Tech To The Future

This week host Francis Hellyer is joined by Jimmy Nguyen, public speaker, media commentator, global ambassador for Bitcoin SV and founding president of the Bitcoin Association. The global industry organisation is a non-profit which advances BSV, bringing together enterprises, developers, service providers and more into the ecosystem. In this conversation, Jimmy reflects on what initially attracted him to Bitcoin, and why he believes it has the capacity to completely transform the world; delves into the recent BSV hacks - and the impact this had on Satoshi’s initial vision; and discusses the role governments and businesses must play in regulation and policy, to ensure global compliance.

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Andrew Hawken is CEO and co-founder of Mesmerise. Andrew spent 10 years as a current affairs journalist for the BBC; he was drawn to the world of technology at the dawn of the internet revolution and decided to make the leap to join Microsoft in 1996. He was a pioneer of the early techniques of online journalism and helped build MSN as a portal in the UK. Later, he worked for Sky before co-founding Mesmerise in 2016. Mesmerise is a business-to-business Virtual Reality (VR) platform that provides unique and tailored VR products to solve business problems by building rich and immersive computer-generated worlds. The company creates and produces virtual ‘gatherings’, which can refer to conferences, multi-day events or company meetings in the metaverse.

In this in-depth conversation, Andrew delves into the fundamental aspects of Mesmerise and how they differ from their competition, with a key focus on all members feeling a “co-presence”; discusses their first-ever VR Morningstar Investment Conference, which welcomed hundreds of attendees worldwide to watch live talks and try out immersive role-plays designed to appeal to investors and financial advisors; and shares his advice for businesses wanting to establish their brands in the new virtual world.

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In this episode, Francis is joined by Mark Kovic, British singer-songwriter, producer, and founder of Kovic Productions. Mark's debut album 'Running Underwater' reached over 40 million online streams and his single 'Drown' was featured in EA games’ FIFA franchise, joining the top 50 viral Spotify charts. After receiving a shoutout from Dolly Parton, he now works alongside her at CTK Enterprises and is also the founder of his own music agency, Kovic Productions. In this in-depth conversation, Mark shares his experience working alongside Dolly Parton, being part of the ‘Dollyverse,’ discussing how performing in metaverse allows fans to have a more intimate experience with the artist. He then delves into NFTs, explaining how he creates one NFT for every song he releases which then act as a golden ticket for life, where the holder will always have free access to his shows and exclusive new projects and content.

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In this episode, Francis is joined by innovator and investor Kenan Saleh. While still a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he co-founded Halo Car, allowing rideshare drivers to earn extra income through digital advertising. After less than a year, the company was acquired by Lyft, where Kenan now runs the advertising division as head of product, and was also listed on Forbes 30 Under 30. In this in-depth conversation, Kenan reflects on how his passion for “building great products'' sparked his interest in digital technology; delves into Halo Cars and how the tech behind their digital hyper-targeted ads actually works; and shares his thoughts on No Code Tech, and how it has changed the tech industry by showing how companies can grow and scale without launching a single line of code.

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Madeline Ashby is a futurist, writer, speaker and teacher. She is best known for her successful series of science-fiction novels, including the bestseller ‘Company Town,’ the ‘Machine Dynasty’ series, and a number of short stories. In 2020, Madeline co-authored her first non-fiction book, ‘How To Future: Leading and Sense-Making in an Age of Hyperchange’ - and has worked in the futurism space for the World Health Organisation, the Ontario government and Intel Labs. In this conversation, Madeline recalls what attracted her to the world of futurism, including what the term means to her; discusses the impact the Covid-19 pandemic will have on business and technology; and explores the different possible landscapes of the future, explaining why it was so important to make understanding the possibilities, accessible to all.

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