Digital First Magazine – 10 Most Inspiring Technology Entrepreneurs in the US and Canada

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First Stop for Digital, Technology and Business Insights

Brendan M. Egan, Founder & CEO, Simple SEO Group Erich Ko, CEO & Co-Founder, Hop In Technologies Kate Bradley Chernis, Founder & CEO, Lately Kenneth Bond, CEO & Founder, ROOK Connect

RHONDA SWAN

CEO & FOUNDER, U N S T O P PAB L E B R AN D I N G A G E N C Y

LIVING A DREAM LIFE OF MAKING

WORLD-CLASS BRANDS

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Digital First Magazine January 2022

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January 2022

Vol - 3 Issue - 1

Most Inspiring Technology Entrepreneurs in the US & Canada Head of Advisory Board Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Andrew Scott Joseph Alex

Naomi Wilson Stanly Lui Emma James

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Art and Design Charlie Jameson

Sales & Marketing

Jennifer Anderson Rachel Roy

Monica Davis Anna Elza

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Digital First Magazine January 2022

MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

The Changemakers of North American Tech World

S

uppose you are a technology enthusiast searching for an inspiring story that would motivate you to work harder. In that case, America is perhaps the best place where you find countless life-changing tales.

From Google, Microsoft, Apple to Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla, the list of companies and masterminds behind them gets hardly an end. As a melting pot of nationalities and cultures, the North American region has quickly become one of the most innovative nations.

Today, the technology sector in the US is one of the top-five economic contributors in 22 states and in the top ten of 42 states. Rapid development and adoption of technologies such as robotic automation, cloud computing, the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and 5G technologies are promoting the ongoing growth of the

IT industry. Leading this growth is a horde of innovative and hardworking individuals who managed to mix their technical abundances and great management execs to build a legacy from scratch.

In this issue, we have identified ‘10 Most Inspiring Technology Entrepreneurs in the US and Canada’ who have reshaped how the world operates. On the cover, we feature Rhonda Swan, who is - as Fobes describes - the CEO and Founder of the Unstoppable Branding Agency (UBA), international speaker, and bestselling author dedicated to helping her clients create “sexy” brands that are profitable, credible, and PR-worthy. We hope our efforts to bring the untold stories of technopreneurs would inspire you to work on your own ideas instead of others.

Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

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COVER STORY

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RHONDA SWAN

CEO & FOUNDER, U N S T O P PAB L E B R AN D I N G A G E N C Y

LIVING A DREAM LIFE OF MAKING

WORLD-CLASS BRANDS 6 Digital First Magazine January 2022

CONTENTS

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BRENDAN M EGAN

ERICH KO

FOUNDER & CEO, SIMPLE SEO GROUP

CEO & CO-FOUNDER, HOP IN TECHNOLOGIES

ENTREPRENEURING HIS WAY THROUGH ALL PARTS OF LIFE

STREAMLINING EASY-TO-USE TECHNOLOGIES

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KATE BRADLEY CHERNIS

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KENNETH BOND

FOUNDER & CEO, LATELY

CEO & PRESIDENT, FRESH FOCUS MEDIA INC. & ROOK CONNECT

PIONEERING CONTENT CREATION THROUGH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

DRIVING INNOVATION THROUGH OPERATIONALLY-DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY

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CONTENTS

IN MY VIEW

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THE CIRCULAR PATH TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE JANDA CAMPOS, GROUP DIRECTOR, SUSTAINABILITY ENGAGEMENT, GRUNDFOS

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WHY HYPER CASUAL GAMING APP MARKETERS NEED THEIR OWN PLAYBOOK APRIL TAYSON, REGIONAL VP, INSEA AT ADJUST

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HOW TRAINEE PROGRAMS CAN BRING MORE TALENT TO THE GAMING INDUSTRY? STEWART NEAL, STUDIO DIRECTOR, SUMO INDIA

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BUSINESSES – REWRITING CYBER RESILIENCE ANTHONY DI BELLO, VP - STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT, OPENTEXT

EXPERT OPINION

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EVERYDAY BLOCKCHAIN: WHAT YOUR MORNING COFFEE AND SMART CONTRACTS HAVE IN COMMON ALISA DICAPRIO, HEAD OF TRADE AND SUPPLY CHAIN, R3

LEADER'S INSIGHTS

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FRICTIONLESS APP EXPERIENCE IS A TOP PRIORITY FOR SHOPPERS JAMES HARVEY, EXECUTIVE CTO EMEAR, APPDYNAMICS

HOW BUSINESSES ARE EMERGING STRONGER WITH IOT: A BLUEPRINT FOR POST-PANDEMIC INNOVATION ELIZABETH GROSSENBACHER, PRINCIPAL PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, IOT, TWILIO

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HOW TO SPOT MISINFORMATION IN THE DATA AGE PAUL BARTH, GLOBAL HEAD OF DATA LITERACY, QLIK

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FIVE CYBERSECURITY PREDICTIONS FOR 2022 MIKE SENTONAS, CTO, CROWDSTRIKE

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IN MY

VIEW

The Circular Path Towards a Sustainable Future Janda Campos, Group Director, Sustainability Engagement, Grundfos

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he concept of circular economy entails developing a model of production and consumption that involves reuse, recycle and refurbishing of resources This ensures reduction in the consumption of finite resources, enabling nations, companies and communities to focus on tackling climate change, greenhouse gases and loss of water resources among others.

There is a growing openness towards understanding how the circular economy works. The fact that the world is experiencing the devastating impacts of climate change has made it more urgent for all of us to talk about what we need to do better in terms of our resources.

We need to achieve circularity within our production, products, and business models for establishing a model that doesn’t promote depletion of natural resources.

Strengthening collaborations and ratings Today most nations are seeing significant issues such as flooding and droughts due to, among other things, a combination of climate change and rapid and unplanned industrialization and urbanization, including India. Globally, governments and businesses are partnering

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Aligning with the government’s efforts, organizations are slowly shifting their focus from a linear mindset towards a circular approach of conducting their business operations

JANDA CAMPOS

Janda Campos has more than 20 years of experience working with sustainability from different sectors, which include leading the Danish Government’s CSR efforts, and developing sustainability strategies at the Danish Industry Confederation to building Carlsberg Group’s sustainability and public affairs area as VP. Today, Janda leads Grundfos’ Sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governmental (ESG) efforts, moving the company toward its ambition of being water and climate leaders and fulfilling its purpose on solving the water and climate challenges of the world.

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to promote sustainable business goals. What we need more of is initiatives like C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group that calls upon mayors, who represent 97 participating cities and around 700+ million residents, to collaborate effectively, share knowledge and drive sustainable action on climate change. There is an active participation in C40 by five Indian cities as well — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai.

Aligning with the government’s efforts, organizations are slowly shifting their focus from a linear mindset towards a circular approach of conducting their business operations. Today, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings are taken into consideration for mapping organizations who are promoting business model that focuses on ‘doing good’ by positively contributing to society and environment.

Promoting circularity with restoration programs Water plays a key role in most ecosystems and enables the survival of communities at large. Hence restoration of water resources will make ecosystems and communities more resilient in the face of climate change. Today, ecological restoration of water bodies has helped in creating spaces for

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The growing demand for sustainable products and solutions, is an opportunity for businesses to integrate sustainable practices and solutions into their operations

floodwater by reconnecting floodplains and realignment of estuaries.

A properly restored waterbody not only helps to recharge ground water but also enhances water quality and quantity, including management of nutrient cycling.

While techniques like desilting and dredging are important to increase the water storage capacity of a lake, nutrient load reduction and restoration of water bodies helps in enhancing water quality in underdeveloped lakes.

This further helps in restoring and nurturing the local ecosystem – the flora, fauna and ultimately the overall environment. Water sources, if managed properly, also have the potential to enhance water supply and meet the rising water demands. Another important aspect of restoration involves the economic opportunities for communities situated nearby the waterbody.

For example, Grundfos partnered with Cognizant, The Nature Conservancy, Care Earth Trust, and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in a project to restore the 100-acre Sembakkam lake by mid of next year. The work involves cleaning the inlets and outlets, improving the lake’s connectivity with upstream and downstream water bodies, building an eco-friendly wastewater treatment system. The project is helping clear the lake of solid wastes, silt, and invasive plant species, improve the lake’s storage capacity by 50%. Over 10,000 households living around the lake will be benefited through this initiative.

This project will also help conserve local biodiversity that includes around 180 plant species (including 11 aquatic species) and more than 65 bird species.

Technology to boost circularity According to the Water Resources Group, by 2030, the global water demand is expected to be 40% higher than the amount of reliable water we have access to today.

While the World Resources Institute states that the global household water demand has increased by 600% since the 1960s and global fresh water supply is decreasing due to water stress and pollution. There is a critical and urgent need to innovate to reverse this trend.

Grundfos recently joined the 50L Home Coalition with the ambition to promote circular water in homes and cities. The 50L Home Coalition is a global actionoriented platform that unites leaders from the private, nonprofit, and public sectors to address two of our most pressing global challenges: water security and climate change. Together, Grundfos and the Coalition will focus on making the reuse and recycling of water the norm in

homes, which calls for smarter approaches that allow for water ‘fit-for-purpose’ use.

Another alarming fact is that worldwide cities lose out on 40-70% in non-revenue water (NRW), the water that is lost due to leakages. With the advent of industry 4.0 technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT) we are now able to integrate intelligent systems into water infrastructure or networks to track demand and supply of the water using sensors and algorithms. This ensures less pressure on the water infrastructure, reducing leakage and saving electricity, as the pumps can operate only when required.

An example of this is Demand Driven Distribution (DDD), a unique pressure management system from Grundfos that is backed by intelligent technology and system surveillance. Globally, water utilities that are supplying water, pump water all day at the same pressure, irrespective of when and where the demand is. Demand usually fluctuates through the day. With DDD, water supply can be maintained according to the demand, thus reducing the stress on the pipes as well, because if water is pumped all day at the same pressure, you’re causing more cracks on the pipes due to high pressure, thereby resulting in water leakage.

Charting the course with sustainable practices The growing demand for sustainable products and solutions, is an opportunity for businesses to integrate sustainable practices and solutions into their operations.

Acknowledging the value of sustainability will ensure a sustainable growth, enabling organizations to move towards a circular business model which needs to include resource recovery and circularity of supply chains, products, manufacturing and distribution.

For example, with the implementation of the Grundfos take-back program, we have been taking back some of the company’s circulator pumps and refurbishing them. It is not only a good business case, but also an environmental and a social case in the countries where we’re working with it, like the UK, Netherlands, Argentina and Denmark.

At a time when the world is focused on tackling climate emergency, businesses across the globe need to ensure that their solutions integrate the principles of circular economy by focusing on improving water efficiency and reduction of energy consumption, while creating positive impacts on the environment.

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EXPERT OPINION

Businesses – Rewriting Cyber Resilience Anthony Di Bello, Kunal Kislay, Co-founder and CEO of VP Strategic Development, OpenText Integration Wizards Solutions

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ith cybercrime presenting a formidable challenge to modern life and work and the potential to wreak havoc on our businesses, there is a greater need for organisations to deploy technology to keep their cyber information safe. However, state-of-the-art cyber security and network protection technologies alone are not enough since a security breach will inevitably occur and can be triggered by the simple action of an employee who unwittingly clicks on a dangerous link.

The real focus should be on cyber resilience for optimum security.

Cyber resilience is all about an organisation’s ability to bounce back from an adverse event and return to ‘business as usual’ as quickly and painlessly as possible. It starts with the ability to detect a breach and incorporate everything required to ensure business continuity, whilst removing the threat. Incident response technology or managed service contracts should be in place and ready to go when the inevitable breach occurs. The better your response plan, the better your ability to achieve cyber resilience.

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Anthony leads a team of market development directors driving OpenText strategic direction within information security, data discovery, legal, analytics and AI/ML software markets.

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For those organisations that have a resilience strategy in place, it is often compartmentalised, treated as a separate entity to security frameworks or policies. However, there is more value to be gained when cyber security forms an element of a wider cyber resilience strategy. It is only then that businesses can protect against the inevitable and mitigate any potential damage that a breach might cause.

Data stored on desktops, laptops, and tablets is of course vulnerable to ransomware, hardware failures, human error, loss, and theft – all risks that have multiplied by the mass shift to remote work and reduced IT/ admin oversight over dispersed employees. To stop employees bringing these bad practices home, the importance of companies creating a culture of cyber resilience is more important than ever.

Cyber resilience is the ability to continuously deliver intended operational outcomes, despite any barriers thrown up by adverse cyber events. It requires total network, endpoint, and user protection, as well as data recovery, as part of a robust ‘defence-in-depth’ strategy. Moreover, it mustn’t stop there. Conducting regular training sessions to ensure employees are aware of cyber risks is a critical component of cyber resilience. These steps will enable organisations continue operations without the disruption of files and servers being locked due to a cyber-attack.

Adapting security to the new normal As we look ahead, few things are abundantly clear. First, we know remote work is here to stay. Cyber attackers/ criminals will look to innovative tactics to exploit weaknesses, like less secure personal devices and home Wi-Fi. They will continue to thrive in a highly porous security environment. There are two major blind spots that can be identified, and these include misinformation which will be a persistent threat, and ransomware, which will continue to plague the operations of organisations large and small.

With the threat landscape only set to grow in the coming months, businesses need to act now to ensure that they can protect themselves in the long-term by taking a proactive approach that includes training, technology solutions for detections and response, simulations and ongoing testing, and finally back-up and restoration solutions, should the worst happen.

Adopting automation within security teams will be crucial going forward. Businesses are likely to increase their investments in technology as a force-multiplier for security teams that are already stretched. Greater automation and contextualisation of security alerts will

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Greater automation and contextualisation of security alerts will help teams comb through mountains of falsealarms to prioritise the real threats

help teams comb through mountains of false-alarms to prioritise the real threats.

The critical importance of cybersecurity awareness Time and again, system users (employees) have proved to be the weakest link in the cybersecurity landscape.

Despite the most advanced technologies, social engineering and phishing have become some of the most successful techniques applied in decades to breach the strongest of cyber defences. While organizations often invest significant sums of money in security solutions, the most important aspect that is often ignored is employees and training staff about the basics of cybersecurity. This is extremely important in the current times when most employees are working from home, and it can just take a harmless click on a rogue or malicious link sent by a hacker to take control.

For cybersecurity awareness, it is never too early to start. Cybersecurity education is continuous and evolving over time. In the school classroom, basic safety and security education must be imparted and extended to navigating cyberspace as well. Not clicking on links from strangers is a great example of the kind of rudimentary cybersecurity training that can be introduced at a young age.

Similarly, in the workplace, the onus is on the employer to secure their organisation’s devices and network infrastructure. The employee is an integral part of that infrastructure, the first line of defence, but also ‘the weakest link’. As such, it is the responsibility for the employer to continue that education to minimise the risks that can be introduced by carelessness, or simply by an employee being ignorant about cyber-attacks. There are several commercial employee cybersecurity training programmes. These programmes can help employees learn to spot phishing, social engineering, malware, potential risky behaviour and more.

Once awareness has spread, stakeholders will understand their respective roles and be prepared when a breach happens. In reality, it is not only the C-suite that needs to ensure that employees have these skills, it also includes InfoSec, IT, HR, communications and legal departments – they all have roles to play. Tabletop exercises and mock drills should be conducted to reinforce the action plan and work on addressing shortcomings in the plan.

Training should start right at the top. If you are a CEO or IT admin that is not doing the security awareness

training that you are asking your own staff to do, then it is not fair. All C-Suite and IT staff need to ensure that they are practising these lessons just as hard as anyone else.

Understanding the need for .compliance In terms of specifics, in some countries, such as US, many companies and Federal agencies are required by law to provide security awareness training. For example, HIPAA requires all covered healthcare entities and business associates to provide cybersecurity awareness training to their employees. FISMA requires all US Federal agencies establish a security awareness training program. Other mandates requiring cybersecurity awareness training include FACTA for financial institutions and creditors, and even the GDPR which requires the Data Protection Officer to create awareness and provide training to all staff involved in data processing.

While these regulations don’t apply to all organisations, many are beginning to understand the long-term return on investment of implementing these practices. For example, if cybersecurity awareness training can reduce successful phishing attempts by 20%,that could translate into millions of rupees saved on incident response, recovery and lawsuits that can result from a data breach.

Today, an employee with no training can lead to a data breach, which may have a legal implication. This is important as typically insurers want to limit their exposure to large pay-outs and are likely to include language allowing them to decline coverage in certain situations. One such clause may be a ‘Failure to Maintain’ minimal or ‘adequate’ security standards. For example, if a company is found to not have a basic control like encryption for sensitive or protected data, the’ Failure to Maintain’ clause will allow a carrier to decline coverage.

At this point, Cybersecurity Awareness training could be considered a minimal or adequate security control by some insurers. A lack of such training (particularly for a claim that involved an obvious phishing element) in that case, could lead to a decline of coverage if the insured entity does not provide such training to its’ employees.

Today, any technology used for cyber defence can also be applied by cyber attackers. Cybersecurity is therefore a journey, not a destination. The secure enterprise will focus on information governance to protect its most valuable information, will use smart automation to deal with cyber threats at scale, and will adopt a zero-trust mind-set toward endpoints and identity.

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COVER STORY

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Rhonda Swan CEO & FOUNDER, UNSTOPPABLE BRANDING AGENCY

LIVING A DREAM LIFE OF MAKING WORLD-CLASS BRANDS

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fter completing her MBA, Rhonda Swan started working for a Fortune 100 company, where she climbed up the corporate ladder quickly to become the head of sales and marketing. She spent nearly a decade working in PR and marketing for multimillion-dollar brands and startups until she realized that she was building someone else’s dream and not her own. Then, Steve Jobs entered and connected the dots for her. “What led me to set up my first business is I watched a documentary with Steve Jobs. And he said if a business is not moving online finding a way to develop online, they will be lost. This was over 15 years ago. And this is the moment when I decided to quit corporate,” recounts Rhonda Swan, who is - as Fobes describes - the CEO and Founder of the Unstoppable Branding Agency (UBA), international speaker, and bestselling author dedicated to helping her clients create “sexy” brands that are profitable, credible, and PR-worthy.

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It is not just Steve Jobs and the gaining popularity of the Internet that pushed Rhonda to become an entrepreneur. During her corporate life, she had an interesting moment where she witnessed a woman placing her six-week-old baby into daycare. That day, Rhonda vowed that she would never do that to her family. She says, “I decided to become an entrepreneur so that I can control my freedom. I can control my hours, I can control my income, and I was building my own family’s future and not someone else’s.”

Onces she decided to become the master of her own destiny, Rhonda followed what Steve Jobs said. She dove in deeply to learn digital marketing and mastered Google AdWords, copywriting, and advertising so that she could thrive in this new digital era. “I started my own branding company and firm because I realized that people needed to learn how to actually do this. Since I had already started before social media, I was helping people develop websites and their own personal brand online before it was really talked about,” shares Rhonda.

A First-Mover Advantage The pandemic has caused an economic shock.

Businesses that were not digitally prepared had a major setback during this time. “There was a lot of stress, and I’ve watched industry leaders fail because they didn’t prepare themselves for the digital emergence. Even though the world is digital, their systems were not properly set up,” shares Rhonda. When the world stopped working, UBA operations continued with no delays as they have been exclusively online for the last 15 years. “We have our operational systems set up to onboard clients. We utilize applications like Slack and Notion to deliver and to communicate with our clients. So, our business doubled overnight,” adds Rhonda.

Specializing in public relations, design, multimedia, and communications, UBA is the first female-led company to operate completely online. UBA utilizes storytelling, SEO, and brand messaging to grow its clients’ personal branding. It employs experts from all over the world (from countries such as Malaysia, New Zealand, Germany, the

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I DECIDED TO BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR SO THAT I CAN CONTROL MY FREEDOM. I CAN CONTROL MY HOURS, I CAN CONTROL MY INCOME, AND I WAS BUILDING MY OWN FAMILY’S FUTURE AND NOT SOMEONE ELSE’S

UK, Singapore, France, America, and so on) in related fields such as digital marketing, graphic design, UI/UX, and content production as well as publishing. “What makes the UBA so unique in our industry is that we guarantee our results. We will go the extra mile to ensure our client gets the work that we promised. Most PR agencies never guarantee. But that’s something that we do. Our vision is to be the number one PR and branding firm for entrepreneurs,” pinpoints Rhonda.

A Leader in Charge Rhonda is more than a founder for the UBA family. She is a leader of integrity and honesty.

A hardworking and committed individual, Rhonda always helps her team discover who they are and what they want to be for the world. “I remain very neutral in my emotional intelligence, which is how I’m able to deal with daily situations that happen inside of a large company with a reach around the world. Especially being a woman business owner, we’re constantly taking hits from others that may not happen to men. However, my resilience is what inspires others to see me as a leader,” says Rhonda.

The resilient nature of Rhonda is a result of many hardships and setbacks. Within three years since the inception of UBA, Rhonda’s family lost everything after investing in real estate. She recollects, “We had to get very clear on who we were and what we wanted in our life and also who we wanted to be to the world into our clients. Those mistakes have become the greatest wins that we’ve ever had.” Rhonda now looks at problems that she faces and changes in the marketplace as growth lessons for her to pivot and navigate, just like Coronavirus. “I’m always looking to steps ahead with trends, which is why I was prepared in the end. I would suggest any entrepreneur to look two steps ahead and know that everything will change,” she adds.

Today, Rhonda knows that we may have to

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fail many more times than expected to get to where we wanted to be. In fact, leading with the heart and caring about the clients is one of the most unexpected lessons that she has learned during her career as an entrepreneur. On the other side, the most significant milestone during these years as a leader for Rhonda has been her personal growth and doing the inner work. “When you do the inner work, you begin to see who you are as a leader on the outside, which also shifts how you lead. These milestones of me growing as a person have also led to my company’s growth.

Every three months, I go away for five days. I waterfast in the middle of nature, no amenities whatsoever, and I get in tune with nature and who I am, and listen to the messages that I have,” shares Rhonda.

On a typical workday, Rhonda would wake up at 4am, meditate in the morning, exercise. She would then go to the hot and cold pool spas on the cliff’s edge in Bali. “I get very present before I actually start my workday. I handle pressures and stay calm by taking time out throughout the day to stop and to meditate to balance that masculine and feminine energy so that I can get a clearer head and focus on what I need to do to handle daily tasks, daily pressures, and growth of my company,” explains Rhonda.

Rhonda is now working on publishing a series of books. The first one, Women Gone Wild: The Feminine Guide to Fearless Living, is already launched and getting good reviews from regular readers and critics. Rhonda shares, “We’ll be launching the next book in the series, April 2022.

I am on a mission to create a support system and a container for women to work together to support each other and showcase to the world that women can be top leaders worldwide. They don’t need to compete.” Her advice for young people looking to make a successful career in branding and or PR is to create relationships. “You get the best results by having great relationships and people that you can trust so that when clients come to you, you know that you can deliver,” pinpoints Rhonda.

With a goal to become a global brand that is known as the top PR and branding firm for entrepreneurs, Rhonda, and her team UBA are working hard and looking forward. They want to serve the world by turning the best-kept secret into world-renowned brands. “Our business will not change much postpandemic; it will continue to grow and thrive and elevate. We always say that we Zig when everyone is zagging. So, I’m looking for my next zag,” concludes Rhonda.

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DigitalEducation First Magazine Higher Digest January 2022 November 2020

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EXPERT OPINION

Everyday Blockchain: What Your Morning Coffee and Smart Contracts have in Common?

Alisa DiCaprio, Kunal Kislay, Co-founder and CEO of Head of Trade and Supply Chain, Integration Wizards Solutions R3

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oth smart devices and smart contracts automatically execute actions without your intervention, it’s the attachment of legal contracts that sets them apart.

The ritual of stumbling into the kitchen each morning to get that first jolt of caffeine has been the practice for most of us for our adult lives. But things have changed a lot. In college, you had to fill the coffee maker with water, scoop some ground beans into the filter, turn on the machine and hit a button. It was a lot of work. Today, you can set it the night before to the temperature you want and come down in the morning to an already brewed cup of coffee.

The difference is that today’s machines are “smart”. This adjective refers to a device that makes our lives easier by automatically executing tasks in response to a command at a specific time. The definition of a smart device is one that reacts to input and does the same thing in response each time.

This is the same basic definition of a smart contract. But what specifically do smart contracts and smart coffee makers have in common?

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Alisa DiCaprio is the Head of Trade and Supply Chain at R3 in New York City. In addition to trade governance, she also covers global standards initiatives and CBDC. She joined from Asian Development Bank where she was a senior economist working on digital trade, trade finance and innovation. She has also worked in both the public and private sectors on export promotion, trade negotiations, and labor issues. She co-chairs the BAFT Innovation Council and chairs the ICC Digital Standards Working Group’s engagement committee. She has worked in Cambodia, Chile, Finland, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the US. Her PhD is from MIT, and she holds a BA and MA from Johns Hopkins University.

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They can both automatically execute A smart contract is a piece of software that is programmed to automatically complete transactions once certain conditions are met. For example, a smart contract could initiate an insurance payout as soon as the temperature in a cargo container full of pharmaceuticals rose above a critical spoilage temperature.

Today, smart contracts are associated closely with blockchain, but you don’t need blockchain to have smart contracts. It’s analogous to the way that you don’t need a smart device to also be a connected device —it just happens that being both smart and connected is much more efficient.

Neither of them need blockchain, but both go better with it While smart contracts have gained renewed interest since blockchain became mainstream, the concept was invented back in the 1990s and doesn’t need blockchain to work. Instead, all you need is a system that enables automatable and enforceable agreements.

The reason smart contracts are so commonly associated with blockchain is because blockchain allows smart contracts to exist between distrusting parties without the need for a single operator, which is what had been done historically.

But now, what about the legal code?

Your mileage may vary based on the model you choose Smart contracts, like coffee makers, come in different models with different features. For smart contracts, the primary difference is in how they treat legal prose.

There are various platforms where legal documents can be linked to smart contract code. The code can automate legal obligations, but it is not the law itself. This is an important benefit because today’s legal system has not yet progressed to recognize self-executing prose, so only smart contracts accompanied by legal prose can have them recognized as being legally binding.

The reason you need to explore the features is because – for smart contracts – there are potential clashes in how code executes versus the intent of the parties. In contrast, there’s nothing illegal about a poorly brewed cup of coffee (depending on your definition of illegal).

What this changes in your life Smart contracts allow legal contracts to execute on their own. The automatic execution of smart contracts has changed our lives in a few keyways:

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Today, smart contracts are associated closely with blockchain, but you don’t need blockchain to have smart contracts

• You fill out less paperwork for your insurance claims because the data to execute the claim was automatically input as part of the smart contract flow.

• You get paid faster for your international sale because your trade finance transactions are executed with fewer errors and less human intervention.

• Also, you pay less since the costs of executing contracts and some types of transactions are lower. This is because reconciliation costs drop to near zero when contracts are automatically executed.

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Name

Designation

Company

Founder & CEO

Sproxil

Brendan M. Egan

Founder & CEO

Simple SEO Group

Chris Bennett

CEO & Co-Founder

Soldsie

Erich Ko

CEO & Co-Founder

Hop In Technologies

Jay Chaudhry

CEO

Zscaler

Kate Bradley Chernis

Founder & CEO

Lately

Ken Ehrhart

Founder & CEO

Paracosma Inc

Kenneth Bond

CEO & Founder

ROOK Connect

Max Mullen

Co-Founder

InstaCart Inc

Rhonda Swan

CEO & Founder

Unstoppable Branding Agency

Ashifi Gogo

Digital First Magazine January 2022

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BRENDAN M EGAN Founder & CEO, Simple SEO Group

Entrepreneuring His Way through All Parts of Life First Magazine 32 Digital January 2022

BRENDAN FIRMLY BELIEVES THAT IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING, YOU SHOULD DO IT RIGHT AND IN THE BEST MANNER POSSIBLE, WHICH HE INSTILLS IN HIS ENTIRE TEAM AT EVERY BUSINESS HE IS INVOLVED IN

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he coronavirus pandemic affected all sectors of the economy in 2020, from movie theaters and nail salons to warehouses and meat processing facilities. Many businesses saw their supply chains interrupted, demand for their products and services decline, shortages in supplies and inputs, and governmentmandated closures. The widespread pandemic made Simple SEO Group, Chicago-based result-driven online marketing, and web development service providing company, go through a dip. Though the business was not impacted by COVID-19 directly, rather it was indirectly affected as many of its clients was impacted. As their clients had to close down facilities, operations, and their businesses, the cascading effect caused them to request a pause on many of their services with them.

As a result, their business rapidly was in limbo like nearly every other business around the globe.

Fortunately, many businesses were forced to turn to digital as a means of operating during 2020 and beyond since they couldn’t run in person. “While COVID-19 had a short-term negative impact on our business from March

through around July 2020, following this, we saw fairly substantial growth. 2021 is going to be our business’ best year since being founded over a decade ago, partly due to our normal growth trajectory. However, this trajectory was accelerated by brands being forced to go digital due to COVID-19,” says Brendan M. Egan, Founder & CEO, Simple SEO Group.

A Man with an Entrepreneurial Bug Brendan comes from a family of entrepreneurs. His grandfather owned and operated his own successful farm in western Illinois. Brendan’s dad was a successful attorney in Chicago with his own law practice. When Brendan was 10 years old, he set out and started blowing leaves and shoveling snow for neighbors. Not too long into this venture, Brendan was hiring his 10-year-old friends to shovel snow and blow leaves while keeping a cut of the profits for himself. When he was in high school and during his early college years, Brendan became a successful stock day trader.

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THE LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE AND CUSTOMER SERVICE IS WHAT SETS SIMPLE SEO GROUP APART FROM ALL OF ITS COMPETITORS

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A few years into trading, he started an educational trading business which proliferated and sold before graduating college. Brendan shares, “In my last year of college, I founded Simple SEO Group, which I have owned and operated since then. The company has grown into a 7-figure marketing agency working with over 500 brands, including numerous startups, fortune 500 companies, and everything in between. While owning and operating Simple SEO, I have also had the opportunity to start nearly a dozen other business ventures. I feel my journey as an entrepreneur continues to grow and is just getting started.”

The level of experience and customer service is what sets Simple SEO Group apart from all of its competitors.

Brendan firmly believes that if you are going to do something, you should do it right and in the best manner possible, which he instills in his entire team at every business he is involved in. Brendan explains, “By personally staying involved in every single one of our projects and leading them from start to finish, I can set our company apart from our competitors who utilize a mix of junior account representatives and managers to lead projects that they are inexperienced in leading and don’t have as deep of a vested interest in success.”

While growing his business, Brendan’s biggest lesson was to be selective in who he works with. He has worked with some clients over the years who are not good fits for his agency, and rather than terminating the agreement, they tried to continue to serve them to no avail. “Knowing your value and who you are best suited to work with is a critical skill to have as a business owner. Once I learned and realized this, our growth reached new levels as we worked with clients who were the right fit for our agency.

They were willing to compensate us accordingly for the services we provide,” says Brendan.

On the financial side, all the obvious round numbers like reaching USD 100k, 250k, 500k, 1M, and beyond in revenue were all fairly significant for Brendan. “However, more critical than financials, seeing the caliber of clients we work with continue to increase, seeing the size and quality of our team continue to grow, and seeing clients repeatedly come back to us over and over again are some of the more important milestones that stick out to me,” explains Brendan.

A Day in Brendan’s Life Viewing himself as a leader not just at his company but also for his clients, Brendan personally stays involved in every single one of his client projects, unlike most marketing agencies that just hire account representatives.

This allows him to leverage his experience and expertise

in every client’s project and lead his internal teams to success for the client and help lead the client and their teams. “This approach, I feel, is what sets our agency apart from our competitors and has led not only us but also our clients to success,” points out Brendan.

Following a pretty structured day to keep himself on track and accountable, Brendan generally wakes up around 6:30 am and immediately reviews emails while drinking coffee until around 8 am. From 8 am-9:30 am, he meets with his teams to make sure they are prepared and ready for the day. Generally, around 10 am to noon, He takes a break to work out. From noon until around 5 pm, Brendan focuses on his tasks and projects for the day and communicating with clients. He adds, “I generally break for dinner around 5 pm and then go back to catch up on any lingering work from around 6 pm to 9 pm. I try to relax and unwind after that, get a solid 7 hours of sleep, and repeat the same thing the next day”.

Brendan doesn’t believe in unplugging. In his 10+ years as an entrepreneur, he has not once been able to unplug for an entire day. “You are the owner and leader of the business, and there will always be problems and issues that come up that require your attention. It is part of the job and comes with the territory. I believe in grinding and hustling each and every single day. The movies that show entrepreneurs out partying all day, well, that just isn’t the reality. For the hundreds of entrepreneurs I know, they don’t do that”, says Brendan.

A Journey of Hustle Having been approached by high school and collegeaged individuals asking for advice on how to progress as an entrepreneur, especially in the technology field, Brendan’s advice is simple: start early and work hard to get ahead of your peers. When many of his friends in college were out partying, he was at his desk grinding and starting businesses. “I always tell young people that if I hadn’t started my entrepreneurial journey at a young age, I might not have started it at all. When you are 30 or 40 years old and have a family, bills, responsibilities, and obligations, it is challenging to risk everything on the dream of starting a business and being an entrepreneur.

When you are 20 years old, you really have nothing to lose, and the level of risk is much lower,” he adds.

With his marketing agency currently working on about 50 different projects, ranging from drug website launches for a pharmaceutical company to create an ESG report for the largest electronic recycling company in the US to our day to day marketing campaigns for our recurring clients, Brendan always stays busy and are working on cool and innovative projects. At some of the

VIEWING HIMSELF AS A LEADER NOT JUST AT HIS COMPANY BUT ALSO FOR HIS CLIENTS, BRENDAN PERSONALLY STAYS INVOLVED IN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS CLIENT PROJECTS, UNLIKE MOST MARKETING AGENCIES THAT JUST HIRE ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES

other businesses he is involved in, one company, Engage, just finished raising large funding round and is focused on rapid growth through digital marketing. Another company he is involved in is about to launch cutting-edge medical software. Being involved in various businesses means there is always something new and exciting going on. “We plan to continue growing our business. We have grown 25-30% year over year for the last 10 years, with the only exception being 2020, when we saw a slight drop in growth. 2021 is on track to be our best year ever.

We plan to continue to help businesses figure out how to be successful in a post-pandemic world that will likely remain increasingly digital for years if not decades to come,” concludes Brendan.

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EXPERT OPINION

Frictionless App Experience is a Top Priority for Shoppers James Harvey, Kunal Kislay, Co-founder and CEO of Executive CTO EMEAR, AppDynamics Integration Wizards Solutions

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s consumers around the world headed online to hunt down some great deals this holiday season, many were aware of the supply chain issues which continue to limit the availability of certain products.

People were advised to start their shopping in advance this year and many brands responded by launching sales and year-end deals earlier than ever.

Retail brands were rightly concerned about the impact that supply chain issues could have on their ability to capitalize on their busiest period of the year, particularly when many need a boost in sales after a gruelling 18 months. Hopefully, their plans to navigate through these supply chain challenges paid dividends.

A more discerning, demanding online shopper However, concerns around the availability of products weren’t the only thing on shoppers’ minds as they began their holiday shopping.

After 18 months in which people have relied almost exclusively on digital services and applications to access the products and services they needed whilst living in lockdown, they have become far more

First Magazine 36 Digital January 2022

James Harvey is an experienced, influential IT Director / CTO with international experience and a successful background in B2B, B2C, Private Banking, Retail Banking, Investment Banking, Energy, Oil and Gas, Retail, software, technology, commercial and global corporate sectors. Has been associated with Cisco AppDynamics since 2018 as Executive CTO, he has been previously a part of British Petroleum and ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

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discerning and demanding when it comes to the type of digital experience retailers are offering.

As consumers, our use of digital services has soared during the pandemic, and this has meant we’ve been exposed to the very best, most innovative digital experiences available. From messaging tools and video streaming platforms to fitness classes and banking services, we’ve seen first-hand what applications can and should be offering in 2021. And now we see no reason why all brands, including retailers, aren’t offering this same level of digital experience.

Consumers demand The Total Application Experience In our recent consumer study,The App Attention Index 2021: Who takes the rap for the app?, 76% of people said that their expectations of digital services have increased over the last 18 months. And they’ve risen across a wide range of performance and functionality areas, particularly when it comes to reliability, security and personalization.

Consumers today are seeking out the ‘total application experience’ - a high-performing, reliable, digital service that is simple, secure, helpful and fun to use. And they want these services to be personalized to their individual needs and add real value to their lives.

A golden opportunity for retailers Across all demographics, consumers are now looking favourably at any brand that can deliver this ‘total application experience’. People recognize the positive impact that applications are having on their lives during this challenging period and they greatly appreciate the efforts that some brands have made to meet their needs, delivering applications that have allowed them to feel more in control and empowered.

Our research found that 67% of consumers now feel more loyal to those brands that have gone the extra mile to deliver high-quality applications over the last 18 months. And no doubt these feelings will be reinforced over the busy holiday season.

This new dynamic in consumer sentiment not only presents a huge opportunity for retailers to drive sales but also to establish deeper and more lasting relationships with their customers, now and into 2022.

Holiday goodwill can quickly turn to wrath Consumers aren’t willing to forgive and forget any brand that delivers a poor digital experience especially when they are shopping for multiple products.

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Reactions to poor digital experiences are now far stronger, with 61% of people reporting that their expectation of digital services has changed forever during the pandemic and they won’t tolerate poor performance anymore. Indeed, when customers encounter a problem with an application they no longer wait and try again later; they just delete it and switch to an alternative provider straight away. And people are also more likely to tell friends and family about their negative experiences, just for good measure.

57% of people say that they are now only willing to give brands one shot to impress them with an application or digital service. And if it doesn’t live up to their expectations, they won’t ever use it again. There are no longer second chances for application owners. Any slipup in digital experience and the consequences are severe - lost customers, revenue and reputation.

Visibility is key to delivering the ‘total application experience’ Retailers need to ensure that their IT systems and applications can stand up to the huge spikes in demand that the holiday season brings. But for the vast majority of IT departments, this is easier said than done. Most technologists simply don’t have the tools and insight they need to manage and optimize IT performance, and that means that they’re constantly in firefighting mode, having to rely on gut instinct to make decisions.

This is why it is so important for IT departments to have real-time visibility into IT performance up and down the IT stack, from customer-facing applications right through to core infrastructure. Only with fullstack observability can technologists identify and fix performance issues before they impact customers.

But at this time of the year, when demand for IT infrastructure is so high and can fluctuate so much, retailers need more. They need to be able to cut through the deluge of IT performance data from up and down their IT stack and to quickly understand which IT issues do have the potential to do serious damage to customer experience.

This means connecting full-stack observability with realtime business metrics so that technologists can pinpoint and prioritize the issues that matter.

With a business lens on IT data, technologists can take a much more proactive approach to manage performance.

And this means customers can get the faultless digital experiences they are looking for this holiday season, and retailers can take full advantage of this opportunity to boost sales and drive customer loyalty.

Digital First Magazine January 2022

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ERICH KO CEO & Co-Founder, Hop In Technologies

Streamlining Easy-to-Use Technologies First Magazine 40 Digital January 2022

TODAY, AS THE FOUNDER AND CEO OF HOPE IN, ERICH KO WANTS TO CREATE A BUSINESS CULTURE WHERE HIS EMPLOYEES COULD BE CHANGEMAKERS AND SOLVE REAL PROBLEMS THAT HOP IN AIMS TO ADDRESS

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o-founded by a young team of enthusiastic entrepreneurs named Erich Ko, Boyd Reid, and Erwin Komguem, Hop In Technologies provides customized corporate shuttle solutions for the daily commute. By optimizing their software logistics, they help companies retain more talent and access a larger hiring pool while providing employers with a comfortable and efficient commute to work. Unfortunately, when the pandemic disrupted the mobility of people across the world, Hop In had to halt its operations entirely. “With Hop In Technologies, we did not push sales, as it is tacky to do so while people are in triage mode. We decided to directly help and wait for the dust to settle before starting to sell again,” says Erich Ko, CEO & Co-founder, Hop In Technologies.

It says true leaders emerge during the crisis. The tale of Erich Ko and his team at Hop In during the pandemic would substantiate that fact. They provided over 120 free meals and rides for people to get to work. They also

donated over 25,000 masks across Canada to various organizations, including daycares and women’s shelters.

In the end, Erich Ko could see the light at the end of the tunnel. From these support initiatives, Hope In signed its first contracts with Maple Lodge Farms, Durham Deaf Learners, and the Brampton BIA. A People’s Leader As young as the age 16, Erich Ko was a bookkeeper for his dad’s business, Erich Ko always had an entrepreneurial mindset. He did his first government job during postsecondary. He then worked five years as PR with the legislative assembly of Ontario. “I believed working in policy was the way to affect change. However, over time, I learned that I could do more and entered a panic moment.

At this time, I found startups with Ryerson University and never looked back since,” recounts Erich Ko. Today, as Co-Founder and CEO of Hop In Technologies, Erich Ko wants to create a business culture

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where his employees could be changemakers and solve real problems that Hop In aims to address. He explains, “I am determined to make a workplace climate where specific issues that I have experienced in my past work life as an employee could be addressed or not be a concern here at Hop In. I subscribe to servant leadership. A team needs to take the lead on what they are working on or the focus of their role. I believe that the effort produced by teammates needs to be of quality or better than what’s expected by taking ownership.”

Erich Ko asserts himself to offer his team support for their success. Through advisory, equipment, programs, education, or any tools needed for them to be efficient in their role, Erich Ko allows them to set their own goals and cares about their acceleration in the company. “I hope to inspire or see the same dedication reflected in their work,” shares Erich Ko. Uphills and Downfalls – Journey with Hop In so far Being an entrepreneur has not been an easy journey for Erich Ko, as he has had his fair shares of awkward stumbles.

He recounts, “I have made some mistakes that have led to my learning in this growing process. For example, we hired the wrong people at the beginning. Our mindset was to just hire for the sake of hiring rather than hiring people who add value and can contribute to the team, especially at a startup level.” Every hiring is crucial for startups, and Erich Ko learned that lesson the hard way. He adds, “It is very important to know that the person you hire is coming with skills that can be adopted and grow; at the same time, to benefit the company.” Eric learned a few more unexpected lessons in leading to his career growth. “The first was don’t build a product till you validate the problem, the solution, and the market. The second lesson was to learn to listen to customers and address their needs versus what we think is right because it is different for everybody,” shares Erich Ko. These lessons have really set a tone in Erich’s entrepreneurial philosophy. Getting into an accelerator and incubator was the first form of validation of Hop In. Another moment that CEO Erich Ko marks as a moment of validity as he shares, “I was driving to pick up a cheque. When I introduced myself to the client and mentioned, I was there from Hop In, a gentleman who must’ve been on his work break overheard. He approached me and shook my hand, and said to me, “I ride your bus every day. It is so much better, thank you”, that was really cool,” shares Erich Ko. In another instance, Erich Ko was on a business trip to Spain with his Co-founder, Boyd Reid, leaving the business

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ERICH IS NOW PINGING NEW MARKETS FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. WITH A VISION SET FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS, HE PLANS TO FORM LARGE PARTNERSHIPS AND SET UP REVENUEGENERATING FUNNELS

in the hands of employees. Just moments before that trip, everybody could handle their piece of the company. Erich Ko says, “We used to vision all of this in my parents’ basement. Then we had endless hours in an incubator office space thinking of conceptual ideas. When it comes to fruition, it feels surreal. It sounds cliche, but it feels amazing that I could take an idea and bring it to life.”

Today, Erich’s typical workday starts around 4 or 5 am by answering emails and consulting with other overseas advisors and related businesses he runs for Hop In. He then tries to get to the gym around 6:30 am before heading to the office. “Usually, my days are stacked with back-toback meetings till about 6pm or even 9pm. Sometimes, I get an hour or 2 to do some work between meetings.” In his busy schedule, Erich would find some time to play his favorite game, Call of Duty. “I actually play the game with my co-founder Boyd Reid and our friends. Another way I decompress is by cooking. I actually love to cook. I make meals every night and get creative with them. I find it very cathartic, and it releases a lot of energy for me. And most importantly, quality time with my girlfriend, we could do nothing, and to me, that is the best,” shares Erich.

The Vision Erich is now pinging new markets for business development.

With a vision set for the next few years, he plans to form large partnerships and set up revenue-generating funnels.

“I believe it is important to appreciate and understand that even though you are a tech leader, you are still solving real-world problems,”opines Erich. Unlike other leaders in the tech space, Erich does not forget about the human problems that he intended to solve. He adds, “The fact that you were solving this for people. People often forget about the psychological or anthropological aspects when building tech.”

Erich’s advice to entrepreneurs is to focus on networking, which is everything, especially when you are trying to start out in the tech industry. He shares, “You can get great jobs, you can get great clients, you can learn new things and generate new ideas. The best thing for you to have is a good network.

Things will materialize if you build a network the right way.

Erich and his team at Hop In Technologies are now planning to build a business throughout Canadian cities.

“Now I’m looking at the next market that we will be opening up, which could be somewhere in Europe or Mexico or even parts of the United States of America. We are currently doing an evaluation on that right now. We are doing an official launch of the product in 2022,” shares Erich. Though COVID-19 did disrupt operations of Hop In for some time, Erich does not expect any significant changes post-pandemic. “In all of this, take what I say with a grain of salt because I too am still learning, and if anybody ever tells you that they have all the answers, they are probably wrong,” concludes Erich.

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

How Businesses are Emerging Stronger with IoT: A Blueprint for Post-Pandemic Innovation Elizabeth Grossenbacher, Principal Product Marketing Manager, IoT, Twilio

Elizabeth is the Principal Product Marketing Manager for IoT at Twilio with over a decade of experience in IoT and emerging technology. In her role, Elizabeth drives the success of Twilio with customers by developing effective marketing strategies and plans to build and communicate global awareness of Twilio’s IoT products. Prior to joining Twilio in December 2019, Elizabeth was the Senior Product & Partner Marketing Manager at TrustArc. During her career, Elizabeth has been recognised for driving on-point messaging and creating exceptional customer-focused marketing strategies in several positions in Cisco, Gartner, and Mimosa Networks. Elizabeth has a demonstrated history of identifying the needs of customers, growing a marketing-generated pipeline by over 300%, building revenue-generating partner programs, and consulting for Fortune 500 companies on problems ranging from go-to-market strategy to customer journey mapping. Additionally, her deep understanding of market trends helps her create compelling strategies to help businesses win.

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Large scale gatherings are no longer an option—so, the question became how to take IoT solutions and apply them to the problems facing us today

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n the early days of the pandemic, the world shut down—and the economy with it. In weeks, we saw uncertainty across industries as workers were furloughed or laid off, companies went out of business, and our lives changed overnight.

But in the midst of that uncertainty, something inspiring happened: leaders, workers, and developers in tech and communications adapted their thinking to this new paradigm, hoping to find solutions that would ease the burden the pandemic had brought on.

Before the pandemic, IoT was already poised to change how we work. The pandemic has only sped up its adoption and shown us how powerful of a tool it can really be. While some of the most well-known IoT solutions are made for consumers, many of the biggest applications for IoT are actually found in industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation. This is because IoT data collection can

have an incredible impact on things like observing a patient’s vital signs, managing a supply chain, tracking perishable goods, and much more.

During the pandemic, we’ve watched businesses take existing IoT solutions and brilliantly pivot them to help meet the challenges created by COVID-19. What’s inspiring is that these businesses are emerging even stronger through the process of innovation. IoT implementation can help every business prepare better for the evolving economy—so we’ve collected some of the IoT that have set a blueprint for postpandemic innovation.

IoT is helping businesses face new challenges Regardless of industry or occupation, one of the biggest changes we’re all facing is missing out on group activities, from small gatherings of close friends to the exhilarating energy of watching a game in a packed stadium.

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The economic uncertainty brought on by the pandemic is unlikely to completely resolve overnight, and much of its impact won’t be clear until it’s behind us

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For instance, a wireless lighting technology company that controls wearable LED devices, had been creating IoT-enabled wearables for events prior to the pandemic’s start—like at the stadium, where they gave attendees a smart wristband that would react based on the halftime show with lights, sounds, and pulses to create a more engaging experience.

Large scale gatherings are no longer an option—so, the question became how to take IoT solutions and apply them to the problems facing us today.

Many workers at industrial facilities like factories were continuing to provide essential labor throughout the pandemic, but because of the close quarters in these environments, there were clear safety risks that needed to be addressed.

So, the wireless lighting technology company developed an IoT wearable that could be used by essential workers to provide an array of safety features, like ensuring workers are at a safe distance and collecting data to assist in contract tracing. Their ability to adapt helped keep business operating and workers safe—two invaluable accomplishments in our new paradigm.

IoT is a foundation for evolution The economic uncertainty brought on by the pandemic is unlikely to completely resolve overnight, and much of its impact won’t be clear until it’s behind us. That means it’s crucial to make forward-thinking decisions that can boost efficiency and help prepare for what’s next.

Before the pandemic hit, many companies were already tapping into cellular communication platforms that use APIs to create seamless, contactless experiences— for instance, a Smart Device Management (SDM) platform developed IoT systems for tenants and property managers that cut down on unnecessary time and communication.

The pandemic increased the need for these kinds of effective alternatives to traditional systems, especially considering real estate is an industry where face-to-face interaction has traditionally been crucial. Adapting existing IoT tech presented the perfect way to meet the challenge.

An enterprise smart home automation company and a selfguided touring brand have used IoT to enable contactless access to units for self-guided tours that are helping to keep the market alive while putting health and safety first during the pandemic.

Fascinatingly, the benefits of these tools are likely to outlast the pandemic itself. IoT solutions aren’t just short-term fixes, they’re practical tools that create a strong foundation for your business’s economic future and help you evolve to meet changing demands.

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Higher Education Digest July 2020

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KATE BRADLEY CHERNIS Founder & CEO, Lately

Pioneering Content Creation Through Artificial Intelligence First Magazine 48 Digital January 2022

ASPIRING TO BE A LEADER WHO SHE WOULD WANT TO FOLLOW HERSELF, KATE’S GOLDEN RULE IS ‘DO UNTO OTHERS,’ WHICH IS HOW SHE TREATS HER TEAM, THEIR SALES TARGET, AND CUSTOMERS AS WELL

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he modern field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) came into existence in 1956. It then took decades of work to make significant progress toward developing AI as a technological reality. Many people still associate AI with science fiction dystopias. That characterization, however, is waning as AI grows and becomes more commonplace in our daily lives. Today, AI is a household name. Lately, one such example of AI’s omnipresence is an AI-powered content and copywriting generator for anyone who needs help writing anything. Be it social media, blogs, texts, ads, emails, or any content or copywritten messaging you can dream of across every industry - Lately doesn’t just write for you; they write a better version of you.

Fueled by the neuroscience of music, Lately’s AI studies familiar touchpoints to create a writing model

and then applies it to transform long-form content into something new. “Each time your brain hears a new song, it automatically accesses every song you’ve ever heard before. Your brain then looks for familiar touchpoints to index that new song in your memory banks. Every voice has a frequency, like a musical note. When you read a text, you hear that voice inside your head. Like a rock ‘n’ roll DJ, it’s the writer’s job to give you familiar touchpoints to sell you something new,” shares Kate Bradley Chernis, Founder and CEO, Lately.

A DJ turned Copywriting Savant Kate used to be a rock ‘n’ roll deejay, broadcasting to 20 million listeners a day for Sirius/XM. What she learned about the neuroscience of music now fuels Lately’s AI. She says, “That, in combination with a spreadsheet system

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KATE IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON RELAUNCHING THE ENTIRE COMPANY AS A SELF-SERVICE SERIES OF PRODUCTS, ENTRY-LEVEL PRICE POINTS, PRODUCT-LEAD-GROWTH, AND GAMIFICATION

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I created for little company called Walmart, back in 2011, that got them 130% ROI, year-over-year for 3 years.”

Aspiring to be a leader who she would want to follow herself, Kate’s golden rule is ‘do unto others,’ which is how she treats her team, their sales target, and customers as well. She explains, “The biggest guiding principle is that I’m a wild horse. If you tether me, I’ll keel over. But if you let me run, I’ll win every single dang race. So I hire wild horses as well. That’s tough because many people need guidance – a lot more guidance than I’m willing to give them. I’m impatient about this and expect others to be relatively autonomous. That’s a big ask. But it’s why my team is superior. They impress me daily, both on skills and on kindness.”

Considering the mistakes she made as a stepping stone to where she is now, the best advice Kate received was to be herself. After spending a lot of time trying to be someone else in this life, which never worked, she could not be her true self. “Sometimes you do it because you’re trying to be who other people want you to be. Sometimes you’re trying to be who you think other people want you to be. For me, when I’m not being my true self, my body starts to scream at me – pain happens. I have a partial permanent disability because, in the past, I was listening. Now, I do,” says Kate.

With a team as her pillar of strength, Kate had witnessed her team unflinchingly support her and the company, even when she had to ask them to not take paychecks. “They make me feel proud of them. They fight this fight as though it’s their own. Nothing makes me more grateful. These are truly incredible people. How lucky I am to call them my team?” says Kate.

Even the pandemic could not disrupt Kate and her team. Having always been a dispersed company, Work-From-Home worked out and benefited Lately to a great extent.

“My team has been shaking hands via Zoom since the beginning.

Slack is our water cooler, and the environment we cultivate is generally filled with laughs and high-fives. The team has always supported me and each other, and we’ve managed to keep a wicked sense of humor because… Startup life. The roller coaster is just par for the course,” adds Kate.

Disrupting Writing through Technology Kate is currently working on relaunching the entire company as a self-service series of products, entry-level price points, product-lead-growth, and gamification.

She states, “The timing is now, and a confluence of events has given us the knowledge, the purpose of the positioning to do this now. It’s exciting and terrifying.

You know, business as usual!”.

From the mundane to the breathtaking, artificial intelligence is already disrupting virtually every

business process in every industry. As artificial intelligence technologies proliferate, they are becoming imperative for businesses to maintain a competitive edge. The pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for Lately, as their demand has grown exponentially. Kate claims, “If you’re not using AI in your sales or marketing stack, you’re eradicating yourself.” Lucky for Kate, the AI content creation field is nearly empty, so they are at the forefront of the next wave of AI demand. Advising upcoming tech leaders, Kate concludes, “The best advice for anyone, in any domain, is to be kind. The more you can put yourself in the shoes of others, the better the leader you’ll be. Plus, you’ll have fewer wrinkles!”

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

How to Spot Misinformation in the Data Age Paul Barth, Global Head of Data Literacy, Qlik

Dr. Paul Barth is the Global Head of Data Literacy for Qlik. Dr. Barth joined Qlik as CEO of Podium Data, which was acquired by Qlik in 2018 to create a next generation integrated data and analytics platform. He has spent decades developing advanced data and analytics solutions for Fortune 100 companies, and is a recognized thought-leader on business-driven data strategies and best practices.

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While it can be overwhelming to process and evaluate billions of facts every day, the skills to understand when people are taking them out of context can be learned.

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isinformation, fake news, the ‘infodemic’ – all are terms that have increasingly entered the global lexicon in recent years as the population attempts to rationalise its unprecedented exposure to inaccurate data. Although the concept of spreading misinformation is far from new, its capacity to have a dangerous impact on the world has increased significantly – not least to dampen the sentiment towards a potentially world-saving Coronavirus vaccine.

At its core, we are talking about information that lends itself to being spread. It is attractive to certain groups of people, whether those supporting a particular political position or perhaps sensational or hateful ideas. Between the easy access, the possibilities afforded by anonymity and a lack of regulation, social media platforms have become a breeding ground for this type of activity.

The rise of digital technologies has also contributed by generating exponentially higher volumes of information over time that could potentially be distorted.

But let’s not forget that misinformation is just that – data. While it can be overwhelming to process and evaluate billions of facts every day, the skills to understand when people are taking them out of context can be learned. There are certainly deeper, longer-term changes to our global teaching curriculum required to address this, helping children to understand that the data they see online isn’t necessarily grounded in reliable facts.

But what can we do now to understand when we are being deceived? Although most of the fake news spread across the internet is misinformation – false or inaccurate facts communicated without an intention to deceive each instance originated from disinformation, which

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Despite the impact that misinformation is having on society, fighting the ‘infodemic’ is ultimately about better understanding the data in front of us

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signifies the very deliberate sharing of a biased narrative.

This is what makes misinformation so dangerous – all it takes is one malicious actor to spread falsehoods, which can be amplified by many others who aren’t aware they are doing anything wrong. Despite protagonists of misinformation being ‘innocent’, it is still critical for us to limit it, particularly given how viral it can be during times of heightened uncertainty.

In the absence of defined legislation or technology, here are the three tips to avoid spreading Misinformation: Consider where you get your news from: Being trapped in an echo chamber is a common pitfall driven by misinformation. If people allow themselves to take in news dictated to them by the algorithms of the internet, they are unlikely to see balanced perspectives. To remedy this, seek out a variety of news sources that tackle subjects from different angles. Despite the speed at which we are bombarded with facts, but it’s also important to look at what the data is saying, put it into a wider context and ask what the source is. What could the motivations be behind a piece of content? Of course, this responsibility extends to instances when you might be the news source. If you’re not sure of the facts, stop and think before sharing content across any online platforms – are you about to spread misinformation?

Re-connect with real communities: In the context of online anonymity and global connectivity, we are at risk of slipping into a world where the majority of interactions are ‘profile to profile.’ While digital communications and social media are useful for so many things, we can’t be totally reliant on them. Ensure you connect to your local communities – family, friends and real people – rather than machine and bots that may serve you up with tantalising content but do not constitute genuine relationships. Not only is this a healthy way to live, but it ensures that we are exposed to diverse perspectives. Genuine, trusted communities allow for group consensus driven by active listening, rather than being lured by polar ideas found online.

Upskill in data literacy: Despite the impact that misinformation is having on society, fighting the ‘infodemic’ is ultimately about better understanding the data in front of us. It’s a critical step to tackling misinformation that could have huge ramifications for society if we bypass it. We all have a responsibility to stop the spread, but remember, doing so is unintentional – so rather than shaming people, it’s about educating ourselves and others. There is a range of resources available or anyone looking to improve their data literacy skills and improve their critical thinking skills to prevent misinformation, which can be found on the learn page.

Powerful protection designed for PC gamers

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Why Hyper Casual Gaming App Marketers Need their Own Playbook April Tayson, Regional VP, INSEA at Adjust

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obile gaming is the largest and fastest-growing segment within the mobile app ecosystem, with more than 2.5 billion mobile gamers worldwide.

Across the global gaming industry, mobile games now make up 51% of revenue, and hyper casual games are projected to hit $2.5 billion in 2021. These small but mighty games have taken the world by storm in recent years — and trends suggest hyper casual is a unique niche that requires its own marketing playbook.

How hyper casual games are different Hyper casual installs increased by 66 % in 2020, according to Adjust’s APAC Mobile App Trends Report 2021. The hype of the gaming industry is continuing in 2021 and India has achieved a growth rate of 61% in installs in session so far compared to 2020.

In general, gaming apps boast longer session lengths. This makes sense for entertainment-based apps as opposed to, for instance, banking and payment apps where users may only need a few seconds to complete their goals. Sessions for non-hyper casual games increased by 27% in 2020 YoY, while hyper casual sessions increased 36%. Despite

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Hyper casual games must acquire the maximum revenue per user in the first two days after download, as retention rates dip heavily after that

APRIL TAYSON

April Tayson is Regional VP INSEA at Adjust. Based in Singapore, April is responsible for Adjust’s SEA sales operations, go-to-market strategy and growing the company’s market share and revenue. With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing, April is passionate about promoting Southeast Asia’s vibrant and fast-growing mobile ecosystem, while bringing more transparency and trust to the industry.

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the bigger increase in session lengths, hyper casual games hovered at 18.78 minutes, while casual gaming and sports gaming apps were at 21.19 and 22.77 minutes, respectively.

We see similar patterns play out when we look at time spent in-app. The median numbers for the gaming vertical are much higher than in the comparison verticals, with the day 0, 1, 3, 7, 30 patterns performing at 24, 53, 48, 47 and 45 minutes in Q4 2020. However, hyper casual is a completely different story, dipping down significantly faster. Our Q4 data shows that on day 0 time spent in-app is eight minutes, jumping up to 15 on the next day. By the seventh day, time spent in-app is down to nine minutes — falling to seven minutes by day 30.

What the data tells us about hyper casual games The hyper casual vertical is characterized by lower retention rates. Upon analyzing Q4 2020, Adjust found that games retained best on day 1 at nearly 30%, followed by hyper casual at 27%. However, just 7.5% of hyper casual users return by day 7 (compared to a median rate of 15.2% for all verticals) and only 1.75% return by day 30.

This poor retention rate is due, at least in part, to the simple game mechanics at play and the “snowball effect” developers employ to funnel users into the next game in their portfolio. The nature of hyper casual games means that marketers won’t focus their efforts on improving retention — instead, they need to perfect the art of monetizing users quickly and then pushing them to the next game.

This also explains why hyper casual games have more partners than other apps — even other games. The median number of partners per app hovers at around five for all verticals combined, increasing to six in Q4 of 2020.

Games is above the median of the other verticals at seven overall, with hyper casual even higher, at nine. (Bonus tip: Consider increasing the number of partners you are working with if you haven’t already.)

Hyper casual games must acquire the maximum revenue per user in the first two days after download, as retention rates dip heavily after that. This goal is especially important as hyper casual has the highest ratio of paid installs to organic installs, reaching 3.17 by Q4. To be clear, this isn’t a bad thing. Because install prices are very cheap, casual games try to drive as many users as possible to their apps as quickly as possible. Additionally, within that first two-day usage window, casual games often use cross promotion in their advertising to get users across to other apps in the developers’ libraries quickly (which is also a reason why iOS 15+ App Tracking Transparency

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opt-in rates for games have been high — gaming users like targeted advertising.)

Comparatively, the paid:organic ratio for the overall gaming vertical was just 0.69 in the same quarter.

It’s clear that when you’re paying for users, monetizing them takes on new importance. Hyper casual games stand apart from the larger vertical — not only in terms of cost, but in the strategy required to monetize effectively. So what do marketers need to know?

How to quickly monetize hyper casual games Hyper casual games are generally free to play, meaning they rely on ads to monetize. And the quickest path to adsupported success is through personalized ads. We often think about personalization in terms of the products we advertise or using a person’s name. In the hyper casual world, marketers need to think about personalization a bit differently. This will be especially true in light of iOS 1.5+ and the increased focus on privacy.

Experiment with the frequency with which you show ads. Hyper casual users tend to be used to seeing more ads and are more tolerant of frequent ads. In fact, they can display more ads than gameplay within a minute and still hold the attention of their audience and generate revenue.

There are limits, however. Our research shows that hyper casuals that show more than four ads per minute hit a ceiling at around $35,000 per month in revenue. The sweet spot appears to be between two and three ads per minute—a total that enables hyper casual game companies to boost their revenues by as much as 10%. (Ironically, this may mean hyper casuals are in a better position in the postIDFA era, where apps will need to show more ads to make up for the lost revenue of more targeted ads) Marketers can also tweak the ad formats used — videos, interstitials, native — based on user preferences. If you find videos are engaging users more than interstitials, don’t waste precious time on lower-performing ads. If you’re employing increasingly popular rewarded ads, experiment with different prizes to see what users are more likely to engage with.

Monetizing free-to-play games is always a balancing act, but this is especially true for hyper casuals where players come and go quickly. But hyper casual publishers use this to their advantage by cross-promoting other games within their portfolio — ensuring that users who enjoy one game move on the next when it’s time for a new challenge.

This keeps more eyes on ads across their larger suite, enabling hyper casuals to monetize more effectively.

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KENNETH BOND CEO & President of Fresh Focus Media Inc. and ROOK Connect

Driving Innovation through

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A MARKETING PROFESSIONAL ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT AND A DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIST, KENNETH IS FOCUSED ON BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN HOW BUSINESSES ENGAGE WITH TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE EFFICIENCIES

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echnology is one of the fastest-growing industries today. People from all walks of life utilize it to at least some degree in their daily lives. Technology provides the means to communicate across the office and the world for the business community. Tech entrepreneurs can find a sheer endless number of ways to incorporate technology into their businesses. One such entrepreneur who is on a mission to reshape and re-engineer the way enterprises utilize digital strategies to drive efficiencies is Kenneth Bond, Founder, CEO, and President of Fresh Focus Media Inc. and ROOK Connect.

A Marketing Professional Enterprise Software Solutions Architect and a Digital Technology Strategist, Kenneth is focused on bridging the gap between how businesses engage with technology to drive efficiencies.

Recognized as one of the top 10 most persevering and dynamic entrepreneurs of 2021, Kenneth has dedicated his career to working alongside businesses of all sizes to better engage and work with them to maximize returns.

Kenneth’s ability to bring a fresh perspective to businesses, generate revenue, and increase their ability to deliver to their customers has him being awarded as one of the Top 3 of the Top 100 Canadian Professionals of 2021.

Having been an entrepreneur almost his whole life, Kenneth was trained as a marketing strategist. He did a great deal of business development and process mapping.

While searching for a software platform that could match all his needs, he could not find the one, which led him to build his platform, ROOK Connect, which now fills a massive void in the software community. “Managing and building a team has always been my passion. We are striving to build an affordable software platform that could grow with you and can run individual areas of your business or your whole business,” says Kenneth.

Kenneth is proud to be driving innovation for business and acknowledged as an entrepreneur who is reshaping and rethinking how companies utilize and engage with digital strategies to create impact. With a passion for passing on his knowledge and supporting entrepreneurs looking to

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take their business to the next level, Kenneth believes in the power of digital media, enterprise solutions, and all they can do to empower businesses. “I am dedicated to growing, evolving, and supporting businesses as they look to digital technologies to expand their reach, processes, and workflow automation,” states Kenneth, who is a disruption leader, bridging the gap between tech solutions and customer demands.

Growing Businesses through Technology ROOK Connect helps businesses streamline operations, enhancing their ability to operate efficiently and maximize revenues by applying lean business practices and workflows. With the distinct advantage of being a modular-based software, ROOK Connect comes fully stacked with templates, workflows, process tracking, and efficiency tools to drive your business forward. Capitalizing on years of experience with implementations and designing digital workflows and processes, ROOK Connect can help configure and customize itself to match its client’s exact needs.

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Bringing businesses together and enhancing their ability to organize, configure, structure, and implement processes that ensure success, ROOK Connect’s proven agile process management and business infrastructure software improve overall performance and communication. “Whether you’re looking to organize and enhance your day-to-day operations or connect and coordinate multiple departments to get everyone working toward the same goals, ROOK Connect never stops working. We provide accessibility and guidance 24/7, ensuring valuable information needed to make the right choices for success is always available,” assures Kenneth.

The software solution is specifically designed to help teams perform, increasing communication, inspiring team and individual accountability in every aspect of a business. ROOK Connect takes the guesswork out of business and brings real-time communication and accountability to a team. “We automate business stools, provide coordinated scheduling and lean operational efficiency to enhance day to day operations and overall communication. We aim to enhance each department’s

efficiency with easy-to-use digital tools and applications that create an impact on a business and streamline processes,” adds Kenneth.

Passing through Hurdles with Ease ROOK Connect supported its customers through multiple transitions and financial diversities. Increasing their outreach, Kenneth could offer additional support to the customer when they needed it. With more customer intake, many people preferred digital processes due to their ability to handle remote working and collaboration. Instead of building software that they thought would be best for their customers, Kenneth decided to implement a strategy where they only did what their customers wanted by developing and getting feedback from their customers every step of the way. “A real challenge was building a team that cared like I do and have my passion. We are now building longterm quality teams that are in line with our core values,” shares Kenneth.

ROOK Connect is designed to be simple. Working 24/7, they are always available to provide up-to-date details on every aspect of your business. Reporting on and logging every department, team, and individual interaction, they

keep the business informed with accurate, detailed information at all times. With a diverse product that can be configured and tailored to match businesses of all sizes and industries. With adjustable tools, plug-andplay modules, templated applications, and industryspecific configurations, there is no limit to what ROOK Connect can offer to any business looking to streamline efficiency. “We just launched our Courier, Freight, and Logistics vertical for our real-time courier API along with our new Business Intelligence Application. Our goal is to make the software learn from the way it has been used and help businesses get the most out of the software,” opines Kenneth.

Currently working on peer-to-peer fundraising and an all-new non-profit platform, ROOK Connect is engaging further with customers and growing worldwide, explicitly targeting London and Australia.

“As a tech leader, I believe in working with young entrepreneurs, supporting their growth, and solving customer-specific problems. We have already chalked out our plans to expand and grow exponentially in the coming days to make a difference and impact on our customers,” concludes Kenneth.

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

Five Cybersecurity Predictions for 2022 Mike Sentonas, Chief Technology Officer, CrowdStrike

Mike Sentonas is CrowdStrike’s Chief Technology Officer. Previously, he served as Vice President, Technology Strategy at CrowdStrike. With over 20 years’ experience in cybersecurity, Mike is an active public speaker on security issues and provides advice to government and business communities on global and local cyber security threats. Michael has spoken around the world at numerous sales conferences, customer and non-customer conferences and contributes to various government and industry associations’ initiatives on security. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Edith Cowan University, Western Australia and has an Australian Government security clearance.

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In today’s world, if you get hit by ransomware, you can expect to get hit by double extortion

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or many sectors operating in the technology space, the continuing impact of the pandemic brought more challenges, opportunities as well as innovations in 2021. Businesses continued to pivot their strategies offering fully remote or hybrid work environments, increasing reliance on technology, and investing in digital transformation. As we enter the new year, the following cybersecurity predictions focus on the issues that we are likely to see in 2022.

Ransomware double extortion gives rise to “extortion economy”: This past year, we saw the rise of the double extortion ransomware model, in which threat actors will demand one ransom for the return of the data and an additional ransom on top to prevent the data from being leaked or sold. However, in 2022, we expect

to see the extortion/exfiltration side of ransomware achieve even higher levels of sophistication, possibly with a shift away from encryption to a sole focus on extortion.

We’re seeing an entire underground economy being built around the business of data exfiltration and extortion. Data-shaming websites are popping up like street-corner storefronts, providing a hub for ransomware groups to post and auction stolen data that’s being held ransom. These ransomware groups are revamping their entire infrastructure of tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) to hone in on more effectively exfiltrating and selling stolen data. Even if the threat actors can’t get their ransomware to execute past the encryption stage, they’ll pivot and find other ways to gain access to the data to sell for a profit anyway.

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In today’s world, if you get hit by ransomware, you can expect to get hit by double extortion. And, ransomware actors will continue to innovate and evolve to find new ways to monetize their victims.

Contain your containers: In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion in containers and container-based solutions.

Naturally, with the exponential rise in containers, we’ve seen a similar uptick in container-targeted threats.

However, security for this innovative technology hasn’t quite caught on yet, as we continue to see them being deployed without proper security measures.

With that, the rapid speed of deployment that containers offer will become a double-edged sword.

The lack of vulnerability checks and misconfiguration checks, along with disparate teams involved in container deployments all contribute to a lack of security across the board. Attack surfaces are ever changing, and the threats to container deployments are increasing exponentially.

Therefore, we will see containers become a potential attack vector for organizations who don’t recognize security as a key component of container deployment.

Adversaries set sights on supply chains: As recent high-profile attacks have shown this past year, supply chains are very much on adversaries’ radar as a low-hanging attack vector. According to the 2021 CrowdStrike Global Security Attitudes Survey, more than 3 out of every 4 respondents (77%) have suffered a supply chain attack to date, and 84% of respondents are fearful of supply chain becoming one of the biggest cybersecurity threats in the next three years.

While supply chain attacks are not necessarily new themselves, the recent rise in these types of attacks has essentially brought the genie out of the bottle. Frankly put, supply chains are vulnerable, and adversaries are actively researching ways to take advantage of this. In 2022, we likely haven’t nearly yet seen the end of these attacks, and the implications for each one are significant for not only the victims but the victims’ customers and partners up and down the chain.

China ramps up cyber activity against APJ region: Geopolitical tensions continue to sour to an all-time worst between China and other APJ countries, and these tensions have spilled heavily over to the cyber world.

China-based threat actors have remained consistently active, targeting healthcare, defense and other industries in APJ countries to support their 14th Five-Year Plan, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Made in China 2025, and other economic strategies.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics could very well be a powder keg of nation-state cyber activity. We’ll

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likely even see hacktivists come out of the woodworks to engage in disruption and misinformation campaigns.

Nation-state leaders will need to catalyze their cooperation with private sector security in order to stay one step ahead of potential Olympics-derived threats and prevent any major breaches to kick off 2022.

This past year, we’ve seen vulnerability after vulnerability exposed, resulting in devastating attacks with no signs of stopping in 2022

Zero-day vulnerabilities cause “patch panic”: The year 2021 has been an especially challenging year for customer trust in legacy vendors. This past year, we’ve seen vulnerability after vulnerability exposed, resulting in devastating attacks with no signs of stopping in 2022.

For example, 63% of 2021 CrowdStrike Global Security Attitude Survey respondents admitted their organization is losing trust in Microsoft due to increasing attacks on trusted supply chain vendors.

Zero-day vulnerabilities in particular will continue to drive legacy vendor security teams into “patch panic” mode as they frantically try to react and respond to these threats. This will inevitably drive a larger wedge between legacy vendors and their customers, as the latter will look elsewhere for solutions that can keep them on the front foot in proactively defending against the latest threats.

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How Trainee Programs can bring more Talent to the Gaming Industry?

Stewart Neal, Studio Director, Sumo India, a Sumo Digital Studio, part of Sumo Group

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ven before the pandemic, the Indian gaming market was on a solid upward trend. However, the global health crisis marked a turning point in the consumption of gaming in India. Certainly, with people being compelled to stay indoors for extended periods in 2020, and now in 2021, gaming as a source of entertainment has firmly established itself.

Almost every metric, including game downloads, average gaming time, and conversion from a Daily Active User (DAU) to a paying user, has risen to a new high, contrary to the pre-covid times, according to a report by KPMG. The online gaming sub-segment in India is expected to rise to INR 169 billion in FY25, up from INR 60 billion in FY21, as per the same report.

With so many people interested in gaming, it’s becoming increasingly popular to pursue it as a career. Since working in the gaming business is still a relatively new concept in the country, there is a lot of room for growth and development. Due to the untapped potential, efforts have been undertaken to create an environment that can provide a comprehensive game art and design education. Students can now choose from a variety of curriculum that covers not only the technical parts of gaming but also the visual and artistic components.

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Art direction abilities are taught in gaming courses, allowing students to make aesthetic decisions and tell a visually engaging story

STEWART NEAL

Stewart Neal is the Studio Director for Sumo India, a Sumo Digital Studio, part of Sumo Group. Sumo Group, headquartered in the UK, operates across 15 studios, and award-winning development teams in the UK, Poland, Canada, India and the US. It is one of the UK’s largest providers of end-to-end creative development and co-development services to the video games and entertainment industries. Stewart began his journey with Sumo Pune as a Development Manager and is now the Studio Director of Sumo Pune. He believes that having earned this position was no less than achieving a major milestone in his career.

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Art direction abilities are taught in gaming courses, allowing students to make aesthetic decisions and tell a visually engaging story. Students who have been properly trained and guided have more opportunities in the job market. The chasm between supply and demand for talent in the Indian gaming sector makes it easier to break into the industry. Let’s take a closer look at job opportunities covered by trainee courses: Job Opportunities Some of the key areas covered in trainee programs at Sumo India includes: Game art: All of the ideas, concepts, tales, and outlines are turned into graphics. This team is responsible for everything visible in video games, from concept artists who draw the settings, characters, vehicles, and props envisaged by game designers through VFX artists and animators.

Game developers: Programming for games essentially translates to fusing the art and the narrative with player interaction. This means programming for player controls, gameplay, AI, audio, UI and progression. Creating tools for artists and designers to improve development workflow or extending game engine functionality is also on the cards for a game developer/programmer. A good grasp of modern programming languages (C++ and C# for example) along with debugging skills is a must for an aspiring game programmer. Knowledge of data structures, algorithms, software architecture generally ensures a head start as game code needs to be highly optimized and performant to support a wide range of hardware platforms.

Game environment artists: Best-looking graphics and engaging sceneries play a pivotal role in the success of any game. Game environment artist has the responsibility to develop stunning realistic or stylized environment art and high-quality props. Along with a great passion for video games and art, an environment artist is proficient in industry-standard and leading modelling/texturing software’s, and game engines, for instance, max, Maya, Zbrush, photoshop, substance painter/designer, quixel, unreal engine, unity, CryEngine, et al. A great game environment artist must have a strong art and technical understanding as well as the ability to demonstrate appealing lighting, composition, and colouring.

Character artists: Character artists work on games to create the visual aspects that the Art Director and Lead Character Artist have specified. From the sketches of the original concept artist, they create illustrations of characters, vehicles, environments, weapons, props, and so on. They may also be tasked with producing storyboards, scenery, and shading and texture for visuals. Character

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artists collaborate closely with the game’s creative and technical teams to ensure the game’s visual quality and maintain a consistent character style. Players expect highquality graphics in today’s competitive gaming market, and it’s up to the character artist to deliver on the game’s overall artistic quality. Right from experience in digital sculpting, modelling, UV mapping, texturing; strong technical skills; knowledge of industry-standard software; to knowledge of anatomy—proportions, muscle and skeletal structures; employers may look for such skills in a character artist.

A great game environment artist must have a strong art and technical understanding as well as the ability to demonstrate appealing lighting, composition, and colouring

The Bottom Line It would be more than appropriate to state that anyone interested in working in an exciting sector like gaming only need to find suitable trainee programs. Moreover, people should also attempt to broaden their sources of inspiration regularly. This serves to keep the work distinguished and enticing. In the end, no matter which path one chooses, keeping true to one’s aims always yields the best results.

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