Coffee Break With Game-changers, Presented By Sap

The Buzz 1: In 1440 – 600 years after The Diamond Sutra, the world’s oldest printed book – Gutenberg invented the wooden mass-printing press. In 1845 Richard Hoe invented the rotary press and first paperback. In 1993, Peter James published the thriller Host on 2 floppy disks – the first electronic novel – and BiblioBooks launched a website to sell eBooks. Along came the 2gb Kindle, able to hold 1,100 books. Today, print books still make up 65+% of sales in the $113Bn annual book market. To be competitive, some print books have covers with gold gilded edges, metal and transparent overlays, and some eBooks let you choose adventure story lines and have animated and interactive covers. [adazing.com] The Buzz 2: “When people ask me about the future of publishing, my answer always starts with: There’s no such thing as a single future of publishing … traditional publishers release fewer nonfiction books…total number of nonfiction books is going way up because more Authors are self-publishing.” [scribemedia.com Tucke

The in-person experience of car buying has always been alluring, letting you inhale the new car scent, examine the shiny power under the hood, literally kick the tires, ask questions of a human salesperson, and feel the road in a test drive. Now online car sales are offering a new experience: click it, order it, pick it up, keep-or-return it – and the automotive industry mostly isn’t ready. The Buzz 1: Nearly 30% of U.S. new car sales in 2020 were completed online, compared to 2% of vehicles pre-pandemic. The overall car shopping experience took less time and was more efficient…the number of dealerships visited dropped. [abcnews ] The Buzz 2: 53% of car buyers would consider buying a car online. [Accenture report in Readers Digest Mar. 16, 2022] The Buzz 3: Prospective buyers, especially age 55–70, are less inclined to want to interact with sellers at car dealerships. [mckinsey] The Buzz 4: Swedish electric performance car brand Polestar, 50% owned by Volvo, is focusing on a digital-first retail model, with c

The Buzz 1: “Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary.” [Margaret Cho, comedian] The Buzz 2: “Millions of people are unaware of and uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared in our digital society.” [staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-week] The Buzz 3: “Digital freedom stops where that of users begins... Privacy is not for sale, it's a valuable asset to protect.” (Stephane Nappo, Société Générale International Banking) The Buzz 4: “The fact the number of data breach events in Q1 represents a double-digit increase (14%) over the same time last year is another indicator that data compromises will continue to rise in 2022 after setting a new all-time high in 2021.” [Eva Velasquez, President and CEO, Identity Theft Resource Center, consumeraffairs.com] We’ll ask Shane Faria, Mike Audi, Eric Simone and Eli Herrick for their take on Data Data Everywhere: Is Data Privacy In Your Future? – Part 2.

The Buzz 1: “There is such a thing as a glass ceiling…the invisible barrier which prevents women from advancement in their profession. Do we have an unacknowledged barrier that is an obstacle for women in Tech who are indeed skilled and experienced but can’t get a promotion?” [huddle.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com] The Buzz 2: “The label 'woman in tech' seems redundant these days – how many women would refer to themselves as ‘a female engineer’ or ‘the company’s female CTO’? However, there still exists a disparity in the pay scales and ability to climb the career ladder between men and women working in the technology sector. [codemotion.com] The Buzz 3: In 2015, the National Center for Women & Information Technology found women hold only a quarter of computing jobs, even though they make up about half of the total workforce. Unfortunately, statistics like these remain unsurprising and slow to change. [datacenterdynamics.com] The Buzz 4: “Due to gender discrimination, men tend to advance in their career merel

The Buzz 1: While the majority of solo parents are single mothers, up to 2.6 million families in the US are headed by single dads…The research on single fathers is limited. [healthline dot com] The Buzz 2: As a single dad, keeping a strong relationship between you and your child after a divorce is essential for your child’s wellbeing.…children are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior if their father is actively engaged in their upbringing. [Licensed psychologist Robert Goldman, pittsburghparent dot com] The Buzz 3: “I’ve experienced all the different roles you have to play when there’s nobody else around: a parent, a dad, a father, a stand-in mum, a confidant, always a butler or maid, a teacher and, most crucially, a friend.” [The Single Dad's Guide to the Galaxy by Roger McEwan] The Buzz 4: Support solutions specifically designed for single fathers are scarce. ACM research uses the Human-centered design methodology to engage single fathers in multiple research activities to gain insight into their su

The Buzz 1: “85% of the women I interviewed make money in ways that really aren’t any different from how women made money in 1980: a third have jobs that pay salaries and bonuses, perhaps with a bit of a twist; about a quarter make money off of direct drive sales (a business model I remember well from selling photocopiers for Xerox in 1986!) and another quarter provide some sort of fee for service. A mere 15% have the “many sources” model for money making.…” (Barbara Stewart, Rich Thinking® global research papers http://barbarastewart.ca) The Buzz 2: “Approximately $30 trillion in wealth is set to change hands in the next decade and women are poised to inherit a sizable share, according to research by McKinsey & Company published in 2020.” (investopedia.com) The Buzz 3: “According to Consultancy group Boston Consulting Group (BCG), women hold nowadays an average of 40% of global wealth, and this could rise at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% by 2023, outpacing the 5.2% compound annual growth rate pro

The Buzz 1: “Coming up with a great name for your characters is one of the hardest tasks you’ll ever complete as a fiction writer… going too ‘creative’ with your name choices can distract or even confuse your reader.” (nybookeditors.com) The Buzz 2: “Instead of calling the pizza delivery guy ‘Bob,’ if you give him an interesting ethnicity, a cowboy hat and a name like Galveston Ngyen, readers will remember him when he shows up dead 50 pages later. But beware. There can be pitfalls.” (Anne R. Allen, Naming Fictional Characters) The Buzz 3: “One sci-fi writer recently joked on Twitter that the worst part of publication is being asked by readers and interviewers how to pronounce characters’ names.…” (lithub.com) The Buzz 4: Popular character names: Captain Holly Short from the Artemis Fowl series; Mia Thermopolis from The Princess Diaries; Maggie from Inkheart. (www.bustle.com) We’ll ask writers Catriona McPherson, Clea Simon, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, Sarah Smith and Edwin Hill for their take on The Future of Fict

The Buzz 1: ** “If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you'll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually you'll get to where you want to be.” [Eddie Van Halen, songwriter and musician] ** “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” [Maya Angelou, memoirist, poet, playwright] ** “Every song is like a painting.” (Dick Dale, The King of the Surf Guitar] The Buzz 2: “From synthesizers to DAWs or from CD players to iPhones, the landscape of music has changed and is very different from the days of your parents.” (interestingengineering.com) The Buzz 3: Albert Einstein was the Princeton Symphony vice president from 1952–1955. He said that, had he not been a scientist, he would have been a musician. (cbc.ca/music) The Buzz 4: “…The future of music in the digital age is focused on how streaming services will differentiate themselves from the co

The Buzz 1: Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, but an environmental, economic and social driver that’s changing our day-to-day lives… committing to sustainable practices is no longer a “nice to have” but a “must do”…. [forbes.com] The Buzz 2: Technologies shaping the sustainability agenda: Public electric transport. Electric trucks. Cheap energy storage. Plastic recycling. LED light efficiency. Accessible solar power. Carbon capture and storage. Hydrogen in the energy transition. [mckinsey.com] The Buzz 3: “I came up with idea of a solar airplane flying around the world with no fuel – that would be a beautiful message in terms of technology, the energy of the future and the environment.” (Bertrand Piccard FRSGS, Swiss explorer, psychiatrist, environmentalist] The Buzz 4: “Unfortunately, in the environment, I don’t see as much willingness to invest heavily in R&D as I do in consumer technology. And that’s a pity.” (Ramez Naam, American technologist, sci-fiction author: Nexus Trilogy] BIG QUESTION

The Buzz 1: There’s no telling what the futuristic inventions of the world hold, but we can start by taking a few wild and speculative guesses: Robot butlers – Fully immersive VR – Cryonics – Exo-skeletons – Flying Cars –Artificial gravity – Fusion power – Self-sustaining space colonies. [bigthink.com] The Buzz 2: The U.S. patent system is detailed in the Constitution. A patent’s assurance of the protection of inventions is a key reason why companies invest billions of dollars in research and development. 2020 was the 28th year in a row that IBM led the U.S. in the number of patents granted. [fortune.com] The Buzz 3: Every year Siemens honors Inventors of the Year in five categories: Newcomers, Open Innovation, Outstanding Invention, Lifetime Achievement, and Design and User Experience. In 2021, the 15 awarded inventors have their origins in the US, India, Israel, UK, Poland and Germany. [new.siemens.com] We’ll ask modern inventors Shawn Taylor, Jeff Gindin, Lynthia Muller and Michael Simmons for their take o

The Buzz 1: Headlines: Drones are helping to restore power in Puerto Rico. A drone attacked targeted the U.S. electrical grid. Google’s drone service will deliver library books. Submarine drone can swim for months and then fly away. Drone waiters will take your restaurant order. ESPN shot the X Games with drones. A bouncy search-and-rescue drone could save your life. The military wants a dancing drone that can fly through windows. [popularmechanics.com/the-future-of-drones] The Buzz 2: In the first-ever drone delivery of food and beverage at a sporting event—Purdue hosted the University of Michigan—fans could order a meal pack and have it delivered via drone to a locker inside Alexander Field. [popularmechanics.com May 2022] The Buzz 3: A Report on the Use of Drones by Public Safety Agencies. “Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have rapidly changed the state of play in the public safety theater. Inappropriate use and deployment of UASs and their operators present a serious threat to public safety and order. The sa

Remember the TV sitcom “Who’s The Boss?” (ABC TV 1984 – 1992) It’s time to ask the question again! The Buzz 1: Everyone will be a leader in the workplace in 2030. Work will thrive in teams, not with dictators. The Chief of Work will set the culture in the organization. All workers at all levels will use robotic helpers like Siri or Alexa, for incoming email, scheduling meetings, creating spreadsheets. [simplilearn.com, studies by CBRE and Genesis, WSJ report] The Buzz 2: Being a leader rather than a boss is more critical, especially during times of unpredictable change. In a 2016 Fidelity study, many millennials would be willing to take a significant pay cut if it meant a better job environment. In a 2019 Robert Half study, nearly half of the professionals surveyed reported leaving a job because of a bad boss. [coachmonique.com] The Buzz 3: “The time of the heroic, egocentric leader— the dominant, typically male leader who knows everything, who gives direction to everybody and sets the pace, whom everybody fo

The Buzz 1: Retailers expect 17.8% or $158 billion of merchandise sold during the 2022 holiday season will be returned, according to National Retail Federation. [digitalcommerce360.com] The Buzz 2: Retail returns jumped to an average of 16.6% in 2021 versus 10.6% in 2020, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail. That adds up to more than $761 billion of merchandise…in unwanted purchases that come back to retailers’ stores and warehouses and become a headache for companies that must decide whether they can resell those items, get them written off by the manufacturer or if they must take the loss. The average rate of returns for online purchases was 20.8% — up from 18.1% in 2020. [cnbc.com] The Buzz 3: Retail in the Age of Instinct. Trends shaping CPG and retail organizations include 'Optimized Reality': CPG and retail companies are using data and digital technologies to tailor experiences, services, products, and promotions to the individual and shift from maximizing supply c

We’re living 'on the edge', but in ways you might not be aware of: edge computing. The Buzz 1: Edge computing means putting processing power, software services, and data as close as possible to end users – like you – where the speed of light is still too slow for data packets traveling from server to server across thousands of miles of fiber. It's also less exposed to cyberattack and less prone to breaches. The Buzz 2: Edge computing is used to create smarter buildings, cities, work spaces, retail experiences, digital wind farms, and factory floors. Intelligent edge devices include smartphones, smart home bots, smart watches, in-hospital patience monitoring, medical instruments, cloud gaming, Wall Street trading tools, and autonomous vehicles. The Buzz 3: An appetizing use case: farms. Moisture sensors embedded in the soil tell farmers where and when to water. Drones fly over fields to spot pest infestations. Smart harvesters use computer vision and AI to separate wheat from chaff as they plow. Precision agri

The Buzz 1: “In the 19th century, inventors were heroes … Their ideas helped drag humanity from agrarian poverty to manufactured plenty. These days, though, inventor-superstars, while not absent, are fewer and farther between.” [economist.com] The Buzz 2: “While we've had our fair share of inventive breakthroughs in the past that have changed the world, the dazzling and world-shaking inventions of the future will change the world in even stranger and greater ways.” [bigthink.com] The Buzz 3: “There’s a way to do it better … find it.” [Thomas A. Edison] The Buzz 4: Professor Philip Brainard [played by Robin Williams in Flubber, 1997 American sci-fi comedy], a mad scientist developing a new energy source to save his college from closure, accidentally creates a sentient green goo substance with enormous elasticity and kinetic energy that bounces and is difficult to control. His robot assistant Weebo classifies it as flying rubber” aka Flubber. We’ll ask modern inventors Veronica Vargas, Pat Daily, Tammie Sykes a

Looking ahead to 2030: How will we work? How will we get around? What will we eat? How will we dress? How safe will our privacy be? Will we all be space travelers? What old and new challenges will we face? The Buzz 1: The top seven emerging future technology booms that will redefine the future and the world we live in by 2030: More AI companies. Growth of self-driving cars. More robots doing manufacturing jobs. Smart clothing embedded with Bluetooth chips. Space elevators. Pervasive cloud computing. Growth in the augmented, virtual, and mixed reality optics and display markets. [unboxingstartups.com/7-emerging-technologies-that-will-revolutionize-the-world-by-2030] The Buzz 2: Advanced farming will tell us exactly where our food is coming from. On-demand ecosystem of vehicles with different form factors. Almost every occupation will still have tasks machines will find very difficult to do. [www.bosch.com/stories/vision-2030] We’ll ask Rik Ferguson at Trend Micro, Colin Dunn at Fend Incorporated, Jon Clay at T

The Buzz 1: Grateful people feel more optimistic and happy, better mitigate aversive experiences, and have stronger interpersonal bonds. Gratitude interventions have been shown to result in improved sleep, more frequent exercise, and stronger cardiovascular and immune systems. [psywb.springeropen.com] The Buzz 2: Children spend an average of 53 hours per week with digital media — video games, social media, reality TV, exposure to violence, virtual connections that replace face-to-face friendships – which researchers fear may be causing a decline in empathy. [doinggoodtogether.org] The Buzz 3: Expressing gratitude can positively change your brain. It boosts dopamine and serotonin, the neurotransmitters in the brain that improve your mood immediately, giving you those positive feelings of pleasure, happiness, and well-being. [healthcare.utah.edu] The Buzz 4: Gratitude apps will help you improve your mood by focusing on the good things in your life. [makeuseof.com] We’ll ask Karen Gibson, Deslynn Jaquias, Sandy

The Buzz 1: Wine tourism —aka oenotourism, enotourism, vinitourism— lures wine lovers to vineyards, wineries, cellars, and museums dedicated to wine. The wine tourism global market size is expected to more than triple by 2030 to ~29.6B euros. (statista.com) The Buzz 2: According to a late-2020 www.statista.com survey, wine tourists are mainly casual wine tasters rather than wine geeks. The Buzz 3: People in Portugal consume more wine than any other country worldwide, with an annual per capita consumption of 52 liters in 2020. Next is Italy: 47 liters per capita. The Buzz 4: Decanter Magazine publishes wine travel guides to ?Italy, ?South Africa, ?Europe and the UK. Wwinepaths.com/ organizes luxury wine tours, intimate group trips and wine holidays around the world. Winemag.com reports on wine travel from touring the historic underground caves of Champagne to playing winemaker for a day in California’s Napa Valley. We’ll ask Bill Newman, Beth Kaczmarek, Christian Oggenfuss, and Brenda Boudreaux for their take

The Buzz 1: “Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary.” (Margaret Cho, stand-up comedian) The Buzz 2: Millions of people are unaware of and uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared in our digital society. Data Privacy Week aims to inspire dialogue and empower individuals and companies to take action. (staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-week) The Buzz 3: “In the next three years, the value of data will increase, making it even more valuable than it is today. The more efficiently you store your data, the more benefits your business will see.” (Thomas Harrer, CTO, IBM Systems Hardware Sales in Europe) The Buzz 4: “Digital freedom stops where that of users begins... digital evolution must no longer be offered to a customer in trade-off between privacy and security. Privacy is not for sale, it's a valuable asset to protect.” (Stephane Nappo, Global Head, Information Security, Société Générale International Banking)

The Buzz 1: Drones are a transformative technology that, over the next decade, will change in ways you likely never imagined… Similar to Electronic Automobiles, drones offer another important option in fending off greenhouse gasses and becoming carbon neutral. (forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/06/30) The Buzz 2: Google announced on Oct 6, 2021 that it has started drone deliveries straight from a shopping mall directly to customers’ homes…The all-time record? Two minutes, 47 seconds.…Wing reached the 100,000 delivery milestone in August 2021, becoming the largest residential drone delivery service in the world. (forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2021/10/06) The Buzz 3: The global drone industry is projected to grow 12.3% annually, nearing $41B by 2027, according to Brandessence Market Research. Just a few years ago, drones were still considered science fiction. (money.usnews.com/investing) We’ll ask Chuck Byers, Sandra Formenton, Ryan Walsh and Pharns Genece for their take on The Future of Drones: Landing o