The Irish Tech News Podcast

We catch up with Mark Schaefer to learn more about his recent book Cumulative Advantage, and how to maximise your own talents to achieve success. We also discuss why Tennesse is awesome, and his love hate relationship with Tim Ferris. Mark W. Schaefer is a globally-recognized speaker, educator, business consultant, and author who blogs at {grow} — one of the top marketing blogs of the world. Mark has worked in global sales, PR, and marketing positions for 30 years and now provides consulting services as Executive Director of U.S.-based Schaefer Marketing Solutions.  He specializes in marketing strategy and social media workshops and clients include both start-ups and global brands such as Adidas, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Pfizer, The U.S. Air Force, and the UK government. Mark has advanced degrees in marketing and organizational development and holds seven patents. He is a faculty member of the graduate studies program at Rutgers University. He and is the author of eight best-selling books including The Tao of Twitter (the best-selling book on Twitter in the world), The Content Code, named by INC magazine as one of the Top five marketing books of the year, and KNOWN: The handbook for building and unleashing your personal brand in the digital age, the top book on personal branding. Mark’s new book Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business and Life Against All Odds is an essential new path to being seen and heard in a busy world. His books are used as textbooks at more than 50 universities, have been translated into 12 languages, and can be found in more than 750 libraries worldwide. He the co-host of The Marketing Companion, one of the top 10 marketing podcasts on iTunes.

Rhett is co-founder and CEO of Europechain, a GDPR compliant blockchain based on the EOS blockchain and co-founded by four other European EOS Blockproducers. His family name, from the Netherlands, originates from the 1500s when his family emigrated from Poland to Holland. Pool being a reference to Poland and Oudkerk meaning old church and an connected name chosen to reflect respectability. His focus at Europechain is to deliver public blockchain solutions for enterprises. The main issues encountered so far in the multiple projects undertaken are to manage identities and workflow. Accordingly, the team has built an enablement layer to sit on top of the blockchain to deliver enterprise related modules. In addition to Europe, there is also a chain for India where similar projects can be rolled out. “Our model is to build geographical chains with an enablement layer – so you get the blockchain features combined with expected enterprise requirements.” The excitement around NFTs has prompted the five block producers to collectively offer solutions out of Zaisan Holding, thereby creating a reservoir of NFT knowledge in one place. An important component is the legal aspect when entering into contracts with artists and Jetse Sprey, cofounder of Europechain offers tailored legal advice for this potentially tricky sector. Listen here to find put his advice Your host is Jillian Godsil, award winning journalist, broadcaster and author - her latest book is here https://persons-of-interest.io/

Jamil interviews Cyrus Taghehchian, Founder, CEO @ Splyt Core Foundation about his positive and life changing initiative.  Linkedin.com/in/taghehchian About Maker of things awesome, Executive and Lean-Agile coach, blockchain nerd, people motivator, Deloitte Consulting alum, digital hipster, business professional and kid at heart. An accomplished entrepreneur with leadership, strategy, and business execution expertise in e-commerce, digital marketing, Lean-Agile dev, and blockchain. Curious. Persistent. Courageous. I spend my time thinking of the Future of Work and my intention in life is to heal people by empowering them to follow their purpose using agile, blockchain, social media, e-commerce, and/or just believing in themselves. Purpose before profits makes the world more whole. Things I care about: youth privilege equality and sustainability. What good is it to have a unicorn exit when you’re destroying future generation’s opportunities and/or the planet? "NFTs and its immutable data nature will be the most coveted commodity in the future once we reach singularity. Blockchain preserves our reality." -me About Splyt: Splyt is an e-commerce NFT infrastructure that connects e-commerce stores, brands, and affiliates. A unique eNFT is assigned to each item providing users with a globally updating inventory. Users can also mint their products as eNFTs. There is a certificate of authenticity to prevent counterfeits, a built in smart contract that holds money in escrow to avoid scams, and a commission to incentivise affiliates and stores. The protocol is equipped with automated dispute and arbitration mechanisms, and is governed by consensus to maintain decentralization, flexibility, and user engagement. Visit Splyt Website: https://Spl.yt Follow Splyt on Twitter Follow Splyt on Medium Follow Splyt on Instagram Join the Telegram Community About Jamil Hasan Jamil Hasan is a Generation X Author and experienced data intelligence technology builder with two decades of experience leading data-based teams at Fortune 100 companies, including AIG, Prudential Financial, and Ingersoll Rand. Jamil believes that skill and experience, not just age, is the most important factor required to build and lead corporate organizations. His unique story, as someone on the ground floor of the 2008 financial crisis and his role to help repay the $180 billion AIG bailout, enabled him to come face-to-face with many of the societal ills facing Generation X today and their causes. As the result of his experience, Jamil has developed a path forward for his fellow Gen Xers to restore his generation’s financial standing in society today and to rebuild the American Dream for Generation X.

In this episode of Irish Tech News Sangeeta Waldron is in conversation with Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, a fourth-generation beekeeper, who started her entrepreneurial journey at just 22 years old.  Her company, Bee Downtown, which is based in North Carolina in the US, provides unique year-round employee engagement and leadership development for many of the largest corporations in the world by placing honeybee hives on corporate campuses. Leigh is part of the TED speaking community, a 2018 INC Magazine-30 Under 30 Rising Star, and most recently named to the exclusive Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Sangeeta speaks to Leigh on her birthday, St. Patrick’s Day this year. Leigh gives us a wonderful insight into bees and tells us that honey bees are Mother Nature’s best story-tellers, who are telling us right now about the decline of the environment, and how we can listen to hives. Leigh also discusses the next generation of business leaders in the US, who want change; the challenges of being an entrepreneur and that how you can be a mission and corporate social responsibility led business, and still be profitable! Connect with Bee Downtown on Instagram Twitter and Facebook. Connect with Sangeeta Waldron, Founder, Serendipity PR & Media and Author of Corporate Social Responsibility Is Not Public Relations on Twitter. Sangeeta Waldron is a multi-award winning Public Relations professional with over three decades’ worth of publicity, branding, communications, crisis management, marketing, media and social media experience. Sangeeta is a published author; her first business book, The PR Knowledge Book is published by Business Expert Press and received high acclaim by international business leaders. She is a guest lecturer at Coventry University, teaching PR and global journalism. Sangeeta is also a writer specializing in sustainability and corporate social responsibility, where her work has been published by the United Nations and other leading news platforms. Sangeeta started out her career writing speeches for a previous UK Prime Minister and Ministers, and has worked at the top level with big, powerful global brands, which includes - being global communications director for the Economist Group; working for The Times Education Supplement; the Mayor of London; Cass Business School; and charities such as Breast Cancer Campaign.  A regular international speaker and moderator. Sangeeta sits on different boards.

Really enjoyed chatting with Peter Cairns, and learned a lot from our conversation, you will enjoy this interview too -> Peter Cairns is Executive Director of rewilding charity, SCOTLAND: The Big Picture and a co-founder of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance. www.scotlandbigpicture.com Despite its beauty and drama, Scotland has become a nature-depleted nation. Many species that were once prolific now teeter on the edge; others have been hunted to extinction. Centuries of ecological decline have led to the complex living systems upon which we all depend to falter and fail. It doesn’t have to be this way. Rewilding seeks to return abundance and diversity of life to Scotland’s land and seas, so that wildlife flourishes and people thrive. SCOTLAND: The Big Picture works with a diverse range of people to make rewilding happen, at many different levels, across Scotland. It’s time to rewrite nature’s story. www.rewild.scot Imagine a Scotland where nature is reawakened. Where a rich tapestry of native woodlands, wetlands, wildflower meadows and grasslands is stitched back together. Where land and seas teem with life. Where people feel connected to the natural world, wherever they live. And where nature-based enterprises support thriving communities far and wide. This is our vision of rewilding. This is why we’re calling on Scotland to become the world’s first Rewilding Nation.

How to be part of a world first NFT? One Million NFT Seeks to Make Internet History with Artistic NFT Grid The one-million-pixel grid will be auctioned after completion One Million NFT is a project set up by Ben Allen, the man behind the project to offer the world’s first one-million-pixel grid. The company is producing a one-million-pixel user-generated grid online to create one piece of artwork, then minted as an NFT. Each of the grids in the One Million NFT is for sale and, once completed, will make a user-generated image that will be auctioned off as a non-fungible token (NFT) art piece. Each 10x10 grid will contain an image of the purchaser's choice. “We are blazing new trails in the worlds of art and technology, finding creativity and unique value in their intersection,” explained Ben Allen, founder of the One Million NFT project. “We are also reversing a century-old trend of technology deprecating the unique value of a work of art. Instead, we are leveraging technology to assert the right of the artist, or in this case, a community of creators, to make something unreproducible and distinctly valuable.” Each contributor can also add a website address to the contributor's list for the artwork. Squares are available to anyone, including artists, advertisers, brands, influencers, and entrepreneurs, as well as anyone who wants to contribute an image. The completed art piece will then be auctioned with the goal of mass exposure for all contributors. NFTs are data units on a blockchain digital ledger, including unique digital items such as collectibles or artworks, or game items. NFT's are valuable because they are rare digital art in being verifiably scarce on the Ethereum blockchain. There is a diverse range of very talented artists currently releasing amazing work atop Ethereum. For the artist, tokenizing work both ensures that the item is unique and branded as the artist's work. The actual ownership is blockchain-managed. The blockchain's encryption makes each NFT impossible to reproduce without its owner's permission. NFT is thus ideal for digital artworks and books. An article in the Economic Times stated, "Just like sports collectibles, the market for NFTs is estimated to have grown to $100 million while opening up myriad possibilities for artists. This includes greater autonomy and a fair share of the value upside according to those aware of the dynamics of this buzzing marketplace." Digital artwork by the artist Beeple recently sold for $69 million at a Christie's auction. "I'm a big believer in NFT artists and hope that over time, we see digital as the norm so that it can be appreciated," said Ben. "I thought this would be a great idea to bring awareness to many great digital artists. We are creating a timeless image that will reward contributors in this artwork." One Million NFT has already had more than 9,000 views from 97 different countries, and page views are growing. The project, which is only two weeks old, has already sold 3.3 percent of the squares, or 330 out of 10,000. For more information or to become part of this historical piece of art, visit onemillionnft.com

Important and interesting conversation with Gerald Kutney, battling to reduce the impact of climate change deniers. Gerald is a commentator on MSM and social media on the politics of the climate crisis. He has authored the book Carbon Politics and the Failure of the Kyoto Protocol and is currently working on #ClimateBrawl vs. Climate Denialism: The Politics of the Climate Crisis. Gerald is also known for having inspired the popular hashtag on Twitter: “#ClimateBrawl.” On Twitter, he is ranked in the top 💯 global influencers in Climate Science & Forecast, and the #1 global influencer for “Education & Public Awareness in the #ClimateChange Debate.” He has a Ph.D. in chemistry and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He was an adjunct professor at the University of Northern British Columbia and taught the graduate course Climate Change & Global Warming. Now living in Ottawa, he has presented several guest lectures at Carleton University on climate change denial. A staff reporter from The Toronto Star wrote: “Canadian researcher Gerald Kutney, who has wielded his PhD in chemistry like a blinding blade of science in a relentless twitter campaign against climate denialism.”

Jamil catches up with Vaibhav Kadikar, CloseCross to learn more about this project Trust in Code: Moving from Traditional Financial Markets to Alternative, Decentralized Leveraged Markets, About Vaibhav Kadikar, Founder and CEO of CloseCross Inventor of the multi-party settlement mechanism and author of the Knowledge value of Time algorithms, Vaibhav Kadikar has been in this space since 1999 when he launched his first digital (not crypto) currency. In 2007 he wrote the paper on Financial Decentralization that turned into an approved patent from the USPTO in 2011 for the multi-party settlement. In 2017 he founded CloseCross to disrupt the financial predictions/derivatives market with an aim to open up the $1200 trillion p.a. market to the masses, by offering an alternative multi-party setup. He has an MBA from INSEAD and has previously held positions leading Global functions in M&A, Corporate Finance, Digitization and Corporate Development About Jamil Hasan Jamil Hasan is a Generation X Author and experienced data intelligence technology builder with two decades of experience leading data-based teams at Fortune 100 companies, including AIG, Prudential Financial, and Ingersoll Rand. Jamil believes that skill and experience, not just age, is the most important factor required to build and lead corporate organizations. His unique story, as someone on the ground floor of the 2008 financial crisis and his role to help repay the $180 billion AIG bailout, enabled him to come face-to-face with many of the societal ills facing Generation X today and their causes. As the result of his experience, Jamil has developed a path forward for his fellow Gen Xers to restore his generation’s financial standing in society today and to rebuild the American Dream for Generation X.

In the podcast today Melanie Boylan speaks to Martina Fitzgerald of Scale Ireland about the work they do to support business owners. Martina Fitzgerald is the CEO of Scale Ireland, the independent not-for-profit organisation which represents and advocates on behalf of Ireland’s tech start-up and scale-up companies. Martina has two decades senior communications experience, including as RTÉ’s political correspondent. She is the author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed book, ‘Madam Politician: The women at the table of Irish political power’. In 2019, Martina was a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University in New York, having earlier in the year delivered communications and empowerment training to pre-university women in Laos and Washington. She is a member of Ireland’s independent National Screening Advisory Committee and a board member of Dóchas. Scale Ireland is an independent not-for-profit organisation which represents and advocates on behalf of  Ireland’s tech start-up and scale-up companies. There are currently 2000 indigenous tech start-up and scale-up companies employing 47,000  people around the country. Website; www.scaleireland.org https://twitter.com/scaleireland https://www.linkedin.com/company/scale-ireland/ https://www.facebook.com/ScaleIreland.org

A combined approach of mass testing alongside contact tracing is the most effective way to suppress the spread and impact of the coronavirus, and avoid strong restrictions being implemented, according to new research from the Institute of Smarts Systems and Artificial Intelligence at Nazarbayev University. Ronan talks to Askat Kuzdeuov a data scientist at the institute of Smarts Systems and Artificial Intelligence at Nazarbayev University about this and more. Askat talks about the research being done on COVID-19, its recent findings, the COVID-19 simulator they developed, and what it does. Askat also mentions where you can get the source code for their COVID-19 simulator, why they used data from Lecco in the Lombardy region, zero covid, contact tracing, and vaccinations. More about the institute of Smarts Systems and Artificial Intelligence at Nazarbayev University. The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as the most severe public health crisis in over a century. As of January 2021, there are more than 100 million cases and 2.1 million deaths. For informed decision making, reliable statistical data and capable simulation tools are needed. Askat Kuzdeuov and his colleagues at the Institute of Smarts Systems and Artificial Intelligence at Nazarbayev University have developed an epidemic simulator that can model the effects of random population testing and contact tracing. Their simulator models individuals as particles with the position, velocity, and epidemic status states on a 2D map and runs an SEIR epidemic model with contact tracing and testing modules.