact a person's mental health, and how burnout in the Tech industry is a very common reality.
7. The New Responsibilities of the Travel Industry | Emily Dresner
Emily Dresner is Chief Technology Officer at Upside Business Travel. Emily has built and scaled a department initially of 5 engineers to a team of 60 across 11 teams including multiple product development teams, a machine learning/AI team, DevOps, data engineering, security, infrastructure and quality engineering.
Upside Business Travel is revolutionizing travel management for small to mid-sized companies. We hear about how Upside is in place to react and adapt to the current pandemic that has affected the logistics of the travel industry greatly.
8. The Lingumi App - Using Tech to Teach English | Richard Hiscutt
Richard Hiscutt is Head of Product at edtech startup Lingumi, helping to bring the world’s best teaching experience to every child’s home.
Previously, Richard founded the digital agency Fantastic Thinking and sold it to The Engine Group in 2011, and was the one who made sure they created amazing-looking experiences for clients such as Evian, The Times, Laya Healthcare and Rolls-Royce, as well as testing, researching and sharing insights and innovative thoughts and techniques to the rest of the company.
Richard's mission with Lingumi is to make learning English effective, affordable, and fun for the next 500 million children before they reach their first classroom. At an incredibly exciting time at Lingumi, we hear how the app is prepared to scale to deliver great learning outcomes to a mass of users.
9. Taking Virtual Reality to the Next Level | Paul Blakey
We take a peek behind the velvet curtain of a studio creating some of the most groundbreaking Virtual Reality experiences on the planet. We hear the thought processes behind creating VR, and some of the pitfalls to be aware of. Paul and the team at Hidden Creative are way ahead of the curve, creating experiences that are useful and taking Virtual Reality to the next level.
10. Using Tech to Disrupt the Insurance Industry | Neil Walker
Neil is the Head of Architecture at Covéa Insurance, Neil has worked in IT for 25 years, from early 90’s SGML's first online internet solutions to Head of Architecture, with experience delivering applications with diverse technologies applying Enterprise and Solution Architecture, Consulting and system design experience. Neil started out as a technical author at a software house in Birmingham in the 90s and learned his trade as he went, with his latest move to Covéa Insurance.
11. ‘Applied predictions’ Building better outcomes with predictive models - Steve King
Steve is CEO of Black Swan Data. On the show, Steve recites the story of how he came to found Black Swan Data. It involves the pub and a quick detour into history. Andy also about Black Swan’s ‘Applied Predictions’ product and how they are helping revolutionise the data space.
Black Swan Data Black Swan Data creates better outcomes through technology and the power of prediction. Their products transform the way brands create value from data, finding insights and solutions that create an advantage for their business. They analyse consumer behaviour using public and private data, then build cutting-edge technology based on predictive models to create better outcomes - they call this “Applied Prediction”.
Podcast On the show Steve tells us about the foundation of Black Swan Data. He talks us through the concept of ‘applied predictions’ and they discuss how a manager can determine the ROI of data.
12. 15 steps to make your business GDPR defensible - Ian West
In this episode, we talk to Ian West, Director of Digital Information at Project One. Ian talks Andy through his 15 steps any business should take to make their business GDPR defensible.
Ian West is a business leader with proven skills in transforming, developing and realising maximum revenue and profit potential of business propositions in the Private & Public sectors. He has expertise in the complete market and business development processes from strategic planning, target marketing and solution positioning, whilst being focused on successful execution, exemplary deployment and exceptional long-term service.
13. 3 things I’ve learned from starting a business - Sebastian Francis
Sebastian is the Co-founder and Director at Titus Learning
As the co-founder of Titus Learning Sebastian has always championed e-learning and alternate educational routes. After a brief stint at university, he found he worked best when engaging in ‘non-traditional’ educational avenues. This realisation saw him set up Titus Learning to bring the advantages of e-learning courses to as many people as possible.
14. AI in Healthcare operations – Christian Moroy
Christian Moroy is the Co-Founder & CTO at Edge Health.
Christian’s aim is to make hospitals more effective and efficient with Artificial Intelligence. Whether that’s by using algorithms to increase available bed spaces or by using AI to make sure theatres are being utilised to the full.
Christian splits his working day between coding and client meetings. Conveying the benefits of AI to non-technical people is a crucial part of what he does. He uses the same skills on today’s podcast as he explores exactly how AI is revolutionising the healthcare sector.
15. Artificial intelligence: How can society adapt to this new industrial revolution - Carl Austin
In this episode, we talk to Carl Austin, the UK CTO at BJSS. On the show they discuss the new industrial revolution being brought about by Artificial Intelligence. We chat about how society can embrace this change and what it could mean for people whose jobs may be taken over by machines. Carl also speaks about how technology is now been driven more by consumer demand.
