The Irish Tech News Podcast

Interesting conversation with Glen Hiemstra who has been a futurist since 1980! More about Glen See his website here. If you listen carefully, you can learn what the future is telling you. Before the Internet was even a public network Glen Hiemstra, Futurist, studied how it would change human and organizational communication. In the mid-1980`s he was describing the coming economic growth of the Pacific Rim countries. Glen told audiences about global warming and climate change...in 1987. He previewed nanotechnology...in 1989, and described genomic science and biotechnology even earlier. Glen wrote about the age wave and the end of classic retirement...in 1995. By 2001 Glen described the coming energy transformation as the greatest economic opportunity of the next half-century. As early as 2006 Glen told people why the debt bubble would burst, as it did more than a year later. Before the Internet was popular Glen had the foresight to register Futurist.com and become Founder and CEO of the site that is now visited by people from 120 nations each month. To deal with breakthrough trends like these Glen helps large and small companies, educational institutions, government agencies and communities re-think their future vision. This is why audience members for Glen`s keynote speeches and clients for his long-range planning  A writer as well as a speaker and consultant, Glen is the author of Turning the Future into Revenue: What Businesses and Individuals Need to Know to Shape Their Future (Wiley & Sons 2006). Previously he co-authored Strategic Leadership: Achieving Your Preferred Future and his new book Millennial City was published in Fall 2014. Glen has also served as a technical advisor for futuristic television shows and appeared in future oriented documentaries. Glen has worked with many leading companies, government agencies and organizations across a wide variety of domains. These include international clients like Saint Gobain and Certainteed, Sonae of Portugal, Ambrosetti of Italy, Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals, Huawei of China, The World Future Forum-The Hague, GHD Engineering of Australia, Russian Railroad, Toyota, and others like Boeing Commercial Airplanes (most recently designing and leading a “Next 100 Years” strategic foresight project), Microsoft, The Home Depot, Adobe, Ernst & Young, PaineWebber, ShareBuilder, Club of Amsterdam, REI, Weyerhaeuser, Hewlett Packard, Novo Nordisk, U.S./Mexico JWC, APAX Partners, Atlanta 2060, Tulsa 2025, , FHWA Advanced Research, Eddie Bauer, Procter & Gamble, ACE Hardware, IHOP, John Deere, Lexis Nexus, Land O Lakes, Mass Mutual, Mutual of Enumclaw, ING, Colorado League of Cities, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and others. Transportation clients include USDOT, FHWA, Idaho Transportation 2030, Michigan DOT 2030, Louisiana DOT, Texas Transportation Forum, and various auto, trucking and rail related businesses including America Trucking Association, Great Dane Trailers, Union Pacific, Toyota, Great Western Insurance, and others.

We check in with Dinis Guarda to learn more. Dinis is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, advisor, and CEO Chairman and co-founder ztudium group that owns the companies techabc and open business platform. Dinis authored, “4IR - How to Reinvent a Nation”, "How Businesses and Governments can prosper with Fintech, Blockchain, and AI" and "Blockchain, AI, and Crypto Economics – The Next Tsunami", among others. Dinis runs a fast growing Youtube Podcast series https://www.youtube.com/c/DinisGuarda/videos where he passed 4.2 million views in the first 6 months and has interviewed 100+ personalities so far including leading AI personalities, a Minister from Japan, Leading CEO, Fintech, AI, Crypto, Blockchain personalities and Bollywood stars. Dinis is a global renowned thought leader listed continuously as number 1, 5 and 10 positions as global influencer in B2B, business continuity, fintech, blockchain, AI, and social media industries. He has been advising governments, working closely with UN departments and responsible for digital strategies for countries like Malaysia where he created the concept of Malaysia 5.0. In the past he has supported the building of the Fidelity Asia Bank (a digital bank between Asia and Africa) and through his company has developed leading-edge technology around AI, Fintech and Blockchain PaaS for central banks and global organisations. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinisguarda/ Dinis Guarda is an author, writer, artist, academic, B2B2C tech influencer, inventor and serial entrepreneur. Dinis is a world-renowned thought leader, strategist, futurist and speaker, an International Bestselling Author, and a media personality who covers the present and future of business, technology and society. Dinis is a World Class Leader in multiple fields and has a passion to push ideas, action and technology together to create better solutions, narratives and paths. Dinis Guarda specialises in the crossroad between strategy, ideas, business, poetry, technology and how 4IR, AI, Fintech, digital transformation and Blockchain are changing Humanity. Dinis Guarda has decades of experience in international business, C level positions and digital transformation. Dinis has worked with new technologies, cryptocurrencies, and has created some of the first global ICOs, while working with major regulators, compliance, legal international teams and law firms. Dinis has also been involved in the inception of some of the top 100 digital currencies. He was behind a crypto digital assets and exchange both in Europe, Switzerland, USA, Latin America and Asia. Dinis has created various companies such as Ztudium tech platform a digital and blockchain startup that created the software Blockimpact (sold to Glance Technologies Inc) and founder and publisher of intelligenthq.com, hedgethink.com, tokensdna.com and tradersdna.com. He has been working with the likes of UN / UNITAR, UNESCO, European Space Agency, Davos WEF, Philips, Saxo Bank, Mastercard, Barclays and governments all over the world. He has been a guest lecturer at Copenhagen Business School, Group INSEEC/Monaco University, where he has coordinated executive Masters and MBAs. He supported in creating the business school office and operations in San Francisco, USA and Silicon Valley. He is ranked as one of the most influential people in B2B, AI, Fintech, Business Continuity, Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain in the world by Right Relevance as well as being listed in Cointelegraph’s Top People In Blockchain and Rise Global’s The Artificial Intelligence Power 100.

Don Tapscott is the co-author with Kirsten Sandberg and Anthony Williams of the 2021 paper ‘New Direction for Government in the Second Era of the Digital Age’ on strategy, policy, and action for the Biden/Harris Administration. Produced in collaboration with the Washington DC based Chamber of Digital Commerce, and with a foreword by Tony Scott, Don considers the report a landmark of his decades-long career as a digital technology researcher, advocate, and thought leader. Don needs no introduction to the Blockchain community but just in case let me point people to his 2016 TED Talk in which he explained how Blockchain is changing money and business. This is one of these most viewed TED talks, certainly in Blockchain, with 5 million views so far and more than 5000 views per day, up by multiple of five since the price of Bitcoin caught the public’s attention again. Listen in today to hear Don's thoughts on how cryptocurrencies and government can collide with impact. Jillian Godsil is an award winning journalist, broadcaster and author - visit here for her latest book https://persons-of-interest.io/

In this podcast Melanie Boylan had a chat with Kevin Wagner a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory.  They discussed his successful work with the experiment/instrument is called “NEAR”: New Earths in the Alpha Centauri region. Dr. Wagner's research focuses on directly detecting and studying planets around nearby stars, with a specific focus on finding and characterizing potentially life supporting planets. His team’s recent work has enabled imaging planets that are approximately Neptune-sized in the habitable zone of the closest Sun-like star, Alpha Centauri, which shows that imaging smaller, potentially Earth-like planets is closely within reach. Dr. Wagner grew up in Kentucky, USA, and in his spare time enjoys exploring the mountains and deserts that are also home to the observatories and giant cacti of Southern Arizona. kevinwagner@arizona.edu

During the current pandemic, the retail industry is facing a major shakeup as network planning and measurement of convenience are harder to do. Gamma Location Intelligence Services is helping by providing insights to the retail industry so that they can do this. Ronan talks to Feargal O’Neill, CEO of Gamma Location Intelligence Services about this, what Gamma Location Intelligence Services does, and their work with insurance companies. Feargal also talks about how they are coping during the current COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of location intelligence especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic and their plans for the future. More about Feargal: Feargal is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin and he joined Gamma in 1993. He has a background in planning and the spatial sciences.

We catch up with Yossi Vardi to discuss the latest version of DLD now taking place online today and tomorrow, for free, with some great speakers - see below for details. With 40 years experience of co-founding, leading and participating in building over 60 high-tech companies, he is one of Israel's early entrepreneurs. Yossi co-pioneered instant messaging as the founding investor and the former Chairman of Mirabilis Ltd., the creator of the highly popular instant messaging program ICQ now owned by AOL. Today's program -> 16:00 CET Welcome Steffi Czerny, Co-Founder & Managing Director of DLD  Yossi Vardi, Co-Chairman, DLD 16:05 CET What's Next, Jimmy? Jimmy Wales, Founder and Chair Emeritus, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation 16:20 CET Follow Your Ears Dennis Crowley, CEO, Foursquare Yossi Vardi, Co-Chairman, DLD 16:40 CET The (R)evolution of Movement Marc Berg, CEO, FREE NOW Florian Reuter, CEO, Volocopter Tabitha Goldstaub, Co-Founder, CognitionX 17:05 CET Shifting Paradigms for a Sustainable Mobility Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management, BMW Group Steffi Czerny, Co-Founder & Managing Director of DLD  17:30 CET Urbanism Reloaded - Empowering the Countryside Rem Koolhas, Founding Partner, OMA See rest of the program on the website here. More about Yossi from his wikipedia entry Joseph "Yossi" Vardi (Hebrew: יוסי ורדי‎, born September 2, 1942) is an Israeli entrepreneur and investor. He is one of Israel's first high-tech entrepreneurs. For over 47 years he has founded and helped to build over 85 high-tech companies in a variety of fields, among them software, energy, Internet, mobile, electro-optics and water technology.

As part of our tech for good series of interviews we caught up with Bennet Barth, from the BMW Foundation, to learn more about the work they are doing to help support positive leadership globally and to support the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. About Bennet Barth Prior to joining the BMW Foundation team in March 2019, Bennet Barth worked with MAZE – Decoding Impact in Lisbon, Portugal. Maze works alongside impact ventures and investors to scale effective solutions for social and environmental challenges. Bennet concentrated his efforts on impact investment activities, consulting impact ventures and international policy work around the topic. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Technical University of Berlin and a Master of Science in Economics from Nova SBE in Lisbon. He previously worked in development cooperation in renewable energy projects in Asia and West Africa. Surfing is Bennet’s passion and so he is constantly searching for the perfect wave in all parts of the world. He enjoys spending a lot of time outdoors – on the water, in the forest or in the mountains, keen for adventures in the wild. Bennet is driven by curiosity and eager to learn something new every day, especially around economics, the environment, and entrepreneurship. He is inspired by smart and bold solutions that challenge the status quo for the better. The BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt promotes responsible leadership and inspires leaders worldwide to work towards a more peaceful, just and sustainable future. About RESPOND RESPOND is an accelerator programme of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt with support from UnternehmerTUM. It is the first accelerator programme that promotes Responsible Leadership and thereby contributes to scaling sustainable business models for a better future.The programme supports founders who, through entrepreneurial approaches, contribute to a peaceful, just and sustainable future in line with the United Nations' Agenda 2030. In the programme, teams of founders receive access to workshops and mentoring at the interface of business, society and the environment. Furthermore, participants benefit from close contacts to the global Responsible Leaders Network of the BMW Foundation and the extended network of both organisations. The Responsible Leaders Network connects more than 1,800 leaders worldwide who are committed to social change within and between societies.

Carolin Wend, Co-founder of Mintbase.io NFTs are not just about art. Into this exploding field comes estalished player, Mintbase, with ambitions to rethink NFTs. Just as we get our heads around the concept of digital art NFTs then another cargo-load of applications arrives to really fry the brains. So let’s begin at the beginning shall we? Carolin Wend joined me from sunny Lisbon to go through some of the basics. First up, NFTs themselves or non-fungible tokens. “There are two types of tokens, fungible and non-fungible. Fungible for example is like a dollar or a euro. It’s exchangeable ‘like for like.’ In addition, it’s tangible so you can break it down and swap one dollar for two 50cent pieces. “On the other hand, a non-fungible token is something unique and which cannot be broken into two pieces. An example might be a birth certificate or a title to a house. It might also be a ticket, a song or anything except money. Anything in this world can be an NFT – it’s the new standard of technology – it’s like an open API.” NFTs first came to prominence with digital art. Finally, artists were able to share their art online showing not only provenance but also delivering a unique art piece – one that could not be copied as the original was backed with an NFT. “We quickly realised that there were other applications for NFT. We organised NFT ticketing for an event in Berlin called MetaCartel Demo Day with non-fungible tokens or ticketing. Every ticket was an NFT. Listen to find out more about the amazing world of NFTs Jillian Godsil is an award winning journalist, broadcaster and author - to find out more please visit https://persons-of-interest.io/

Listen to the audio recording from Sangeeta Waldron's virtual book event of Corporate Social Responsibility Is Not Public Relations, on 18 February, 2021 with a global audience including international speakers, who include: Martin Lui, from LID Business Media, publisher of the book. David Katz, CEO, Plastic Bank from Vancouver - Named one of the world’s most compassionate entrepreneurs by Salt magazine. A steward of the environment and champion for the poor. James Quinn, CEO, Faradion, Europe - World leader in non-aqueous sodium-ion cell technology. . Tonya Fitzpatrick, Co-founder World Footprints Media from Washington D.C. - Award-winning Travel Journalist; Delegate, U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. Aisha Raheem, Co-Founder, Farmz2U, Nigeria - Helping farmers farm better. Sarita Bahl, One of India's leading sustainability storytellers & PR experts. with Moderator: Sahera Chohan, Former BBC TV Presenter, Author, & Leadership Coach Book is available online from all bookstores including Hive https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Sangeeta-Waldron/Corporate-Social-Responsibility-is-Not-Public-Relations--/25474850 And Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corporate-Social-Responsibility-Public-Relations/dp/1911671421

Jillian Godsil speaks with legal eagle Jetse Sprey on GDPR and its impact on Europe and beyond Jetse Sprey, CLO and co-founder of Europechain It’s almost three years since GDPR came into effect in the EU. We talk to legal eagle Jetse Sprey in Amsterdam about the impacts of the law both within Europe and without. What the main impacts? Funnily enough the rules didn’t change that much from the rules that were in existence pre GDPR, but the key difference lies in the penalties attached to flaunting data protection rules. This is a nutshell can explain why GDPR burst upon the world with such a vengeance three years, in some ways out of proportion to the new legalities. It fostered an awareness for companies who realised they needed to look after the data they held and to ensure they were GDPR compliant. And not just here in Europe, anyone dealing with European people and their data also had to become compliant. It’s been an earthquake. At the same time, GDPR has become a sort of standard for international legislations, or rather an example to be followed. In California, the new data protection laws draw heavily on many of the elements of GDPR. The same can be said for new laws in India. In this field of data protection, Europe is leading the way. To find our more about how GDPR works, listen to the podcast Jillian Godsil is an award winning journalist, broadcoaster and author. Her most recent book, Persons of Interest, Timestamped in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency, can be found at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08NS1LXG8