We’ve heard time and time again about different industries digitizing and embracing digital technologies, but how come we haven’t heard much of this from the agricultural industry? To help us understand why and how Agriculture can catch up to the digital wave that's hit everyone else, we’re joined by Jeff Bisberg [contributor page], CEO of Illumitex [http://illumitex.com/]. Illumitex is an American lighting manufacturer largely specializing in the production and development of LED lights for indoor farming and vertical farming. On this episode Jeff dives deep into why Agriculture needs to embrace digital technologies and data collection, why the field ranked dead last in digitization, how LED lighting in horticulture has evolved, and how we can best predict trends in the agriculture world.

“The reality is that there hasn’t been hardware to gather that data that has been available, and really we’re at unique moment in time where hardware that’s being driven by exponential change is just now available that allows us to capture that data at scale to start to produce tools that create this beautiful, virtuous feedback mechanism that is going to enable the digitization of a farm,” Bisberg said.

There is a tendency to only remember the negative side of our struggles in both business and life. The fact is, there are just as many positives we can learn from during those same struggles. Today, MarketScale Host Sean Heath had an opportunity to speak with Jackie Werblo, Head Coach at CONVEX Leadership. Jackie shared the dramatic story of someone who had a career disappointment that almost destroyed her. They discussed the benefits of struggle, choosing to grow from the challenges, and how you can give yourself permission to bounce forward to success. (Also, Sean found another excuse to eat an entire box of donuts.)

"We all know people who are a bit of 'woe is me.' And then we know people who, every time you ask them how they are, they will say they are "fantastic,'" Werblo said. "That person who says 'fantastic' may have an inner voice saying 'ehhh, maybe not today,' but they are going to say they're 'fantastic,' because they know if they believe it, good things will happen to them."

Today's episode of the MarketScale Building Management Podcast takes a look at the various ways that facilities can make the most of their available space. From music venues utilizing their space for multiple events, to automated parking garages, and coworking spaces, one of the objectives for each of these projects is to make the most of the limited amount of space at each particular facility.

This week's episode of the MarketScale Hospitality Podcast takes a look at two different aspects of the hospitality industry: catering for large events and hotel security. On the surface, it feels like these topics couldn't be more different. Surprisingly, they have more in common than it initially appears.

A certain level of expertise and precision is required for each of these jobs. One mistake can damage the reputation of a brand that has worked to establish a standard of excellence.

This week's episode of the Food & Beverage podcast features deep look at solving some of the big problems in the industry. As the number of people with food allergies continues to rise, it forces those in food and beverage to put new safeguards in place. New products have also begun to emerge to replace what Americans are removing from their diets. This episode dives into both of those topics and also takes a look at the massive issue of food waste around the world.

Greg Crumpton was born in 1964, the last year classified as the “Baby Boomer” generation. Not only was he born into this generation, but his vertical is defined by it; working in the skilled trade industry, Crumpton is seeing a massive wave of retirement from the Baby Boomers. In the next 13 years, 47 million Baby Boomers will retire, and more than 2 million will be skilled trade workers. The skilled trade workforce is already experiencing a labor shortage, and now, the industry must look to replace an entire generation of people.

Crumpton has felt this impending retirement wave first hand; he's the vice president of critical facilities at Service Logic, the largest privately owned HVAC and mechanical services company in the United States. Service Logic has experienced the industry’s labor shortage, but its hiring team works to recruit high school graduates, military veterans and displaced workers from other industries.

They also find innovative and authentic ways retain their current staff and train them for other skilled trades. “We’re actually able to give workers something that’s applicable to their daily life and that can really help them with a whole career," Crumpton said. Listen to Crumpton discuss the skilled trade labor shortage and how those in the industry can work to fill it.

Social media marketing has come a long way from simple Facebook posts and static content. Nowadays, marketers are exploring two distinct forms of social communication: archived and ephemeral communication, and how to vary their marketing message accordingly.

What is ephemeral content, you ask? Today on the Digital Marketing Professor Series brought to you by Marketscale, we sat down with Lane Wakefield, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Sports Marketing & Analytics at Mercer University, to define ephemeral content and explore the five distinct goals of this form of social media marketing.

“In ephemeral content, brands and marketers can be more relational and think about how to make a friend and not how to look good for the other thousands of people that are going to read this,” Wakefield said.

These five goals — basically the social post’s purpose — help us understand and focus our marketing efforts toward creating content that feels germane to the social platform; that makes for better digital content all around.

Finding your place in the retail industry is an important part of carving out an identity and charting a path for success. That can mean finding the correct location for a physical building, or carving out a piece of the market alongside heavy hitters like Amazon. On this week's episode of the MarketScale Retail Podcast, we're going to talk to two people who are experts in helping retailers find their space, both in a physical and technological sense.

The world of sports and entertainment has been undergoing a major paradigm shift in how we consume content. Consumers are more frequently looking to their mobile devices and to social media to keep them informed and entertained. Platforms like Netflix and YouTube have a massive impact on the viewing habits of public. On this episode of the MarketScale Sports & Entertainment podcast, we discuss some of the ways content is changing to accommodate the shift in how people are consuming media.

The Healthcare world has only scratched the surface of its digital transformation. AI, IoT technology and innovative medical devices are starting to become an integral part of a healthcare professionals day-to-day operations, and that includes in perioperative medicine. The virtualization of the operation room is giving patient care providers more detailed data to work with, helping them better coordinate procedures, communicate real-time information on patient status, and promote efficient team collaboration, which in turn is leading to reduced costs and improved focus on patient experience. With such an exciting future for perioperative medicine, what is getting in the way of this technology reaching ubiquity? The answer lies in interoperability.

"These phenomenal companies create these solutions, quite frankly they’ve designed them to ensure interoperability with their own portfolio, their own other products," said Steve Plaugher, Senior Vice President of Diversified’s Medical Innovation Group. "And so by design, they don’t necessarily incorporate the ability to be able to integrate with other competitive products because it’s sort of against the grain."

Plaugher joined us on the podcast to break down why the medical device market is struggling with interoperability, and how that struggle is making the newfound commodity status of medtech devices harder to enjoy. Medical device companies are encouraging health facilities to invest only in their portfolio of products, which leads to more money spent investing in separate products and operating platforms, and less focus on patient care. Plaugher gives insight on what products are the most exciting in the space, and where medical device engineers and healthcare professionals should keep the surrounding conversation. "At the end of the day, the hospital wants to best invest in the best of brain technology at the least possible cost so they can drive the absolute best patient outcome as possible," Plaugher said.