What's Up with Tech?

Evan Kirstel

Tech Transformation with Evan Kirstel: A podcast exploring the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry, and how businesses can leverage them for growth, diving into the world of B2B, discussing strategies, trends, and sharing insights from industry leaders!With over three decades in telecom and IT, I've mastered the art of transforming social media into a dynamic platform for audience engagement, community building, and establishing thought leadership. My approach isn't about personal brand promotion but about delivering educational and informative content to cultivate a sustainable, long-term business presence. I am the leading content creator in areas like Enterprise AI, UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, Cloud, Telecom, 5G and more!

  1. 1 NGÀY TRƯỚC

    From Chat-With-PDF To Enterprise Learning Transformation

    Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com What if your best trainer is the person who’s retiring next month—and an AI that turns their brain dump into accurate, engaging lessons overnight? We unpack how a scrappy chat-with-PDF experiment grew into an enterprise-grade course creation engine that slashes time, cost, and confusion while boosting trust and adoption. Ro shares the early product choices that mattered: attacking hallucinations head-on, grounding content in source material, and designing guided workflows that mirror real instructional design standards. We dive into the moment enterprise demand hit—when a major manufacturer needed to capture critical know-how from a retiring workforce—and how AI made it possible to transform raw voice notes and messy documents into structured training with assessments, examples, and clear outcomes. The conversation widens beyond linear courses to the realities of learning at work: microlearning, deep search across knowledge bases, and just-in-time guidance that supports real performance. Then comes the power move—joining LearnUpon. By pairing Courso’s AI-driven content generation with LearnUpon’s LMS strengths in skills mapping, role-based delivery, and gap analysis, creation finally meets distribution. Think on-the-fly lessons triggered by skill needs, rapid updates that keep content fresh, and spaced repetition that helps learners remember what matters. Ro’s philosophy grounds it all: AI should be invisible, human-guided, and relentlessly practical. It’s not a thinker; it’s a multiplier for experts, a backstage crew that helps knowledge scale beyond silos and survive turnover. If you care about L&D strategy, instructional design, LMS integration, knowledge capture, and personalization that actually helps people learn faster, this story-rich deep dive brings clarity and a real blueprint for action. Subscribe, share with your learning team, and leave a review with one course you’d automate first—we’d love to feature your ideas next. Support the show More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

    19 phút
  2. 1 NGÀY TRƯỚC

    How Zynga Turns Free-To-Play Into Brand Value

    Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com Think gamers are just kids with consoles? We pull back the curtain with Zynga to show how mobile gaming has become mass-market entertainment—and a must-buy channel for brands. From FarmVille roots to a powerhouse inside Take-Two Interactive, Zynga sits where free-to-play design, rewarded ads, and deep engagement meet real business outcomes. We start with the core shift: only a small fraction of players pay, so advertising powers the experience for everyone else. That’s where rewarded ads shine. When players choose to watch a spot to earn an extra life or perk, brands become part of the game’s momentum instead of an interruption. It’s native, opt-in, and it builds goodwill that lasts longer than a passing impression. We also bust stereotypes about who plays. Mobile skews female, with millennial and Gen X women—often the chief decision-makers at home and at work—driving a massive share of purchasing. If you care about the female economy, you care about mobile gaming. Gabriella walks through how Zynga maps brand KPIs to the right titles across 150 games, from word and match-three to sports and invest-and-express. We talk creative formats that invite two-way interaction, why gaming is the perfect companion to TV on the couch, and how mid-funnel metrics—preference, favorability, and consideration—quietly win the day. Categories seeing standout results include retail, CPG, entertainment, insurance, pharma, and QSR, all benefiting from time spent that ranks among the highest in mobile. Looking forward, we hit the measurement problem and the fix on the horizon. Traditional media mix models undercount gaming, but AI-driven MMM promises a clearer read across retail media, CTV, social, creator, audio, and mobile apps. Add new devices, foldables, and AR into the mix and the canvas for brand experiences only gets bigger. If you’re planning budgets, building creative, or just curious how games became the heartbeat of digital attention, this conversation is a field guide to what works now and what’s next. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review—what part of the gaming-media shift surprised you most? Support the show More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

    20 phút
  3. 6 NGÀY TRƯỚC

    Switzerland’s Edge In Global Innovation

    Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com We sit down with Swiss Tech campaign manager to crack open the machine. This isn't luck—it's a surgical combination of world-class universities, patient capital, and a public-private alliance that treats every spinout like a potential Rolex. From AI and robotics to medtech, biotech, and precision manufacturing, Switzerland weaponizes its obsession with quality. The ecosystem doesn't just fund research; it drags it kicking and screaming into the market, then flies it around the world to prove it works. **Enter the Swiss Tech Pavilion: startup diplomacy on steroids.** CES. VivaTech. MWC Barcelona. SusHi Tech Tokyo. Web Summit Vancouver. These aren't just booths—they're engineered collision zones where founders lock down investor meetings, corporate partnerships, and media hits in seventy-two hours. Patricia walks us through the formula: Swissnex handles the intel, Switzerland Global Enterprise opens corporate doors, and Innosuisse bankrolls the ambition. The right platform. The right rooms. The right moment. Then there's the Global Deep Tech Battle—a gladiator arena for founders. International teams compete in front of investors and journalists who double as judges. It's not about participation trophies. It's about forcing Swiss startups to measure up against global killers and come out sharper. **The pipeline starts in the lab.** ETH Zurich and EPFL aren't just top-ranked universities—they're idea factories with built-in incubators and accelerators that turn research into revenue. Clinical trials. Industrial pilots. Product-market validation. But Patricia doesn't sugarcoat the gaps: early-stage support is world-class, but late-stage capital for hardware-heavy or regulated plays? That's where things get tight. Stability and quality of life keep teams grinding, but cross-border expansion, corporate venture checks, and Series B+ rounds remain the final boss. If you're obsessed with how AI, robotics, and life sciences jump from whiteboards to the real world, this is your blueprint. From the hidden champions supplying Apple and Tesla to the festivals that turn unknown founders into marquee names—this is how Switzerland plays the long game and wins. Support the show More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

    19 phút
  4. 4 THG 2

    How SD-WAN And Managed Connectivity Power Modern Enterprises

    Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com Redundancy only feels like a boring insurance policy… until it starts delivering real, everyday performance wins. In this conversation with Julian Jacquez, President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of BCN Telecom, we dig into how dual connections, SD-WAN overlays, and intelligent automation transform networks from “hope nothing breaks” into always-on, high-performing platforms that keep cloud apps flying and employees focused on actual work (not buffering wheels). We walk through the journey from single links and MPLS to today’s world of diverse access, policy-driven routing, real-time failover, and direct-to-cloud optimization. Julian breaks down why many enterprises start with managed connectivity, then layer in security through SASE and zero trust to create a unified model for identity, segmentation, and inspection. For distributed environments like restaurants, healthcare, and retail, the ability to roll out consistent changes across hundreds or even thousands of locations is a massive unlock. No more touching every box. Firewall updates, policy shifts, and standards enforcement happen centrally and instantly. And then there’s execution, where most network projects either shine or stall. We get practical about project-managed deployments, coordinating carriers and cutovers, and deciding between OpEx and CapEx based on refresh cycles, cash flow, and internal expertise. We also cover co-managed versus fully managed operations, what to automate first, and how AI-driven visibility turns raw telemetry into proactive tickets and recommended fixes. We even explore access diversity in underserved markets, from fiber and broadband to 4G/5G and LEO, making sure sites stay online wherever work happens. With storms, power outages, and security incidents putting constant pressure on infrastructure, resilience isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s a core business strategy. If uptime, user experience, and smarter network spend matter to you, this episode will definitely make you rethink the modern WAN for the AI era. Subscribe, share it with a colleague, and drop a review with the resilience tactic you’re prioritizing next. Support the show More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

    28 phút
  5. 2 THG 2

    How A Partner-Obsessed Model Turns Weeks Of Telco Quoting Into Minutes

    Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com Your quoting process shouldn’t feel like a scavenger hunt. We sat down with GTT’s channel leaders to unpack how a partner-obsessed strategy and a new digital platform, GTT EnvisionDX, shrink telco quoting from weeks to minutes while boosting transparency, accuracy, and partner ROI. The conversation gets practical fast: what it means to orchestrate sales, marketing, enablement, and product around outcomes; why legacy programs disintermediated partners; and how a modern model respects that MSPs, SIs, and advisors hold the strongest customer relationships. We dive into the product innovations that make the difference. GTT EnvisionDX is built around location-first design, live vendor pricing, on-net visibility, and side-by-side term comparisons. Large language models translate plain English into telco details, so partners don’t need to speak jargon to configure DIA, broadband, wireless, SD-WAN, SASE, or pro services. For multi-site deals, AI parses messy spreadsheets, validates addresses, and applies reusable templates, letting teams scale from two sites to hundreds with confidence. Digital twinning tests network designs before rollout, reducing risk and rework. Every step surfaces transparent choices, recommended equipment, and full costs—including install and shipping—so decisions are clear and fast.  Beyond quoting, the team focuses on lifecycle management and marketplace integrations, aiming to make network and security management fade into the background so customers can focus on revenue, cost control, and experience. If you’ve been waiting for telecom to feel more like cloud—self-serve workflows, real-time data, API-first integrations, and a clean UX—this conversation is proof it’s here. If you found this valuable, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review to help more channel leaders discover it. Support the show More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

    25 phút
  6. 29 THG 1

    Turning IT From Cost Center To Growth Engine

    Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com Your next hire shouldn’t spend their first week waiting on a laptop while projects sit in limbo. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the $5B device lifecycle management market and explore how modern IT teams are shipping fully provisioned devices worldwide, recovering assets cleanly, and protecting data without becoming a global logistics operation. Francis Osifo, third-time founder and CEO of Rayda, breaks down how his team delivers day one ready devices in as little as five business days across 170 countries. By integrating directly with HR systems, standardizing device catalogs, and automating provisioning and returns, Rayda removes the friction that slows global hiring. We dig into the real cost of devices stuck in customs, the offboarding mess created by buying hardware from consumer retailers, and why Apple Business Manager and MDM platforms are the backbone of enterprise control. The conversation gets practical fast. We cover how to close the HR IT gap with automated triggers and clear SLAs, how to maintain real time visibility into assets across borders, and how to avoid the compliance risks of forgotten devices floating in the wild. Francis also shares why IT must evolve from a perceived cost center into a strategic growth enabler and how seamless onboarding directly impacts culture, productivity, and retention. Looking ahead, we explore the rise of agentic AI in IT operations. From handling routine tickets and password resets to orchestrating software access and even device procurement through intelligent automation, this next wave of tooling is set to free small teams to focus on security, architecture, and innovation. For lean IT orgs supporting hundreds of employees per admin, this is how scale actually becomes manageable. If you’re hiring globally, struggling with device sprawl, or looking to show real ROI from IT operations, this conversation is a must listen. Subscribe, share it with a teammate who’s tired of onboarding fire drills, and drop a review with your toughest device challenge so we can tackle it next. Support the show More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

    19 phút
  7. 28 THG 1

    How NinjaOne Uses Data And Human-In-The-Loop Automation To Fix Endpoint Headaches

    Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com Patch Tuesday doesn’t just deliver updates. It delivers pressure. Suddenly, you’re staring at a mountain of fixes, racing to decide what ships now, what waits, and how to keep a single reboot from blowing up your entire week. In our latest conversation with NinjaOne, we dig into what practical AI actually looks like when you’re responsible for millions of endpoints and have zero tolerance for downtime. Forget the buzzwords. We walk through how real telemetry, public sentiment signals, and human-in-the-loop workflows remove latency from patching, shrink rollbacks, and turn operational chaos into confidence. We also tackle a long-standing pain point: messy asset data. When your CMDB is noisy, everything downstream starts to wobble. Licensing, vulnerability management, compliance, and budgeting all take a hit. You’ll hear how AI can reconcile unstructured inputs and normalize device records to finally deliver a clean system of record without an army of spreadsheet warriors. From there, we draw a clear line between smart automation and risky overreach. Full autonomy sounds great on paper, but legal and technical realities demand a pragmatic approach. We discuss a future where AI drafts the policies and packages while experts validate the results, allowing repeatable, low-risk issues to close automatically. There is also encouraging momentum in the public sector. Streamlined FedRAMP pathways and growing reciprocity across defense impact levels are speeding up adoption and helping agencies move closer to private-sector velocity. Combined with budget pressure, this is accelerating the move toward a Digital Operations Center with centralized visibility, fewer tools, and outcomes you can actually measure. We wrap with a look ahead to what resilience means in 2026. Think performance you can prove through deep instrumentation and a surge in mobile device management as tablets and phones become the new frontline. If you’re ready to replace ritual scream tests with data-driven confidence and finally align operations and security in real time, this conversation lays out a path you can start using today. Check out the full episode, share it with the teammate who owns your patching or MDM, and let us know in the comments: what is the one workflow you want to see automated next? Support the show More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

    24 phút
  8. 27 THG 1

    Inside Dassault’s 3D Experience Lab: How Startups Build, Scale, And Ship

    Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com When the CES show floor goes dark and the crowds thin out, the real conversations begin. We sat down with Dassault Systèmes’ Fred Vacher and Abhishek Bali to explore how early-stage startups turn flashy demos into certified, manufacturable products. Using virtual twins, hands-on mentorship, and a global partner ecosystem, they walk founders through the hard part of innovation, moving from prototype to production. If you’ve ever wondered why some ideas stall while others scale, this conversation breaks down the journey step by step. We dig into the mission of the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab and how it works hand in hand with SOLIDWORKS for Startups to support founders across design, simulation, compliance, and industrialization. Many teams join for CAD and quickly discover a full-stack platform that includes multiphysics simulation, quality systems, clinical workflows, data management, and real-time collaboration. The mentorship layer adds a critical advantage: expert design reviews, manufacturing guardrails, and introductions to enterprise partners across more than a dozen industries. That’s how a clever concept becomes a product that survives audits, pilots, and real-world production. The broader tech landscape is evolving fast. Impact is no longer an afterthought, it’s the goal. Deep tech is on the rise, especially in medical devices, industrial systems, and sustainable hardware. We dive into the emergence of “physical AI,” where embodied systems like exoskeletons and humanoid robots gain intelligence at the edge. At CES, the team highlighted startups working on pill-based endoscopy, mobility exoskeletons, biosensors, and desktop dialysis. Meanwhile, Dassault’s main booth showcased life sciences innovation at scale, from virtual hospitals and organ twins to patient-specific implants designed in CATIA and manufactured for real-world deployment. Sustainability was front and center too, with energy harvesting and ultra-thin batteries that could eliminate disposable power sources for sensors and smart tags. Founders will walk away with a practical playbook: design for manufacturing from day one, simulate early to cut costs and risks, plan certification upfront, and build long-term partnerships that support growth. We also preview what’s coming at 3DEXPERIENCE World, including community showcases, maker spaces, and generative AI tools reshaping 3D design and engineering. Ready to move beyond hype and into real-world impact? Listen in, subscribe for more deep dives, and share what you’re building next. Support the show More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

    45 phút

Xếp Hạng & Nhận Xét

Giới Thiệu

Tech Transformation with Evan Kirstel: A podcast exploring the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry, and how businesses can leverage them for growth, diving into the world of B2B, discussing strategies, trends, and sharing insights from industry leaders!With over three decades in telecom and IT, I've mastered the art of transforming social media into a dynamic platform for audience engagement, community building, and establishing thought leadership. My approach isn't about personal brand promotion but about delivering educational and informative content to cultivate a sustainable, long-term business presence. I am the leading content creator in areas like Enterprise AI, UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, Cloud, Telecom, 5G and more!