Tech'ed Up

SVP of Marketing and Public Affairs at Uber, Jill Hazelbaker, shares lessons learned from her career at the comms helm of John McCain’s presidential campaign, to jumping in head-first at Google, to what keeps her engaged and energized at Uber.  

“...most companies get a honeymoon period, and you would be very wise to use it to think about those arguments and think about your allies…” -Jill Hazelbaker

• Follow Jill on LinkedIn
• Check out the Uber Newsroom
• Learn more about The Lab School

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Founder and CEO of the Chamber of Progress, Adam Kovacevich, joins Niki for a rapid-fire take on the latest tech headlines. They dive into the latest Big Tech anti-trust litigation and have a candid talk about childhood in the smartphone era. 

“Apple hasn't done anything in the U.S. differently than in Europe. So it's peculiarly American that we've ended up in this situation.” - Adam Kovacevich

• Learn more about Chamber of Progress
• Read the NY Times take on the Apple monopoly case 
• Listen to The Atlantic podcast on Smartphones and Teen Mental Health
• Follow Adam on LinkedIn 

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• Check out video on YouTube
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Head of Strategy at The Future US, Evan Burfield, joins Niki with an update on how hacking the regulatory environment for start-ups has changed over the last few years. They take a deep dive into minerals and bioeconomy tech, talk human brain interfaces, and how building coalitions is essential to being strategic in approaching Washington. 

“The Department of Defense can be an incredibly useful partner to a wide range of startups.” -Evan Burfield

• Follow Evan on LinkedIn
• Learn more about The Future US
• Listen to Regulatory Hacking

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Founder and CEO of the Chamber of Progress, Adam Kovacevich, joins Niki for a rapid-fire take on the latest tech headlines. They talk about TikTok’s headache in Washington, Europe’s misguided Digital Markets Act, and the state of play in Congress. 

“Even if this bill founders this year, the issue doesn't go away, right? That's the thing. The issue never goes away. There's no path really for TikTok to be a successful app in this country long-term and still be owned by ByteDance.” - Adam Kovacevich

• Learn more about Chamber of Progress
• BBC article on TikTok’s approach to D.C.
• ITIF analysis of the Digital Markets Act
• Follow Adam on LinkedIn
  
  
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• Learn More at www.techedup.com
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Puck reporter Teddy Schleifer pulls back the curtain on tech billionaires and political contributions.  He and Niki look into the money and influence wielded by Silicon Valley titans over the presidential campaign. They talk about effective altruists, the “red-pilling” of Silicon Valley, and why tech donations to third-party candidates will continue to make things interesting this election season. 

“We write about these donor advisors not because it's necessarily the juiciest stuff in the world, but [because] I think it tells you that this person is going to be spending 10 million plus a cycle.” -Teddy Schleifer

• Follow Teddy on Twitter
• Subscribe to Puck
• Read Teddy’s Newsletter

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• Check out video on YouTube
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Steer PR partner Lauren Tomlinson joins Niki for the second installment of Beyond the Buzz, the bi-weekly series of Tech’ed Up that digs into the comms, tech, and DC news creating headlines. They talk “Spamoflauge”, Gemini, and Chat GPT. 

• Subscribe to the BLUF newsletter
• Read the Forbes article
• Read the Washington Post article
• Read the NY Times article
• Follow Lauren on LinkedIn 

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Head of Global Communications and Marketing at DeepMind, Dex Hunter-Torricke, joins Niki in the studio to inject some optimism and hope into the doom n’ gloom AI conversations dominating the airwaves. He highlights exponentially innovative developments at the Google subsidiary like AlhpaFold, scientific discoveries of new crystals and minerals, and AI-improved weather forecasting - all of which feeds his optimism for the future of tech. 

“AI is just opening up such extraordinary new possibilities for us in this century. So, I think it's actually hard, once you understand where the technology is going, not to be an optimist.” -Dex Hunter-Torricke 

• Watch Dex’s TED talk
• Follow Dex on LinkedIn 
• Listen to  the DeepMind Podcast

• Learn More at www.techedup.com
• Check out video on YouTube
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Steer PR partner Lauren Tomlinson joins Niki for the first installment of Beyond the Buzz, the bi-weekly series of Tech’ed Up that digs into the comms, tech, and DC news creating headlines.  They swap hot takes on “jargon monoxide” when it comes to corporate layoffs, the new space race for AI-augmented satellite surveillance, and the Swifties’ impact on Super Bowl advertising. 

“...people are talking about [faster data processing in space] in the national security community a ton because obviously, that intelligence will be invaluable, but it's just as applicable across tech.” -Lauren Tomlinson

• Subscribe to the BLUF newsletter
• Fortune Article
• Foreign Affairs Article
• Superbowl Ads 
• Follow Lauren on LinkedIn 

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Spotify’s Head of Content Partnerships, Jordan Newman, joins Niki remotely to celebrate Tech’ed Up going weekly and to share podcasting tips and tricks. This episode is a great listen for anyone who has thought they might want to join the ever-growing community of podcasters. Jordan also offers his take on what he thinks the impact of AI will be on the industry.

“...podcasting is one of the few mediums that we have left that is really focused on long-form versus short-form.” -Jordan Newman

• Follow Jordan on LinkedIn
• Watch the Spotify Podcasting Masterclass Videos
• Spotify on Instagram

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DC-based AI policy and governance expert, Chloe Autio, joins Niki in the studio to break down the state of play in Washington for AI regulations this year. They explore AI’s PR challenge, talk about the awkward optics of recent Congressional briefings, and Chloe explains why the term “artificial intelligence” conceals more than it reveals.  

“It really should be more about not whether or not AI is going to take your job, but whether or not someone who uses and knows how to use AI will replace your job.” - Chloe Autio

• Sign up for a class with Chloe at the Future of Privacy Forum
• Follow Chloe on LinkedIn 

• Learn More at www.techedup.com
• Check out video on YouTube
• Follow Niki on LinkedIn