Coffee Break With Game-changers, Presented By Sap

Buzz 1: For some, a ‘smart house’ is chock-full of gadgets that automate or monitor almost every conceivable part of a house. For others, a smart house is extreme simplicity with only the slightest of technological intrusions as necessity demands…Apple’s Home app, Google’s Nest, Google’s Home app, Airthinx air quality monitors, myQ smart garage doors, Dyson app, Wemo app, Nanoleaf, a Govee Home app. [forbes.com] Buzz 2: Managing smart home is hard. “You do need an ecosystem, fundamentally, because you can’t say, ‘Oh, here’s your brand-new house, but oh, now you’ve got 300 apps with 300 passwords and you now need to connect them all up yourself, and you’ve got to figure out how all these things attach to your wireless network.” [KB Home VP Dan Bridleman Bridleman] Buzz 3: Increasingly, what makes a home smart…is the fundamentals of what a home is supposed to provide: heat, light, shelter, power…a smart house does its job. Even when your power provider doesn’t, or can’t. Buzz 4: At CES 2020, CTA's Steve Koenig

The Buzz 1: “Reading and ‘riting and ‘rithmetic – taught to the tune of the hick’ry stick.” School Days, song written in 1907 by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards, is about a couple looking back sentimentally on primary school. The Buzz 2: “In the past, financial literacy has been pushed aside within K-12 schools. There has been a lack of agreement about how and what to teach.…Because financial education prepares students for the realities they’ll face in the real world and contributes directly to their future success, it deserves to hold the same priority as any other K-12 subject.” [Alice Lee fastcompany.com] The Buzz 3: “Students in states with financial education curricula are more likely to save and less likely to pay credit cards late…also more likely to be banked…Digital financial literacy is more front and center….” [ibid] The Buzz 4: “Preschool-aged children are capable of learning simple spending plans. Early training in categorizing money establishes patterns for future money-management behavior… the co

The Buzz 1: Women in technical roles are less likely than men to win promotions early in their careers, and many are exiting the field. Only 86 women are promoted to manager for every 100 men at the same level…in technical roles, only 52 women per 100 men. Diversity is crucial to help de-bias the technologies in our modern life. [McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2021 report, coauthored with LeanIn.org] The Buzz 2: The label 'woman in tech' seems redundant…how many women would refer to themselves as ‘a female engineer’ or ‘the company’s female CTO’? However, there still exists a disparity in the pay scales and ability to climb the career ladder between men and women in the technology sector. [codemotion.com] The Buzz 3: At current rates, it will take 100 years for women in technical and non-technical roles to reach parity with men at the C-level [Anita Borg Institute, ‘Advancing Women Technologists into Positions of Leadership’. [content.techgig.com] We’ll ask Lisa Dalesandro DiChristofer, Kylie Woods, Debbie

The Buzz 1: “What will be the most coveted skill of the future?…Creativity…A computer lacks imagination or creativity to dream up a vision for the future.…the emotional competence a human being has… We must embrace and develop our creativity, and then use technology creatively to solve problems of the world.” [forbes.com/sites/annapowers] The Buzz 2: “When you think about old masters of art such as Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, you can clearly understand why their paintings are valued at a high premium: because of their inherent innovation and creativity…Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting Salvador Mundi sold for $450M – buying a trace of Da Vinci’s genius, his vision, his creativity through the painting.” [ibid] The Buzz 3: “During the global pandemic, creativity has arguably never been so rich, whether it is advertisers producing innovative ways to reach their consumers, to businesses finding ways to operate under unprecedented circumstances, to people looking for ways to communicate, entertain and feel clos

The Buzz 1: “NFTs are not just for digital art—and their popularity is growing. Now The Economist is experimenting with an NFT, to raise money for a good cause. – One candidate for the Oxford English Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” for 2021 will surely be “NFT”. Non-fungible tokens—cryptocurrency chits which represent digital images or videos—have been around since 2014, but took off in popularity in March [2021] when Christie’s, a British auction house, sold an NFT of “Everydays—The First 5,000 Days”, art by Mike Winkelmann, for a cool $69m.…On October 25, The Economist will auction off the cover of our issue from September 18: Alice in Wonderland embarking on a journey into the world of decentralised finance (DeFi)—in which NFTs form part of the foundation of the digital economy.” [economist.com] The Buzz 2: “Like it or not, the music industry has embraced NFTs …In March 2021, the album heralded as the first to be released as a non-fungible token was Kings of Leon’s barrel-scraping When You See Yourself—and

The Buzz 1: “The science of social selling actually originated from academia. In a 2009 paper…'The Persuasive Role of Incidental Similarity on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in a Sales Context,' researchers concluded that a purchase is more likely to take place when the buyer and seller happen to share things in common…sales practitioners began putting the science into practice and thus became the ‘social selling’ approach.” [Tony Restell, social-hire.com] The Buzz 2: “To stand out today, you must be original…add your own story to your content. There is only one you.” [Mark Schaefer, Schaefer Marketing Solutions] The Buzz 3: “Success on social media platforms, including LinkedIn, relies on your ability to make true connections… build relationships.” [Kim Garst, KG Enterprises] The Buzz 4: “It’s a dialogue, not a monologue, and some people don’t understand that. Social media is more like a telephone than a television.” [Amy Jo Martin, Author: Renegades Write the Rules] We’ll ask Steve Watt, DeJuan Brown, As

The Buzz 1: In 1440 – 600 years after The Diamond Sutra, the world’s oldest printed book – Gutenberg invented the wooden mass-printing press. In 1845 Richard Hoe invented the rotary press and first paperback. In 1993, Peter James published the thriller Host on 2 floppy disks – the first electronic novel – and BiblioBooks launched a website to sell eBooks. Along came the 2gb Kindle, able to hold 1,100 books. Today, print books still make up 65+% of sales in the $113Bn annual book market. To be competitive, some print books have covers with gold gilded edges, metal and transparent overlays, and some eBooks let you choose adventure story lines and have animated and interactive covers. [adazing.com] The Buzz 2: “When people ask me about the future of publishing, my answer always starts with: There’s no such thing as a single future of publishing … traditional publishers release fewer nonfiction books…total number of nonfiction books is going way up because more Authors are self-publishing.” [scribemedia.com Tucke

The in-person experience of car buying has always been alluring, letting you inhale the new car scent, examine the shiny power under the hood, literally kick the tires, ask questions of a human salesperson, and feel the road in a test drive. Now online car sales are offering a new experience: click it, order it, pick it up, keep-or-return it – and the automotive industry mostly isn’t ready. The Buzz 1: Nearly 30% of U.S. new car sales in 2020 were completed online, compared to 2% of vehicles pre-pandemic. The overall car shopping experience took less time and was more efficient…the number of dealerships visited dropped. [abcnews ] The Buzz 2: 53% of car buyers would consider buying a car online. [Accenture report in Readers Digest Mar. 16, 2022] The Buzz 3: Prospective buyers, especially age 55–70, are less inclined to want to interact with sellers at car dealerships. [mckinsey] The Buzz 4: Swedish electric performance car brand Polestar, 50% owned by Volvo, is focusing on a digital-first retail model, with c

The Buzz 1: “Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary.” [Margaret Cho, comedian] The Buzz 2: “Millions of people are unaware of and uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared in our digital society.” [staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-week] The Buzz 3: “Digital freedom stops where that of users begins... Privacy is not for sale, it's a valuable asset to protect.” (Stephane Nappo, Société Générale International Banking) The Buzz 4: “The fact the number of data breach events in Q1 represents a double-digit increase (14%) over the same time last year is another indicator that data compromises will continue to rise in 2022 after setting a new all-time high in 2021.” [Eva Velasquez, President and CEO, Identity Theft Resource Center, consumeraffairs.com] We’ll ask Shane Faria, Mike Audi, Eric Simone and Eli Herrick for their take on Data Data Everywhere: Is Data Privacy In Your Future? – Part 2.

The Buzz 1: “There is such a thing as a glass ceiling…the invisible barrier which prevents women from advancement in their profession. Do we have an unacknowledged barrier that is an obstacle for women in Tech who are indeed skilled and experienced but can’t get a promotion?” [huddle.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com] The Buzz 2: “The label 'woman in tech' seems redundant these days – how many women would refer to themselves as ‘a female engineer’ or ‘the company’s female CTO’? However, there still exists a disparity in the pay scales and ability to climb the career ladder between men and women working in the technology sector. [codemotion.com] The Buzz 3: In 2015, the National Center for Women & Information Technology found women hold only a quarter of computing jobs, even though they make up about half of the total workforce. Unfortunately, statistics like these remain unsurprising and slow to change. [datacenterdynamics.com] The Buzz 4: “Due to gender discrimination, men tend to advance in their career merel

The Buzz 1: While the majority of solo parents are single mothers, up to 2.6 million families in the US are headed by single dads…The research on single fathers is limited. [healthline dot com] The Buzz 2: As a single dad, keeping a strong relationship between you and your child after a divorce is essential for your child’s wellbeing.…children are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior if their father is actively engaged in their upbringing. [Licensed psychologist Robert Goldman, pittsburghparent dot com] The Buzz 3: “I’ve experienced all the different roles you have to play when there’s nobody else around: a parent, a dad, a father, a stand-in mum, a confidant, always a butler or maid, a teacher and, most crucially, a friend.” [The Single Dad's Guide to the Galaxy by Roger McEwan] The Buzz 4: Support solutions specifically designed for single fathers are scarce. ACM research uses the Human-centered design methodology to engage single fathers in multiple research activities to gain insight into their su

The Buzz 1: “85% of the women I interviewed make money in ways that really aren’t any different from how women made money in 1980: a third have jobs that pay salaries and bonuses, perhaps with a bit of a twist; about a quarter make money off of direct drive sales (a business model I remember well from selling photocopiers for Xerox in 1986!) and another quarter provide some sort of fee for service. A mere 15% have the “many sources” model for money making.…” (Barbara Stewart, Rich Thinking® global research papers http://barbarastewart.ca) The Buzz 2: “Approximately $30 trillion in wealth is set to change hands in the next decade and women are poised to inherit a sizable share, according to research by McKinsey & Company published in 2020.” (investopedia.com) The Buzz 3: “According to Consultancy group Boston Consulting Group (BCG), women hold nowadays an average of 40% of global wealth, and this could rise at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% by 2023, outpacing the 5.2% compound annual growth rate pro

The Buzz 1: “Coming up with a great name for your characters is one of the hardest tasks you’ll ever complete as a fiction writer… going too ‘creative’ with your name choices can distract or even confuse your reader.” (nybookeditors.com) The Buzz 2: “Instead of calling the pizza delivery guy ‘Bob,’ if you give him an interesting ethnicity, a cowboy hat and a name like Galveston Ngyen, readers will remember him when he shows up dead 50 pages later. But beware. There can be pitfalls.” (Anne R. Allen, Naming Fictional Characters) The Buzz 3: “One sci-fi writer recently joked on Twitter that the worst part of publication is being asked by readers and interviewers how to pronounce characters’ names.…” (lithub.com) The Buzz 4: Popular character names: Captain Holly Short from the Artemis Fowl series; Mia Thermopolis from The Princess Diaries; Maggie from Inkheart. (www.bustle.com) We’ll ask writers Catriona McPherson, Clea Simon, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, Sarah Smith and Edwin Hill for their take on The Future of Fict

The Buzz 1: ** “If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you'll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually you'll get to where you want to be.” [Eddie Van Halen, songwriter and musician] ** “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” [Maya Angelou, memoirist, poet, playwright] ** “Every song is like a painting.” (Dick Dale, The King of the Surf Guitar] The Buzz 2: “From synthesizers to DAWs or from CD players to iPhones, the landscape of music has changed and is very different from the days of your parents.” (interestingengineering.com) The Buzz 3: Albert Einstein was the Princeton Symphony vice president from 1952–1955. He said that, had he not been a scientist, he would have been a musician. (cbc.ca/music) The Buzz 4: “…The future of music in the digital age is focused on how streaming services will differentiate themselves from the co

The Buzz 1: Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, but an environmental, economic and social driver that’s changing our day-to-day lives… committing to sustainable practices is no longer a “nice to have” but a “must do”…. [forbes.com] The Buzz 2: Technologies shaping the sustainability agenda: Public electric transport. Electric trucks. Cheap energy storage. Plastic recycling. LED light efficiency. Accessible solar power. Carbon capture and storage. Hydrogen in the energy transition. [mckinsey.com] The Buzz 3: “I came up with idea of a solar airplane flying around the world with no fuel – that would be a beautiful message in terms of technology, the energy of the future and the environment.” (Bertrand Piccard FRSGS, Swiss explorer, psychiatrist, environmentalist] The Buzz 4: “Unfortunately, in the environment, I don’t see as much willingness to invest heavily in R&D as I do in consumer technology. And that’s a pity.” (Ramez Naam, American technologist, sci-fiction author: Nexus Trilogy] BIG QUESTION

The Buzz 1: There’s no telling what the futuristic inventions of the world hold, but we can start by taking a few wild and speculative guesses: Robot butlers – Fully immersive VR – Cryonics – Exo-skeletons – Flying Cars –Artificial gravity – Fusion power – Self-sustaining space colonies. [bigthink.com] The Buzz 2: The U.S. patent system is detailed in the Constitution. A patent’s assurance of the protection of inventions is a key reason why companies invest billions of dollars in research and development. 2020 was the 28th year in a row that IBM led the U.S. in the number of patents granted. [fortune.com] The Buzz 3: Every year Siemens honors Inventors of the Year in five categories: Newcomers, Open Innovation, Outstanding Invention, Lifetime Achievement, and Design and User Experience. In 2021, the 15 awarded inventors have their origins in the US, India, Israel, UK, Poland and Germany. [new.siemens.com] We’ll ask modern inventors Shawn Taylor, Jeff Gindin, Lynthia Muller and Michael Simmons for their take o

The Buzz 1: Headlines: Drones are helping to restore power in Puerto Rico. A drone attacked targeted the U.S. electrical grid. Google’s drone service will deliver library books. Submarine drone can swim for months and then fly away. Drone waiters will take your restaurant order. ESPN shot the X Games with drones. A bouncy search-and-rescue drone could save your life. The military wants a dancing drone that can fly through windows. [popularmechanics.com/the-future-of-drones] The Buzz 2: In the first-ever drone delivery of food and beverage at a sporting event—Purdue hosted the University of Michigan—fans could order a meal pack and have it delivered via drone to a locker inside Alexander Field. [popularmechanics.com May 2022] The Buzz 3: A Report on the Use of Drones by Public Safety Agencies. “Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have rapidly changed the state of play in the public safety theater. Inappropriate use and deployment of UASs and their operators present a serious threat to public safety and order. The sa

Remember the TV sitcom “Who’s The Boss?” (ABC TV 1984 – 1992) It’s time to ask the question again! The Buzz 1: Everyone will be a leader in the workplace in 2030. Work will thrive in teams, not with dictators. The Chief of Work will set the culture in the organization. All workers at all levels will use robotic helpers like Siri or Alexa, for incoming email, scheduling meetings, creating spreadsheets. [simplilearn.com, studies by CBRE and Genesis, WSJ report] The Buzz 2: Being a leader rather than a boss is more critical, especially during times of unpredictable change. In a 2016 Fidelity study, many millennials would be willing to take a significant pay cut if it meant a better job environment. In a 2019 Robert Half study, nearly half of the professionals surveyed reported leaving a job because of a bad boss. [coachmonique.com] The Buzz 3: “The time of the heroic, egocentric leader— the dominant, typically male leader who knows everything, who gives direction to everybody and sets the pace, whom everybody fo

The Buzz 1: Retailers expect 17.8% or $158 billion of merchandise sold during the 2022 holiday season will be returned, according to National Retail Federation. [digitalcommerce360.com] The Buzz 2: Retail returns jumped to an average of 16.6% in 2021 versus 10.6% in 2020, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail. That adds up to more than $761 billion of merchandise…in unwanted purchases that come back to retailers’ stores and warehouses and become a headache for companies that must decide whether they can resell those items, get them written off by the manufacturer or if they must take the loss. The average rate of returns for online purchases was 20.8% — up from 18.1% in 2020. [cnbc.com] The Buzz 3: Retail in the Age of Instinct. Trends shaping CPG and retail organizations include 'Optimized Reality': CPG and retail companies are using data and digital technologies to tailor experiences, services, products, and promotions to the individual and shift from maximizing supply c

We’re living 'on the edge', but in ways you might not be aware of: edge computing. The Buzz 1: Edge computing means putting processing power, software services, and data as close as possible to end users – like you – where the speed of light is still too slow for data packets traveling from server to server across thousands of miles of fiber. It's also less exposed to cyberattack and less prone to breaches. The Buzz 2: Edge computing is used to create smarter buildings, cities, work spaces, retail experiences, digital wind farms, and factory floors. Intelligent edge devices include smartphones, smart home bots, smart watches, in-hospital patience monitoring, medical instruments, cloud gaming, Wall Street trading tools, and autonomous vehicles. The Buzz 3: An appetizing use case: farms. Moisture sensors embedded in the soil tell farmers where and when to water. Drones fly over fields to spot pest infestations. Smart harvesters use computer vision and AI to separate wheat from chaff as they plow. Precision agri