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kristablogs · 4 years

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Masks help prevent the spread of the coronavirus—here’s a breakdown of how effective they are

Wearing a mask is one of the most important things you can do right now (Julian Wan/Unsplash/)

Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including tips on cleaning groceries, ways to tell if your symptoms are just allergies, and a tutorial on making your own mask.

Over the past several months, the idea of wearing a face covering has been hotly debated. In the beginning of the pandemic, the general recommendation was that masks should be reserved for medical professionals only. At the time, this made sense. There was a major mask shortage, and virologists and epidemiologists didn’t have enough information about how the coronavirus spread to know whether masks would prevent the coronavirus from spreading outside of a medical setting.

But a mounting body of evidence makes it clear that masks do prevent the spread of the virus—especially the more people wear them properly.

One key factor that sealed the deal for general mask-wearing was the understanding that a significant percentage of COVID-19 positive folks don’t show signs of the disease, known as asymptomatic spreaders. This group includes people who test positive but never show signs of the disease (an estimated 30-45 percent of people who test positive for the virus) and those who have tested positive and will later show symptoms but haven’t yet.

So far, studies suggest that these asymptomatic people play a notable role in spreading the virus. A high quality and widely shared paper published back in April in the journal Nature suggests that people are most infectious two days before actually showing any symptoms. Additionally, this past week, a conglomerate of 239 scientists from various fields of study, from epidemiology to virology to physics, signed an open letter to the World Health Organization with evidence of the airborne nature of the virus.

“If you have spread from people who don’t have symptoms, you have to do two things,” explains Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease researcher at the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital. “The first thing is you have to mask them to prevent them from spreading, and the second thing is what we did with social distancing and lockdown.” There’s still a lot of research to be done, but the evidence increasingly points to masks as one of the most crucial parts of our fight against COVID-19.

Scientists now know that SARS-CoV-2 travels and spreads from one person to another via aerosols, which are droplets of bodily fluid that carry the virus. Big droplets move by coughing and sneezing, but these researchers warn that a growing body of evidence suggests much smaller particles can spread the disease, too. This new evidence makes wearing a mask even more important.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, most studies done on the effectiveness of masks weren’t robust at all. Most of them were observational in nature—not the gold standard double-blind ones, where one group wears masks and the other group doesn’t—and were done in the hospital setting. That means even these low-quality results wouldn’t necessarily translate to the general population.

However, over the past few months, there have been a number of well-done studies that investigated what prevents the spread of the virus. A meta-analysis, published in The Lancet at the beginning of June, looked at 172 studies that investigated how COVID-19, SARS, and MERS spread. The study found that mask wearing was strongly correlated with reduced risk of viral transmission and that “face mask use could result in a large reduction in risk of infection with stronger associations with N95 or similar respirators compared with disposable surgical masks or similar [coverings].”

In a more recent study published last week in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers at Florida Atlantic University used a visualization technique to demonstrate how a variety of masks helped stop the spread of these aerosol droplets. The team looked at three types of masks: A single-layer bandana-style covering, a homemade mask that had two layers of cotton, and a non-sterile cone-style mask. They chose these three on purpose, says study co-author Siddhartha Verma, a professor in the department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering at Florida Atlantic University because they were the three that seem to be most often used by the general public. The researchers also looked at how far aerosols spread with no mask on at all.

In a lab, the team put masks on mannequins and used a mixture of water and glycerin to create a fog that emulated how droplets would travel by talking, coughing, and sneezing. The researchers found that without a mask, droplets traveled more than 8 feet. With a bandana, they reached an average of 3 feet and 7 inches, versus 1 foot and 3 inches with a two-layered cotton homemade mask, and about 8 inches with a cone-style mask.

What amazed Verma the most about the study was just how widespread droplets traveled without a mask on. “Seeing it with my own eyes was a bit surprising.” Equally interesting, he says, was how much slower the spread was when the masks fit better on the mannequin’s face. Based on these findings, as well as prior studies, he suggests this tip when choosing an effective mask: Hold the mask up to a light—the less you can see through it, the more effective it is.

Other research and government institutions have made similar recommendations on best practices for mask-wearing. Johns Hopkins University also recommends holding the mask up to a light and using “thicker, more densely woven cotton fabrics,” finding a proper balance between ensuring it fits properly and that you can still breathe with it on. That’s also why N95 masks worn by medical professionals work better than homemade masks: They require a fit test and seal check which significantly reduces the risk of leakage.

Of course, Verma’s work was done in laboratory settings, and real-world usage won’t be exactly the same. Further, Verma says that while his study and others like it all make it clear that masks reduce the spread of the coronavirus, it’s important to note that in his study all the masks—even the ones with multiple layers of well-fitted fabric—tended to have some leakage. “Using a mask doesn’t reduce the transmission to zero.” However, it’s abundantly clear they effectively slow the spread.

Up to date as of July 9, 2020 (Infographic by Sara Chodosh/)

Across the country, though, we’ve been slow to adopt mask usage. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are the latest to join just 10 other states that have mandatory face covering rules put in place. Others include: North Carolina, California, Nevada, Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, Connecticut, New Mexico, Illinois and Washington.

Meanwhile, the association between countries that wear masks regularly and those with low death rates from coronavirus is clear. “If you look at countries that SARS had hit, they just immediately slapped on these masks because they were used to it, The Czech Republic weren’t used to it but made a decision in early March,” says Gandhi. “If you look at these countries there’s a near perfect correlation.”

Part of this may be that, though masks don’t eliminate risk, they do significantly reduce the amount of virus a person is exposed to. We know from other viruses, like influenza and norovirus (which causes vomiting and diarrhea), that the more viral particles you’re exposed to, the more sick you’re likely to get. That means wearing a mask may not prevent you from getting sick, but it is likely to give you a milder case should you catch COVID-19.

The apparent shift in advice has been frustrating for many people—and that’s understandable. Everyone was originally told that masks were likely to do very little, but now it seems like the experts have changed their minds. Part of the problem is that some top officials advised against mask-wearing not because of any scientific evidence, but because of concern over shortages for health professionals who really needed it. But another part of this is that we simply didn’t know a lot about mask efficacy to begin with. It’s crucial for science to adapt as new evidence comes in, and that’s exactly what happened here. Armed with better knowledge, we now know the importance of wearing a mask—and if we want to control this virus, we all have to abide.

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scootoaster · 4 years

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Masks help prevent the spread of the coronavirus—here’s a breakdown of how effective they are

Wearing a mask is one of the most important things you can do right now (Julian Wan/Unsplash/)

Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including tips on cleaning groceries, ways to tell if your symptoms are just allergies, and a tutorial on making your own mask.

But a mounting body of evidence makes it clear that masks do prevent the spread of the virus—especially the more people wear them properly.

Up to date as of July 9, 2020 (Infographic by Sara Chodosh/)

0 notes

bigyack-com · 4 years

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DealBook: Will Anyone Buy Elon Musk’s New Pickup?

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Tesla’s pickup of the future

Elon Musk yesterday unveiled his company’s new “Cybertruck,” an electric pickup that Tesla hopes will rival Ford’s best-selling F-150 line, Karen Zraick, Neal Boudette and Daniel Victor of the NYT write.Let’s get this out of the way: It looks weird. The vehicle has a stainless steel exterior with a triangular roof. It is … pointy. “It’s not going to be for everyone,” Mr. Musk said in an interview before the unveiling.Still, it’s impressive on paper. The top-of-the-line $69,900 model, which has three motors and all-wheel drive, is claimed to be able to tow 14,000 pounds, go 500 miles on a charge and accelerate like a Porsche. (Two cheaper models, including a single-motor rear-wheel drive version for $39,900, will be less impressive.)But demonstrations of its toughness did not go smoothly. Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief designer, threw a metal ball at the driver’s side armored window, which immediately cracked. “Maybe that was a little too hard,” Mr. Musk said. (A sledgehammer blow to a body panel, however, did not leave a dent.)The big question: Who will buy it? Some analysts are doubtful that the vehicles will appeal to traditional truck buyers. And how many tech-savvy early adopters really need a space-age pickup?____________________________Today’s DealBook Briefing was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jamie Condliffe and Gregory Schmidt.____________________________

New tariffs may hit China before a Phase 1 deal

China says that it’s keen to strike a trade deal with the Trump administration, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has warned that it might not happen before additional tariffs kick in on Dec. 15.“We want to work for a ‘Phase 1’ agreement on the basis of mutual respect and equality,” President Xi Jinping said today. “When necessary we will fight back, but we have been working actively to try not to have a trade war. We did not initiate this trade war and this is not something we want.”• And the WSJ reports that “China’s chief trade negotiator has invited his American counterparts for a new round of face-to-face talks.”But a deadline is getting ever closer. On Dec. 15, the Trump administration is scheduled to introduce another round of tariffs on consumer goods from China, like tablets, smartphones, laptops and other products.“I’m not sure we’re going to get a deal done by Dec. 15,” Myron Brilliant of the Chamber of Commerce told CNBC today. “I hope so, I want to continue to emphasize there is an opportunity here between now and then.”More trade news: Lawmakers have yet to reach an agreement on President Trump’s revised North American trade deal — but talks are set to continue through the Thanksgiving break, with a vote possible in the weeks ahead, House leaders said. And the auto industry is puzzled over Mr. Trump’s lack of a decision about imposing tariffs on foreign auto imports despite a passed deadline.

How Schwab set itself up for a TD Ameritrade purchase

After CNBC first reported that the discount brokerage firm Schwab was in talks to buy its rival TD Ameritrade, other publications dug into the rumor. Here’s more from the WSJ:• “The companies have held on-and-off talks for months and were close to a deal Thursday, though there is still no guarantee they will reach one, people familiar with the matter said.”• “If they do, it would likely value TD Ameritrade at around its current market value of $26 billion.”• “But the merger is likely to receive scrutiny from regulators given the firms’ dominant positions in the industry and their direct contact with individual investors.”“This would create a Goliath in wealth management,” Mike Mayo, a Wells Fargo analyst, told the FT. Schwab is the country’s largest discount broker, and TD Ameritrade is No. 2.Consolidation in the industry is a “logical conclusion,” Charles Schwab, the founder of his namesake company, told CNBC last month. Schwab and TD Ameritrade have been forced to reduce their trading fees to zero as they face challenges from start-ups like Robinhood, an app-based trading platform.In fact, scrapping stock trading fees might have helped Schwab, Matt Levine of Bloomberg Opinion notes. Its decision in September to eliminate them essentially forced TD Ameritrade to do so, also — but the fees account for just 7 percent of Schwab’s revenue, versus 36 percent of Ameritrade’s. That means TD Ameritrade’s stock and valuation took a bigger hit than Schwab’s, presumably making the purchase more affordable.

Could Facebook limit targeting of political ads?

The social network may soon become the latest of the major U.S. tech platforms to tighten up on digital political advertising, according to a report by Emily Glazer of the WSJ.• “Facebook is discussing increasing the minimum number of people who can be targeted in political ads on its platform from 100 to a few thousand, according to people familiar with the matter.”• “The potential move is part of an effort to make it less easy for advertisers to microtarget.”It would be a concession by Facebook if it takes effect. Mark Zuckerberg has strenuously defended Facebook’s now weeks-old policy of letting politicians post any claims they want — even false ones — in ads. But that decision has been heavily criticized, especially over the way those ads can be tightly targeted to small groups of individuals so they are not seen by the broader public.Other companies have already taken some action. Google this week announced that advertisers would no longer be able to target political messages based on users’ interests inferred from their browsing or search histories. And Twitter is to stop accepting most political ads.But political campaign strategists want Facebook to stand pat, Mike Isaac of the NYT reports. Some strategists have “told Facebook that if it followed Google by limiting how political campaigns target audiences, it would hurt their ability to reach unregistered voters and make it tougher for smaller organizations to collect donations online,” Mr. Isaac writes.

Global growth could stagnate, the O.E.C.D. warns

The global economy is entrenched in a rut, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which says that situation will not change until governments alter their policies and investment practices.• Rather than hope for a cyclical upswing, government authorities should look beyond short-term fiscal fixes, the O.E.C.D. says.• The outlook also flags more systemic problems from climate change, technology and a shift in the geopolitical order.Pessimism about the global economy stands in contrast with more upbeat signals coming from financial markets, William Horobin of Bloomberg writes. But the O.E.C.D. nonetheless expects global growth to remain weak for the next two years.The challenges are daunting, but solvable through clear policy changes that focus on the long term, the O.E.C.D. argues.• “There is a unique window of opportunity to avoid a stagnation that would harm most people: restore certainty and invest for the benefit of all,” said the organization’s chief economist, Laurence Boone.More economic news: The global economy is experiencing a shift driven mainly by emerging markets, Christine Lagarde said in her first speech as the European Central Bank president. And personal loans are “growing like a weed,” which is a potential warning sign for the U.S. economy.

Shepard Smith defends freedom of the press

The former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith yesterday called for a steadfast defense of independent journalism and announced that he would donate $500,000 to a group that advances press freedoms around the world, writes Michael Grynbaum in the NYT.The money will go to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit organization.“Our belief a decade ago that the online revolution would liberate us now seems a bit premature, doesn’t it?” Mr. Smith said at the group’s annual dinner in Manhattan. “Autocrats have learned how to use those same online tools to shore up their power. They flood the world of information with garbage and lies, masquerading as news.”Mr. Smith called for unity in the news business to ward off government encroachment on free expression, while offering a few subtle barbs at President Trump’s treatment of the press.• “Intimidation and vilification of the press is now a global phenomenon,” Mr. Smith said.• “Press freedom is not the preserve of one political group or one political party,” he said. “It’s a value embedded in our very foundational documents.”

Revolving door

WeWork announced that it would lay off 2,400 workers around the world and an additional 1,000 employees as it closes or sells divisions that are not parts of its core business. Roughly 1,000 building maintenance employees will also be transferred to outside contractors.Ellen Kullman, the former chairman and C.E.O. of Dupont, will be named president and C.E.O. of Carbon, a 3-D printing company, where she is already a board member. The company’s co-founder and current C.E.O., Joseph DeSimone, who was recognized as a “Groundbreaker” at this year’s DealBook conference, will become executive chairman.The investment firm Franklin Templeton named Jennifer Johnson as its new C.E.O. She takes over from her brother, Gregory Johnson, who will become executive chairman.

The speed read

Deals• The U.S. cosmetics maker Coty is reportedly planning to sell a portfolio of professional hair and nail care brands worth up to $7 billion, with potential bidders said to include Unilever and Henkel. (Reuters)• Xerox has threatened to make a hostile bid for HP if the company does not open its books. (Reuters)• Exxon Mobil reportedly plans to sell up to $25 billion of oil and gas fields in Europe, Asia and Africa to raise cash for new investments. (Reuters)• Bumble Bee, one of the nation’s largest canned tuna providers, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday. It has an agreement to sell its assets to Taiwan’s FCF Fishery for roughly $925 million. (WSJ)• Saudi Aramco’s I.P.O. has reportedly attracted approximately 73 billion riyals, or about $19.5 billion, in institutional and retail share orders so far. (Reuters)• Louis Bacon, the veteran hedge fund manager, is closing his flagship funds at Moore Capital Management to external money. (FT)Trump impeachment inquiry • Fiona Hill, the White House’s former top Russia expert, criticized Republicans for promoting what she called a “fictional narrative” embraced by President Trump that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 elections. (NYT)Politics and policy• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was indicted on corruption charges, posing a heightened threat to his personal and political future. (WSJ)• Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, has filed more paperwork to run for president as a Democrat. (FT)• Former President Barack Obama urged Democrats “to chill out” about the differences among the party’s 2020 candidates. (NYT)• Barry Lee Myers, whose nomination by President Trump to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration remained unconfirmed by the Senate, asked the White House to withdraw it. (NYT)Tech• Several websites owned by a former Fox News executive, Ken LaCorte, push inflammatory items — stories, petitions and the occasional conspiracy theory — to the public, according to a new investigation. (NYT)• Microsoft was granted a license from the U.S. government to export “mass-market” software to Huawei. (Reuters)• Google is coming under scrutiny over concerns about how it might employ user data from its acquisition of the wearables maker Fitbit. (FT)• Why the Fed thinks a digital dollar is not coming anytime soon. (MIT Technology Review)Best of the rest• Here’s a juicy inside look at the fall of WeWork. (Vanity Fair)• Democratic senators want the Fed to do more to prepare for the economic hit of climate change. (WSJ)• A close look at the Deutsche Bank C.E.O.’s last-ditch plan to save the bank. (Bloomberg)• How Amazon became a C.E.O. factory. (WSJ)Thanks for reading! We’ll see you next week.We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]. Source link Read the full article

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toomanysinks · 5 years

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A look inside crypto firm Galaxy Digital, founded by “sidelined” Wall Street legend Mike Novogratz

Mike Novogratz, a former hedge fund manager who was once captain of Princeton’s college wrestling team, has been described as many things, including in just one New Yorker article in which he was featured last year. An on-and-off-again billionaire. A sidelined Wall Street legend. “Bombastic.” “Full of shit.” A former party animal whose “lifestyle issues” led to his removal as a partner at Goldman Sachs back in 2000.

While Novogratz appears to be beloved by many friends, despite these qualities or perhaps because of them, he may be more notable as a risk-taker who has racked up big wins — and big losses — first at Goldman, then at Fortress Investments. Now, he’s trying to rebuild his fortune with his own merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, which describes itself as a “bridge between the crypto and institutional worlds,” and which is squarely focused on cryptocurrencies and the promise of new blockchain technologies. It may be a smashing success, but failure looks like an option again, too. At least, as of November, Galaxy had suffered at least $136 million in trading losses.

To better understand the firm and whether it has what it takes to stick around, we talked last week with Sam Englebart, a longtime media and tech investor who first began managing money for Novogratz’s family office and wound up cofounding Galaxy with him. Englebart — who was visiting San Francisco from New York for the weeklong Game Developers Conference — oversees the outfit’s principal investments business and the EOS.io Ecosystem Fund, a $325 million joint venture with Block.one that’s focused on making investments in projects that utilize the EOS.io blockchain software. We asked about Galaxy’s not-very-good 2018 and how Englebart, Novogratz, and the rest of their 75-person team can produce the returns they expect to see. Our chat has been edited lightly for length.

TC: For our readers who aren’t familiar with Galaxy Digital, what’s the elevator pitch?

SE: It’s an investment bank with a balance sheet to invest. We invest in everything blockchain and crypto related and in the future of tech broadly. We had two pools of capital, our balance sheet, and we’re also publicly traded in Toronto [having executed a reverse merger with a shell company on the exchange]. We’ve invested several hundred million dollars already in blockchain and crypto investments and tokens.

TC: One of the things you oversee is a venture fund that counts Block.one as the only limited partner other than Galaxy. Block.one develops software known as eos.io, a blockchain-based infrastructure software.

SE: It’s an evolution of bitcoin and ethereum; it’s another blockchain protocol that allows [developers] to build applications atop it that are decentralized. Block.one did a token sale and had enormous success, raising $4 billion dollars. And having raised all this money for the development of their protocol, they wanted to allocate some of it back to professional VCs who could then invest in way that’s beneficial to [its own] ecosystem, so they committed $1 billion to partner VC funds. Well, they are managing $400 million themselves, and $600 million is being managed by five partner funds, of which we’re managing $300 million. [The funds] are all geographically diverse. We’re the largest and cover North America.

TC: And you kicked in $25 million to have some skin in the game. Do you co-invest in anything with the other partner funds or share deal flow in any way? Also, does Block.one have to sign off on what you want to fund?

SE: Generally speaking, we’re trying to stay somewhat close to our geography, but if we see a great deal in Asia, we might share it with [former Jefferies Asia CEO Michael Alexander, the fund manager there] and take a share. And ours is ultimately a fund managed by Galaxy. We work closely and collaboratively with [Block.one] but they aren’t technically on our investment committee.

TC: What other products does Galaxy have?

SE: We’re also in the process of raising a credit and special opportunities fund to make structured credit investments in the . space. We have an index fund. It’s a portfolio of investment products. Galaxy Digital more broadly has an investment business, a trading business — Mike is best-known for and been a macro trader for most of his career and is now trading around crypto tokens and liquid products — and then and advisory business, too. We’re a registered broker-dealer doing M&A advisory, increasingly focusing on what we think will be opportunities as startups begin to [consolidate their efforts], and also doing traditional capital raising for startups and later-stage companies.

TC: Of those, which is your biggest business?

SE: Our investment business is our biggest business by far. Our trading business is growing quickly, even through a downturn in the market, though it’s really taking the longest to stand up as any trading business would. Our advisory business is [the most nascent].

TC: Galaxy found a way to go public back in August. Why was that important to the firm to do?

SE: If we’d just wanted to be a venture business, we didn’t need to go public. But we’re in this phase where institutional investors are going to want and need exposure to blockchain [investments] and crypto, while at the same time, it’s going to be a while before they feel comfortable buying these assets directly. Things are changing. Andreessen Horowitz has a [crypto] fund. [Former Sequoia Capital partner] Matt Huang has a fund now. They’re credible investors. But change takes time. And in terms of custody and insurance and CYA-type stuff, we felt having a public currency was the easiest way for investors to do it who don’t want to lock up their capital in a fund but who want to bet broadly across the space.

Not much of the company is floated. We think that as we prove out what we’re building [that will change].

TC: Is it safe to say that last year was pretty brutal, especially given that the firm officially opened its doors last January?

SE: Oh, yeah, definitely, though it was a somewhat predictable selloff from in hindsight. I don’t care what the asset class it is — when things go up with that kind of velocity, they tend to come down with equal momentum. People got very excited. What’s unique about crypto and blockchain relative to other retail [offerings is that it’s] possible for the average person to buy into the frenzy. The development of other tech has involved professional investors taking risk in a calculated manner, but suddenly, [crypto] was available to everyone. And it was the evolution of crowdfunding and social media and information spreads fast, and when the message is that you can get rich fast, people are going to go for it.

Presumably, many retail investors who got in got out, along with people who’d been in the space a while and took their profits. So things were never as good or as bad as they seemed. Despite the ‘crypto winter,’ companies have been [at work] and a lot of the hype is turning into actual working technology.

TC: So no more frenzies or bubbles?

SE: We’ll definitely see more as this technology continues to develop. We’re still a ways away from it being the seamless technology we enjoy with the web. But it’s probably not all that different from what we lived through the last time around, where a few companies become massively important and a lot of them don’t.

TC: How do you rate SEC chief Jay Clayton? Are you in favor of SEC regulating more of this new world?

SE: Yes, for sure. Fair, researched, smart regulation is absolutely what an industry like this needs, along with making sure people understand that there will be standards in terms of behavior and business practices that every industry needs. I think the more, reasonable regulation we have, the better everyone will be.

TC: Is there a country whose regulations or approach you’d like the U.S. to adopt?

SE: There isn’t one particular place where I think, The U.S. should do this. We’re our own unique country, with our own issues and problems and benefits. I do [hope that] in an increasingly global world, we don’t over-regulate ourselves to the point of people building technology elsewhere. There’s a lot at stake.

TC: What has you most excited right now about the deals you’re seeing?

SE: Video games and digital objects are one of the reasons I’m excited. Many will integrate blockchain technology in important ways that will matter this year, and, by the way, I don’t think we’re many years away from web 3.0 and the decentralized internet from being ubiquitous in the same way that we’d be shocked today if we encountered a business that had no exposure to the internet.

TC: What applications are close?

SE: The trickiest thing is to remember [not to expect an] old medium with a new tech thing stuck on it. The reason there’s been so much talk about blockchain and video games, for example, is because the [gaming] world is made up of digital objects. Meanwhile, people have recognized that the blockchain allows you to create truly scarce digital objects that someone can truly own and trade as they as they would a physical object. With respect to gaming, that means you can truly start to own the digital objects you are [using in gaming] or, if you’re a collector of certain physical objects, how you collect them will become gamified in digital ways.

Consider that owning something is really about status. You show your friends, you achieve the status of owning that thing, then you either put it in your closet or trade it for money. In the digital world, you don’t have to go through the process of dealing with that physical object that has to be stored or else packed and shipped to someone else. There’s a startup for example, VIRL, that buys custom shoes, then digitizes them using a volumetric camera system that turns them into a 3D object that you can see on your phone and authenticate as being one of say, only 10 copies. These digital sneakers — these non-fungible tokens — can then remain in the collector’s inventory or be made tradable through an exchange. And it just takes a second. You can have your item instantly.

The lines between commerce and gaming and trading grow more blurred by the day.

TC: What’s your driving thesis?

SE: That the digital world will be no different than the physical world as we invest more and more time in digital worlds and our digital identity, and included in that is the inventory of stuff we own. We’re going to demand that no one can take that away from us.

Above: Mike Novogratz speaks during the 2018 Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit at The Times Center on September 20, 2018 in New York City.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/25/a-look-inside-crypto-firm-digital-galaxy-founded-by-sidelined-wall-street-legend-mike-novogratz/

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fmservers · 5 years

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A look inside crypto firm Digital Galaxy, founded by “sidelined” Wall Street legend Mike Novogratz

To better understand the firm and whether it has what it takes to stick around, we talked last week with Sam Englebart, a longtime media and tech investor who first began managing money for Novogratz’s family office and wound up cofounding Galaxy with him. Englebart — who was visiting San Francisco from New York for Game Developer’s Conference — oversees the outfit’s principal investments business and the EOS.io Ecosystem Fund, a $325 million joint venture with Block.one that’s focused on making investments in projects that utilize the EOS.io blockchain software. We asked about Galaxy’s not-very-good 2018 and how Englebart, Novogratz, and the rest of their 75-person team can produce the returns they expect to see. Our chat has been edited lightly for length.

TC: For our readers who aren’t familiar with Galaxy Digital, what’s the elevator pitch?

SE: It’s an evolution of bitcoin and ethereum; it’s another blockchain protocol that allows [developers] to build applications atop it that are decentralized. Block.one did a token sale last year and had enormous success, raising $4 billion dollars in their token sale. And having raised all this money for the development of their protocol, they wanted to allocate some of it back to professional VCs who could then invest in way that’s beneficial to [its own] ecosystem, so they committed $1 billion to partner VC funds. Well, they are managing $400 million themselves and $600 million is being managed by five partner funds, of which we’re managing $300 million. [The funds] are all geographically diverse. We’re the largest and cover North America.

TC: What other products does Galaxy have?

TC: Of those, which is your biggest business?

TC: Galaxy found a way to go public back in August. Why was that important to the firm to do?

Not much of the company is floated. We think that as we prove out what we’re building [that will change].

TC: Is it safe to say that last year was pretty brutal, especially given that the firm officially opened its doors last January?

TC: So no more frenzies or bubbles?

TC: How do you rate SEC chief Jay Clayton? Are you in favor of SEC regulating more of this new world?

TC: Is there a country whose regulations or approach you’d like the U.S. to adopt?

TC: What has you most excited right now about the deals you’re seeing?

TC: What applications are close?

The lines between commerce and gaming and trading grow more blurred by the day.

TC: What’s your driving thesis?

Above: Mike Novogratz speaks during the 2018 Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit at The Times Center on September 20, 2018 in New York City.

Via Connie Loizos https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

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ultra-mindoverdata-posts-blog · 6 years

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4.3 Forecast and Predictions

Forecast Analysis

Nike, Inc. is a North American company, that has its roots in Oregon. In 2017, President Trump made it quite clear that it was important to the administration that job creation within our country is critical. In order to do this big companies needed to bring their factories back to the U.S. A concern of Nike, or ‘ Risk Factors’ is the depended success depending on global distribution centers. “We distribute our products to customers directly from the factory and through distribution centers located throughout the world. Our ability to meet customer expectations, manage inventory, complete sales and achieve objectives for operating efficiencies and growth, particularly in emerging markets, depends on the proper operation of our distribution facilities, the development or expansion of additional distribution capabilities and the timely performance of services by third parties (including those involved in shipping product to and from our distribution facilities). Our distribution facilities could be interrupted by information technology problems and disasters such as earthquakes or fires. Any significant failure in our distribution facilities could result in an adverse effect on our business. We maintain business interruption insurance, but it may not adequately protect us from adverse effects that could be caused by significant disruptions in our distribution facilities.”

The most significant dilemma or potential failure would be technological data interruption or fumble. ‘We rely significantly on information technology to operate our business, including our supply chain and retail operations, and any failure, inadequacy or interruption of that technology could harm our ability to effectively operate our business.’ The management of data and keeping it clean to properly work for the company is huge! If let’s say the network crashes, the data gets tampered with or there is a failure to repair. Let’s say the company that is in charge of maintaining that data gets hit by an asteroid… What will happen to Nike than?

The way to achieve competitive advantage or give the highest utility to consumers is through value creation. ‘For a firm to achieve a real value, it does so through: Value= Utility-Cost

Nike holds the market share in the foot apparel industry, thus has an advantage. ‘Through its supply chain management, Nike is able to change inventory faster.’ (iknow)

Risk Avoidance

Value = Utility- Cost… Nike acquired the data heavy giant Zodiacto bring inhouse data platforms internally. With the Acquisition of the company, Nike brings in predictive analytics that will help it crunch all the data it collects as it rolls out connecting products and experiences to help Nike make predictions about their consumers. ‘According to LinkedIn, Zodiac leverages a company’s historical transaction logs to predict customers’ future buying habits. This, in turn, helps improve customer acquisition, reduce churn and enhance the accuracy of sales forecasts, according to Zodiac. A Nike rep said the acquisition enhances the brand’s ability to serve consumers one-to-one as a result of a deeper understanding of their goals and needs, and Zodiac also brings with it a team of data science talent.

Michael Horn, managing director of data science at digital marketing agency Huge, said the deal comes amid a “ferocious hiring climate” for top data science talent. “So, this is just as likely to be an acqui-hire of staff, plus some IP, to accelerate Nike’s ambitions,” he said. “It’s hard enough to a brand as visible and admired as Nike to build a data science team—let alone hundreds of other brands which are struggling to attract and pay for transformative data talent.”

As of March 29, Nike has more than 300 open jobs listed under the keyword “data.” “I think this is a trend you’ll see a lot of brands with strong direct-to-consumer initiatives taking—building up in-house data science teams as well as strengthening the customer data platforms, not just because retailers tend to not share this with brands, but moreover the brands need the deep data insights for more accurate personalization of their products and services,” said Manolo Almagro, managing director at technology consultancy Q Division. Horn pointed out that Nike has long recognized an opportunity to differentiate itself at the intersection of wearables, IoT and quantified health as it puts sensors on everything from basketball courts to shoes to uniforms. “That data streams in by the fraction of a second and can be used to predict the performance of fitness enthusiasts, professional athletes or even entire sports teams,” Horn said. “Nike experiences like Nike+ and the Run Club [which Huge helped build] are the future of customer relationships for the brand and drive investments like this. And their competitors [like Under Armour] are doing the same thing.” ‘(Adweek)

There will always be risk involved, but with the contingency of preparing for those probable circumstances it’s possible to stay above the water.

Total Quality Control (TQC)

‘Nike emphasizes quality in its processes and products. The company’s operations management addresses this concern through high quality standards and the application of total quality management (TQM) in the production of sports shoes, equipment and apparel.’ (panmore)

Nike’s underlining goal is to provide the world with a more sustainable way of living. By developing new techniques in their processes, as well as developing new materials from plastic waste… Nike creates a ton of data. The push to constant purpose toward improvement is found in the knowledge of the past, of the present and the future. The knowledge of the economic current of change, the planning for short term and long-term solutions, and finding ways to do things better than before. Nike is continuing to do this through the development of innovative techniques, partnerships, new materials that are energy saving and the collaborations with influencers.

Nike has adopted a new philosophy centered around their ‘Category Offense’ and mastering their Digital Business. ‘Our mission is what drives us to do everything possible to expand human potential. We do that by creating groundbreaking sport innovations, by making our products more sustainably, by building a creative and diverse global team and by making a positive impact in communities where we live and work. To us, innovation is about elevating human potential. We obsess the needs of the world’s best athletes, using their insights to create products that are beautiful and useful for everybody. To make big leaps, we take big risks. Incremental change won’t get us to where we want to go fast enough. Nike is a place where everyone is an explorer. We bring together diverse perspectives— scientists and shoe designers, coders and quarterbacks—to share knowledge of the body in motion. At Nike, we serve athletes...billions of them. Because, as our co-founder said, if you have a body, you’re an athlete.’ (About)

By Rethinking the Fundamentals, and committing to 100% renewable energy, Nike Is embracing sustainable innovation and potential. On the job training , New implementation of leadership… which Nike has devoted to “Making Athletes Better”, and eliminating management by objectives through Category Offense.

Six Sigma

Nike used the Six Sigma program in its manufacturing processes and the program helped the company reduce wasted material and time to ensure supply chains were working more efficiently. Nike reported a 50% reduction in defect rates, 40% faster lead times, 20% improvement in productivity, and 30% reduction in time taken to introduce a new model. [Gas12] Nike has also reported success with integrating Human Resources and Lean Six Sigma. Nike addressed the needs of both factories and workers by measuring performance using three different tools: Quality award programs that set criteria and motivate employees, institute improvement programs that train employees using lean and Six Sigma, and external benchmarking programs that identify improvement opportunities, pinpoint internal best practices, and establish a performance-focused culture. [Ket16]

Lean manufacturing has served Nike well, and with obtaining both Zodiac and IT companyInvertexit’s a big move. ‘Invertex specializes in developing scan-to-fit solutions for the footwear industry. In the USA, only eight percent of shoes are sold online, with a 40 percent response rate. Invertex should now minimize this. The company offers digital customer service models based on 3D technologies. With the product Scanmate a precise foot mapping should be possible, also in the retail trade.’ (ispo)

Nike’s Sustainability report is the direct reply to the six sigma and lean innovation. ‘As part of its efforts to promote Lean sustainability and disruptive innovation, Nike is fully behind the so-called “circular economy” concept, which focuses on re-use and sustainability management across the full product lifecycle. Nike envisions a transition from linear to circular business models and a world that demands closed-loop products, designed with better materials, made with fewer resources and assembled to allow easy reuse in new products.

This involves up-front product design, with materials reclaimed throughout the manufacturing process and at the end of a product’s life. Nike is re-imagining waste streams as value streams, and already its designers have access to a palette of more than 29 high-performance materials made from its manufacturing waste. Already, materials left over from producing Nike shoes are being reborn as tennis courts, athletic tracks and new shoes.

With its strategy based on 2 principles, “Make Today Better” and “Design the Future”, Nike sets the following goals for sustainability improvement by 2020:

· To source 100% of products from contract factories meeting the company’s definition of sustainable.

· To have zero waste from contracted footwear manufacturer sent to landfill or incineration without energy recovery.

· To create products that deliver maximum performance with minimum environmental impact, seeking a 10% reduction in the average environmental footprint and an increased use of more sustainable materials overall.

· To reach 100% renewable energy in owned or operated facilities by the end of 2025.

(Leansixsigma)

Source: shmula.com

Process Flow Chart

Conclusion

The first steps into creating a consistent renewal of contingency is admitting and preparing for failure. Through the blog, I’ve demonstrated how BIA is used through Nike and how with process like lean manufacturing, community building user-generated communication and sustainability. Nike has always kept its competitors at bay with innovation, however when the company started to invest in the benefit of people over product, it allowed them to continuously research the human body and its abilities. The data from Nike as a whole and Its subsidiaries, have gotten an upgrade through the inhouse prediction analytics company Zodiac.

Nike has already put its best foot forward toward being revolutionary. This Blog lays out just how possible that is .

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inside919 · 7 years

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This just on... https://inside919.com/business/digital-privacy-and-cybersecurity-round-table-growing-threat/

Digital privacy and cybersecurity round table: Growing threat

Appeared as a sponsored section in the November 2017 issue of Business North Carolina

Bryan Regan

There’s no denying that cybercrime is on the rise. In May, sensitive information about 143 million Americans was taken from Atlanta-based Equifax Inc., and investigations into Russian hacking affecting last year’s presidential election are underway. Even small businesses and individuals are targets. Business North Carolina magazine recently assembled a panel of cybersecurity experts to help define the threats and offer defenses.

Brooks Raiford, president and CEO of Raleigh-based North Carolina Technology Association, moderated the discussion, which was hosted at the Raleigh office of the Brooks Pierce law firm. Brooks Pierce, Charlotte-based Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP and Montreat College provided support. The transcript was edited for brevity and clarity.

How do businesses and individuals view cybersecurity? How are they being attacked?

QUICK: I represent small to midsized businesses. Many wonder what they can do when large companies with seemingly endless resources, such as [Minneapolis-based] Target Corp. or Equifax, are breached. They wonder if they should do anything, which is even scarier. We suggest solutions to those who ask, but there are probably just as many not asking.

NYE: The businesses targeted continue to evolve in which virtually all sectors are a target. Now, new and emerging techniques are being used on the back end. Many attacks originate from phishing campaigns, which use an email to target an individual. The subject hopes the recipient of the email will trust the validity of the email and click on a link or an attachment that contains malware. The FBI investigates insider threats, business email compromises and email account takeovers. We’re seeing a rise in real-estate fraud, where cybercriminals manipulate homeowners during closing, providing the buyer with new wiring instructions that reroute money.

KOTYNSKI: Criminals are learning company processes such as vendor payment. They inject themselves in the middle, where they have access to financial information or money. We’re a public entity, so many of our processes are accessible to the public. That makes us a bigger target.

DILLARD: Many small to midsized companies are leaving themselves wide open for an attack by having nonexistent or minimal cybersecurity infrastructure. That also leaves little usable forensic data after a breach. The coverage gap is mostly due to a lack of awareness of the risks. Some don’t believe they are a target. That changes after a breach, especially when they face a huge bill to clean up the mess.

THOMPSON: Many top executives believe the answer is simply hiring a corporate information officer. But there needs to be more behind the scenes than up-to-date technology. They need tools to communicate with their technology team and whoever comes to help after a breach.

SAINE: State government is the largest repository of residents’ data in North Carolina. It’s our job to protect residents. Our challenge is improving interaction between residents and their government. We must remain transparent through both, which can be difficult. We don’t want to telegraph our weaknesses, particularly to segments that want to harm us.

How does cybersecurity affect businesses?

SAINE: It’s a cost factor, especially for small businesses. They are handling more digital interactions, such as point of sale, which create more exposure. A data leak could close their business. I’m chairman of the [N.C.] House’s Information Technology Appropriations Committee. We brought together appropriations chairpersons to better warn of risks and share solutions. We consolidated the IT department for similar reasons. Last session we worked on limiting liability for IT vendors.

QUICK: Many small businesses can’t afford a cybersecurity expert. Many are running 10-year-old systems that haven’t been updated or had software patches installed. That makes it near impossible to assess their risks or identify when a breach has happened. Know your customer notification requirements before a breach, because they are different in every state that you do business. Every company should have a data privacy task force that includes top executives, IT folks, human resources and representation from every facet of the business.

DILLARD: Notification law is where businesses, especially those with a limited budget, can quickly fall into serious trouble by, for example, notifying the wrong people at the wrong time. You need to know your first step after an intrusion. Who do you call? How were your business and customers exposed? Don’t make IT solely responsible. It can’t see every risk. Businesses need to identify and prioritize their risks and then mitigate them.

THOMPSON: N.C. State and Montreat are members of National Center for Academic Excellence Program in Cyber Defense, which is jointly operated by National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security. Montreat is looking at ways to help the community by leveraging its resources. As students learn skills, they can work with businesses in the community. Not only does that give students great work experience, but it also could provide a less expensive cybersecurity option to businesses that can’t afford a consultant.

KOTYNSKI: We use many interns from the Poole College of Management. They eventually will be business owners. We try to give them a taste of what we see day to day. When we talk to businesses, it’s less about who they need to notify after a breach and more about opening their eyes to the fact that someone does want their information.

NYE: It goes back to awareness. Look at the most valuable assets manufactured and owned by your company. What would someone want to steal? Once you have that defined, you can educate your employees, especially those outside your IT staff, about protecting it. Companies regularly hold fire drills, so why don’t we rehearse for a cyber incident? In the event of a cyber incident with your company, you’ll be better off if you create and practice your response.

What types of cybercrimes happen in North Carolina?

NYE: We see everything, because North Carolina is a leader in many industries — financially motivated hackers to hacktivists hacking for socioeconomic or political causes to insider threats to state-sponsored intrusions to cyberterrorism. Cyberterrorists have disseminated lists of personal identifying information that include North Carolina residents and ask for lone wolves in the U.S. to attack them. North Carolina has world-famous educational institutions. Research Triangle Park is a global center for technology and business. Charlotte is a leader in the finance industry. We’re assisting with awareness and discussing the threats, but more needs to be done. Cyber intrusions and cybercrime affect everyone. The target could be monetary funds or intellectual property or personal identifying information, which could be sold on the dark web for a profit. Most people don’t recognize the demand for their information. Cybercriminals are after everything right now.

What is ransomwareand how is it being used?

NYE: Ransomware encrypts a user’s important files, documents or even their entire computer, making all of that information unreadable until a ransom is paid. In theory, the data is returned or computer unlocked once a ransom is paid. However, that is not always the case. These attacks have increased and become more and more sophisticated, to include attacks on Internet of Things devices, because criminals have created a very profitable marketplace. The cybercriminals behind this generally are asking for ransom amounts that are in line with a business’ or individual’s ability to pay.The FBI’s policy is not to pay the ransom because payment only encourages the criminals to continue this activity. If an individual does decide to pay, the cybercriminals may ask for more and more money ultimately never decrypting the data. And there’s no guarantee that your data will be returned or usable after payment. In an attempt to circumvent the problem, we encourage regularly backing up your data. Then in the event of a ransomware attack, a user can restore their infected machine with a backup instead of paying the ransom. But what if the ransomware attack also includes the release of the encrypted data to the public? In talking about creating a response plan in the event of a cyber incident, companies should include ransomware attacks and extortion in that plan. That response plan also should include contacting law enforcement to assist if you are the victim of a cyber intrusion.

How do you convince a technology challenged executive that cybersecurity is needed?

DILLARD: We focus on brand, reputation and ability to deliver — things that resonate with most executives. If we can show how an intrusion or breach puts those at risk, then it makes sense to them. The adoption rate is still low, but that’s where we see the best results. It’s sad. We talk to health care practice owners, and they are hesitant to do all of the things needed to prevent a breach and protect patient privacy. We can warn them, and we can be there for them when the worst happens.

What role does privacy protection play in cybersecurity?

SAINE: Residents have to decide how much information they want to share. Smartphones, for example, provide navigation by locating their users with GPS. But that data also shows where they’ve been. That’s OK if I allowed my data to be used like that, but what if I didn’t or there is a breach? There are many policy questions that are evolving around privacy. Things are moving quickly on a bipartisan online privacy and data release bill that I co-sponsored. Many House members didn’t have a good understanding of those terms when we first brought it to the floor because they never considered them. One member said, “I’d like to know if my employee goes to church or not on Sunday.” That’s not our business or the business of an employer. People need to understand the implications of opting in on data use. Sometimes they don’t realize they are allowing it. Who reads the agreement when you can’t wait to use your new app?

How is education responding?

THOMPSON: Montreat is one of a few faith-based liberal arts colleges that offer a cybersecurity major. While most approach it through technology, Montreat focuses on the human component. We need to underscore character and ethics education in this space from the earliest grades. We need to explain the ramifications of what’s done in the digital space. No one will care if there’s a scandalous online picture of you in 20 years, because I believe everyone will have one by then. But one could cost you a job right now. Faith-based institutions and service academies are the only two groups of colleges that are overtly teaching character in this space. Many people aren’t discussing it. It’s a losing proposition until you focus on the person at the keyboard. University of Tulsa makes its cyber program students complete a federal security clearance form. That may be extreme, but it’s a way to ensure honest students are educated and bad ones aren’t weaponized.

KOTYNSKI: Today’s students have spent most of their lives on smartphones. Everything is 6 inches from their face. Then there are faculty members, who may have retired from their industry 10 years ago, who don’t want to get involved in that technology. You have to find common ground, where everyone is safe and sane. It’s impossible to get some kind of adoption across the board because you’ll never hit all of the right marks.

What parameters should you put on your data collection and storage?

QUICK: Every business needs to examine the information it has stored. If you’re collecting scanned driver’s licenses to ensure your sweepstakes entrants are 18 years or older, for example, you only need them for a short time. If you keep them and there’s a breach, you’ll have to notify each person. Even an old computer in the back room is a risk if it’s accessible. Find out where information is stored and if old source methods have been eliminated before something happens.

DILLARD: You have to know your system and the data that’s on it. Only then can you install proper protective measures. If you’re following your policy of encrypting data on your computers, for example, then it won’t be accessible to whoever recycles them. There’s no magic in it. The same fundamentals apply, no matter your data or who is managing it.

THOMPSON: If I’m a small or midsized business deciding between storing data in-house or with a large company, I would lean toward the latter. They have teams dedicated to making sure protection is up to specifications. I know that I don’t know very much about an attacker’s likely approaches. So I want help. But even that isn’t a sure thing. I lose several credit cards to suspicious activity each year. There’s no pain to me. I get a new card, and my bank pays the bill. The recent Equifax breach affects millions, but I won’t lose sleep over it. I’m curious to see what will make people say it’s a threat to businesses and society.

Click here so see a PDF of the section

#cybersecurity #DIGITAL #growing #privacy #round #Table #threat

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cstesttaken · 7 years

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Mastering modern marketing technology leadership over 2 intense days

We’re only 7 weeks away from the conference in San Francisco, May 9-11. This will be the biggest and best one yet, with 70+ sessions, 100+ speakers, 100+ exhibitors and sponsors, and 2,500+ marketing and marketing technology leaders gathering together to meet, learn, and be inspired by each other.

If you’re working the intersection of marketing, technology, and management, this event has been lovingly hand-crafted for you — and I’m eager to give you a glimpse of what to expect.

But first, a quick alert: the discounted “beta” rate for tickets expires on April 1. (No, we’re not fooling.) So if you want to guarantee a spot (and a hotel room!) at a great price, I encourage to .

Here’s what an all-access ticket will give you over a whirlwind 48 hours…

Stackies & Hackies: An Opening Night Reception That Will Inspire You

On the evening of May 9, we’ll kick off with a celebration of the winners of . Unlike typical industry “awards,” which often are nice for the winners but not very helpful for anyone else, these contests both focus on promoting the sharing of truly valuable insights with the community. Learn how your peers . This is pure marketing operations gold.

We’ll look at some of the best examples at the awards ceremony, but you’ll be able to download the entire deck of marketing stack entries — as well download a complete ebook of all the Hackie essays that people sent in, sharing their best “hacks” in marketing technology management.

(By the way, it’s not too late to enter your marketing stack or “hacking marketing” essay if you want to contribute!)

You’ll also have the opportunity to mingle with over 100 marketing technology vendors and servivce providers — of course, over complimentary beer, wine, and other beverages.

(I’m not supposed to say that there could be an informal drinking contest, where every time you hear “artificial intelligence” you take a swig, but…)

Seriously though, as the world’s largest independent exhibit of marketing tech companies, I guarantee that you will discover incredible new capabilities that you couldn’t have even imagined were possible. The massive innovation underway in this space will be on full display and will be an eye-opening experience unto itself.

(Big thanks to our title sponsors Amplero and Workfront for sponsoring the Stackies & Hackies Awards and opening reception!)

But this evening is just the warm up…

May 10: MORNING KEYNOTES

You can get an early start on the day by joining us for a sponsored breakfast and presentation on modern project management from Workfront. The food will be available at 7:00am sharp — to the relief of East-coast visitors such as myself — and then Workfront will give a 30-minute talk at 8:15am.

The whole conference will then come together for a 90-minute keynote program that will tackle the big, key marketing technology topics that are relevant to everyone working at this interdisciplinary intersection.

I’ll start with an update on The State of Marketing Technology 2017: What practices are the leading companies adopting? How is the competitive martech landscape evolving? What emerging technologies are shaping the future of marketing in a “digital everything” world?

, one of the world’s pioneering chief marketing technologists and now the global VP of marketing and growth at will then join me on stage to dive into balancing The Art & Science of Marketing. Where exactly are the boundaries between these two seemingly opposed yet thoroughly entangled worldviews? How is technology shifting the lines between them? And, most importantly, how can marketers and marketing technologists harness the tension of this marketing yin-and-yang to achieve maximum impact on their brands?

Finally, superstar CMO of MongoDB and her senior director of marketing technology and strategy, , will join me for a candid fireside chat on one of the most critical topics in marketing technology management today: The Secrets to a Great Partnership Between a CMO and a Head of Martech.

We’ll discuss issues such as:

How does CMO-level strategy get mapped into marketing technology capabilities?

How are martech capabilities successfully adopted by other teams across tmarketing?

How does the discovery of new marketing technologies and tactics influence strategy back up to the C-suite?

May 10: EXECUTIVE TRACK

Designed for senior marketing and technology leaders — VPs and CxOs — who must address the organizational challenges of marketing technology management from the top down, this track will give you an inside view into how executives at some of the world’s top companies are leading in this new kind of marketing environment.

Liam O’Connor of the strategic advisory firm will lead a discussion on Delivering Business Results with Marketing Technology with Jennifer Chick, VP marketing execution & operations at Hilton Worldwide, Grad Conn, GM & CMO lead at Microsoft, and Scott Harris, senior director of enterprise marketing at Adobe — who helps lead how they run their own internal marketing technology stack — to help you answer these questions:

How do you take a strategic, portfolio-level view of the complex world of marketing tech?

How do you balance scale & innovation to deliver outstanding customer experiences?

How do you measure results and understand the return from your martech investments?

What skills are needed to be successful with martech, and how do you build an effective team?

of the leading martech recruiting firm and , contributor to , will hone in on the talent management issues that senior marketing leaders face with How Chief Marketers From Visa, Belkin, and Oracle Are Transforming Their Teams and Talent. Kieran Hannon, CMO of Belkin, Lara Hood Balazs, SVP of North America at Visa, and , VP marketing at Oracle Data Cloud — and one of my favorite marketing columnsists — will share their insights on:

How to orchestrate a successful, inclusive marketing re-org

When to staff your marketing team with experts versus generalists

How to land and unleash talent at the intersection of marketing and technology

What the most customer-centric marketing organizations of tomorrow will look like

The next session will be two back-to-back TED-style talks: Turning Your Marketing Team into a Profit Center a case study with , chief digital marketing and analytics officer at Sears, and then The 4 Cornerstones to Become a Universal (Marketing) Soldier in 2017 by , chief marketing & strategy officer at Mindtree. Both will address how the role of the marketing leader needs to evolve to achieve the right balance across technology, analytics, and execution.

Finally, I will moderate an open panel discussion, Investing in the Future of Martech, with several of the leading venture capitalists in marketing technology — of Battery Ventures, of Foundation Capital, and of Shasta Ventures. VCs and CMOs increasingly have a symbiotic relationship in the marketing technology space, mutually evaluating a rapidly evolving landscape. This session will cover:

The health of martech startup funding in 2017

The relative maturity of different martech product categories

The balance between industry consolidation and new disruptive innovation

Hot new areas of martech investment, such as AI, VR and IoT

Identifying which startups to bet on – and how to hedge one’s bets

May 10: DATA & ANALYTICS TRACK

If martech is the engine, data is the fuel — and analytics are the road to insight. And, wow, that’s an overextended metaphor. But this track will take you far beyond the data and analytics platitudes that we’ve all heard before with four advanced sessions, each with two back-to-back TED-style talks.

First up will be Matt Marolda, chief analytics officer at Legendary Entertainment — the studio behind blockbuster films such as Godzilla, The Hangover, and Jurassic World — with A Legendary Approach: Disrupting Hollywood with Paradigms and Analytics. He will reveal how they use data and analytics to ensure maximum return on every marketing dollar the studio spends. Learn how they apply analytics to inform decisions like which movies to make, which actors to cast, and when to release the final product — and overcome the operational challenges of connecting disparate data sources in a way that is actionable.

Matt’s talk will be paired with a joint presentation, Marketing with Data During the Digital Revolution, by Glenn White, director of marketing infrastructure at Electronic Arts, and Katrin Ribant, chief solutions officer at Dataroma. They’ll explain how EA uses first-party data effectively, diving into data federation and identity mapping challenges.

The next pair of TED-style talks will start with How Pandora Leveraged Marketing Analytics to Make Real-Time Decisions that Drive Results with Lisa Sullivan-Cross, VP brand and growth marketing at Pandora, and Mike Driscoll, CEO of Metamarkets. They’ll describe how they applied interactive analytics to turn Pandora’s data into opportunities — a transparent and flexible approach to exploring and visualizing data, allowing marketers to get answers in real time and quickly take action on them.

It will be followed by Tales from the Trenches: Data Disasters and How to Avoid Them by of Analytics Demystified. Her presentation is a tactical exposé of common analytics terrors and how to resolve them, as well as preventative measures and best practices in data governance to keep those disasters at bay.

In the next two talks, , director of marketing operations at LogMeIn, will start by sharing 7 KPIs That Every Business Should be Reporting on, Analyzing and Forecasting. Busting the myths of old-school measures that are inadequate for today’s business decision-makers, he’ll describe seven modern KPIs that inform business decisions, including “marketing contribution to pipeline” and “expected lifetime value of a first-time visitor.”

Then , director of marketing at Digital Clarity, will explain The Meaning and Impact of Emerging Data Protection Regulations. He will focus on the marketing technology stack requirements to be in compliance with the most pressing changes, so you’re armed with practical guidance about regulations already passed in the EU which impact US companies — and ready for similar regulatory efforts in the US.

The last double-header in this track will start with The Identity Resolution Imperative: Building the Foundation for Marketing in a Post-Digital World by , vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. As customer experiences become more complex and span multiple interactions, channels and devices, identity resolution will make or break brands’ ability to harness customer insights and orchestrate marketing programs. Joe will present the current and emerging applications of identity resolution and a framework that brands can follow as they develop their own identity resolution strategies.

Finally, master martech analyst — the fellow who first identified the “customer data platform” (CDP) movement — will present Singing the Customer Data Platform Blues. (Spoiler alert: an actual song may be performed.) He’ll examine the complexities of creating a unified customer view, the stages of building one, alternative strategies for moving forward and technologies available to smooth the path:

Functions required to create a unified customer view

How unified customer data relates to the overall marketing architecture

Finding the right balance between shared systems and point solutions

Realistic timelines and budgets for creating a unified customer database

What data to store centrally and what to read from source systems on demand

May 10: ADTECH & SOCIAL TRACK

We’ll start with a pair of advanced TED-style talks on advertising in social and search channels. First, , digital marketing manager at Zendesk and , CEO of AdStage, will present How to Align Your Marketing Automation with Social Ads. They’ll reveal real use cases examples of how to marry your CRM data (first-party data) with targeted ads to connect with those same people on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn — delivering personalized individual-level advertising that can done with existing marketing automation campaigns.

They’ll be followed by Pravin Thampi, global product manager of search marketing at Groupon, who will discuss Intelligent Bidding Using Non-SEM Sources. He’ll describe how Groupon created a bid modifier based on data from non-SEM sources (e.g., conversion data from email, display, affiliates, etc.) that improved campaign performance and helped identify high-performing items quickly — even before they demonstrated significant performance in search results.

The next set of TED-like talks will focus on account-based marketing (ABM), including how it intersects with paid channels. ABM superstar , CMO of Terminus, and Michael Walsh, director of digital marketing at Rosetta Stone, will present Orchestrating an ABM Campaign: People, Process & Tools. Michael will detail how marketing and sales worked to identify a set of existing customers to upsell on their new product, using ABM-oriented adtech to engage those accounts, and achieved a 70% increase in opportunity creation.

Then Beth McCullough, director of demand generation at WhiteHat Security, and Erin Peterson, VP of customer success & Salesforce user group leader at Mintigo, will build on that with their talk, Implementing an ABM Strategy. You’ll learn how WhiteHat started by segmenting accounts into tiers, selected and implemented a marketing stack, and augmented it with predictive analytics and data-driven account segmentation.

Speaking of the entanglement of adtech, social, and martech, we’ll then roll into a panel discussion on The Convergence of Adtech & Martech Within Enterprise Platforms with Louis Moynihan, who drives martech partnerships at Facebook, and Liam Doyle, VP of advertising products at Salesforce. They’ll be joined by two leading brands — stay tuned for the grand reveal soon! — to discuss:

How marketers use first-party CRM data to target lookalike customers on Facebook

How Facebook Lead Ads can automatically populate data in MAPs and CRMs

How to bridge the attribution gap between digital and physical

How to use Facebook Messenger as a customer engagement channel within martech platforms and alongside other channels such as email

We’ll wrap up this track with two more TED-style talks. , partner manager at Pinterest will present Pinterest and the Marketing Technology Ecosystem: Connecting the Dots From Inspiration to Purchase. He’ll discuss how Pinterest created a technology partner ecosystem that allows marketers to scale on the platform and how emerging platforms fit into the marketing technology ecosystem.

Chug Abramowitz, VP of global customer support and social media at Spotify, and Katy Keim, CMO and general manager of Lithium, will then close out with Taming the Social Media Beast: How Spotify Delivers Amazing Experiences to Millions of Customers. Chug will discuss how Spotify formed an integrated system of social media tools that greatly increased efficiency and enabled them to provide awesome digital customer experiences to fans across the globe. You’ll learn:

A blueprint for how to integrate social across your business

Tactics for operationalizing social-enabled digital transformation

Data that will help you make the case for social transformation within your organization

May 10: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRACK

Digital transformation is about leveraging the intersection of marketing and technology to help reshape the way your entire organization engages with customers in a digital world. We still got a couple of presentations to announce in this track — waiting on final approval from PR teams at respective brands — but here’s what’s confirmed:

Gaurav Bhatia, VP of digital strategy at AARP, will explain how they approached Designing Customer Experiences by Leveraging Data and Analytics. You’ll learn how AARP Services built out their martech platform with the connected customer vision in mind, and how they design digital experiences across web, mobile, e-mail, and social touchpoints. Gaurav will show you:

How to find insights in your data to help you design customer experiences

How to set up clear measurement plans to manage the entire customer journey

How to structure your team to move fast and iterate quickly (“iterative learning”)

Angela Sigley-Rittgers, the CMO of Sprint Prepaid Brands, and Olly Downs, CEO of Amplero, will present Sprint’s Pre-Paid Digital Transformation: Using Machine Learning & Multi-Armed Bandit Experimentation to Optimize Every Interaction Across the Customer Journey. Modeling success stories and blueprints from martech giants Amazon, Uber, and Netflix, Sprint Prepaid used a hybrid approach, powered by machine learning, that helped them reduce churn and grow overall customer lifetime value.

Later in the afternoon, you can catch a double-header set of TED-style talks. First up will be Suzanne Johnson, VP of global marketing of the media division of Akamai Technologies. Akamai has evolved its marketing function over the past year, moving from a sales-driven, event-focused marketing function to a buyer-centric digital environment. Suzanne will describe the journey and share lessons her team has learned along the way.

She’ll be followed by Vance Faulks, senior director of digital business services marketing at SAP, and James Regan, CMO of MRP, who will present From Separate Silos to End-to-End Collaborators: How Martech Bridged the Sales-Marketing Gap for SAP. Vance will discuss how SAP strategically leveraged its martech stack to get marketing and sales on the same page. They used predictive analytics to gain a new perspective into buyer activity, and they provided visibility of customer and prospect adoption to the sales teams.

The last session in this track will be an amazing deep-dive into How Microsoft is Driving Stronger Customer Experience and Business Results Through a Highly-Scaled Martech Ecosystem and Tight Integration of Marketing to Sales by Todd Wells, VP and general manager of marketing IT, and Payal Gupta Tiwana, director of marketing technology and operations. You’ll get an inside look at how Microsoft transformed their marketing technology capabilities, enabling tracking, targeting, and personalization of content as customers move between multiple product marketing programs, progressing as high quality leads to inside sales, field sales, or partners.

May 10: SOLUTIONS TRACK & LUNCH PRESENTATIONS

In addition to the editorial tracks, there’s a full day of sponsored sessions presented by marketing technology vendors in a solutions track:

11:15am – SnapApp 12:15pm – Demand Fuel 1:30pm – IBM 2:30pm – Concentric 4:00pm – Lytics

In addition, Brightcove and Sitecore will have sponsored lunch presentations that you can attend, so you can absorb new marketing technology ideas even as you eat.

Finally, we’ll close out the day with beverages, snacks, and your opportunity to meet all of the more than 100 exhibitors and sponsors at a networking reception sponsored by Treasure Data. (Don’t forget to stop by Treasure Data’s booth (#513) to say “hi” and enter for your chance to win a $500 door prize!)

May 11: MORNING KEYNOTES

After a night on the town in San Francisco, we’ll get you warmed up for another full day of marketing technology insights and experiences with a 7:30am sponsored breakfast and presentation by Amplero.

At 9:00am sharp, we’ll then start the morning’s keynote session with , the brilliant marketing cartoonist known as .

Tom will help reveal the humor and wisdom of these awkward adolescent years of digital marketing. Technology can’t save boring marketing, but it can amplify remarkable marketing.

Tom’s talk will frame the right marketing mindset needed to take advantage of the modern digital world — tackling the challenge that the real owner of the brand is now the end consumer. And that everyone in an organization, no matter their job description, works in marketing.

Next, , global CTO of Publicis’s , will briefly introduce CMTO University — a global program he created at the company that combines elements of a corporate leadership development program with the rigor, challenge, and learning of an executive MBA.

Every year, they select 20 of their best and brightest technologists from around the globe for a year of intense training in business, marketing technology, and influence skills.

As part of their final project, each student researches an innovation in marketing technology, develops a unique point of view on its application, and presents their ideas to their peers, company executives and select clients of the firm.

In this intense keynote segment, Graduating as a Chief Marketing Technologist, Sheldon will introduce three of the top graduates from the CMTOu program as they each present 5-minute “lightning talk” versions of their research topics. You be the judge: how effectively do they explain their ideas to you?

Creating Enterprise Virtual Assistants that Really Engage by Alex Toledo, senior manager of interactive development: Get ready to change how you engage with your customers. Chatbots can delight your customers, but first you must break down barriers within your organization.

Maximizing Content’s Impact in an Omni-platform World by Alison Walden, director of experience technology: Having trouble keeping up with content demands in an omni-platform world? Start with structured content first and let MarTech generate the content that you actually need.

Unleashing AI on Customer Data by Scott Petry, vice president of technology: Let a machine get to know your customers. Drive business results by sifting and stitching customer data with AI.

We’ll the close the keynote with a presentation by , When the Customer Becomes the First Party — a whole new meaning to “first-party data.” Increasingly, customers in all markets have the upper hand, and companies must agree to their terms rather than the other way around. Doc, co-author of and author of , will explain how improving customer independence and power can actually improve marketing in the process.

Then it’s time for a quick coffee break and on to four new tracks…

May 11: EXPERIENCE TRACK

Customer experience is marketing. And this track is all about delivering remarkable experiences through the kaleidoscope of digital touchpoints that marketing now manages.

Leading analysts, consultants, and brand practitioners will address personalization, frameworks for technology-powered customer experiences, the interplay of psychology and technology, and more in 8 TED-style talks, paired two at a time.

First up is Jason Heller, global lead of digital marketing operations at McKinsey & Company, who will present Personalization at Scale: It’s Possible Today. Technology is just part of the solution. Re-imagined processes, new roles and functions, and deploying agile marketing at industrial scale are all part of the successful formula. Jason will discuss the operational realities for marketing organizations to deploy personalization at scale that drives real growth.

Paired with him will be Amy Heidersbach, VP of marketing in the digital division of Capital One, who will share her experience Redefining Personalization From Product Inception Through Customer Marketing. She’ll focus on incorporating personas throughout your business strategy to allow for truly relevant products and marketing that will meet your user’s needs and deliver great results for your company.

The next block consists of two super-smart analysts charting the evolution of customer experience (CX). First is , research manager at IDC Research and a favorite speaker, who will present CX Appeal: Technology to Keep Your Customers Coming Back for More. He’ll describe a new approach to systems design called Customer Experience Orchestration Services (CX-OS). Based on open APIs and microservices, CX-OS makes it easy for companies to run customer experience as a well-coordinated, cross-departmental process.

He’ll be followed by Julie Ask, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, who will give a talk on The Future of Customer Experiences and Emerging Technology: Moving from Silos to Connected Ecosystems. Julie will provide examples of brands moving from siloed app experiences towards blended, connected ecosystems, giving customers a more consistent and reliable way of connecting with them. This interconnected fabric will enable companies to deploy AI-driven solutions that understand user behavior and discern enough to interpret needs and make decisions on their behalf.

Next, , CEO of WiderFunnel — and one of the masters of conversion optimization that I admire most — and , director of digital marketing at Heifer International, will explain How to Use Psychological Principles to Improve Your Customer Experience & Increase Conversions. Chris and Harper will explain how Heifer, a nonprofit that relies heavily on donations, is taking their optimization program to the next level by using psychological principles to influence donors to give. You’ll learn:

How to determine what to test once you’ve picked off the low-hanging fruit

How to tap into your customers’ emotions to motivate them to buy

How to create experiments that will reveal impactful insights about your customers’ motivations

And then Steve Lok, head of marketing and technology for global acquisition at The Economist, will share his experience Using Data Science to Personalize Experiences Across Channels. As part of its personalization efforts, The Economist chose a customer data platform (CDP) and adopted a hub-and-spoke model for integrating its marketing-technology stack. The Economist builds profiles of their customers by integrating behavioral data (from website visits, email engagement, and more), and then applies data science to the task of determining what messaging resonates with each customer.

In the final two TED-style talks in this track, Sheldon Monteiro of SapientRazorfish will return to the stage to discuss Ubernomics: Fault Lines in the Economy of Now — the challenge for martech leaders as transformation agents, who must facilitate a purpose to galvanize the organization for aligned change, and the capabilities needed to absorb and embrace change at the speed of now.

Nick Pandolfi of Google will then close the track with a presentation on The Future of Conversational UI. As conversational interfaces become an integral component of every service and product, we need to rethink human-computer interaction paradigms and evolve them to address an unprecedented variety of form factors and input methods. Nick will share how Google approaches the emerging UX challenges in its conversational agent platform, the opportunities in this space, and the future of conversation agents.

May 11: OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY TRACK

Of course, the core of martech is operations and technology. This track of 8 TED-style talks, again paried two-at-a-time, will tackle the golden triangle of people, processes, and technology — how to successfully budget, implement, and operate martech capabilities in organizations of all sizes.

, marketing technologist at Unum will start with How to Build a Martech Stack That Fits Your Company’s Needs — overcoming the challenges of building an enterprise marketing technology architecture at a Fortune 500 company that’s struggling with shifting customer expectations and pressure to perform. Daryl will share real-world experiences of how to build a martech stack that fits your company’s needs, how to win over the CMO, how to wage (and win!) constant battles for funding, and which experiments to focus on first to build momentum.

He’ll be followed by Tom Hannigan, director of global marketing programs at IBM, presenting How IBM Re-Platformed the Core of Its Martech Stack. Launched globally in September 2016, IBM’s internal martech stack operates at massive scale, powering 11,000 campaigns a week supported by 175 campaign developers – driving a two-fold improvement in results across key metrics. This session will give you the inside case study of how it happened — and the applications were only a tiny part of the overall marketing transformation.

In the next block, , CEO of CabinetM and martech industry expert, and Mark Pickett, senior director of customer analytics, data science, and BI at Staples will share Insights from Inside the Marketing Stack. Using data from hundreds of marketing stacks, Anita will describe how marketers tame an increasingly complex technology suite. From analyzing hundreds of stacks, she’ll reveal: common stack structures, popular products and product combinations, hidden product gems, and more. The session concludes with Mark providing a detailed look under the martech hood at Staples.

Then , global digital lead at Medtronic, will present on Getting the “Full Stack Advantage”. Todd will describe how the team at Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device company, found ways to leverage vendors and technologies to deliver powerful results across multiple channels. You’ll get insights from three mini case studies from the company’s experience: Social + ABM, Digital + Physical, and Pre-Sale + Post-Sale.

In the next double-header, Luque Wang, a senior manager of marketing operations from GE Digital, and Zak Pines, VP marketing at Bedrock Data, will present Integrating Your Sales & Marketing Stack — A 7-step Guide. Luque shares the story of how he planned and built an integrated sales and marketing stack in close alignment with his sales organization. From his seven-step approach, you’ll come away with a roadmap for how to approach aligning and integrating systems across your broader sales and marketing stack too.

They’ll be paired with Michel Feaster, CEO of Usermind, and , senior director of GTM strategy and operations at HasiCorp, will describe 5 Steps to Operationalize Your Customer Journey. They will discuss emerging needs in managing and optimizing for the best customer experience and provide five practical steps marketers can take to operationalize the customer journey:

Identify your owners and stakeholders and distinguish between the two.

Assess your systems across lines of business.

Budget for a centralized system shared among lines of business.

Choose a future-proof approach to integration.

Decide what metrics to use to tie your strategy to business outcomes.

The final set of TED-style talks in this track will begin with Sean Hiss, director of marketing strategy and operations at Equinix, and , CMO of Allocadia, addressing How to Wrangle MarTech Spend in a Large, Rapidly Growing Business (and Survive!). Who doesn’t need to know that? They’ll describe how CMOs can get a firm grasp of where their budget is going at any moment, and visibility into how their spend in technology is impacting revenue and company growth.

, founder and CMO of the Marketing Advisory Network, will wrap up the track with Surprisingly Simple Techniques for Building System Requirements that Meet IT & Business Needs. She’ll share:

Common mistakes marketers make when building technology requirements

The serious consequences of getting system requirements wrong

Simple techniques that build consensus while keeping the project on schedule

Meeting agendas that collect feedback without derailing progress

May 11: EMERGING & MOBILE TRACK

Artificial intelligence, geolocation-based experiences, virtual reality, augmented reality, chatbots, blockchains — we’ll explore the leading edge of marketing technology and how it’s changing the state of marketing in this track of 8 TED-style presentations, also grouped two-at-a-time.

, CEO of Never Stop Marketing, will kick off this track with a simply mind-blowing presentation on Marketing in a Blockchain World. He’ll dive into one of the biggest impending waves of technology-driven innovation – blockchains and decentralized systems – and how they could change the future of marketing. This session will arm with you an understanding of the new paradigm and give you concrete suggestions for what you can do to ready your organization and yourself.

Following him, , chief technology officer of Wire Stone, will give you A Tour of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Applications That Deliver Immersive Customer Experiences. From fully immersive digital experiences to enhanced visions of the real world, these technologies will conjure new landscapes for customers and marketers. This session will help you jump into the deep end of the VR/AR pool.

After lunch, , VP marketing technology at SHIFT Communications and one of the pioneers of the martech movement, will present Cognitive Marketing: How AI Will Change Marketing Forever. He will explain what AI is and how it’s changing marketing today — natural language generation, next-generation marketing analytics, image recognition, and so much more — with 5 present-day use cases. You’ll get insight into how you can prepare your company and your career for an automated future.

Later in that session block, world-renown marketing strategy consultant and columnist and , CEO of CaliberMind, will give a joint talk on A Scientific Look at B2B Buying in the Age of AI. They’ll take a scientific look at some of the latest trends shaping B2B buying in 2017:

Why the hierarchy of B2B needs is different than consumer needs

How B2B buying behavior had changed in the last few years

Personality characteristics of prospects that can champion or torpedo your chances

How psychographic profiling helps you evolve the message to both win the sale and protect your margins

The next block of back-to-back TED-style talks in this track will focus on advancements in mobile marketing technology. , director of digital and social media marketing for the San Francisco 49ers, and , CMO of Localytics, will show you how to Step up Your Mobile Engagement Strategy with Geolocation. They’ll present a case study demonstrating the benefits the San Francisco 49ers experienced by setting up geofences at Levi’s Stadium. You won’t believe what her team did to help their fans take tailgating to the next level!

Gareth Jude, a retail industry executive from Telstra, and Anil Mathews, the CEO of Near, will follow with a presentation on Decoding User Behavior with Location Data. Anil and Gareth will explain how Telstra uses the convergence of user data in context with mobile location data points to change the way they connect with consumers. They provide an inside look into how they’ve used data to answer questions such as:

Where are your consumers going? How do they commute?

Where do they like to spend their free time?

What are the top 3 interests of your target consumers that you didn’t know about?

Who are your competitors targeting? Should your brand be targeting them as well?

In the final block of talks for this track, , general partner at Foundation Capital, will share his take on The Rise of Conversational AI – A Marketer’s Guide to Chatbots. Does conversational AI really work, and how pervasive will it be? What are the potential use cases? And what will the impact on martech be?

, chief experience officer at ArcTouch, will close out with a presentation on Marketing Tech’s Next Game Changer: Bot-to-Bot Marketing. Adam will imagine a future where a personal bot — motivated completely by logic and unswayed by emotion — can synthesize and analyze all the information in the world in seconds. When machines with machine logic are empowered to make purchase decisions, how do brands build loyalty? Does brand loyalty matter? Adam will provide insights into preparing for this game-changing, bot-driven world, including:

How bot-to-bot marketing may become the loyalty platform of the future

What marketers and developers should be considering today

How the technology has the potential to impact the way marketers reach consumers

May 11: AGILE & HUMAN TRACK

A conference-within-a-conference focused on the human dynamics necessary for martech to succeed, there’s a full track of agile marketing education with panels and presentations by leaders of the agile marketing movement and case studies from top brands.

Russ Lange of CMG Partners and Gavin McKelvey, VP North America marketing at Level 3 Communications, will start with Agile Marketing in the Enterprise: Case Studies and Discussion. Russ and Gavin — and one other enterprise brand to be announced soon — will share insights you can use to scale agile marketing, including:

How organizations are structuring to accelerate value creation

How agile is applied to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing teams

What to expect as you adopt agile marketing at scale across a large and diverse team

The impact agile marketing can have on both the commercial impact and the performance of teams

After lunch, marketing technologist extrordinaire , the head of digital marketing and technology at McKesson, will present on Putting the Right Conditions in Place for Martech Success. To ensure that martech implementations are successful, champions must focus on stakeholder engagement and change management. Rohit will share several case studies that will help you define your own conditions for martech success.

Justin Dunham, director of digital acquisition and marketing operations at Urban Airship, will follow with a presentation Human Factors in Marketing Ops and Technology. He’ll focus on the human factors marketing technologists should consider and show how taking them into account can dramatically improve results:

Principles for designing processes that people actually adhere to

Principles for better collaboration and how to best implement them

How to prioritize UX and other human factors when picking martech solutions

Human factors in project management, reporting and budgeting

In the next block of two TED-style talks, , VP marketing at Oracle and author of , will start with The State of Agile Marketing. Roland will cover the key themes that have emerged as a backdrop for an understanding of the current state of agile marketing practice, and look at how our profession is advancing along the agile adoption curve.

, chief content offier of The Agile Marketer, will dig deeper into one particular agile approach with Exploring Scrumban: Why Combining Methodologies May be the Agile Marketing Magic Bullet. She’ll tackle Scrumban basics and walk you through creating your first Scrumban iteration. You’ll learn how the core components of Scrumban meet marketers’ need for flexibility, while still providing the structure we need to maintain our sanity.

In the final block — the best for last — Kate Chalmers, director of marketing operations at Hootsuite, and , CEO of Wrike, will present Adventures in Agile: How Hootsuite Broke Down Silos to Make Innovative Campaigns. They’ll examine how Hootsuite managed a massive volume of projects, in a group that grew from 40 people to a 100, spanning four countries, by using agile tactics such as scrums, iterative testing, and retrospectives. You’ll learn how they created faster response loops enabled disparate teams to work on cross-functional projects.

Marci Raible, VP global media and marketing services at Campbell Soup Company, and , CEO of Beckon, will then close with their presentation, Freedom Within A Framework. They’ll share best practices for building an agile, data-driven culture, including:

How to make a case for changing the way marketing teams think and work

What to centralize and decentralize when democratizing analytics and decision-making

The role of a “playbook for insights” and how to put one in place

Demonstrating and communicating data-driven success across the organization to encourage support and adoption

May 11: SOLUTIONS TRACK & LUNCH PRESENTATIONS

The sponsored solutions track will continue to run in parallel all day too, with presentations from these marketing technology companies:

11:15 – LookBookHQ 12:15 – MediaBeacon 1:30 – Aprimo 2:30 – Seismic

In addition, Acxiom and Segment will each be doing sponsored lunch presentations as well.

Secure your spot now

You can find all sessions, editorial and sponsored, with complete descriptions in on the published . This abbreviated 6,200-word post you’ve just read is only high-level overview.

We’re committed to making this the one conference anyone working with marketing technology won’t want to miss.

So remember: the discounted “beta” rate for tickets expires on April 1. to save $250 and reserve yourself a seat. Because space is strictly limited, once this event sells out, it’s truly sold out. No false scarcity about it.

Come join us, May 9-11 in San Francisco — I guarantee it will be an amazing two days that will put you ahead of the curve on marketing technology leadership.

Source

http://chiefmartec.com/2017/03/marketing-technology-leadership-matters/