We caught up with one of Sydney’s hottest tech talents in Vaibhav Namburi, or V, to discuss his thoughts on entrepreneurship and emerging technologies. He's already built a blockchain solution for the United Nations, as well as mobile apps for the likes of William Hill, News Corp and PwC.

He’s also disrupting the recruitment world with his automated and anonymised hiring platform Laddr.

We discuss:

- How he got into the industry

- How to differentiate yourself in business

- Marketing methods he’s used in his business

- How to harness social media

- What’s next in emerging technology in the 12 months

- Ethics in AI

- Challenges he faced with building his businesses

- Branding

- Problem solving in growth marketing

- The biggest lessons he’s learned

- Why he focuses on marketing

- The importance of simplicity, messaging and trust in business

In part two of data in sport we focus on AI as we speak with Ian Partilla, head of global revenue and sports at GumGum. Episode 13 was recorded at Sport Accord on the Gold Coast.

We address opportunities in sponsorship and digital media, Ian’s role at GumGum, the opportunities for sports teams in how they categorise their digital and social assets, the role of ad-tech in sports and what the future of the technology could mean for brands.

Episode 12 we speak with David Melia, head of sports at Global Web Index on the Gold Coast ahead of him speaking at Sport Accord.

GWI is the world’s largest survey of online behaviour and we quiz David on how data is increasingly being used in sports to improve the fan experience.

In this episode we discuss his role at GWI, how he got into the industry, the challenges he's faced, what he does on a day to day level, the opportunities for brands in the sporting space and what we should look out for in the next 12 months.

Episode 11 looks at the psychology of choice and we’ve got someone who is very familiar in the workings of this area, we have the help of PsytAssist co-founder Lauren Fell.

As someone researching how we can predict human behaviour, Lauren discusses how we make choices every day, the role of intuition/nostalgia, how we can reframe choices, including anchoring, how unconscious bias influences us, trust, how shopping is a form of gambling, decision fatigue, bias in interviews

and her upcoming research project.

Episode 10 is a special live edition which looks at the issue of Super Bowl advertising. Host Liam Fitzpatrick is the facilitator in this session which is part of the Networx event series in Brisbane.

The panel of Sarah Kelly, associate professor in law and marketing at University Queensland, Rob Hudson MD at Clemenger BBDO join Luke Wheatley, head of creative and content for Flight Centre.

We discuss this year’s most successful spots, which ones failed, whether paying $5m for 30 seconds can deliver on ROI for brands, the power of competitive interference, lessons marketers can take away, as well as the panel’s favourite all-time Super Bowl ads.

Episode nine is doubling as part two of our blockchain special at Cut the Cliches. We’ve enlisted the help of Minfo founder Roland Storti to guide us through the STO space. Billed as the next stage of funding in the crypto market, we discuss regulation, why ICOs have died, what’s behind the rise of STOs, what his business Minfo is and how it’s putting together its STO, why building a community is so important and what’s the future for token models.

For episode eight we caught up with Tom Nash, co-founder at Flex Dapps back in September 2018. Tom guides us through his background, how FlexDapps came about, the language in the industry, web3.0, regulation, security, identity, the potential for blockchain and barriers that are currently stopping it.

This week we're back for our second run of Cut the Cliches and kicking it off with a discussion on Voice. For episode seven we've enlisted the help of Guy Munro, Global Business Director at voice experience agency Versa. We caught up with him in his Richmond offices and he guides us through:

His background

The buzzwords/cliches in voice

What's been the biggest impact of voice so far?

Why we haven't seen more case studies

The potential for the sector, including current barriers

Versa and its work

Opportunities for brands in voice

What's next for Alexa/Google

Sports Marketing is the topic for episode six. At University Queensland we caught up with Professor of Law & Marketing, Sarah Kelly, to find out why sports sponsorship is a good investment. The fact it's a universal language is a good starting point. She is also Brisbane Lions Deputy Chair. We cover the burgeoning esports sector - where she is Director of the Global Esports Institute. The commercial impact of sports-stars' indiscretions for sponsors, the tribal behaviour of fans, the brand opportunity within female sports, we also touch on the 'Sandpaper-gate' scandal which rocked Aussie cricket along with the buzz Nike was able to generate with its purpose-marketing Colin Kaepernick campaign.

Digital still means differing things, depending on who you ask. So for us at 'Cut the Cliches', we turned to a man for episode five, who has decades of experience in the field, leading his agency through the era of mobile, through to the customer experience focus which his agency has today.

Ben Beath, MD at Loud & Clear helps brands transform internally to become more digitally enabled. Simply put, he's taking legacy infrastructure and making processes streamlined for today's increasingly time-poor workforce. This can, and often does involve automation, as we discuss the impact of Industry 4.0 on how jobs are viewed.

Ben has worked with some of Australia's leading brands including AGL and FFA, and our man on the ground Liam Fitzpatrick caught up with Ben in his Melbourne office.