The Intelligent Workplace

Penny Locaso isn't afraid to shake things up and go all in on what she believes in. She launched BKindred in 2015 and turned her life upside down in doing so. She quit a successful career as an executive, called time on an 18 year relationship and relocated her family across the country. She was searching for happiness and wouldn't quit until she found it!

Bkindred aims to skill 10 million humans on how to future-proof their happiness by 2025. Penny Locaso, the world's first happiness hacker, is at the helm to make sure it happens.

As a champion of diversity, Penny partners with global organisations to humanize the future. She is also an advocate for fearlessness and once presented a keynote speech in her bathing suit!

Penny believes in the power of human connection, and she practices what she preaches. She invited me to her home to record this interview and share her thoughts on Happiness Hacking!

Show Notes Links:

https://www.bkindred.com/

https://www.livetiles.nyc/intelligent-intranet/livesmiles

Debbie Ireland is the Managing Director of ShareThePoint Ltd, a New Zealand company that specialises in Office 365 and SharePoint training. Debbie's involvement in the tech industry doesn't stop there, she also manages the Annual Digital Workplace Conference in Australia and New Zealand.

Other than running her business and organising conferences, Debbie is all about people...understanding what makes them tick and how to get the best out of them alongside the amazing technology we use in our daily lives. I thought I would borrow upon her expertise to discuss something that has been mentioned quite frequently in some of my interviews lately...Change Management.

Heather Newman is a woman of many talents. Not only is she an established podcaster, host of the Mavens Do It Better podcast, but she is also a Microsoft MVP, CMO at Content Panda and CEO of marketing consulting firm, Creative Maven. Add to those responsibilities that she is also a highly sought after public speaker, and its fair to say that I was truly grateful to be able to grab some of her time recently!

Heather was in Australia as a guest of the Digital Workplace Conference where she workshops and spoke to delegates in thought leadership sessions. One of her sessions discussed the idea that Fear and Toxicity have no place in contemporary corporate cultures, something that really resonated with me, so I invited her on to explore the topic with me.

https://www.mavensdoitbetter.com/

https://www.contentpanda.com/

https://www.creativemaven.com/

https://www.dwcau.com.au/

https://www.livetiles.nyc/intelligent-intranet/livesmiles

Our industry is putting a lot of effort into creating a more diverse workplace. Despite the efforts, anecdotal evidence and the current employment statistics suggest there is more work to do.

But, it is not all doom an gloom. On this episode I speak with Lee-Ann Dias, a Partner Solutions Professional at Microsoft, who is thumbing her nose at the statistics. Lee-Ann's has worked in areas from Customer Success to Technical and Business Development.

Lee-Ann is poster child for the The Woman in Tech movement. Her career began off the back of a university degree in computer science and has continued to soar.

There are many paths for entry into this industry for women, but some are working better than others. I thought it would be interesting to talk to Lee-Ann about her career success to date and get her thoughts on how we can improve the pathways for women.

Zegami link: https://zegami.com/

The Intelligent Workplace: https://podcast.livetiles.nyc/

My guest on this episode of The Intelligent Workplace is is Saul Sabath, the Managing Director of Velrada. Velrada is a global business advisory and digital transformation consultancy that have worked with leading companies such as BHP, Mitsubishi and Treasury Wine Estates. They are also a Triple Crown Microsoft partner and won 2018's Microsoft Partner of the Year for Dynamics 365 Field Service.

Saul has over 20 years experience in a number of leading edge IT consultancies, working with clients in financial services, higher education, manufacturing, and community care, helping those organizations to improve and accelerate their business in the digital age. He is well versed in many business disciplines.

For this episode, I thought that I would borrow upon Saul's expertise in working with customers that sit atop their businesses and need to make sense of the new technology that they are faced with. What sort of conversations do they have? What insights has he garnered over the years from interacting with these key decision makers? And what advice does he have for the listeners on embarking on digital transformation projects with them?

I really enjoyed Saul's insights in this chat...quite thought provoking.

LiveSmiles link: https://www.livetiles.nyc/intelligent-intranet/livesmiles

On this episode of the Intelligent Workplace Podcast, I explore a bit of a broader issue. Diversity in the workplace is something that all companies strive for, as it allows them to incorporate a broader range of perspectives within the business. It could promote faster problem solving, better innovation, increased creativity, and a more engaged workforce. But it's not an easy task, especially in the technology field.

In this episode, I focus on one of the major challenges for employers in the tech space, seeking to diversify their workforce and that is attracting women into the field. To join me in this discussion, I invited the president of the Women In Tech Network along, Christine Bongard. The WIT Network is a community of professional men and women who encourage and assist women and girls to pursue careers in the technology sector, enable women to attain leadership positions and advance their careers and support female entrepreneurs.

I recorded this interview a few weeks ago when Christine and I were both in attendance at the Microsoft Inspire event in Las Vegas. Enjoy the conversation.

Starmind link: https://www.starmind.ai/

The Intelligent Workplace: https://podcast.livetiles.nyc/

Something is becoming very clear to me as I talk to my guests on The Intelligent Workplace. A company can load up with the best pieces of shiny tech available, but there must be more than that to build a successful business. That tech must be paired with an engaged workforce who enjoy their time at work, and feel like their input is valued, to set the business up for success.

In this episode I speak with Ash De Zylva, a Customer Success Manager for Microsoft who is very passionate about the human element of the Intelligent Workplace. In fact, his passion for helping his customers recently saw him be awarded a Microsoft Gold Club award. The Gold Club award recognizes the extraordinary performance of individuals who transform and contribute to the overall success and growth of Microsoft. A great reward for all of his hard work.

Ash describes himself as being immensely passionate about helping organizations to transform and meet their digital challenges head on. He believes that technology, coupled with the right leadership, offers us all the opportunity to rethink and improve business processes, as well as offer the amazing experiences to everyone we come in contact with.

Testfire Labs Hendrix link: https://hendrix.ai/

The Intelligent Workplace: https://podcast.livetiles.nyc/

What do you know about Transhumanism? Well, whether it's a little or a lot, after listening to Alyse Sue's insights on the topic you will be inspired to find out more.

Alyse Sue is at the forefront of a new wave of young and energetic tech influencers who are dreaming big in a fast moving tech world that is only too happy to support their dreams and ideas. Alyse has a rich and varied skill set that she's assembled from her experiences as a software developer, a freelance tech writer and an entrepreneur. Once a founding member of KPMGs Innovate Team, Alyse has co-founded three ventures since including a genomic data machine learning startup and her latest venture, Transhumanism Australia.

An intriguing discussion that certainly had me thinking about where this technology could take us.

The Intelligent Workplace: https://podcast.livetiles.nyc/

This is the first of my interviews that I recorded while in attendance at the Microsoft Inspire event in Las Vegas. Priya Gore is a Global Black Belt and Director of AI & Advanced Analytics for Microsoft Americas.

An experienced Tech executive and has worked in a number of high level positions across the industry, Priya now enjoys helping clients solve their toughest and most challenging business problem. She champions diversity in the workplace, supports the Women In Technology movement and was a founder in the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners in New England.

Aside from all of her amazing work she does in the industry, she is also a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Artificial Intelligence specifically the ethics of implementing AI solutions.

How do we ensure remain in control of AI? Can systems be trained to think like humans? If so, do they have feelings? And, is societies motivation for AI aligned with the best long term interests of humanity?

Priya's insight in this interview are fascinating...enjoy the discussion.

Zegami link: https://zegami.com/demos

The Intelligent Workplace: https://podcast.livetiles.nyc/

Sam Conway is the CEO of Zegami, a visual search and analytics solution. Zegami transforms visual data into information by combining media, data and AI. It simplifies an organizations interaction with large data sets.

By exploring visual representations of their data, users can uncover valuable insights. They can explore things like employee information, sporting statistics, and even non-traditional data sources like Instagram feeds. Zegami identifies outliers, biases, patterns and correlations within data sets.

An interesting concept that has potential applications in so many industries. This discussion will interest everyone from the Marketing team to the Data Scientists.

Enjoy the conversation.

The Intelligent Workplace: https://podcast.livetiles.nyc/

Nucleus Cyber link: https://nucleuscyber.com/nc-protect-for-livetiles/