Rikin Shah, is the CEO of Slower, a major disruptor in the monolithic consulting services industry. Slower drives value for its customers and partners by investing in new and future stack technology companies well ahead of the curve to help create competitive differentiation through technology. In addition to being a broad-scale technology systems integrator with over 6000 employees and 225 customers, Slower uses its reach and impact to accelerate its customers digital transformation through repeatable and highly scalable services offerings.

Just 6 months ago, who would have known that words like "NFT", "metaverse", and "web 3.0" would be high interest topics of discussion amongst friends, text threads and corporate brand strategies. At an estimated $23B market size, NFT's could change the world as we know it this year...YES, in 2022. Heather Parady and Rich Cardona, are joining this LIVE "The Data Binge Podcast" discussion to talk to us about NFT's. Heather and Rich are Hosts of "NFT's for Newbies", a podcast ALL ABOUT NFT's, focused on their combined journeys of navigating the world of the NFT from a beginners perspective. "NFT's for Newbies" surpassed 200,000 downloads as of December of 2021, in less than 4 months from the start of the podcast. With the light and educational approach that Heather and Rich take in their discovery of this fascinating new world, there are take-aways for anyone willing to have fun and learn all about NFT's.

As the technology industry continues to hasten its evolution through continually changing global macro events, accelerating technical advances, and changes in the social constructs of how and why we work, building successful partnerships has never been so important. Vince Menzione has spent the last 25 years of his career thinking about how to create successful partnerships and joins this LIVE episode of The Data Binge Podcast to highlight a winning framework for how to get partnerships right. As a former Microsoft General Manager of Partner Strategy, host of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering podcast, and founder of the tech consulting firm Ultimate Partnerships, Vince brings an aptitude and energy for partnerships that can drive change in any tech organization. This discussion will include the following topics: 1. The 8 principles of partnership success: understanding the very idea of what partnership between organizations means and why it’s increasing in importance 2. Evolutions in the partner landscape, and the impact of hyper evolving global trends on partner strategy across the tech domain 3. The power of thought leadership: the learnings from creating a 5-year passion project, “The Ultimate Guide to Partnering”, and lessons of culture, leadership, and the obligation to lead with diverse and inclusive values that reach beyond our typical fields of impact

How can gaming, benefit our communities? Albert Dankwa III, content developer on the Microsoft Xbox team, joins this LIVE episode of The Data Binge Podcast to talk about how gaming, and the tangible benefits of immersive and creative worlds, will change the social constructs of communities impacted by limited access to internet and technology. Additional re-frames on gaming that we will discuss: Albert's experience growing up in South Bronx, and how gaming impacted his life: from gaming, to fashion and photography, to technology. How gaming can create exposure to rich dialogues and experiences, that can change the perception of the world, while helping audiences develop hard skills from story-telling, to coding. Why gaming WILL close the digital divide, and how it will impact people on levels that we cannot imagine.

ANGEL AID is a non-profit that provides mental health and wellness services for mothers of children with rare diseases. A rare disease is defined as one that affects fewer than 200,000 people. Even amongst accelerating scientific advancement, over 7000 rare diseases are still without cure, and only 5% have treatments. There are 350M people globally with rare diseases - around half are children. Mothers of children with rare diseases, or Rare Mothers, are the primary caregiver 82% of the time. Today's conversation is a Simply Tech LIVE interview recorded Wednesday, October 27th, featuring my co-host Ali Mazaheri, and our special guests Cristol Barrett O'Loughlin and Smriti Bhattacharya. October is ANGEL AID’s month of giving, Wellfest 21, an opportunity to help create visibility and energy around the bold vision of providing relief and inspiration to these communities, by connecting 3.5 million rare mothers by 2025. Cristol Barrett O’Loughlin, Founder and CEO of ANGEL AID, discusses the organizations mission, the experience of care takers in the rare disease community, and the role of technology and digitization in creating community and impact for non-profits. Smriti Bhattacharya, a senior software engineer at Microsoft and a Rare Mother, also graces this conversation with her presence so that we can hear her story, gain a little more proximity to ANGEL AID’s mission, and learn more about how we can support these incredible caretakers around the world.

Have you ever thought about how many people are struggling with the same sleep issues as you? Many of us struggle with getting enough sleep. Even as the market continues to fill with everything from nose strips, to connected wearables and rings and even weighted blankets, yet we still somehow fail to find the right solutions for sleep. Why is that? Colin Lawlor is the CEO of SleepScore Labs, a sleep technology organization located in Carlsbad California, with the mission of helping people achieve more full-filling lives and better long term help through their best sleep. In this episode Colin talks about the data trends around sleep that impact our health and wellness at the personal level, the basic components of how technology and sleep come together, all the way through to the future of sleep and how we can better live more productive and full filling lives as platforms for sleep emerge. The Sleepscore app is available for free, in both the App Store for Apple Devices and on Google Play for Android users. Thank YOU for listening, and we hope you get good sleep tonight.

Sustainability is good for both business, and for the planet. Dawn James, Microsoft US Director of Sustainability and Environmental Sciences, and Alex Robart, Microsoft Worldwide Strategy Leader for Energy & Sustainability, connect with us to share learning and experiences in how organizations can strategically approach a differentiated way to reach sustainability goals, that create competitive advantages, while also being good for our environment. We are joined in this special episode by guest host Bob Familiar, Director of the Microsoft Technology Center in Boston. Bob is an experienced technical leader experiences in technologies that help organizations accelerate their vision to be more sustainable.

Edson Crevecoeur, Miami Heat's VP of Strategy & Data Analytics, and the Chief Data Officer for 601 Analytics, is joining this LIVE episode of the Data Binge Podcast, to talk through how he is helping to change the way that NBA teams use technology to make data driven decisions that increase revenue. 601 Analytics was born out of the Miami Heat organization, as a data platform that helps drive performance in the sports and entertainment industry, by offering a real-time analytics engine, that captures everything from venue attendance, to sale of tickets, to food and beverage items, giving a "real-time view" into business operations for greater customer delight and organizational direction - imagine using real time crowd prediction, to augment venue staff or merchandise selection and marketing. Edson brings with him an entire career in data and analytics, his voice comes with a wealth of wisdom on all things business, culture, innovation, and of course, DATA - and if you are interested in building new businesses or innovating with the power of data, this episode is for you.

We hear about innovation so much nowadays in the business world - we hear it in company earnings releases, we hear it internally in place of work, and we see it in peoples titles on LinkedIn, but what exactly is Innovation, what is Open Innovation, and how is it changing in our current technology landscape? Today's conversation is a Simply Tech LIVE interview recorded June 17th, of this year 2021, featuring my co-host Ali Mazaheri, and our special guests Jason Deskin, and Lisa Griego. Jason Deskin is the Chief Technology Officer for Digital Advisory in Microsoft's US West Region business, and in the US Retail & Consumer Goods Business. Lisa, is a Director in the Retail & Consumer Goods business supporting organizations in the West US, and both of these incredible voices are joining this discussion today to talk through the importance of innovation, and how critical it is for different organizations to bring together their strengths and weaknesses to meet unmet market needs. We're going to talk about different ways of approaching problems, and this idea of the "learn it all culture" vs the "know it all culture" - what this actually means and how to deploy curiosity at scale. We're going to talk about empathy and it’s role in innovation, and finally, were going to talk about overcoming the barriers to innovation and how to build programs that can jump start organizational change, differentiation, and maybe even some re-direction. Technology has never been more important in our world - and understanding how to bring different thinking, mindsets, people, ideas, and cultures together, to stimulate new ideas, WILL be the future of how we create novel innovations and solutions for a very quickly evolving world.

Today is a fun discussion for those of you interested in the business implications of the cloud, specifically Azure, and some experiences I have to share about my time at Microsoft working with some of the largest businesses in the world, empowering business value through novel technologies mostly centered around Machine Learning and AI. I am joined in this recorded LIVE discussion by today's host, Bret Cullivan, Azure Applications and Infrastructure, Global Partner Director, at Microsoft. As you will see, Bret and I really share a lot of ideas around business empowerment through technology, and we talk through a lot of key concepts, learnings, and trends, as Bret hosts the discussion, with the help of his peers moderating the session: Srinivasan Venkatarajan, and Shalini Chandrashekar - Azure Global Partner Directors at Microsoft. We were joined by a LIVE global audience of Microsoft partners, with a total of 175 registrants across (2) LIVE discussions, with folks dialing in from places far beyond the shores of the West Coast where Bret and I are dialing in from.

Today's episode is a Simply Tech LIVE interview recorded May 6th, of this year 2021, featuring my co-host, Ali Mazaheri, and our special guests, coming to us from Microsoft's High Tech Pursuits Unicorn Team - a special team focused on accelerating, partnering, and supporting the enterprise of the future. The discussion will feature Ken Miller, GM of Microsoft's West Region Intelligent Cloud team and leader of the Unicorn team we're talking with today. Shaloo Garg will be joining us in the discussion, Shaloo is the Managing Director of Growth Stage Startups and Unicorns at Microsoft. We'll also be featuring Matt Hughes in the discussion, Matt is a High Tech industry leader at Microsoft, and the combination of these (3) guests will cover a vast array of really fun, top of mind, and critical topics across the high tech industry, and, how value will be, and continues to be captured and developed with founders, venture capitalists, and new joint partnerships in the world of fast moving and emerging technologies. If you have any interest in the future landscape of emerging tech as a founder, an investor, or an organization looking to seek differentiated ways to think about the growth stage and unicorn ecosystem, you will very much enjoy this conversation. Thank you for listening, and now we bring you Microsoft's High-Tech Pursuits Unicorn Team.

Today's discussion is a recording of a session hosted by my friend and colleague, Andy Winskill, a Sr. Digital Advisor at Microsoft, who also leads a community of approximately 2700 employees at Microsoft, called the "Virtual Work Learning Group". The mission of the virtual work group is to empower everyone on the planet, to create engaging, meaningful, and impactful virtual work experiences, in an environment that enables us to do our best work. The community has featured talks from some amazing women and men around topics ranging from how to be a better storyteller, all the way to fine tuning remote presentation skills. This episode features a presentation that I led around Social Influence and Virtual Selling. I am no longer in a sales organization, BUT, I do believe that everything any of us do at any capacity in our work, most likely demands for advocating our ideas and getting our perspective heard - this, I believe, will be a highly valuable skill as our ecosystems become more digital, and our thoughts and perspectives as knowledge workers and executives, become more valuable to the world. Thanks for listening.

Today's episode is a Simply Tech LIVE interview recorded February 25th, 2021, featuring my co-host Ali Mazaheri, and our very special guest, Katy Brown, Vice President of US Enterprise for the West Region, at Microsoft. Both Ali and I have shared the distinct pleasure of working with Katy and her senior leadership team professionally at Microsoft, but in preparation for and execution of this very discussion, we had the wonderful opportunity to get to know Katy on a more personal level, and to really understand her own journey of overcoming adversity, and how it has shaped her as a leader. The discussion will cover everything including hard decisions Katy had to make to take better care of her teams and people in the wake of the pandemic, as folks had to really show up more than they ever had for their customers, partners, and families. We will discuss Katy's reflections and adjustments in how she has been taking care of herself and showing up as her best self across the past year, as well as some guiding learnings and perspectives she has developed while navigating through challenges in her personal life. We are so happy to deliver and share a truly, special episode with all of you - we all need to hear more voices of vulnerability, courage, and strength, as we continue to help each other navigate very challenging moments as we move through life and adapt, struggle, and learn through our individual journeys.

Today's discussion is a LinkedIn LIVE recording of the Data Binge Podcast featuring Dr. Angus Hervey, Political Economist and co-founder of Future Crunch. Future Crunch, based out of Australia, is a think-tank focused on fostering intelligent and optimistic thinking, inspiring enthusiasm and excitement for technology, and empowering people to contribute to an inclusive future. I came across Gus in a Global MBA learning event where he led a presentation focused on the adaptability quotient, or one's ability to overcome challenges by quickly determining what's relevant in the current era of knowledge. The interest of Gus's work doesn't stop there, Future Crunch is really trying to get people excited about technology again, as it exists within every layer of our lives, and as it tends to get mostly negative attention - there is another story to tell. Future Crunch disperses a phenomenal newsletter based on optimistic events happening in and around our planet, in an attempt to change the stories of the 21st century, by changing the stories we tell ourselves. In this discussion, Gus brings together his interests across economics, politics, and science, to weave together a new perspective on human kinds future, how to prepare for it, how to understand it, and how we can all look to empathize, entertain, and contribute to a novel and wonderful, narrative for our species.

Today's episode is a Simply Tech LIVE interview recorded October 29th, of 2020 - pulled out of the vault to serve to you at this very relevant time - produced by my co-host, Ali Mazaheri, and featuring special guests Ross Valentine, and guest co-host Greg Vigil. Ross Valentine is the Director of Product Services at Arrow Electronics (the world's largest electronics distributor), and has spent the last 20 years studying the global supply chain from a perspective across different industry verticals and organizations. Greg Vigil, Industry Solutions Director for the US, will be co-hosting the Manufacturing mini-series, bringing more than 10 years of manufacturing industry experience to highlight trends in market, and to bring the most modern perspectives of how the world's largest manufacturers are approaching emerging business challenges. This is going to be a really fun listen for those looking to better understand how the supply chain has been evolving over the past 20 years, the different roles that technology and talent play in the supply chain ecosystem, and the trends and business models that are declining or EMERGING as the world moves faster, better, and becomes just a little smaller each day.

Today's episode is a Simply Tech LIVE interview recorded July 27th, 2020, featuring my co-host, Ali Mazaheri, and our special guest, CAT Susch. CAT is a Principal Technical Architect at the Microsoft Technology Center in New York, and is sharing her experiences as a highly technical leader in the tech industry, why there are so few women in technical roles, and the challenges and opportunities presented for the culture change that businesses need to make to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce. There are very few highly technical women leaders in industry, whether it be business broadly, or specifically in the tech world - this conversation will really surface both some data for why this could be, as well as solutions for women specifically, as CAT walks through her experience both working at Microsoft and at other organizations, as well as what we can all do to contribute to causes that impact the overall inclusion and leadership participation of women in our workforce and society. This was such a special episode, and we're so happy we can surface it this month as a special feature to Woman's History Month.

Today's episode is a special "Black History Month" Simply Tech LIVE interview, produced this time, by my co-host, Ali Mazaheri, and featuring our guests, Sonya Weaver-Johnson: Director of Sales for Healthcare and Life Sciences at Microsoft, and Celeste Alleyne, Director of Executive Engagements for Content Operations & Corporate Events. We visit topics across the episode ranging from the very idea of Technology for Good and what that means, to the power of community and culture transformation in large organizations, to how to build communities - however that may need to come about, whether in organization or in your local community. Both Sonya and Celeste really bring an incredible energy that you'll feel in the discussion, I'm proud to be connected to these two women, and so happy that we can share some of their perspective with you today.

This discussion is a LinkedIn LIVE recording of the Data Binge Podcast featuring Chris Redlitz and Jason Jones, of The Last Mile, a non-profit breaking the mass incarceration cycle by combating recidivism through in-person education and post-release mentorship focused on coding and software engineering. (for those pondering what this means, recidivism is the tendency for a convicted criminal to reoffend). The Last Mile's returned citizen alumni, maintain 0% recidivism. Chris Redlitz is a general partner of Transmedia Capital, one of the best performing micro funds in Silicon Valley, and co-founder of The Last Mile. Through The Last Mile, Chris, along with his wife and co-founder Beverly Parenti, launched the first-ever full stack coding program inside US prisons. Previously, Chris co-founded KickLabs, which Forbes ranked as a top technology accelerator and incubated Wish, AngelList and other influential companies. He received Ad Age’s prestigious i20 award for his contributions to the development of interactive marketing and advertising. Earlier in his career, Chris was part of Reebok’s explosive growth where he held positions in sales and marketing and also owned one of the first specialty sports retail chains in Southern California. Jason Jones is a full-time disruptor, activist, educator, and software engineer. Jason is the Remote Instructor Manager for The Last Mile, and leads a team of educators that remotes into classrooms across the US to deliver virtual lessons in computer coding. On September 25th, 2018, Jason was released after 13 ½ years incarcerated, during which time he graduated from The Last Mile’s inaugural coding class. Three weeks before his release, Jason became the first person from his cohort to sign a work agreement with a tech company as a software engineer. Jason was also the first justice-involved person to be accepted into the Lightspeed fellowship with a team from Stanford, and today he is a participant in the Koch Associate Program. We talk across a broad range of topics in our time together today, from the very problem that The Last Mile is committed to help solve, to the systemic impact that incarceration creates within different communities, and the importance of solving the challenges facing the formerly incarcerated and system impacted individuals in our country. If you'd like to find out more about The Last Mile, or you are looking for ways to contribute, you can navigate to thelastmile.org/, or you can send an email to info@thelastmile.org Thank you for listening, and for being a part of this very important conversation.

Joseph Akoni is a Product Manager at LinkedIn, and joins this LIVE recording of the Data Binge Podcast to discuss how different cultures and communities develop and consume technology. Joseph's first product release as a LinkedIn Product Manager was highlighted in the Wall Street Journal in July of 2020. The profile name pronunciation feature allows for the opportunity of correct pronunciation of names, a critical component in creating an inclusive workplace. If you haven't seen this capability, it allows you to record a 10 second clip of a LinkedIn member recording their name, a brilliant piece of tech changing a very important part of how we relate and communicate to each other as humans - the correct pronunciation of our very names. Joseph brings with him a collection of product manager and consulting experiences across some very recognizable businesses from Lyft, Intel, and Nvidia, all the way to Ford Motor Company. Joseph's academic achievements include an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Joseph was also a fellow of the Management Leadership for Tomorrow's MBA Prep program, a non-profit led fellowship focusing on accelerating the career outcomes of African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans. If you are interested in the program or would like to find out more about Management Leadership for Tomorrow, you can find links in the show-notes of this episode.

Today's episode is a Simply Tech LIVE interview featuring my co-host, Ali Mazaheri, and our special guest, Erik Åsberg. Erik is the Chief Technology Officer of eSmart Systems -- an applied AI solution that is transforming the way the world's leading energy providers inspect and maintain critical infrastructure. If you are unfamiliar with this type of tech, eSmart's grid systems solution injects high resolution drone and helicopter video footage into their AI application, to help detect structural issues in cables, towers, and other energy based infrastructure to prevent catastrophic failures and events (which for those of you who are living in California, could include wildfires). Additionally, eSmart is focused on the future of the smart grid, as both utilities and energy consumers seek to optimize energy investments, reduce energy consumption, and cut climate emissions. Erik is our first international guest - joining us from Halden, Norway, and brings with him a wonderful collection of experiences in his 20-year career in tech and energy. In parallel to Erik's CTO leadership at eSmart, he was also was nominated to be a Microsoft Regional Director - a 2 year program reserved by nomination only, recognizing the world's top technology visionaries. The entirety of this discussion focused on opportunities and capabilities available from the collaborative work between humans and machines (AI).