Tech Talks Daily

CD Baby is an artist-services platform that makes it easy for independent musicians to distribute, promote, and monetize their music so they can thrive outside the major-label system. Built on the belief that every artist should be able to pursue their vision without compromise and have an equal opportunity to be heard, CD Baby's distribution services, self-promotion tools, and educational initiatives are designed to increase artist autonomy and empower independent artists to build their audiences without corporate assistance. Home to over 1 million artists and more than 10 million tracks, CD Baby has paid out over $1 billion in royalties to artists since its founding in 1998. However, with all the recent startup posturing, model shuffling, and race-to-the-bottom pricing in music distribution, it's time to take a step back and think, what is the role of a music distributor? Kevin Breuner shares his philosophy on what it means to be a music distributor in 2022.

Nik Froehlich is the CEO and Founder of Saritasa, a full-service mobile web, software, AR/VR, and IoT development brand. Today, he discusses the unique position of working with developers post-Covid, how the mobile and app development industry has changed, and trends that he's seen in working with some household name brands. One unique brand that they've worked with is: iHeartRadio. For their annual music festival, Saritasa's team was tasked with creating an immersive 'earthquake experience'. They've also created apps for BJs and other restaurants across the US and world. But where did it all begin? In 1987, he started a sidewalk repair company, and that is when he realized the real power of technology; and how he can use tech to scale a business. He created a database and a CRM to run this new business. Utilizing technology, he eventually grew the company to cover over 20 branches in 9 states across the country.

All In The Loop creates virtual, hybrid, and in-person event solutions. The company supports thousands of events in over 45 counties, and they pride themselves on delivering an outstanding event experience with their unique events technology platforms. Whether your event is virtual, in-person or somewhere in between, their versatile mobile apps and virtual event platforms can be tailored to your requirements. In 2020, the event industry was decimated by the pandemic. All in the Loop were forced to evolve its offering to cater for the rapidly emerging virtual event market. They positioned themselves to serve remote working audiences. By partnering with its homegrown streaming technology, they were very quickly able to provide a virtual event solution for their clients. All In The Loop designed and launched virtual rooms for attendees to view live presentations, which became the industry standard. Today, they pride themselves in supporting thousands of events worldwide, whether in-person, hybrid, or virtual. Lawrence Gillward shares their journey and how their technology is transforming events.

Agreena was founded within the industry by visionary farmers and fintech-savvies. What originated as an online commodity trading marketplace has become one of the first carbon farming platforms in the pan-European landscape. Using a set of core principles to regenerate soil, the company's unique vertically integrated solution suggests putting the farmer first – backing with the knowledge, support, and incentives to implement sustainable ag practices at scale. In 2021 alone, Agreena serves more than 150 farmers in eight countries; and more than 50,000 hectares of farmland yielding regeneratively. Verified to the ISO 14064-2 standard, AgreenaCarbon is based on a yearly harvest cycle, with the data capture process giving farmers the opportunity for payouts from year one. Simon Haldrup, Co-founder & CEO, Agreena, joins me in a conversation about how we are entering an exciting phase of climate action where both farmers and innovation are stepping center-stage as discussions move toward removing carbon from the atmosphere. We discuss the Carbon Farming Initiative and how it emphasizes public funding to spur growth and create more certainty for landowners to participate. With new funding on the horizon for carbon farming through mechanisms such as the CAP eco schemes, I learn more about how it will be essential to ensure that all programs are designed to complement what has already been created through incentives from the private sector and voluntary carbon market. With plans to develop a carbon removal certification, the European Commission is currently positioning itself to take a leading role; getting measures in place from a governing body can ensure transparency and environmental integrity of the market. Now is the time that requires collaboration and activation across all stakeholders – public, private, academic, civic – all hands in the soil. We discuss how technology will bring all this together.

DroneShield is a worldwide leader in counter-UAS security and technology. The company develops pre-eminent UAS security solutions that protect people, organizations and critical infrastructure from intrusion from UAS threats. Its leadership brings world-class expertise in engineering and physics, combined with deep experience in defence, intelligence, and aerospace. I wanted to learn more about how this anti-drone company uses AI to jam or shoot drones out of the sky. Matt McCrann, US CEO of DroneShield (DRSHF), breaks down types of attacks, potential risk, rise in drone use age, etc. Matt elaborates on both the benefits and downfalls of drone use and discusses how the use of drones will shift the type of attacks we see in modern warfare. But most importantly, he also provides insights on how destructive attacks can be prevented.

UiPath is a leading robotic process automation (RPA) software company. Renzo Taal designs and manages the company's growth strategy for the EMEA region in close collaboration with the senior leadership team and has been recognized as one of the most influential young business leaders in the EMEA. We discuss the importance of retaining and attracting talent with automation education and how to best implement automation upskilling and reskilling programs within the context of the current job market. Finally, Renzo shares his story and how an increased awareness of the power of UiPath's end-to-end automation platform coupled with solid execution by the team resulted in a fiscal third-quarter ARR of $818 million, an increase of 58 percent year-over-year.

Rob Ellis from Thales joins me in discussing the rise of the sovereign cloud. We discuss how data sovereignty is not just about localization; it's ensuring that nation-states can store their data in their own country and control access to it. There are now more than 1,800 data compliance laws companies must comply with on a global scale. I learn how this surge in regulation is creating a shift towards the containment and localisation of data and why we will see this more and more in the years to come. The public will become increasingly aware of these challenges too, with individual data sovereignty on the horizon. This will allow individuals to control where their data is and how it is used, strengthening the correlation between identity and data protection. Finally, we discuss how it's likely that more tech giants will build localized data centers to circumnavigate geographical barriers to business. This in turn will lead to an increasing level of investment from global cloud providers in the cloud infrastructure of nation-states, driving forward their ongoing digital transformation journey.

Cybersecurity vulnerabilities have been plaguing supply chains across industries. According to an analysis conducted by BSI, ransomware attacks on the supply chain have increased by 66 percent in the last three years, expediting the concern of cybersecurity for private companies. Considering these attacks range from targeting the sea modality to the trucking modality, tools to combat the threat of cyber-attacks on the supply chain have solidified in the last year, making it a central part of the United States cybersecurity policy. Mark Brown, Global Managing Director, Digital Trust Consulting Services at BSI joins me in a conversation about all this, along with cybersecurity risk and trends that are emerging along with how we can better prepare, Mark Brown joined BSI in February of 2021 as the Global Managing Director of the Consulting Services, Cyber Security, and Information Security business. In his role, Mark drives a new global focus on emerging technologies and risks such as IoT and Operational Technology (OT), increased cloud adoption, RPA Security, 5G security, and the CISO desire to achieve central management over the new converged digital arena, positioning cyber security as a business enabler. With over 25 years of in the industry, Mark brings a wealth of knowledge on the expanding cybersecurity marketplace as organizations grapple with digital transformation and addressing new technologies that bring new business risks. Mark has previously held global leadership roles across industry and professional services, including tenures as Global CISO at SABMiller plc, and Global CIO/CTO at Spectris plc, as well as leadership roles as a Partner at Wipro Ltd., and Ernst & Young (EY) LLP.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added many layers of complexity to the workplace, as companies are increasingly relying on technology to establish secure remote work capabilities. Since a multi-cloud IT infrastructure can provide exceptional benefits, including optimizing cost performance, avoiding vendor lock-in, and increasing reliability by distributing assets in the event of an IT crisis, it's no wonder so many companies are racing to adopt multi-cloud solutions. However, this rush to migrate sensitive data and business functions from on-premises to multiple clouds is leaving many organizations ill-prepared for security and compliance issues. Gartner has predicted that by 2025, 90% of the organizations that fail to control public cloud use will inappropriately share sensitive data. Companies that fail to employ security guardrails when planning a cloud migration are severely increasing their risk of misconfigurations that can lead to devastating security and compliance incidents. Keith Neilson, Technical Evangelist at CloudSphere joins me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how companies can maintain a competitive edge and keep company data secure by leveraging a more agile cyber asset management approach.

Paddy Padmanabhan is the Founder and CEO of Damo Consulting Inc., a digital transformation and growth advisory firm focused on the healthcare sector. For over 20 years, Paddy has had a distinguished career in leadership roles working extensively as a technology strategist and trusted advisor to C-suite executives in large health systems and digital health firms. Paddy is also the author of the best-selling book Healthcare Digital Transformation - How Consumerism, Technology, and Pandemic are Accelerating the Future and The Big Unlock – Harnessing Data and Growing Digital Health Businesses in a Value-based Care Era. We discuss the top digital priorities for health systems today and the Digital transformation trends driving healthcare in 2022. We also talk about developing enterprise digital roadmaps and digital maturity in healthcare.