DevReady Podcast

Is Metaverse Really The Future with Alan Smithson - Episode 80

In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, hosts Andrew Romeo and Anthony Sapountzis have an insightful conversation with Alan Smithson, Co-Founder at MetaVRse which is a proprietary, code-optional web platform that makes it easy to create and share interactive 3D experiences instantly.
Know of the iconic performance by the French DJ and pioneer of electronic music, Jean Michel Jarre on the 31st of December, 2020 where he performed live in a 3D visual reconstruction of the emblem of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris?
Well, that immersive event that was available on the social VR platform VRChat, accessible via a personal computer or in virtual reality for those who have a VR headset was made possible courtesy of Alan and his team.
Topics Covered:
· Touch Screen Technology
· Virtual Reality
· Overcoming Challenges Faced
· Building World-Firsts
· Working in Training and Marketing
· Creating Value
· Being Creative

The Blend of Tech & Wine with eBottli with Nathalie Taquet - Episode 79

This episode of the DevReady Podcast, features hosts Andrew Romeo and Anthony Sapountzis with Nathalie Taquet, CEO & Founder at eBottli & Bottli.
While the former company provides all information about the bottles (description of the winemaker, the origin of the bottle...) for B2C and all tracking and traceability of the bottles (statistics, strategic marketing, counterfeiting, geolocation…) for B2B, the latter connects customers to small vineyards with unique batches. Listen in while the three of them talk about technology and the digitization of processes in wineries.
Use of technology being the core of the business, Nathalie feels that there is a disconnect between start-ups and IT. She emphasizes that their role is to bridge the divide and make sure that real data is used for the proof of concept to ensure that better solutions are not only developed but also optimized.
From her experience, she highlights three key things to keep in mind when introducing a technological solution in any industry:
1. Listen to your customers: work with the potential customers and identify what they need
2. Make what they want to buy: don’t provide a solution that people don’t want to pay for
3. Make the journey simple: don’t add another step in the journey and make it complicated

How to Adapt Change in Technology with Jodi Woelkerling - Episode 78

In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, Andrew Romeo is joined by Jodi Woelkerling, author of “World Class Leadership” and a trusted authority on building enduring, resilient cultures and building personal resilience and the two talk about change that technology can bring about within the workplace, the impact that it might have, and how to ensure that the change is positive for all concerned stakeholders.
Jodi emphasizes that the modern workplace is filled with constant challenges, both for the business at large and for the individuals within the business, and resilience is a key component of effectively navigating these challenges.
And because humans are fundamentally hard-wired to resist any kind of change, for any business, it is paramount that they manage the process of change so that neither the business nor the individuals in the business suffer.
Topics Covered:
· Building Resilience at Individual and Corporate Levels
· Strategies for Staying Calm
· Dealing with Technology Change
· Need for Stakeholders to Accept Change
· Engaging Stakeholders to Have a Positive Impact on Acceptance to Change
· World-Class Leadership

From a Musician to a Technologist with Mark McCormack from Design Posse - Episode 77

In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, hosts Andrew Romeo and Anthony Sapountzis talk to Mark McCormack, Co-Founder, Design Posse.
Mark has had a pretty long and eventful career, from being in a cover band to designing digital strategies for various advertising agencies to supporting start-ups and innovation in entertainment-related technology—he has surely done it all.
Having worked in different industries, Mark strongly believes that two things are key to success in any industry, no matter how disruptive a product or service is:
1. Ability to build networks
2. Ability to solve a problem
Topics Covered:
· Moving into the Software Industry from Music
· Struggles of being the Pioneer
· How to educate your customers
· Taking Risks
· Building effective Networks

Build a Happy Tech Team with Alexandra Andrews - Episode 76

In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, Andrew Romeo sits with his coach, Alexandra Andrews, Managing Director and Executive Coach Director of My Personal Coach and over the duration of a little more than half an hour, they discuss the difference that getting the right coach can make to not just one’s business but also to one’s other projects and relationships.
Many in the business are either driven by ego or are victims to paralysis by analysis, and Alex’s advice to those is, first and foremost, to work out the ‘Whys’: why are you making a certain business decision, why are you thinking a certain thing.
She furthers, the key then is to never settle for the first answer because that is the ‘safe answer’, the filter that we all use, either knowingly or unknowingly. She emphasizes that there is a need to dig deeper and to keep on asking until one gets to that fundamental, heartfelt ‘Why’.
Topics Covered:
· Overcoming ‘Paralysis by Analysis
· The Process of Building a Happy-Team
· Understanding Team Dynamics
· Right People for the Right Roles
· Assessing and Reflecting

Expanding the support community with The Pitch Portal with Amanda Fay - Episode 75

In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, Andrew Romeo sits with Amanda Fay, Founder & CEO, The Pitch Portal, a platform through which she helps connect business ideas and opportunities with expert service providers who have the skills to make them fly.
During the course of the episode, the two cover a lot of ground: connect between venture capitalists and startups; vetting of experts and also the pitches, tools used by The Pitch Portal to ensure an efficient and effective support system; access to information and mentors early on in the startup journey, among others.
While the three tools (the lab, the interface, and my pitch) have been put to use since The Pitch Portal was set up, the survey tool is a new addition and would help startups and businesses have a much-rounded idea of their goals before putting in all they’ve got into something that might or might not yield the returns they seek. Having seen people lose everything in the startup journey, Amanda’s goal was to expand the support economy and make profits along the way—basically, a win-win for all parties involved.
Topics Covered:
· The life of venture capitalists and startups
· The process of vetting the experts
· Tools used by the Pitch Portal
· The importance of flexible payment arrangements for service providers
· How to vet the pitches

Why Don’t Kids Run Companies with Andrew Grant (Creativity in Start-ups Series Part 3) - Episode 74

Andrew starts by adding on to the topics of the previous podcasts and how the book and game can be used as a diagnostic tool to try and discover what blocks our creativity. By using a crime scene investigation, he wants users to play detectives to hide behind safe characters to try and work out what the things that block creativity are. He believes that understanding the blockers to creativity is a pre-requisite for creative thinking.
Having left the listeners with a question to ponder over: ‘Why are children not CEOs of companies when they are great at creative thinking?’, he answers the same by saying that children might be great at creative thinking but they are not good at critical thinking—a balance of which is needed to run successful businesses. While creative thinking is the thinking we do when we generate ideas, critical thinking is the thinking we do when we judge those ideas. He believes the problem here lies in the fact that not many people have both.
Topics Covered
- If children are so creative why are they not the CEOs of companies?
- The ability to think both creatively and critically.
- Connecting two seeming unrelated things to create something that is spectacularly creative.
- Prototyping and implementation.
- Playing the devils' advocate.
- Importance of embracing diversity

Tools to foster creativity with Andrew Grant (Creativity in Start-ups Series Part 2) - Episode 73

On this episode of the DevReady Podcast, Andrew and Anthony continue their conversation with Andrew Grant, Director of Tirian International Consultancy, and co-author of ‘Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get it Back?' and ‘The Innovation Race’.
Andrew talks about how our workplaces are not built to foster creativity and are in fact characterized by blockers. So, in order to deal with the blockers of creativity, the suspects as he calls them, he and his team developed a game, not necessarily a competitive game, but one with a theme and a metaphor that people can hide behind so that they have a safe place to talk about some of the issues they are facing.
Topics Covered
- Need to set up an environment that encourages creative thinking
- How to use the CSI board-game and digital-game to understand creativity blockers
- How to ask the right questions and find ambiguity within the questions
- How to ideate, brainstorm and map out creative ideas
- How to connect seemingly distant things and find solution to a wicked problem
- How to figure out what works and then implement it

Who Killed Creativity with Andrew Grant (Creativity in Start-up Series Part 1) - Episode 72

On this episode of the DevReady Podcast, Andrew and Anthony talk to Andrew Grant, Director of Tirian International Consultancy, and co-author of ‘Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get it Back?' A keynote presenter at TEDx (HK), in this episode of the podcast, he talks about what kills creativity and how to get it back, much along the lines of his acclaimed book.
 
Andrew talks about his being in the business for over 2 decades along with his partner, Gaia Gates and how they started in Asia working with cross cultural teams, expats and locals. Both of them often got invited to attend conferences and soon discovered that such gatherings were very boring in the mornings with lots of keynote talks and childish in the afternoons with silly team building games and everyone getting drunk.
Thinking that continuing to do so was a waste of people’s money, they came up with lots of creative ideas on how to make the mornings more interactive and afternoon sessions more intelligent. That got them started on the importance of how creativity can help solve problems. That’s what later went from being the contents of a book to workshops to a game around who killed creativity. (To find the CSI Board-game, go to https://whokilledcreativity.com/game-board/intro-game/) When researching on why people would want to read yet another book on creativity, they came to a conclusion that the actual issue of what’s blocking people’s creativity was something that wasn’t explored. There was no diagnostic tool to explore one’s journey from childhood to adulthood and to fill that gap they partnered with a neuroscientist and psychologist to try and really understand all that was going on inside a person’s brain, and from that was born the book-‘Who Killed Creativity?... And How Can We Get it Back?'
Andrew then goes to explain why he decided to use the metaphor of a crime scene where creativity is killed. That’s what makes the book memorable; these questions: who killed creativity, with what weapon, and how do we get it back? In the book, the authors basically, distil it down to seven key suspects. (To read more on the suspects, go to https://whokilledcreativity.com/articles/csi-7-suspects/)
The Control Crew
The Fear Family
The Pressure Pack
The Insulation Clique
The Apathy Clan
The Narrow-Minded Mob
The Pessimism Posse
The essence of the podcast being that creativity doesn’t happen magically over a hack-a-thon, that people first need to be aware of the fact that there’s much in their culture and environment that can block creativity, and use this diagnostic tool allows people to talk about issues in a safe environment.
Topics Covered:
- Need for creativity in the workplace.
- The memorable concept of who killed creativity, with what weapon and how to get it back.
- Difference between creativity in the artistic sense and business sense.
- Why does creativity decrease as one grows up?
- The seven suspects that block creativity
- The growing importance of creativity in the workplace as AI becomes more prevalent.
- How to foster creativity?

Intuition: Make Your Business Successful With Your Gut with Sunil Godse - Episode 71

We often don’t know where a “gut decision” comes from, but the feeling is unmistakable.
This episode of DevReady demystifies that little voice in the back of our heads that can so influence our choices, for good or ill. Sunil Godse explains why we should listen, but not without doing the work to understand fully the elements of intuition. As an “Intuitionologist,” he has learned to decode the many ways in which life experience impacts our brains and shapes a whole spectrum of decisions, particularly in the realm of business.
An author, branding expert, coach and consultant, Sunil has devoted thousands of hours to researching the neuroscience behind the reflexive choices we make. He traces the roots of trust and shares real-world case studies that reveal the influence of powerful subliminal signalling, including:
○ Experiential Intuition
○ Situational Intuition
○ Relational Intuition
○ Creative Intuition
When properly leveraged, intuition (and the trust upon which it is based) can transform entrepreneurial ventures, employee morale and customer experience alike. Sunil takes us from his early career path (often dictated by influences that didn’t align with his gut) through the many examples of intuition as a tool for honouring core values and building sound relationships based on self-awareness and understanding.
Enjoy the many “knowledge bombs” Sunil has to share in this episode, including additional reading and further resources.
Topics Covered:
- What differentiates entrepreneurial success from failure?
- Follow your instinct.
- 4 types of intuitive signalling that impact decision-making.
- How to define your signals?