The Irish Tech News Podcast

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!

If you believe that insurance is boring, then you will change your mind after listening to our conversation with Sabine VanderLinden, the Insurtech Queen.  We talk about the risks that are increasing like climate-related risks and the new risks like cloud outages and supply chain disruptions, that need to be insured. We talk about the new business models in insurance which are following the footsteps of those in Banking.  In the second part of our conversation, we discuss Sabine`s takeaways from the largest insurtech event, ITC 22 in Las Vegas. She organized an event on Commercial Sustainability at ITC and shares with us insights-  Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, and commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers and accelerating over 150 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, and an investor, and multi-award winner. Twitter: SabineVdL LinkedIn: Sabine VanderLinden Website: www.alchemycrew.com Website: www.sabinevdl.com 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

In this podcast we chat with Garry Connolly Host In Ireland founder and Alma Sottile from Rebelleon to learn more about the Host In Ireland  Pro Bono Partnership Host In Ireland are delighted to announce that we will once again run our Trailblazers - Pro Bono Partnership competition for 2023. The competition offers one-year free partnerships of Host in Ireland to two Republic of Ireland based trailblazing start-ups/scale-ups with products and services that target the digital infrastructure sector. Host in Ireland’s journey began with five data hosting companies who shared a vision of ‘co-opetition’. They set aside competitive differences and came together to share the story of why Ireland makes good business sense for international companies hosting their digital assets in Europe. Over the past eight years, our partnership has grown from the original five to over 50 in 2022. The organisation has evolved Host in Ireland is now a unique community of people who have a collective interest in promoting Ireland as a centre of excellence for data-related products and services both in Ireland and globally. In 2022, we were joined by Beeyon, Rebelleon and Fuartech, all of whom benefitted from the opportunity to share in the knowledge, experience and networking opportunities that Host in Ireland is renowned for. As we look forward to 2023, we are delighted to announce that we will once again run our Trailblazers - Pro Bono Partnership competition.  This competition is aimed at Republic of Ireland based start-ups/scale-ups with products and services targeting the digital infrastructure sector. Host in Ireland Pro Bono Blog https://www.hostinireland.com/post/pro-bono-partnership-with-host-in-ireland-2023 Host in Ireland Trailblazers Pro Bono 2023 Application Link https://bit.ly/3RuMpyr Alma Sottile is a Sustainability Consultant for Rebelleon, a startup based in Farringdon, London. Rebelleon’s mission is to radically impact climate action and local communities. Alma’s job involves supporting data centre businesses with their Net Zero ambitions, from measuring their impact using tools like LCA and carbon footprint, to implementing a company wide sustainability strategy in line with their business model. Rebelleon is on a mission to change the world. Founded in 2020, the company strives to challenge traditional ways of working and bring sustainability to the forefront of decision making within the construction and high-tech industries. Rebelleon aligns to the UK Green Building Council’s five pillars of climate change, resource use, nature and biodiversity, health and wellbeing and socio-economic impact, and offers sustainability consultancy, project management and R&D services related to those. A team of graduates, along with three more senior members, ensures to bring innovation while offering realistic solutions tailored to clients’ needs.

Web3 has been called a lot of things: the future of a decentralized web, the money layer for the internet, and the identity layer for the internet. Some see Web3 as a new patron model for the internet—a way for artists and creators to get compensated for their work through new communities and cooperative ownership, as well as the sale, trading and ownership of NFTs and other digital goods. Much of the gaming economy is centered around these types of communities, as are the half dozen or more versions of the metaverse, in which avatar-led facilitators act as the primary-user experiences, and digital goods can be acquired and communities formed. But web3 and the metaverse can mean a lot more for banking. In this episode of One Vision, Bradley hosts a conversation with Caroline Hughes, Co-Founder and CEO of Lifetise, a metaverse that is focused on financial education and helping people create the opportunity to be financially secure and create a life they love. You’ll be sure to love what they are doing.