Voice in Canada Podcast

In this episode, Teri will share his thoughts on voice and why he believes that voice is the next operating system.

He will be using his drums to illustrate some of the concepts by using them as voices.

Enjoy!

The Evolution of Technology

• Technology has evolved from a keyboard as a way to interface with the computer, to a mouse, and then to a touch screen. Now we are getting to a point where we can speak to a computer.
• There are five main reasons why Teri feels that voice will be the next operating system and he will use a concept based on the five letters of VOICE to explain that.

V for Versatility

• According to Teri’s concept, the V in VOICE stands for Versatile. This means that when one is using their voice, they can do multiple things at once. For example, one can use their voice while driving, cooking, or doing a host of other tasks. That kind of versatility is a key concept of voice.
• Teri will play some very entertaining drum beats, and while we are listening, we should note the fact that each of us will still be doing some kind of task. Listening to the drum beats will not disrupt us from doing what we are doing. That’s the same way that voice will work.

Omnipresence

• This means that voice can be all around us no matter where we are or what we’re doing. One doesn’t need to be looking in the direction of where a voice is coming from to hear it or be aware of it.
• Teri will play the drums again to illustrate how sound can be all around us.

 I for Innate

• The first way we communicate when we’re born is through our voices. When we are born, the first thing we do is cry, and we have to learn all other types of communication like read, type, and write, but using the voice is the most innate way that we know how to communicate.

C for Contextual

• This means that when someone says something they can either sound happy or sad.
• Voice allows us to distinguish emotions just from the sound of it. An example of what this means is when someone reads a text message or email, and misinterprets what is being said because they can’t really hear the emotion of the writer.
• One cannot tell if someone is being sarcastic, funny, or mean from their texts or emails, but with voice, one can hear someone’s emotion when they speak.

E for Efficient

• The average person can type about 40 words per minute and speak about 150 words per minute. That’s about a three to four times faster rate of speaking than typing. Voice is therefore extremely efficient, and when a technology is efficient, it tends to be adopted more rapidly.

List of resources mentioned in this episode:

• Flash Briefing Formula
• The Alexa in Canada Community

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Bianca Phillips, a lawyer and leader/researcher in the area of digital health law making, and the founder of the Electronic Health Consulting Group.

Welcome, Bianca!

Bianca is also the host of the Voice of Law Podcast and she advocates for a future where telemedicine will allow for access to healthcare no matter where one lives, where wearables will allow people to predict the onset of disease before it happens, and where clinical outcomes will be improved due to precision and personalized medicine. She believes that the digital health future should balance the needs of both patients and healthcare providers by placing evidence-based approaches and civil rights considerations at the core of digital health law-making. She aims to be a prominent voice for a Digital Health School of Thought founded on these principles.

The Legal Perspective of What’s Going On with COVID-19

• She’s been reading articles around how governments have been tracking and tracing people’s movements to curb the spread of the Coronavirus, and she’s also read articles arguing that the tracking and tracing is a breach of people’s privacy and civil liberties.
• She’s been investigating all that and looking at the international covenant on civil and political rights on how emergencies like the current pandemic are supposed to be dealt with in regard to people’s liberties. She’s actually working with a prominent lawyer in the field and they will be publishing their findings soon.

Online Events and Webinars

• She’s been taking note that everyone is now using telemedicine and she recalls when she used to talk about how advantageous it would be for healthcare, but doctors would laugh at her. People are now utilizing telemedicine out of necessity which is a good thing.
• She’s been attending a lot of Zoom meetings and webinars, and she’s excited for what Teri is putting together with the Voice Den.
• The Voice Den is something that Teri is creating to bring the basics of an in-person event into the online events and webinars that people have been doing. It like a reality TV Show but it will be done virtually, and it will bring on five mystery voice industry influencers, and an audience/participants. The audience will have an opportunity to ask popular questions and engage in a huge way and learn from the influencers.
• One of the influencers will be Bianca and she is so excited about it.

Voice Technology During the Pandemic

• She’s liked how the voice community has come together to talk about the response to COVID-19 and the role that voice is playing in it.
• Digital health is currently coming together with the use of telemedicine, voice technologies, and AI in healthcare. She believes it’s going to be a new world after the pandemic.

Using Telemedicine

• Teri has been using telemedicine while working from home.
• He has come across some limitations like when he has to examine a patient can’t because they're in different locations, so they have to make some kind of plan to deal with that. The patients seem to love the telemedicine because it’s so convenient.
• Bianca feels it’s time to move into the 21st century and utilize digital health. She has noted that there are a lot of studies being done to look into telemedicine and how it works in different contexts. There are more than 30,000 research papers and people are using that research especially during the current crisis.

List of resources mentioned in this episode

• The Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula Course
• The Electronic Health Consulting Group
• Bianca on Linkedin
• Bianca on Twitter
• Bianca’s Ambassador Profile on Digital Health Today
• The Voice Den

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri shares part 2 of the coaching call he did with Lucien Lu where Lucien shares what it was like successfully setting up his flash briefing.

Listen in and Learn!

Lucien is an extraordinarily talented and creative filmmaker, pianist and a vital member of the Alexa in Canada team. When he is not busy capturing the best content and producing premier videos for Alexa in Canada, he and his team are creating videos to build brands. His motto is: “Let’s tell your story right, 1 video, 1 podcast, 1 post at a time.” He has been studying and playing piano for 20 years and is becoming well known for teaching piano online. He’s also very successful on TikTok.

The Discoveries

• At first he thought he did something wrong because he couldn’t locate his flash briefing online but he realized that he had registered it under the US. That means that all his content will be set up for the US. He will have to go to his Alexa skill developer console and create a new skill where he will choose English-Canada so that his flash briefing will be available in Canada.
• He also needed to figure out the invocations he needed to say for his flash briefing.

Creating Content

• He has all the necessary equipment and software, and all he needs to focus on is creating content to teach people about piano.
• He wants to create some bite sized information to teach people things like how to sit at the piano, the proper hand positions, how to make loud sounds and soft sounds, and other beginner level things.
• He is incorporating the actual piano sounds related to what he’s teaching as he talks, which creates a more natural learning environment.
• His strategy is to be recording a video doing whatever he’s teaching and then stripping the audio to create different forms of content including video, audio, and written content.
• He has created a list of content that he wants to outline so he can have a great pipeline of authentic content.
• Teri will share his expertise on how to create great content and how he creates his content in batches.
• Teri uses a paid plan on Otter.ai to transcribe his audio content so he can create show notes for each of his flash briefing which makes that whole process much easier.

List of resources mentioned in this episode

• The Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula Course
• AlexainCanada on YouTube
• VocalID.ai
• The Voice Den
• www.Otter.ai
• EasyPianoHacks.com
• Easy Piano Hacks on YouTube

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri shares a coaching call he did with Lucien Lu to take him through how to set up his own flash briefing.

Listen in and Learn!

Lucien is an extraordinarily talented and creative filmmaker, pianist and a vital member of the Alexa in Canada team. When he is not busy capturing the best content and producing premier videos for Alexa in Canada, he and his team are creating videos to build brands. His motto is: “Let’s tell your story right, 1 video, 1 podcast, 1 post at a time.” He has been studying and playing piano for 20 years and is becoming well known for teaching piano online. He’s also very successful on TikTok.

Purpose of His Flash Briefing

• Lucien wants to set up his own flash briefing to give daily advice to people who want to learn piano.
• He hopes it will help people become better musicians.
• His flash briefing will be geared towards beginners who are just starting out with learning piano.
• He has discovered that a lot of adults and kids are learning piano through apps, and so he is very confident that these are the people who will form a majority of his flash briefing audience.
• He has a lot of credentials and a strong background in piano playing which makes him a qualified teacher in the area.

Where He’s At

• He has gone through Teri’s Flash Briefing Formula course and he currently knows how to record and upload his flash briefing.
• He has a logo and a considerable batch of content, and all he wants to know is how to put up the RSS feed and other things.
• He’s going to name his flash briefing “Easy Piano Hacks”
• Teri asked him to check into his description and his Alexa developer account, which he already has, and so Teri advised him on where he will host his audio.
• Teri advised him on how he can rewrite his description to include keywords that people are searching for and incorporate them in the description to improve on his SEO in Amazon. He also advised him to include a paragraph about himself so people can know how to reach him and so he can improve on his credibility.
• Lucien has been thinking about doing a length of 3 to 4 minutes for his flash briefings and Teri highlights that Amazon’s limit is 9 to 10 minutes, though the surveys he has done with his audience show that most listeners prefer flash briefings that are under 3 minutes.
• Teri will advise him on the importance of having a sonic brand for his flash briefing and recommend Trebble.FM as the hosting service.
• Once he puts one episode of his flash briefing onto Amazon, he has to wait 48 hours for Amazon to certify the flash briefing.
• Teri will also advise him on how he can submit his flash briefing content to multiple regions.

List of resources mentioned in this episode

• The Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula Course
• AlexainCanada on YouTube
• VocalID.ai

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri shares a recording of his recent webinar where Roger Kibbe spoke about the different types of skills that we can potentially use with our Echo devices.

Enjoy!

Roger is the Senior Developer Evangelist at Viv Labs which develops the conversational AI technology that powers Samsung Bixby. He has been working in tech for over 20 years as a consultant, technical architect and strategist, and founder of a voice startup. A big-picture thinker and achiever, Roger is passionate about using technology as an enabler of great people experiences. An accomplished speaker and a proven thought-leader, He enjoys sharing his fountain of knowledge with others and has presented at some of the most prominent voice and AI conferences in America, including Voice Summit, Project Voice, Samsung SDC, Dreamforce and VMWorld.

Teri hosted the webinar on March 25th, and it was all about voice technology and the Coronavirus, and how we can use this technology to help us in what we are experiencing today. He had several speakers and Roger spoke about voice assistants, mental health, and pandemics, and how we can use various types of skills to help with the sense of loneliness, isolation, and some mental health issues that are already cropping up because people are isolated.

The Coronavirus and How Voice Can Help

• There has been a rise in different mental health issues because of the isolation people have been under and Roger has been looking into how we can use the voice assistants in our homes and smartphones to help with this. Some of the way include:

Social Connection

• The first benefit of voice assistants is that they can help people connect through both voice and video calls. Smart speakers are better conference call tools than our phones, and with video calling, for example, when one person has a smart speaker with a screen, another person can video call them with their smart speaker by saying, “Alexa, call [That Person’s Name]”

Exercising

• Exercising during this time can help in a big way with maintaining good mental health while in isolation and there are several voice experiences on different voice assistants that one can use to help with exercising. Roger uses the “7-Minute Workout” experience on Alexa.

Meditation

• There are meditation tools that can help one relax and take things easy in the midst of the distressing times we are in now. Voice assistants can teach someone how to meditate or give one guided meditation lessons. They include Headspace Meditation on Alexa and Google, Mindless Meditation on Bixby, Calm Meditation on Google Assistant, and Guided Meditation on Alexa.

Sleep

• Sleeping better is also critical at this time, and there are several ambient sound skills, capsules, and actions that are available to help people sleep. They include Sleep Sounds and Healing.FM.

Entertainment and Games

• Another way to stay sane during isolation is through family games and there are several great multi-player voice experiences (games) for families to play. They include Word Tennis on Alexa, Song Quiz by Volly, Would You Rather? and Trivial Pursuit on Alexa.
• Voice assistants can keep people entertained from the confines of their homes through skills like Escape the Room (The voice version of an escape room), Feel the Pressure, The Vortex, Tempers Rising, and Question of the Day.

Learning

• With all the time that we have on our hands due to the isolation, we can take that time to learn new things, and there are skills like Make Me Smart on Alexa and Learn Something Radio. Kids can use learning experiences like 1-2-3 Math, Kid’s Quiz, Bamboo, STEM Party, and Kid’s Court.

Cooking

• People are having to home cook meals a lot more now that they’re in isolation and there are skills that can help people cook much more easily.

List of resources mentioned in this episode

• The Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula Course
• 7-Minute Workout (Alexa)
• 5 Minute Plank (Google Assistant)
• Senior Squat Workout (Alexa)
• Senior Workout (Bixby)
• Freeze Dance (Alexa)
• Freeze Dance (Bixby)
• Animal Workout on Alexa
• Headspace (Alexa)
• Calm Meditation (Google Assistant)
• Guided Meditations (Alexa)
• Sleep Sounds (Alexa)
• Healing.FM
• Word Tennis on Alexa
• Song Quiz by Volley (Alexa and Google)
• Would You Rather? (Alexa)
• Trivial Pursuit (Alexa)
• Make Me Smart (Alexa)
• 1-2-3 Math (Alexa)
• Kid’s Quiz! (Alexa)
• Bamboo Math (Alexa)
• STEM Party (Alexa)
• Kid’s Court (Alexa)
• Escape the Room (Alexa)
• Feel the Pressure (Alexa)
• The Vortex (Alexa)
• Question of the Day (Alexa)
• Roger on Twitter
• Roger on Linkedin

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri is welcomed by Keri Roberts on the Inside Voice Podcast to talk about a whole host of topics around voice technology.

Enjoy the Conversation!

Teri is a sports exercise physician and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is the founder of Voice First Health, the leading podcast about the intersection of voice first technology and healthcare. He is also the founder of Alexa in Canada, the leading Amazon Alexa resource for Canadians.

He is an award winning TEDx and keynote speaker, Amazon Alexa champion, educator, consultant, podcaster and briefcaster who loves sharing his excitement for artificial intelligence and voice first technology. He is the host of both his podcasts, and the daily Voice in Canada flash briefing, which is the number one rated Amazon Alex flash briefing and new skill in Canada.

Becoming an Alexa Champion

• Teri was recently named an Alexa champion due to his last few years of content development around Amazon Alexa and voice technology in general. 
• He started the Alexa in Canada podcast, Voice in Canada flash briefing, and the Voice First Health Podcast to help grow the voice technology community and get people excited about the possibilities around what Alexa can do for them and society as a whole.
• He has also helped people develop their own flash briefings through his flash briefing course.
• All his content was picked up by Amazon and they wanted to recognize him for it.

Crack the Code Gamified Flash Briefing

• It’s been a fun game that Teri has been doing and he recently did its second round.
• The first time he did it, it was as a thank you to his listeners, podcast guests, and sponsors.
• He wanted it to be a flash briefing but since flash briefings don’t allow for a two-way conversation, he created an accompanying Alexa skill, which he called Crack the Code.
• To play the game, listeners have to listen to the Voice in Canada flash briefing every day so they can hear the clue or puzzle Teri shares.
• They then have to solve the clue or puzzle and go to the Crack the Code skill, talk to Alexa, and then find out if they got the correct answer to the clue or puzzle.
• Alexa then gives them a small little piece of the final code.
• If they do that every day for the duration of the contest, then they get all the pieces to say the final code to Alexa. If they crack the code, Alexa gives them the information on how to enter to win a big prize package.
• The last Crack the Code contest went on for 10 days and Teri got a lot of great feedback from participants. Close to 900 people entered the contest and 51 actually solved the code and were given a variety of prizes.
• The contest was sponsored by AudioBurst, Trinity Audio, Treble.FM, VoiceXP, Voice Summit, and Amazon.
• The previous Crack the Code had gone on for 14 days and the feedback he got is that 14 days was a little too long.
• The contest created a voice marketing funnel for Teri because when people listened to the flash briefing and played the game, they would ultimately enter their email address which enabled Teri to build his email list.

Marketing the Flash Briefing

• When he first started his flash briefing, he had had his podcast for a few months and a bit of an audience, which helped attract listeners to the flash briefing.
• There was nothing else in Canada in terms of Alexa related content so Canadians who were interested in Alexa could quickly access his website because it ranked high on Google. That also helped build his brand.
• Earlier on, he promoted the flash briefing on his podcast and blog.

Being Influenced By Gary Vee

• Teri first heard about voice technology from Gary Vaynerchuk and Gary has been a huge influence on him.
• A lot of people in the voice technology industry are influenced by Gary Vaynerchuk.

Building a Team Around his Brand

• Teri realized that with his full time job, he needed help in doing more video content and sharing out his content on a wider scale.
• He was lucky to get a videographer and digital marketing strategist.
• He had them both with him at Project Voice to capture as much content as possible so he could produce valuable, entertaining, and educational content for the voice community.
• Distributing that content helps to build his own brand.

Sonic Branding

• As we go into the voice first era, sonic branding will be critical for every business.
• It’s all about what a brand sounds like.
• Teri recently worked with Audrey Arbeeney of Audiobrain to create his sonic branding based on his interests and character.

Using Voice in His Daily Life

• He hasn’t actually incorporated voice in his practice due to the data security, privacy, and other issues surrounding voice.
• He is very interested in using Alexa and Alexa devices as educational tools for health education.
• At home, he uses Alexa for routines, flash briefings, home automation, and his kids have fun playing games.
• He also experiments with skills he can create.
• He is excited about the potential for how voice assistants can be used in the home and how homes will become like little satellite medical clinics as the technology get better.

List of resources mentioned in this episode

• The COVID-19 Informational Webinar
• Learn How to Create Your Own Flash Briefing
• The Alexa in Canada Podcast
• The Voice First Health Podcast

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri will talk about what’s going in the world, and specifically about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic and how voice technology could be used to help in the fight against it.

Let's Do This!

With the epidemic leading to people being told to practice social distancing, Teri has been considering how voice technology can lessen the problems people are facing with that. He will share the five different ways that he thinks voice technology can have a profound impact on what we are experiencing today with the epidemic. Some of the solutions are futuristic but they have a lot of potential going forward.

And the Five Ways Are:

#1 - Voice Enabling Diverse Gadgets

• This is voice enabling gadgets that we touch every day including kiosks, ATMs, elevator controls, and others. This is already being done today and it definitely helps with curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

#2 - A Coronavirus Flash Briefing

• This would be very beneficial in delivering accurate information about what is happening with the virus globally. Teri is launching the Coronavirus tips to keep people informed, up-to-date, and current with evidence-based, proven and good information.

#3 - General Information Skill

• Teri has already created a skill that provides general information about COVID-19 and it’s called “Coronavirus Doc” and it’s on the Alexa Skill Store. He is also working on launching it on Samsung Bixby. The skill covers information such as general info about the Coronavirus, how it’s transmitted, some of the symptoms, how to avoid contracting it, and other things.

#4 - Voice Doctor

• This is futuristic but we are already seeing hints of it. In this case, a voice assistant would act a little bit like a doctor and would ask the user questions like, “Do you have a fever? Do you have a cough? Do you have trouble breathing? Have you been exposed to someone who has the virus?”, and those sorts of questions. Then based on the responses, the voice assistant will use its algorithm to determine your risk level of having the Coronavirus. The voice assistant would then order a home test kit for you if the risk is high enough, so you could test yourself at home, and you could discuss the results with the voice assistant in such a way that you will start to obtain your medical information and care at home.

#5 - Epidemic Management

Teri believes that voice technology could help with the management of an epidemic like Coronavirus in the future through voice assistants serving as home-based healthcare providers. A great scenario is if one was diagnosed with the Coronavirus and they had a skill that would monitor how they are doing, ask them to rate their symptoms, look for patterns, and other things.

List of resources mentioned in this episode:

• Flash Briefing Formula
• Coronavirus Tips Flash Briefing
• VoiceFirstHealth.com/Live
• Teri's TEDx Talk

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri is welcomed by Nick Myers on the Artificial Podcast to talk about flash briefings and healthcare.

Enjoy the Conversation!

Teri is a sports exercise physician and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is the founder of Voice First Health, the leading podcast about the intersection of voice first technology and healthcare. He is also the founder of Alexa in Canada, the leading Amazon Alexa resource for Canadians. He is an award winning TEDx and keynote speaker, Amazon Alexa champion, educator, consultant, podcaster and briefcaster who loves sharing his excitement for artificial intelligence and voice first technology. He is the host of both his podcasts, and the daily Voice in Canada flash briefing, which is the number one rated Amazon Alex flash briefing and new skill in Canada.

Early Inspiration

• Teri had an interest in voice tech from a young age when he used to play with radio control cards.
• He had an interest in digital photography, video editing, audio, and music.
• He was very much involved in the creative space as he was growing up. His mother is a music therapist and she trained as a professional musician.
• She made sure Teri learned how to play the violin from age three all the way to high school. He also developed an interest in percussion instruments somewhere along the way and has been a drummer and percussionist for many years.
• As he was listening to podcasts, he heard about Amazon Alexa and he discovered that it was not in Canada.
• He started researching online for information on voice technology, but couldn’t find anything on the technology’s presence in Canada. So he thought he should combine his passion for technology, healthcare, education, and create a resource for people to learn about the technology.

The Role Being an MD Has Played

• He has a strong science formal educational background, and part of that is being able to critically look at things, synthesize information, and determine how something can help people.
• From his research, he determined that the computer science behind voice technology had some similarities to the science background that he has had.

Flash Briefings 101

• Teri thinks of them as cousins to podcasts.
• They are the prime real estate of voice because they are the easiest way for any content producer to enter into voice technology, create content, develop an intimate relationship with the audience, and become an authority in whatever area they’re passionate about.
• There are about 12,000 briefcasters compared to 700,000 podcasters, signifying that there is a tremendous opportunity in flash briefings
• Most people enjoy listening to flash briefings that are around 2 minutes in length, and they tend to be listened to during transitional moments of the day like getting ready in the morning.
• Flash briefings are easy to play. Once someone has them enabled, they just invoke the flash briefings name, and it gets much easier because they just have to say, “Play my news”
• Teri loves the fact that people are impacted by flash briefing content. He has been able to develop a community around his Voice in Canada flash briefing.
• He gets frequent feedback and reviews on his flash briefing.
• An interesting fact is that a lot of his audience is visually impaired, and that lends itself to the fact that voice technology is such an inclusive type of technology where one doesn’t have to be looking at anything to get content or initiate it.

How Teri Learned Everything About Flash Briefings

• With his formal training as a physician, he’s familiar with the constant change of information.
• It’s always the responsibility of the physician to be on top of new research and information, and he approached learning about flash briefings the same way.
• He went through a lot of the Amazon developer information and manuals that are there, and with his previous podcasting experience, he was able to start doing flash briefings.
• His background in sound, audio, and music also helped in a huge way in him creating his flash briefing.
• Amazon has made the process of developing flash briefings easier.

All About Alexa in Canada

• It’s a website and resource where people go to learn how to get more out of Alexa.
• He also highlights skills that are available in Canada.
• He also has a list of common Alexa commands, tutorials, and links to the Voice in Canada flash briefing on the website.
• He has the Flash Briefing Formula course that covers everything from how to come up with a flash briefing idea to how to launch it. It has screenshots and explainer videos.

Strategies and Tips for Starting a Flash Briefing

• Teri advices that if one is going to do it, then they must commit to it and be consistent.
• Lack of consistency damages a brand and confuses the listener. It sends the message that one is unreliable.
• One has to define a specific consistency for their flash briefing. It could be daily or weekly, but one must stick to whatever schedule they’ve come up with.
• Another important thing to consider is what problem one can solve for someone with the flash briefing. People find that valuable and it helps with listener engagement.

The Impact of AI and Voice on Healthcare

• Teri feels AI and voice will impact healthcare in every single way we can imagine.
• People are no longer going to be tied down to a physical device. They will have an ambient computing device that will listen to them.
• It will be easy for patients to interact with the technology to get help with their health, for example, the technology will act as a physician and ask someone about their symptoms so it can diagnose their issue.
• Personalized medical care using AI and voice technology will become a reality in future.
• Teri is currently working on a Corona Virus skill (Corona Virus Doc) that will give people the information they need to help guide them on everything about the virus.

Leveraging Voice Tech

• People should get a presence on voice either for their passion projects, businesses, or organizations.
• Teri believes that the easiest way to do that is a flash briefing.

List of resources mentioned in this episode

• Vocal ID
• Learn How to Create Your Own Flash Briefing
• The Alexa in Canada Podcast
• The Voice First Health Podcast
• VoiceFirstHealth.com/Live
• Teri on Linkedin
• The Voice Technology in Healthcare Book

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Patrick Givens, the VP of Smart Innovation and the head of VaynerSmart, VaynerMedia's IoT and emerging tech division.

Welcome, Patrick!

Patrick is the lead development of VaynerMedia's global voice-first marketing programs, creating some of the most widely used interactive voice experiences for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and developing a first-of-its-kind Voice AOR model to integrate these emerging channels into client business strategies from inception.

Prior to joining VaynerMedia in 2016, Patrick led innovations strategy, brand planning, and client relationships at some of the world's leading advertising agencies, developing innovative marketing products, brands, and new businesses for clients ranging from Fortune 500s to new-to-world startups. As a speaker, he's addressed the values of a "user-led, technology-enabled," approach to innovation at events such as SXSW, AdWeek, Social Media Week, and many more.

How VaynerMedia Got Involved in Voice

• It all arose very organically. One of their largest clients (Diageo) wanted help in extending a program (their Johnnie Walker’s Digital Mentorship) they were doing, and voice came up as one of the best solutions. They tried it out and saw some real traction both in terms of number of users and the quantity of skills and discovery.
• They saw people spend a lot of time with that voice experience, and that helped them learn where people were going when using the experience.
• From there, they started offering the same voice service to other clients.
• They are on the Alexa Development Advisory Council, and spend a lot of time working closely with the Alexa platform so they can express the needs and desires of the clients they represent.

Creating the Johnnie Walker Experience

• They started by going to several whiskey tasting sessions and recording them.
• While the whole experience could be read in text or watched in video, the personalities of the masters of whiskey was what Patrick and his team resonated with the most.
• They put out the voice experience they created in form of text-to-speech, and not recorded voice.
• The elements of personality were obvious and important, and they tried to address that as much as they could through copywriting. They did have versions where they used voices.

The Way Brands See Voice in Their Overall Marketing Strategies

• Voice has become a key focus for brands especially in 2020.
• From 2017 to 2018, VaynerSmart was doing a lot of design and development of third-party voice apps. This is still a meaningful part of their business, but the focus has increasingly been shifting to more of strategy and consultation.
• As they engage more in consulting, they help brands understand the emerging voice landscape and how they can build voice products.
• A lot of companies that have been using third-party voice apps are slowly transitioning into their own customized voice apps.
• An example is how after the Johnnie Walker Live experience, they also built a portfolio wide recipe experience called Happy Hour, that covers a wide range of Diageo spirits.

Using Voice as a Channel to Get a Message Out

• Gary Vaynerchuk talks about this a lot. He has a flash briefing right now but they have not pushed out an interactive Gary Vaynerchuk skill. They are playing around with the idea, and there should be a live skill out soon.
• They always try to look at how voice can be put out in a way that people want to use it.
• Gary is always giving people advice and answering questions, so it made sense for him to put out a voice experience that would do the same for people.

A Time When Anyone Will Be Able to Create a Skill

• The technology is there to achieve that.
• Patrick’s advice to anyone who wants to try it out, is to first of all do their content planning.
• Doing a synthetic voice is also highly advised. One can record a short sample of their voice while they’re saying something, and then have an AI system that can use that to read back any other text fed to it.
• They have seen examples that are very close to production ready.

List of resources mentioned in this episode

• The Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula Course

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Ben Fisher, the Founder and CEO of MagicCo, a voice technology consultancy that helps brands and enterprises implement voice assistant technologies.

Welcome, Ben!

Ben previously served as Chief Technology Officer of Doable Innovation and Waywire Networks. He comes on to talk about what it’s like to make Alexa skills in Canada, and talk about a really cool Alexa skill that they’ve done with Reebok Canada to to really develop Reebok’s brand in the US and Canada.

Background

• He was the CTO of a lot of startups in New York and even worked in a few ad agencies in a technical capacity.
• He started MagicCo four years ago to be a place where people in advertising and technical people could gather to do cool stuff for brands. They focus solely on voice.

How Voice Became a Part of Canadians’ Lives

• People in the US were doing things in voice in 2017 and by 2018 people were starting businesses around it.
• In Canada, it wasn’t until late 2018 that people started developing an interest in smart speakers.

Projects MagicCo has Worked On

• The company runs different business models. Some of them run omnichannel campaigns for brands with Alexa as a distribution mechanism. Other companies are creating products around Alexa.
• Their clients include Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, Chobani Yoghurt, Elite Coffee, energy and power companies like National Grid, the air force, and others.
• They work in industries like energy, financial services, consumer product goods, and healthcare.
• They develop voice applications for all the major platforms including Samsung Bixby and Google Assistant. They also develop chat bots that are connected to voice assistants.

Breaking into the Canadian Market

• They find Canada to be a very robust market. The growth curve of voice technology adoption in Canada outpaces the US’s in terms of how fast Alexa and Google Home are being adopted.
• There are a lot of regulatory hurdles in some industries and they present diverse challenges especially because the regulations are different in the US and Canada. That affects the deployment of new voice products or campaigns in Canada.

Developing a Skill for Reebok

• Reebok was doing a sneaker drop and hired MagicCo to help with carrying out the whole process through Alexa.
• They worked with Cardi B who was promoting a shoe line with Reebok. Reebok was giving away a few pairs and the give away campaign was all over the media.
• The media campaign directed people to go to a certain Alexa skill so they could sign up to win. They then had to re-open the skill at a certain time to find out if they had won.
• Millions of people signed up and returned to check if they had won, which presented some technical challenges. MagicCo was hired to help sort out those challenges.
• Reebok now has millions of users worldwide who will be notified of their drops through Alexa.

Generating an Email List Through Voice

• They have been doing data collection by offering users the things they want in return for data.
• That helps them get the names and emails of users, which is powerful to have in order to reach back out to clients.

 List of resources mentioned in this episode

• The Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula Course
• Ben’s Email - [email protected]
• MagicCo’s Website

Other useful resources:

• Voice in Canada: The Flash Briefing
• Complete List of Alexa Commands
• Alexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in Canada
• Teri Fisher on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada on Twitter
• Alexa in Canada Facebook Page
• Alexa in Canada Community Group on Facebook
• Alexa in Canada on Instagram
• Please leave a review on iTunes
• Shopping on Amazon.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.