The Irish Tech News Podcast

It is now undeniable: climate change and extreme weather caused by carbon emissions is here, and the need to transition to a green energy economy in America is imminent. But supporters and critics alike have reasonable questions and concerns, how can we transition the energy economy at scale without upending whole markets and suffering massive job losses? Many argue the answer is Green Hydrogen, including Michael Hecht, CEO for Greater New Orleans Inc. (GNO Inc.) Ronan talks to Michael about his background, green hydrogen, Irish tech, the American energy mix in the future, New Orleans, and how tech has helped. More about Green Hydrogen in America: The global Green Hydrogen market is on track to grow 6,000% by 2031, and with tax credits thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, could become much cheaper than traditional gray hydrogen - hydrogen that is produced using environmentally harmful natural gas or fossil fuels. Three cities are leading the way for America’s transition with regional Green Hydrogen hubs: New Orleans: Louisiana is the #1 consumer of gray hydrogen in the country - 3 times as much as the next state and produces more oil and gas jobs per capita. Southern Louisiana is now at the forefront of the energy evolution, leveraging scale to kickstart a Green Hydrogen hub that will reduce the cost of Hydrogen to $1/gallon, retain and create 100,000 jobs, grow regional GDP by 3.5%, and shrink carbon emissions by 68%.  New York: The Empire State is leading a regional "hydrogen ecosystem" for the northeast. By leveraging a 4-state partnership with New Jersey, Connecicut and Massachusetts, offshore wind and PV to decarbonise the entire hydrogen value chain. The Port Authority will even be taking advantage, acting as a customer and facilitating Green Hydrogen exports. Utah: The ACES Delta Green Hydrogen project located in central Utah is a one-one-of-its kind- clean energy storage project that will be crucial for a a 100% clean energy economy in the region. The Green Hydrogen hub will have the capability to store energy for months at a time. Once completed, the hub will be able to provide Green Hydrogen to other states in the Intermountain West.

Description: The power of predictive analytics in the Investment space is undeniable. Bambu is a new Microsoft ecosystem partner and this prompted my curiosity to discover more use cases within the Microsoft ecosystem. Capital Markets is no low-hanging fruit within financial services and its digitalization requires in-depth expertise.  I discuss these topics with Ruchi Nanda, an Industry Advisor in the US Capital Markets business at Microsoft. Ruchi Nanda is an Industry Advisor in the US Capital Markets business at Microsoft where she helps business and technology executives in the industry digitally transform their firms using advanced software.  Her areas of specialization include wealth management, market infrastructure, and regulatory compliance. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruchinanda/ Dr. Efi Pylarinou is the No.1 Global Woman Influencer in Finance & the Data conversation by Refinitiv, a Top Thought Leader by Onalytica, and a Top Digital Futurist, Linkedin and Twitter Voice, by Engatica. A seasoned Wall Street professional & a recognized technology thought leader on innovation topics. Founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory servicing Big Tech, Financial Services and Fintech clients. She strongly believes in building bridges between the old and the new economy. She shares her passion of content creation with her 190,000+ followers on Linkedin and 18,000+ on Twitter.  Join her on the social platforms https://linktr.ee/Efiglobal

When you invest in an early-stage startup, you are making a bet on the founder and the co-founding team — the humans who are authentically connected to the mission. It is a privilege to be an angel investor, a unique role that can make a real difference for a startup, not only because of cash flow, but because of non-financial support — including the real world knowledge and experience you have earned through your own journey. In this episode of One Vision, Theo chats with Maya Ghosn Bichara, an early-stage, purpose-driven investor and advisor, on the ins and outs of angel investing. Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an angel investor? Tune in to find out! It is an absolutely inspirational conversation that you would not want to miss.

Earlier this month the EU passed a new law on common chargers that comes into effect by the end of 2024, requiring all mobile phones, tablets and cameras sold in the EU to be equipped with a USB Type-C charging port. From spring 2026, the obligation will extend to laptops. The new law, is part of a broader EU effort to reduce e-waste and to empower consumers to make more sustainable choices. Under the new rules, consumers will no longer need a different charger every time they purchase a new device, as they will be able to use one single charger for a whole range of small and medium-sized portable electronic devices. Regardless of their manufacturer, all new mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems, earbuds and laptops that are rechargeable via a wired cable, operating with a power delivery of up to 100 Watts, will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port. Alex Agius Saliba, the Maltese EU lawmaker who steered the common charger bill through the EU assembly talks to Ronan about this new law and why it was badly needed. More about Alex Agius Saliba: Alex is a Maltese politician who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019 on behalf of the Labour Party. Alex has been serving on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, the Committee on Petitions as Coordinator and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.

Who owns your streaming TV service?  A computer maker, a retailer, or a search engine?  This week on The Futurists we learn about the never-ending cyclone of disruption that has been tormenting the media industry for years. Our guest is Jeffrey Cole of the Center for the Digital Future, a longtime advisor to the major motion picture studios. URL for Jeffrey Cole: https://www.digitalcenter.org/jeffrey-cole-director/ Welcome to the Futurists where your hosts Brett King and Robert Tercek interview the worlds foremost super-forecasters, thought leaders, technologists, entrepreneurs and futurists building the world of tomorrow. Together we will explore how our world will radically change as AI, bioscience, energy, food and agriculture, computing, the metaverse, the space industry, crypto, resource management, supply chain and climate will reshape our world over the next 100 years. Join us on The Futurists and we will see you in the future! https://thefuturists.com

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.  Imagine if the financial industry events and the voices in financial media, truly reflected the diversity of society. DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) must be measured and we can choose to become accountable and transparent about our intentional practices.  Sonya Dreizler, is the co-founder of Choir,a US-based tech platform that aims to empower and lift voices of women, people of color, non-binary folks, in our industry that white men traditionally dominate.  Event organizers can become ChoirCertified, experts can choose to sign the Choir Pledge and be profiled as a Voice on the tech platform.  Choirs and orchestras are all about diversity and harmony.   Sonya Dreizler https://www.linkedin.com/in/sdreizler/ Choir https://hellochoir.com/ Sonya Dreizler is the co-founder of financial services diversity tech platform Choir. She is a sought after speaker for national financial services conferences, writes for Morningstar, and is the author of the acclaimed Do Better Series about sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination in financial services.  She is a former financial services CEO with two decades of industry experience. She spent 13 years at Protected Investors of America, a boutique Broker Dealer and SEC registered Investment Adviser. Dr. Efi Pylarinou is the No.1 Global Woman Influencer in Finance & the Data conversation by Refinitiv, a Top Thought Leader by Onalytica, and a Top Digital Futurist, Linkedin and Twitter Voice, by Engatica. A seasoned Wall Street professional & a recognized technology thought leader on innovation topics. Founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory servicing Big Tech, Financial Services and Fintech clients. She strongly believes in building bridges between the old and the new economy. She shares her passion of content creation with her 190,000+ followers on Linkedin and 18,000+ on Twitter.  Join her on the social platforms https://linktr.ee/Efiglobal

PlayEmber is a free to play mobile gaming studio which has incorporated blockchain into mobile gaming and at the same time shifted the advertising paradigm. Ultimately, it has done the hard work in creating a simple Unity based SDK to transform any mobile games into a web3 mobile game in under 2hours! Games studios can focus on making a great game whilst PlayEmber's SDK takes care of all the web3 elements - NFT's, smart contracts, wallet, meta game, community. A conversation with the CEO and CMO Hugo Furneaux and Jon Hook Your host is Jillian Godsil

Gartner predicts that 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse by 2026 either for work, shopping, education, social or entertainment. McKinsey found that the Metaverse could be worth US $5 trillion by 2030 and the opportunity is simply ‘too big to ignore’. But what exactly is the Metaverse, how does it work, and what are its key building blocks? What are the seven layers of Metaverse and why are the big technology firms taking such a keen interest in them? In this episode of One Vision, Theo and Arun chat with René Schulte, Director of Global Innovation at Valorem Reply and Leader of the Spatial Computing and Metaverse practice at Reply, on the opportunities and challenges of this new immersive Internet. From form factor and social acceptance, to interoperability and responsible usage, what does the future hold? Do we need virtual bouncers for the Metaverse? Tune in and find out!

Increased digital dependency means that ransomware is the next global pandemic, and this time there is no vaccine that can act as a silver bullet to prevent it. The last twelve months have witnessed an explosion of ransomware incidents across the world. These incidents have also started to have real life consequences, with the attacks on both the Colonial Pipeline and Ireland’s Health Service Executive highlighting that ransomware can impact the public’s everyday life. As society becomes more reliant upon technology and digital systems, driven by the pandemic and the advent of remote working, Andrzej Kawalec Head of Security at Vodafone Business, believes ransomware is set to become the next global pandemic. Much like the COVID-19 pandemic, ransomware is a global problem, and we even see different variants of ransom across the world. The nature of modern cybercrime means that these attacks are now targeted, with cybercriminals undertaking research to understand exactly how much money to demand as ransom. In the future, Andrzej believes we will see misinformation used as a ransom. With an individual or organisation’s brand more important than ever, cybercriminals will look to hijack social media profiles in exchange for a ransom payment. This is the future of extortion. Ronan talks to Andrzej about this and why the focus should be to minimise the impact of an attack and ensure that those businesses that are hit are able to survive without too much damage. More about Andrzej Kawalec: Andrzej Kawalec is the Head of Security Portfolio at Vodafone Business. Andrzej manages Vodafone Business’ global portfolio of security offerings.  He is widely recognised for his expertise in cyber security and digital change. A former CTO himself, he has a vast amount of experience working at the board-level across public and private sectors, helping to define and promote cyber security strategy.  He believes that Security is the enabling layer for innovation. From autonomous driving to digital healthcare, the technologies and societies of the future will not reach their full potential without secure digital foundations. Prior to joining Vodafone, Andrzej was Global CTO for security and Director of Security Research at HP, as well as head of Strategy and CTO at Optiv the world’s largest security Systems integrator.

Thomas Frey is who you will undoubtedly find when you do a Google search on “futurist speaker”. Having shared the stage with many A-listers, Frey has earned that moniker. But his true skill demonstrated repeatedly in this week’s episode is taking an event or innovation and the extrapolating the future. In this episode we see him do that in real time. It’s a unique glimpse into the futurist process. https://futuristspeaker.com Why a futurist? As a futurist, my goal is to expand our understanding of the future. Every day, thousands of emerging technologies spring to life, thousands of researchers make new discoveries, and thousands of new trends start to reveal themselves. As we move down the path of advancing technology, our relationship with the future has never been clearer; making this both the most exciting and scariest time to be alive, in all human history. There is a constant battle being waged over the needs of the present vs. the needs of the future. Naturally the future cannot be our only priority; otherwise, we lose our ability to function in the present. Near-term issues invariably take precedent over long-term potential; yet, our ability to prioritize importance is directly tied to our vision of the future. Still, it is our vision of the future that determines our actions today. I use this phrase a lot: “The future creates the present!”  Yes, this is just the opposite of what most people think. They believe the work we’re doing today will automatically create the future, but from a little different perspective, it is the images of the future that we hold in our head that determines the decisions we’ll make today. Welcome to the Futurists where your hosts Brett King and Robert Tercek interview the worlds foremost super-forecasters, thought leaders, technologists, entrepreneurs and futurists building the world of tomorrow. Together we will explore how our world will radically change as AI, bioscience, energy, food and agriculture, computing, the metaverse, the space industry, crypto, resource management, supply chain and climate will reshape our world over the next 100 years. Join us on The Futurists and we will see you in the future!