Digitally Curious

The topics of Extended Reality (XR) and The Metaverse are becoming more and more popular. Once the sole domain of gamers, we are now seeing a range of corporate examples for XR, which are building interest in what's next for the space.

To find out more, and understand what types of scenarios are right for these new platforms, I spoke with Thomas Bedenk from Endava.

Thomas has over 25 years of experience in digital productions, focusing on Strategy, XR, and UX to support digital transformation across various industries. 

Past XR projects he led span from product design and training to marketing applications for internationally known brands. 

Thomas is a frequent speaker at international conferences, an advisor for start-ups, and a fixture at industry associations and events. 

His love for digital creation started when he was playing Pac-Man against his twin brother on the Atari 800XL, leading Thomas to develop his first own video game in 1996.

We covered a number of topics including:

• The biggest challenge or opportunity in the XR space and what should businesses be doing to prepare for this?
• How the Metaverse has evolved
• How XR could be used for hybrid working
• The foundation of successful VR: Presence :  Agency :  Social
• When VR is suitable - when something is Dangerous, Impossible, Counter-intuitive, or Expensive
• The Importance of experimentation in XR
• The IP issues around The Metaverse
• 3 things brands should be doing to prepare for XR

More on Thomas
Thomas on LinkedIn
Thomas on Twitter
Thomas at Endava

Resources Mentioned
"The Metaverse" By Matthew Ball

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

Generative Artificial Intelligence or Generative AI - is a relatively new term that is being mentioned a lot when it comes to AI chat engines such as ChatGPT and AI-generated art from platforms such as Midjourney.

One of the industries that is most intrigued by this technology is the education sector.

Plagiarism has been a problem for years, but now a tool like ChatGPT can write a whole assignment in seconds, what does this mean for the sector?

To find out more, I invited back Dr Lynn Gribble, Associate Professor at University of New South Wales in Sydney, who has appeared on the podcast twice before - back in Season 1 to talk about the Future of People Management and in Season 2, spoke about Thriving in Uncertainty during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She’s back for Season 5 to talk about the impact of Generative AI tools such as AI on education – something I know Lynn and her peers have been debating since the ChatGPT was launched late in 2022.

Lynn joined UNSW after a long corporate career in Learning and Development as well as Human Resources.

Holding Masters qualifications in both Education with a focus on aligning personal and organisational values and Labour Law and Relations, Lynn’s PhD looked at the effects of retrenchment on humans.

We spoke about a number of issues related to Generative AI and education:

• The issues around plagiarism, ethics and integrity when it comes to using Generative AI in an education setting
• How industries outside of education might use this new AI technology
• How are universities coping with the introduction of these tools into the mix
• How Generative AI has the opportunity to provide equality for those that struggle with literacy
• Lynn's 3 actionable tips for better understanding the power of Generative AI

More on Lynn
Lynn on LinkedIn
Lynn on Twitter
Lynn at UNSW

Resources Mentioned
ChatGPT
Grammarly

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

New Year, New Season! Welcome to Season 5 of the Actionable Futurist Podcast.

To kick off the new season, I interviewed Sophia Matveeva CEO & founder of Tech For Non-Techies.

Sophia argues that you don’t have to be a tech expert to found, run or work in a technology company at senior levels.

Tech For Non-Techies is an education company and consultancy. Sophia has contributed to the Financial Times, The Guardian, and Forbes on entrepreneurship and technology, and hosts the top-rated Tech for Non-Techies podcast.

Tech for Non-Techies teaches non-technical professionals how to Speak Tech and succeed in the Digital Age through corporate & individual training programs.

As a non-technical founder, Sophia has co-created apps and algorithms that have been used by thousands, won App of the Day by Mashable, and was featured by Inc, the BBC, and more.

She has also guest lectured at the University of Chicago, London Business School, and Oxford University, and led the Blackstone x Techstars accelerator at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Sophia is a start-up mentor at the Chicago Booth Polsky Center of Entrepreneurship, and has advised leading accelerators including Chicago Booth’s New Venture Challenge and the Microsoft x London College of Fashion incubator.

She holds an MBA from Chicago Booth and a BSc (Hons) in Politics from Bristol. She speaks English, Russian and French. Sophia also sits on the Board of the University of Chicago’s Alumni in the UK.

We covered a number of issues related to being “Digitally Curious™” such as

• starting a tech company without a technical background
• the need for digital literacy among senior leaders
• why it's important to build a bridge between technical and non-technical people?
• what it means to be a “digital collaborator”?

These issues and more will be covered in Andrew's upcoming book, to be published by Wiley later in 2023.

More on Sophia
Sophia on LinkedIn
Tech for non-techies website
Tech for non-techies podcast
Sophia on Twitter

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

Environmental sustainability is often seen as just minimising the impact on a company’s business model. Environmental expert Trevor Hutchings from Gemserv argues that companies need to strive to become net-positive, giving back more than they take out. 

Trevor is Director of Strategy and Communications at Gemserv and spent much of his early career in the UK civil service, working in a number of government departments and with the European Commission in Brussels, including positions at the Department of Energy and Climate Change where he was responsible for major programs on energy efficiency and the low carbon economy.

He went on to join the World Wildlife Fund, the global conservation charity, where he was Director of Advocacy, working to improve public policy on the environment.

As well as his role at Gemserv, Trevor is chair of the Green Purposes Company set up by the Government to safeguard the green mission of the UK’s Green Investment Bank.

He is also a Fellow at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment.

We spoke about a topic that has been in the news lately - that of the “right of repair” of technical devices and the whole notion of sustainability.

We also spoke about how companies can realistically move towards net zero, or even net positive.

More on Trevor
Trevor on LinkedIn
Trevor on Twitter
Gemserv website

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

My guest is cybersecurity expert Samantha Humphries. She has over 21 years of experience in cyber security, and during this time has held a plethora of titles, one of her favourites being Global Threat Response Manager. 

Sam has defined strategies for multiple security products and technologies, helped hundreds of organisations of all shapes, sizes, and geographies recover and learn from cyberattacks, and trained anyone who’ll listen to security concepts and solutions. 

In her current role, she heads up marketing and security strategy for Exabeam in EMEA.

She authors articles for various security publications, speaks frequently at industry events and enjoys mentoring new practitioners and speakers. 

Sam also volunteers at community events, including BSides, The Diana Initiative, and Defcon Blue Team Village.

We discussed all things cybersecurity, password security, privacy screens, the future of cybersecurity, diversity and inclusion, and the skills gap in Cybersecurity.

More on Samantha
Samantha on LinkedIn
Samantha on Twitter
Exabeam website

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

As an international lawyer, author and speaker,  Susie has worked on some of the most challenging legal and political issues of our time including human rights and security, combating corruption in the developing world, protecting human rights at borders, the human rights impact of climate change on small island states, privacy, cybersecurity, disinformation, data protection and neurotech.

Her experience includes both judicial, and oversight roles in the UK and internationally.

She has particular expertise on tech ethics and neuroscience through the lens of human rights, bringing both legal skills and a background in philosophy to the key ethical questions of our time.

Her new book “Freedom to Think: The Long Struggle to Liberate our Minds” is a fascinating read and is available from Waterstones, Amazon, Australia: Trade Paperback, and Hardback.

More on Susie can be found on her website.
You can purchase her book here.
Listen to our updated podcast in April 2023 here.

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

As a Futurist I get to explore new inventions and track the progress of all kinds of technologies. But how did we get so smart to be able to dream all of these things up? Until I interviewed Byron about his new book Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think: How Humans Learned to See the Future — and Shape it I hadn’t given this any thought.

It is a fascinating read and looks at what makes the human mind so unique and also explores the three leaps in our history that made us who we are—and will change how you think about our future.

Clearly, we humans are radically different from the other creatures on this planet. But why?

Byron argues that we owe our special status to our ability to imagine the future and recall the past, escaping the perpetual present that all other living creatures are trapped in.

Envisioning human history as the development of a societal superorganism he names Agora, Reese shows us how this escape enabled us to share knowledge on an unprecedented scale, to predict—and eventually master—the future.

Thoughtful, witty, and compulsively readable, Reese unravels our history as an intelligent species in three acts:

Act I: Ancient humans undergo “the awakening,” developing the cognitive ability to mentally time-travel using language

Act II: In 17th century France, probability theory is born—a science for seeing into the future that we used to build the modern world

Act III: Beginning with the invention of the computer chip, humanity creates machines to gaze into the future with even more precision, overcoming the limits of our brain

The book is a fresh new look at the history and destiny of humanity, you will come away from Stories, Dice, and Rocks that Think with a new understanding of what they are—not just another animal, but a creature with a mastery of time itself.

We also discussed:

• What is a Futurist?
• Why Byron wrote the book
• The structure of the book into 3 acts
• Pascal's 1654 moment on reasoning & Probability
• Human brain capacity in 1654 vs now
• The 21 told stories
• The power of storytelling
• Are we being overloaded with stories?
• What about "fake news" and untrue stories?
• Act 3: The rocks that think
• What will the next 50 years look like?
• Where will AI help us innovate?
• The half-life of a job
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Actionable advice for predicting your future

More on Byron
Byron's website
Byron on Twitter
Buy the book

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

Quantum physics has already changed our lives, thanks to the invention of the laser and the transistor, both products of quantum theory. Almost every electronic device we use today is an example of quantum physics in action.

I believe we may now be on the brink of a second quantum revolution as we attempt to harness even more of the power of the quantum world.

Quantum computing will impact many sectors, including healthcare, energy, finance, security, and entertainment. However, significant practical challenges must be overcome before this level of large-scale impact is achievable.

One of the companies at the forefront of this revolution is IBM.

To better understand Quantum Computing, its advantages and its uses, I spoke with Richard Hopkins, an expert in this field.

Richard is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and Fellow of the UK's Royal Academy of Engineering.  He was also the nineteenth President of IBM's Academy of Technology. Richard became President after 25 years of field experience as an IT Architect.

We covered everything from Quantum 101 right through to how Quantum might help solve some of the world's biggest challenges - a fascinating episode for anyone who has heard of Quantum and wondered - just what is it? 

We also covered:

• What is Quantum Computing?
• How does a Quantum Computer work?
• When did IBM’s involvement in Quantum start?
• What is “Quantum Advantage”?
• The era of “batch computing” is here again
• When would you need to use a Quantum Computer vs a standard computer?
• The limitations of Quantum Computers
• Edge computing and Quantum
• Working together as an industry
• Richard’s journey to working in Quantum
• Becoming “digitally curious”
• The future Quantum jobs
• Non-technical roles in Quantum
• Sectors that can benefit most from Quantum
• The IBM Quantum network
• IBM’s Quantum roadmap
• AI and Quantum
• The risk of Quantum and encryption
• The need to be “cryptographically agile”
• The good uses of Quantum Computing
• Three actionable actions to better understand the promise of Quantum

Resources mentioned in this episode
Speakers for Schools
IBM Quantum Computing
The Eisenhower Matrix
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

More on Richard
Richard on LinkedIn
Richard on Twitter
Richard Hopkins Robots

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

In keeping with the renewable energy theme, and on the back of my 2 part series on the Genpact Envision Racing partnership, this podcast features Shell Recharge solutions.

We will hear from Euan Moir about how they are expanding their electric vehicle recharge network across the country into homes and offices, but also look into the future, when national electricity grids will be able to deliver as well as receive energy from electric vehicle batteries. 

I first came across the Shell Recharge brand when I discovered an electric vehicle charging location in Fulham at a revamped Shell facility in west London.

We also covered:

• Shell Recharge Solutions overview
• Home, work and on-the-go solutions
• Towards the target of net-zero
• Gateway to the broader Shell business
• EV Driver survey report results
• Augmenting the existing infrastructure for smart charging
• National Grid capacity for EV charging
• How smart charging works
• Using charging data to provide better services
• The change in driver behaviour required
• The ability to sell energy back to the grid
• Using renewable energy to charge EVs
• New property considerations for EV charging
• What's the future of EV charging?
• Innovation at Shell Recharge Solutions
• How is Shell using the data collected?
• Green number plates in the UK
• Three actionable things to better understand the benefits of sustainable mobility solutions

Resources mentioned in this episode
Shell Recharge Solutions
EV Driver Survey Report 2022
Emotion by design
Last.FM

More on Euan
Euan on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

We know that technology is rapidly changing and it seems heard to keep up sometimes. We’re told that we need to become lifelong learners and this is hard for most of us that lead busy lives, but how does the Former CEO of a 100,000 person company valued at over $4Bn keep constantly learning?

This is a question I posed to Tiger Tyagarajan, Former CEO of leading professional services company Genpact on the latest episode of the Actionable Futurist® Podcast.

He is one of the industry leaders who pioneered a new global business model and transformed a division of General Electric (GE Capital International Services) into Genpact, a global professional services firm delivering digital transformation solutions for clients. 

Genpact has more than 100,000 employees and annual revenues of $4 billion USD as of December 31, 2021. Tiger was appointed as Genpact’s chief executive officer in 2011 after serving as chief operating officer.

I was a guest of Genpact at the London E-Prix held last weekend at EcCeL London as they sponsor the Envision Racing Team.

As I learned in part 1 of the series when I interviewed Chief Digital Officer, Sanjay Srivastava this sponsorship goes way beyond having the logo on the car.

Tiger explains in his episode how the partnership came about, and learnings to date. 

We also explored a range of other areas in our 35 minute chat including:

• How has Genpact changed in the 22 years Tiger has been there
• The story behind Tiger's name
• Tips for being a lifelong learner
• Using podcasts to facilitate continuous learning
• Re-skilling and upskilling at Genpact
• Empathetic Leadership
• Building leaders in a remote environment
• The Future of work - People. Place. Purpose
• The importance of purpose
• How the Envision Racing Team partnership came about
• Using AI within Genpact to help clients
• Key learnings from the Envision Racing Partnership
• Learnings from the other Envision Racing sponsors
• Key learnings from the pandemic
• What Tiger looks for in new employees & jobs of the future
• Tiger's involvement in Catalyst & the importance of diversity and inclusion
• Three actionable things to become a lifelong learner 

I’ve enjoyed getting up and close with the Formula-E cars, and also seeing how they are literally defining the future of electric vehicles, from energy management, battery design, power., braking, regeneration and overall awareness that there is a path to sustainable transportation.

Thanks to Judith Schunke - head of Genpact Marketing EMEA and also their CMO, Stacy Simpson for making the day so enjoyable, and Liam Rawson and the team at The Hoffman Agency.

Resources mentioned in this episode
Genpact website
Winning Redefined: Genpact’s involvement with Formula-E
Crossing data and AI: The Genpact and Envision Racing story
Envision Racing Team

More on Tiger
Tiger on LinkedIn
Tiger on Twitter

Disclaimer: This podcast was a paid partnership with Genpact. I was solely responsible for the content of the podcast.

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on YouTube
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious