38 | Video is the New Executive Messaging: Creating Immersive Experiences for Authentic Communication and Cultural Transformation

David Moricca has been the CEO and Founder of what is now Socialive for over the past 10 years, as it has pivoted and evolved with changes and trending in digital media, live streaming, and now the emergence of video in the enterprise. Socialive is an enterprise grade video creation, production, and deployment platform that allows for the democratization of video capture and content generation.

David has over 15 years of experience in leadership and innovation in digital media all up, with some familiar experiences at places like McKinsey in his earlier career, to Scholastic where as a corporate entrepreneur, David focused on creating a new line of business based on digital learning platforms. An attorney by trade, David has a J.D. in law from Harvard Law School, and generally brings a wealth of perspective to the conversation as we talk about the many cross overs and nuances in David's journey that has gotten him to where he's at today with Socialive. The need for video creation has led to an explosion of content generation as businesses ramp up their internal and external communications, and we'll dive deeper into what David and his team have been busy doing pre and current through this pandemic era.

37 | Simply Tech LIVE #5 | The Crisis Management App for Emergency Response - Organizational Communication for Preventative Measures and Minimal Exposure

Today's episode features the recording of a LinkedIn LIVE broadcast via Simply Tech LIVE, a program that Ali Mazaheri and I are hosting now on a weekly basis to showcase as much relevant technology and innovation as possible, as it relates to the COVID challenges in healthcare and all up global business. (Date of recording, Friday, March 27th, 2020)

The Topic: "The Crisis Management App for Emergency Response - Organizational Communication for Preventative Measures and Minimal Exposure", a solution that was rapidly developed internally with Microsoft and Schlumberger (Microsoft customer and global oilfield services provider) , to tackle challenges with organizational communications during the current times of crisis.

36 | Simply Tech LIVE #4 | Solutions for Enabling Remote Working Environments, Leveraging the Hyper-scale Cloud

Today's discussion features Uthappa Kattera Chengappa, a Principal Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, and his job in the organization from a day to day perspective is to help large organizations, many of which logos that you use or are familiar with on a daily basis, stand up new tech to support their business interests, specifically utilizing Microsoft's Azure Hyperscale Cloud as a backbone for doing everything from hosting applications and databases, to providing enterprise grade networking and security, all the way down to hosting machine learning models and providing workspaces to run python code.

Uthappa covers options for establishing remote working environments in Azure, a  technical discussion, and significantly IT focused (far more technical than past episodes as we get into the depth of the remote worker challenges), but for the laymen, people are having to work remotely due to social distancing guidance. From their laptop at home, workers need access to their businesses applications cross regionally, they need to collaborate, they need to access data and resources to continue business as usual, and without all these capabilities they would be unable to service their very own customers and maintain business continuity.

35 | Simply Tech LIVE #3 | IoT Connected HAND SANITIZER - Quantifying Behavior, to Augment Behavior

Today's episode features an audio recording of a LinkedIn Live Video Broadcast of a LIVE show, Simply Tech LIVE , that my co-host Ali Mazaheri, and I host at the Microsoft Technology Center in Irvine, and now virtually for the time being. The mission of the LIVE Broadcast is to  focus on the evolving landscape of technology through the lens of Microsoft focus areas, our partner ecosystem, and our customers.

The LIVE discussion features Kevin Orbaker, Chief Technology Architect at the Microsoft Technology Center in Irvine, and we talk specifically about why, It's never been a more important time to utilize technology to quantify and augment behavior that can enhance operational efficiency - and more recently, this could mean reduction of both highly-preventable infections and spread of disease.

34 | "Anything We do in AI, Should Connect People for the Better"

Today's episode features Philippe Brissaud, a Principal Program Lead for the Power Virtual Agents platform at Microsoft - if you aren't familiar, Power Virtual Agents is a low code no code AI driven customer engagement platform (under Microsoft's Business Applications product pillar), on the platform, you can build and author topics, deploy bots and agents, and monitor performance of the these agents to enhance and enrich future customer engagements. It's absolutely amazing how commercial these AI technologies have become today, and we'll talk about the implications of AI democratization and the sensitivity to bias and other topics around these concepts. Philippe joined Microsoft, in France, in 2006, and has more than 15 years of experience in the Customer Relationship Management niche. He's spent a good amount of time in the project landscape, from technical scoping to enhancing project agility, and today spends the majority of his time today on customizing the Virtual Agent platform to the Financial Industry, namely large banking institutions.

Beyond Philippe's technical resume, what he brings to the table is a very unique story on what makes him such a great product person, from his personal experiences raising multi-racial children, to his cross cultural professional journey - Philippe is also a Diversity & Inclusion Champion, and has a lot to say around how being uncomfortable is the best way to grow.

33 | Live at Microsoft Envision 2019 - Technology Brings Modern Business Forward

This episode is a LIVE recording from Microsoft Envision in San Francisco, October 22nd of 2019.

Microsoft Envision is an annual multi-city tour, with intimate conference style innovation and industry collaborations focused on helping business leaders modernize their business with the use of technology, across the digital veins of Microsoft's stack. The majority of the presentations focused on how the business landscape is evolving, and what types of strategies and business models leaders are looking to deploy at scale.

Our special guest on the episode today is Ken Miller (whom I caught for a LinkedIn LIVE broadcast, in between sessions at the conference), Ken is the General Manager for Microsoft's Azure, Intelligent Cloud, in the West Region. The Western US covers some very strategic and interesting, MASSIVE organizations and brands, and Ken has quite the exposure to provocative ideas and practices. You'll get to know a little more about Ken throughout our quick talk, and as a certified Level 1 Sommelier, he's even got some tips for you wine fanatics out there. Hang on tight.

32 | The Learning Algorithm - Simple Truths of Data Science & Education

Today's episode features Brig Lamoreaux, a Sr. Advanced Analytics and AI Solution Architect at Microsoft, and Brig's been with the company for about 4 years.  Brig has roughly 20 years of software development and engineering experience. Before Microsoft Brig worked for Apollo Education Group for 10 years, where  he spent his time building research and software behind adaptive learning and modeling student knowledge. Some of the systems Brig has been involved in developing and productizing  feature novel advances in education including cognitive science theories and data driven personalization. Brig has also spent a lot of time directing, programming, and leading 12-week learning boot-camps where students build hands-on skills using real world examples and projects. Brig finds a lot of value in learning and teaching, and you'll learn more from is lessons around how people learn throughout the discussion.

31 | Data Science - The Good, the Bad, and the UGLY

Alain Briancon is currently the Chief Technology Officer and VP of Data Science at Cerebri AI. Cerebri AI is a SaaS Startup that focuses on helping enterprise businesses understand what their customers are thinking, by predicting the next best action to take, that will yield the most value for both the enterprise, and their customer based on their actions. Alain refers to this as: "talk is good, but the wallet is better" for predicting future customer behavior and the true measure of customer experience, by truly measuring everything. You can find more information about Cerebri AI at cerebriai.com.

Alain is an Electrical Engineer by training, with a bachelors in EE from CentraleSupelec  in France, and a PHD in Electrical Engineering from MIT - although, he categorizes himself not as an engineer but as a technologist. Alain has a background in telecommunications where he spent time working in areas from satellites, to wired communication, to wireless. Alain's had his hands on the data science aspect of prediction, forecasting, and advanced analytics in industries focused on use cases such as winning elections, auditions for artists, and diet management - and he's been the CTO and CEO of multiple startups (Cerebri is his 4th).  While in these leadership roles, Alain really sees his central responsibility as creating a diverse learning environment that enables ideas, creativity, and curiosity.

30 | Simply Tech LIVE | Invincible Expresso - A Connected Experience with Azure Sphere

Today's episode features a new collaboration project, the audio recording of a LinkedIn Live Video Broadcast that a colleague and I created, co-host Ali Mazaheri, the director of the Microsoft Technology Center in Irvine. Simply Tech Live is a LIVE broadcast, focusing on the evolving landscape of technology through the lens of Microsoft focus areas, our partner ecosystem, and our customers.

"Invincible Expresso: A connected experience with Azure Sphere", features Phil Heine from Avnet. Phil is currently the director of Global Business Development at Avnet, where's has spent over 17  years of his career in roles ranging from engineering, sales, business development, and now product management. Avnet is a global distributor, solution provider, designer, and engineering firm with more than 15,000 employees in over 140 countries worldwide. Their vertical segments include everything from electronics manufacturing and consumer devices, all the way to healthcare and energy.  Avnet also became the sole distributor of Azure Sphere just over a year ago, and businesses are taking full advantage of the secure IoT environment that it enables. You'll quickly understand why we call this expresso invincible, but it's founded on capabilities that Azure Sphere enhances. Azure Sphere, is a micro controller unit, or MCU, with built in security and high performance operability right on the chip, including a MSFT operating system, as well as a security service that is designed to guard it's connected ecosystem from emerging threats.

29 | How to Work in 3D - Preparing the Next Generation for Highly Skilled Work

Charla Pereira is the lead designer for all authoring on Dynamics 365 Guides. Dynamics 365 Guides, or what Charla will refer to as "guides", is a mixed reality application for the Microsoft HoloLens, that allows an enhanced learning ecosystem by providing holographic instructions within the flow of work, when and where employees need it. So imagine putting together some complex machine on an assembly line, having the worker wearing a HoloLens device, and having a series of step by step instruction cards with image and video visually tethered to the areas where the work needs to be accomplished - ultimately leading to fewer errors and greater retention of learned skills, and we'll talk much more about that in the discussion.

 Charla has been in tech for just about 20 years, and she began her career as a graphic designer. Charla joined Microsoft 11 years ago, and she's shipped everything from Microsoft Office to Microsoft Fresh Paint (a project originating from in Microsoft Research, that simulates oil on a digital canvas). Charla spent her time in academia focused largely on graphic design, including some time both at Capilano College in Vancouver, and the Art Institute of Seattle, and she has such an incredible passion for design and talks about how important things like empathy and love are in her ethos, and how these values help her know who her users are in an intimate way.

28 | Code as Leverage, Breaking Apart the Constituents of a Problem, and the Culture of Technology

Today's episode features Anuj Bhatia, solving problems, is his wheelhouse - he's a problem solver, and we learn a lot about his approach and framework for this during the discussion.

Anuj is currently a principal architect for cognition & AI at Microsoft, with a tenure exceeding 3 years. Anuj came into Microsoft with the Xamarin acquisition, where he spent 5 years in customer success for their strategic accounts, if you're not familiar with Xamarin, they were a marquee Microsoft partner that sold tools to help developers who use Microsoft products, build apps for Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile OS - helping to establish a stronger Microsoft presence in all kinds of different devices, not just those that run windows. So as you can imagine, some tremendous experience in mobile app development. He was Lead Architect for MCS Group, for some time, where he developed mobile app strategies for iOs and web applications used by emergency services responders. Anuj has experience in bioinformatics engineering, and brings with him a BS in Microbiology and Virology from the University of Texas at Arlington which is super interesting, and you'll definitely here why this is important to how he solves problems.

 Across the episode, we talk about what he and his team are hyper focused on today, which is helping customers accelerate applications of AI, and not just the modeling, but the translation into edge technologies (sensors and autonomous objects), including applications such as mixed reality, to every additional use case in the mobile space and beyond.

27 | Building Higher Fidelity Technology - The Quest to Effectively Treat Type 1 Diabetes

Ben was diagnosed with Diabetes Type 1, at 21 years of age, and if you or any of your friends or loved ones have a similar diagnosis, you are definitely going to learn so much from Ben.

Ben is currently a Staff Product Engineer at Dexcom, a global leader in diabetes care transformation and management, where they design, and manufacture continuous glucose monitoring devices (CGM), and you'll hear a lot more about that technology in today's talk. He spends his time today at Dexcom helping to prioritize where investments in innovation are spent, and which ideas to accelerate into the concept funnel that will yield the most impact for the organization and its customers.

Ben spent the last 5 years, as part of his personal mission to reduce the burden of living with Diabetes Type 1,  reverse engineering the open loop system of the insulin pump and has done a tremendous amount of work there, and is also a co-founder of the NightScout Project, an open source cloud based system that provides the availability of CGM information to web browsers, smartphones, and other devices, to help people with the diseases, manage the condition in real time and even predictively based on their bio metrics, activity, and glucose levels. Ben has also spent some time doing engineering work with Tidepool.org, which is a software that is helping to take the DIY capability of addressing both the data on the insulin pump and the data on the CGM, merging this data into a closed loop system, and providing prescriptive suggestions on ongoing therapy. Currently the software is up for approval with the FDA, and is looking to be democratized and provided within app stores for easy consumption. Ben also spent some time as a Cloud Networking Engineer at Cisco, and you'll see some of his experience in these capacities play out in the talk.  Ben has a wealth of experience in software engineering and networking all up, and is a very reliable resource to follow and listen to as he discusses some big themes around the value of high fidelity solutions in healthcare.

26 | Industry 4.0 - Part 4 | IoT, Making Dumb Things Smart, and Smart Things Smarter

Today, we have Dean Bethke on the show. Dean is a Director of Sales and Business Development for  Azure IoT in the West, US. As part of an elite team that serves to help businesses with specific capabilities, the Global Black Belt team. Internally he's considered a hyper specialist in the area of all things connected. Dean has been with Microsoft for a little over 20 years, celebrating his 20th anniversary just this last December.

 This episode is the 4th and FINAL segment of a special series focusing on Industry 4.0, which has concentrated around the capabilities, technologies, and realities of today's digital era of AI and Cloud computing, and most importantly, the collaborations with the worker, and how this is impacting all types of industries from automotive all the way to dairy production and cattle herding - which you'll hear more about today.

25 | Ingesting Signals of Intelligence for Optimum Customer Experiences

Today we have Nick Fratello on the show. Nick is one of the most well-known thought leaders in Microsoft's US sales subsidiary, and he's been with the company for 6 years. His background is in data storage and cloud, with some familiar logos like Dell EMC and PTC , and today in the Microsoft organization, Nick is currently a Dynamics 365 Technical Specialist. He helps big enterprise business leverage the power of the Microsoft (3) cloud platform, to enable a data and analytics fabric that broadly allows customers to use their disparate data systems and applications to create a more consolidated ecosystem that helps them develop better customer-centric experiences.

The conversation revolves around the concept of the common data model theme, and the common data fabric needed across systems, that bring data together for analysis, action ,and automation.

24 | Industry 4.0 - Part 3 - AI is the Defining Strategy for Manufacturing

Today, Wendy Bauer joins us on the podcast. Wendy currently leads the strategic activities for global business and go to market for manufacturing and resources, at Microsoft. The areas she covers would include: discreet manufacturing, process and chemical manufacturing, agrochemicals, power and utilities, oil and gas, and mining.

Wendy brings with her 20 years of experience in manufacturing and automotive, and has worked at all capacities of the heavy industry and manufacturing life cycle, from the shop floor, to product development, sales, finance, procurement, vehicle development, quality engineering and everything else you can probably imagine that makes a business run.

The big topics discussed will include everything from accelerating human ingenuity with inclusive technology, the tenants of ethical AI and the implications of sharing and creating principles that are widely adopted and designed for good, and the big disruptive forces that are impacting industry and manufacturing all around the globe.

23 | Overcoming Genetic Disease Through the Notion of Open Source: A Cultural Movement

Ali Mazaheri joins us on today's episode. Ali is currently the Chief Architect at the Microsoft Technology Center in Irvine, California, specializing in application development and open source software. He's spent the last 14 years at Microsoft in various customer facing technical roles, and spent his early career developing software in various industries including financial services and banking.  Ali has been writing code since the age of 19, and as you'll see, his love and passion for technology bleeds through both technically and philosophically through the talk. Ali is also a thought leader and technical contributor in bio medical industry and community, through his work with continuous glucose monitoring solutions, and we talk about the organizations and solutions that he helps to contribute to and represent, including NightScout, Tidepool, and Loop.

Ali, in every bit of his ethos, represents the current landscape of communal open source culture, where opportunities for interoperability, sharing vulnerabilities, learning from others, and contributing strengths in a pay it forward model, is helping him make meaningful impacts across to his customers, his community, and as you will hear, his family.

22 | Modern Selling: Turning Relationships into Revenue

Brian Galicia, joins us on the podcast today. And if you were to meet Brian, or listen to any of his many keynote talks, you would walk away with his infinite expertise and passions around "turning relationships into revenue", and Brian is very serious about this.  He's spent nearly 13 years here at Microsoft, working in roles and areas all around and pertaining to business applications (which are technologies such as ERP/CRM, and other business automation and integration platforms and tools),  he's currently a Global Sales Leader for Sales Automation and LinkedIn, he comes from a sales engineering background, but brings with him experience in sales management, sales and pre-sales roles, both technical and specialist focused. He's also collected a number of performance awards, the most recent being Fiscal Year 2018 Circle of Excellence - Platinum Club, which is Microsoft's most premier award program for top contributors.

21 | What Is Your AI Strategy? Helping Big Businesses Adopt a Data Driven Future

Priya Gore joins us on the show today. Priya is currently a Sales Lead for the Americas at Microsoft, on a global specialist team, the "Global Black Belt Team", and she's focused specifically around the domain of AI.

Today on the talk we dive quite deeply into some very core themes around how businesses should be thinking about their AI Strategy. The components that are involved in this process, from stakeholders, to builders, engineers and UI architects, within the system level, all the way down to the users. We talk about some key themes in AI such as unconscious bias, and how to mitigate risks and biases in the reasoning through data by thinking deeper about people and team building before getting too deep into the tech. We hover quite a bit around why there can't be an AI strategy without specific business challenges that it addresses, and what the process looks like behind developing a scope and remediating through fast failures with fast learnings. Finally, we talk about the future of education and parenting, and  we round out the conversation with real talk about, about us, the human species, and how to contribute to the betterment of each other.

20 | Behavioral Analytics – Empowering Humans in the Age of Machine Intelligence

Today, Sawyer Kelly joins the discussion. Sawyer is currently a Workplace Analytics Consultant at Microsoft. If you haven't heard of workplace analytics, it is an analytics engine that runs on Microsoft's proprietary office 365 - that captures behavioral understanding of how people work in organizations - to help these organizations realize the bigger trends, to guide healthier and more productive workplace environments. Sawyer and his team, then take this data, and make recommendations for how organizations should change their cultures from meeting optimizations, to staffing models that limit off hour work times, all the way to cross department collaboration that drive additional creativity for the benefit of customers, business impact, and more distinctly, the protection of the businesses most important asset, it's people.

19 | Industry 4.0 - Part 2 - IoT, Business, and Overcoming the Challenges of Technological Change

Today, a conversation with Jeff Bennett. Jeff is an IoT Cloud Architect out of San Diego, California on the Global Black Belt Team at Microsoft. Jeff's a notable speaker and writer, a highly knowledgeable practitioner at the intersection of business and technology in the IoT space, and brings with him over 20 years of experience helping businesses overcome very specific challenges at the core to how they operate.

Jeff flexes his geek muscles throughout the talk with some great stories and advice for businesses that are struggling with planning, adoption, and strategies around how to plug in play across their bigger digital initiatives regarding IoT and beyond. We'll cover things from hybrid compute in the world of industrial and manufacturing, and how customers have now the option of deciding where to leverage their machine learning models (it doesn't have to be in their data center, in the vendor data center (the cloud), but possibly at the shop floor or at the location of interest itself - we call this, the EDGE. We talk about where the rubber meets the road with these complex IoT projects and how to get started (which is one of the toughest things about all of this, how/who/when to start) We focus on how to stay relevant as a technologist or visionary in the field, and discuss some things he's struggled with and overcome in his career and advice for others with similar experiences and goals.