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công việc 3.1

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Former NBA Player Ment Stephen Jackson And Rapper Lil Baby Team Up With Atlanta Restaurateurs To Celebrate George Floyd’s Daughter’s Birthday

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Former NBA Player Ment Stephen Jackson And Rapper Lil Baby Team Up With Atlanta Restaurateurs To Celebrate George Floyd’s Daughter’s Birthday

George Floyd as well as his child Gianna.

Months after George Floyd’s child Gianna shed her daddy to racially determined authorities cruelty, an area of stars have actually collaborated to prepare an unique celebration for her 7th birthday celebration, the very first without her daddy.

The party has actually remained in the jobs because July, when Gianna checked out household good friends as well as dining establishment proprietors Ericka as well as William Platt of Restaurant Ten as well as Rosie’s Café. The Platt household is likewise near NBA celebrity Stephen Jackson, as well as they collaborated to brainstorm concepts for an event.

Ericka as well as William Platt are the proprietors of Restaurant Ten as well as Rosie’s Café in Atlanta.

The result was a tiny, socially remote, L.O.L dolls-themed occasion happening today at Atlanta’s Pink Hotel. Attendees consisted of the kids of Rayshard Brooks, the Atlanta indigenous fatally fired by authorities in June, along with the kids of rap artists Future as well as Lil Baby, as well as previous NBA gamer Stephen Jackson.

Lil Baby actioned in to money the occasion. His struck solitary “The Bigger Picture” was one of the most streamed demonstration track after Floyd’s fatality.

“The tune is actually regarding sustaining kids that shed their moms and dads to physical violence,” states Erika Platt. “Lil Baby made a decision to fund Gianna’s birthday celebration celebration as well as has actually been extremely helpful. We are extremely happy for that.”

Gianna’s mom, Roxie Washington, resembled Platt’s appreciation. “This is a really hard time for my child, so we’re extremely happy that our expanded household is producing such an unique experience for Gianna on her very first birthday celebration without her daddy,” she states.

Platt, that endured the loss of her child’s daddy 17 years back, was influenced to come to be a support group for kids that have actually shed their moms and dads to physical violence. It likewise grew the seed of her humanitarian initiatives.

“There are a great deal of kids that are experiencing as well as are distressed,” states Platt. “We need to remain to sustain them after the headings as well as focus vanishes.

In the wake of George Floyd’s fatality, previous NBA gamer Stephen Jackson has actually come to be a papa number to … [] Gianna Floyd.

Stephen Jackson, that’s established a close connection with Gianna because her daddy’s fatality, really hopes that even more individuals will certainly start to take notice of as well as sustain kids that have actually shed a moms and dad to racial physical violence.

“I believe I embraced an additional youngster, God placed me right into this placement,” states Jackson. “I’m mosting likely to do the most effective that I can.”

Doing his finest likewise requires supporting for social justice throughout the nation. “I have actually devoted my life to head to all 50 states as well as checking out locations that require sources as well as allowing them recognize they have a voice,” he states. “When I mosted likely to Minnesota to defend my bro, I acquired other individuals’s discomfort, that shed enjoyed ones to authorities cruelty as well as bigotry or that do not have a voice to talk.”

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Serendipity Lost, Serendipity Gained? Virtual Work Actually Spurs More Innovation

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Serendipity Lost, Serendipity Gained? Virtual Work Actually Spurs More Innovation

Virtual work may actually boost creativity.

One of the big questions encountered this past year was how to keep innovation rolling when people were working entirely virtually. We took up this question on these pages after the Covid-19 crisis hit, scattering employees and executives across a corporate diaspora of home-based workplaces.

Now, two separate studies published in MIT Sloan Management Review suggest that innovation has not been impeded, and may have even boosted, by remote work.

“You might assume that major changes in how we work are taking a large toll on business creativity, in light of the loss of more spontaneous face-to-face connections and interactions,” writes Leigh Thompson, professor at Northwestern University. “Based on research I and others have conducted over the past couple of decades, I believe that the shift to remote work actually has the potential to improve group creativity and ideation, despite diminished in-person communication.”

In a separate study published in MIT Sloan, a team led by Ben Laker, professor at the University of Reading, reports that among certain forward-looking companies, the pace of innovation actually accelerated, leading to better outcomes for employees and customers.

So, the massive move to work-from-anywhere actually paved the way to greater interaction, information-sharing and innovation. There’s a caveat that needs to be thrown in here: knowledge-sharing and collaboration between people was a disjointed, problematic process long before Covid. In a study of 200 executives I developed and authored as part of my work as an independent analyst, we found only 41% of respondents report that they have confidence that their enterprise’s documented knowledge is the most up-to-date information and a reliable, trusted source. Only 12% report they are completely confident. While a majority of respondents say employees have access to the expertise they need, the depth of such support is limited.

Long-term issues aside, it’s notable that remote, digital work didn’t necessarily have a negative effect on innovation and creativity. If anything, “constraints spark creative thinking,” Thompson points out. “Working within limits pushes us to solve problems in ways we wouldn’t if given free rein. Overall, virtual meeting platforms impose more constraints on communication and collaboration than face-to-face settings. For instance, with the press of a button, virtual meeting facilitators can control the size of breakout groups and enforce time constraints; only one person can speak intelligibly at a time; nonverbal signals, particularly those below the shoulders, are diminished; ‘seating arrangements’ are assigned by the platform, not by individuals; and visual access to others may be limited by the size of each participant’s screen. Such environmental restrictions are likely to stretch participants beyond their usual ways of thinking, boosting creativity.”

Laker points to successful companies they looked at who seized the moment and have actually thrived through the crisis. Ninety-eight percent of these thriving entities “operate a platform-based business model in which users can function as buyers and sellers, readers and writers, consumers and creators — a growing behavioral trend referred to as prosumers, individuals that blur the line between production and consumption activities.” These companies embrace a philosophy of “employee and customer becoming one,” they observe.

The following are ways to bring out the spirit of innovation in remote work:

Use virtual meetings to actually amplify individual input. The common assumption is that it takes a group to innovate. However, “virtually no research supports this,” Thompson says. “In fact, most studies have found that ‘per capita’ creativity declines precipitously as group size increases. In contrast to in-person meetings, where people tend to engage in simultaneous cross talk, virtual meetings make it nearly impossible for more than one person to speak at once. We’re forced to focus on individual input, so it’s easier for less vocal participants to be heard than in the physical world, where they’re often drowned out.”

Maintain a structure. By keeping a similar schedule and meeting regularly with colleagues via a virtual schedule, 84% of leading innovators were able to preserve the rhythm of daily life that existed before Covid-19, Laker and his colleagues found. “To do this well, setting up clear systems for engagement is of paramount importance. For example, team updates are shared using asynchronous discussion boards and WhatsApp groups; check-ins occur using face-to-face Zoom or Teams meetings; and decisions are made using synchronous audio calls, not video meetings. Also, virtual lunches, during which work talk is banned, enable employees to maintain the type of casual conversation that helps build strong bonds across teams.”

Let employees own customer relationships. It doesn’t matter where someone is working for them to be able to deliver a superior customer experience. As Laker’s team found in their study, successful companies blend the experience of the employee and customer. “Entrusting employees with customer relationships significantly improves the likelihood of innovations occurring: 91% told us that they appreciate the visibility of their contributions, which in turn helps enhance their motivation and productivity, leading to further innovation.”

Foster diverse interactions. “The presence of a single newcomer can stimulate group creativity, yielding a larger number and variety of ideas,” says Thompson. “In a typical face-to-face meeting, people sit by their friends and colleagues, often engaging in sidebars or shared nonverbal interactions, which have the unintended consequence of promoting conformity and narrowing creative focus. In a virtual meeting, you can’t choose your seat, and having sidebar conversations is not nearly as tempting, given the shared screen and risk of accidentally messaging a private thought to everyone. Moreover, the group-breakout function defaults to sorting people randomly. These factors make it more likely that people in virtual settings will interact with participants they don’t know well, boosting creativity.”

Virtual engagements provide a record to build future endeavors. “Pre-Covid-19, many in-person brainstorming meetings were not recorded, erasing any trace of discarded ideas,” Thompson points out. “Luckily, chat windows, electronic whiteboards, and other virtual-collaboration tools serve as vaults and boneyards, memorializing sessions and making it easier to revisit previously overlooked ideas.”

From Enterprise Tech in Perfectirishgifts

We Made It

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We Made It

Happy New Year!

First of all, many thanks to you for being faithful readers in this space. We try to spotlight the best and brightest here and it has been a remarkable lineup in 2020 of great people doing great things. There’s something about seeing that someone else has done something. It makes us believe that we can. It inspires us and shows us what is possible. I am grateful for all of our guest Q&A’s. I have learned a great deal from each of them. I hope you have.

When 2020 began, none of us could foresee what was just a few months out. An earth shattering pandemic that changed everything. The stock market sank precipitously. We all began to social distance. Some businesses closed. People changed their habits. In fact, most everything changed.

But here’s what didn’t change. We began to find a way forward. Entrepreneurs went to work and started building ventilators by the truckload. The smartest minds in the world were enlisted and they answered the call to create a vaccine to fight this enemy and hopefully vanquish it soon.

That’s what we do. It reminded me of stories I have read and heard about WWII. The United States found itself fighting formidable enemies on two fronts and the demands were enormous. We didn’t cave. We pulled together and started building planes and ships and taking care of each other. The world is thankful for the American Spirit that saved Europe and started the world’s greatest economic engine. We are still the beneficiaries of the concerted effort of those brave men and women who selflessly stepped into the gap and won the day.

Today, those gap fillers are front line medical people who stand in the face of death and sickness all day every day and yet show up again tomorrow, and the next day and the next. They are heroes, in every sense of the word.

Sometimes a crisis can be a mirror to show us exactly who we are. And, if what has happened this year is any indication, we are well. Our future is bright, as it has always been.

Here’s to a great 2021.

Love,

Jill

From Careers in Perfectirishgifts

The Next Boom: Every Industry Will Have A Different Digital Innovation Story

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The Next Boom: Every Industry Will Have A Different Digital Innovation Story

‘Energy as a Service’ is an area that may see entrepreneurial growth in the months and years ahead.

This is the latest installment of my ongoing series of discussions with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate leaders on what to expect as the world recovers in the post-Covid era in terms of technology and innovation.

There will be an abundance of digitally driven opportunities arising in the post-Covid world, but as with all things, every industry will have its own story. For manufacturers, that may take the form of highly networked, intelligent machines. In healthcare, it may mean delivery of services via telemedicine. Every industry has different digital touchpoints. Below, we share what observers within selected industries say what entrepreneurs and innovators can be looking at in the world emerging in 2021:

Energy as a Service: The energy space — an industry marked by slow sales cycles, existing regulations and difficult market entry — is ripe for disruption by artificial intelligence and machine learning, says Emmanuel Lagarrigue, chief innovation officer for Schneider Electric. Our current energy infrastructure “cannot meet the growing energy demand and the traditional grid is currently relying on technology that has barely innovated in the last 100 years, becoming obsolete as more distributed renewable energy generation and microgrids become mainstream. AI and digital technologies can be used to manage the existing grid more efficiently, enable renewable energy to be added, improve energy efficiency of buildings and create new energy markets of energy trading.”

Through low-cost sensors and electronic devices, “companies can capture more real-time data than ever before to manage assets and energy usage and monitor remotely to predict issues before they occur,” Lagarrigue adds. Much of this can be delivered through “energy-as-a-service” models that get around the nearly $3 trillion required to upgrade the global energy infrastructure, says Lagarrigue. “For example, commercial and industrial clients can now transition to renewable energy and energy self-sufficiency through microgrids as a service. Large infrastructure projects such as airports can deploy public/private partnerships and upgrade facilities to be modern, resilient and sustainable through energy-as-a-service contracts.”

Manufacturing: developing virtually: With the increasing prevalence of Industry 4.0 initiatives — fielded on the Internet of Things— today’s manufacturers are becoming digital enterprises as much as they are widget producers. This opens the door for opportunity for entrepreneurial and innovation opportunities in the manufacturing industry that has all the same fervor normally seen in tech companies. “We tend to think that the businesses that are going to fare the best are those squarely in the tech, software-enabled, space,” says Ajei Gopal, CEO of Ansys. “But manufacturing companies are just as nimble, and we see a huge opportunity to accelerate their adoption of digitization technology in the post-Covid era.”

For example, “digitization has modernized and accelerated the product development process,” Gopal illustrates. “Few products are sketched by hand on a drafting table today. Instead, the development cycle – from ideation to design and analysis to manufacturing to operations – occurs virtually. In fact, in the early phases of the modern development lifecycle, the product itself is entirely digital.”

Technologies such as CAD and simulation enable engineers and analysts to “build and break their product thousands of times – and do so in the safe and cost-effective digital environment,” he adds. “Think of it as a digital sandbox.” Vehicle manufacturing — especially with the development of electric cars and autonomous cars are examples of how manufacturing business models are evolving with digital. “Those both require an enormous amount of testing, which can be done through simulation, even during lockdowns,” Gopal says.

Software: Overcoming ‘subscription fatigue’: Software has been at the epicenter of innovation entrepreneurial opportunities. But industry experts caution that the world now seeks more than solutions simply offered online. Needed are software solutions that focus on wowing the customer. “While investors favor subscription and other recurring revenue models, many customers are getting subscription fatigue,” warns Frost Prioleau, co-founder and CEO of Simpli.fi. “In turn, business models are evolving that drive high lifetime value to customer acquisition costs ratios recurring revenue without subscriptions, based on ease of use and high Net Promoter Scores.”

Twenty years into the SaaS/cloud era, “it’s becoming harder to find any white space building the next ‘Cloud for x’ solution,” agrees Andy Vitus, partner with Scale Venture Partners. “With fewer and fewer obvious opportunities, entrepreneurs are already starting to figure out what comes next: a generational shift in software itself. Software has long been a tool that people use to accomplish a task — like scissors or a calculator.” AI and machine learning, APIs, and IoT are opening up a new dimension for software-based delivery, he adds. “Each of these technologies supercharges the others, opening the door to truly next-generation software that intuitively works for us. Software with the power to deliver a new wave of productivity and growth.”

Insurance —Raising speed limits: Insurance has long been a fairly conservative industry — but with the entry of Insurtech companies that are looking to digitize many aspects of the industry, things are changing fast. “We’ve seen more excitement in technology than ever – and are predicting more innovation in the next decade than we’ve seen in several decades prior,” says Matt Foster, chief operating officer of Duck Creek Technologies. “Lots of fast movers, lots of reasons to innovate and, while insurance isn’t usually the first to move, once disruption begins, organizations move quickly.”

SaaS and cloud platforms are delivering this acceleration, Foster says. ”Insurance is migrating to SaaS so they can focus on delivering insurance better – they do not want to be consumed by the previously-mentioned weight of data centers or vendor integrations. These are often barriers for startups and companies of all sizes to moving fast, and its where SaaS really delivers on value and boosts the reality and viability of getting good business ideas to market.”

“Not every purchase will take place without the need for a human, consultative touch, but engagements will increasingly start digital,” Foster adds. “In insurance, we’ve already seen this take hold on personal lines, but we’re also now seeing increased interest in more traditional commercial lines for both selling and servicing through digital channels. While insurance relies on very infrequent consumer touch points, customers are still often looking for a consultative approach. This will remain, but in today’s environment, consumers will first start the buying process digitally.”

Healthcare: Telehealth is here: “The technology that will lead to the next economic boom is telemedicine,” predicts Will O’Connor, CMIO of TigerConnect. Frost & Sullivan projects 7X growth in telehealth by 2025 as the pandemic continues to reshape care delivery, he relates. “During Covid-19, connecting with healthcare professionals on your phone rocketed from a fringe idea to a mainstream force in a matter of months. Patients are realizing there is no reason to slog through traffic for a five-minute non-urgent appointment when you can check in from your home, get reminders via text message and have a face to face conversation over video. Virtual care is one welcome cost-cutting and time-saving revolution whose time has come – and could well prompt a broader tech revolution across healthcare — at last.”

Education: Platform as classroom: “Nothing spurs innovation like people experiencing problems, and right now, remote education comes with a slew of paint points,” says Adam Enbar, CEO and co-founder of Flatiron School. “Educators are relying on Zoom and Slack to teach and engage with students, but we’re realizing it’s falling short in replicating the traditional classroom experience. The truth is that it was never meant to be a substitute. In fact, no ed-tech tool or platform can or should replicate the in-person classroom; tech’s role is to create new experiences altogether. Zoom and Slack usage will go down when things are back to normal. In lieu of these tools, we’ll see a boom in technology that is built by entrepreneurs looking to create entirely new experiences custom to the remote classroom experience.”

From Enterprise Tech in Perfectirishgifts

Artificial Intelligence Is Great For Day-To-Day Stuff, But It Can’t Build A Business

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Artificial Intelligence Is Great For Day-To-Day Stuff, But It Can’t Build A Business

AI can’t build a business the way humans can.

Let’s face it, artificial intelligence is probably one of the best management tools to come along since the first commercial computers rolled out decades ago. It can show and predict when customers are ready to buy, it can tighten up supply chains, and help prioritize the work of teams. The management potential of AI algorithms is unlimited. Still, when it comes to actual leadership, AI falls flat on its face.

“AI will be able to do almost any managerial task in the future. That is because of the way we define management as being focused on the idea of creating stability, order, consistency, predictability, by means of using metrics — e.g., KPI,” says David De Cremer, founder and director of the Centre on AI Technology for Humankind at the National University of Singapore Business School and author of Leadership by Algorithm: Who Leads and Who Follows in the AI Era?

Still, AI is beset by bias and overhyped promises. Most organizations reported some failures among their AI projects, with a quarter of them reporting up to 50% failure rate, a survey by IDC showed. Lack of skilled staff and unrealistic expectations were identified as the top reasons for failure.

Still, there are zones where AI has potential to excel in a big way — such as at repetitive tasks in which it could replace many managerial functions. That’s as far as AI’s potential reaches — inspired, visionary business leadership is still very much a human skill, De Cremer points out in a recent interview published at Knowledge@Wharton. AI algorithms can never replace the qualities of human leadership. The perception that AI may be in charge is understandable — “we are moving into a society where people are being told by algorithms what their taste is, and, without questioning it too much, most people comply easily. Given these circumstances, it does not seem to be a wild fantasy anymore that AI may be able to take a leadership position.”

But the idea that AI will take the lead is actually a fantasy, he points out. AI “will never have ‘a soul’ and it cannot replace human leadership qualities that let people be creative and have different perspectives,” he says. “Leadership is required to guide the development and applications of AI in ways that best serve the needs of humans.”

For starters, because AI is so far-reaching, the actual technology is only part of the equation. “The integration between social sciences, humanity, and artificial intelligence was not getting as much attention as it should,” says De Cremer. “AI is particularly good at repetitive, routine tasks and thinking systematically and consistently. This already implies that the tasks and the jobs that are most likely to be taken over by AI are the hard skills, and not so much the soft skills.”

These soft skills include the ability of business leaders to understand “how, where, and why to use algorithms, automation, to have more efficient decision-making,” he says. “Many business leaders have problems making business cases for why they should use AI. They are struggling to make sense of what AI can bring to their companies.”

This means figuring out how AI will serve a co-working roles in teams. This consists of deciding “where in the loop of the business process do you automate, where is it possible to take humans out of the loop, and where do you definitely keep humans in the loop,” De Cremer. Leaders need to design a work culture “where people feel that they are being supervised by a machine, or being treated like robots. Leaders build cultures, and in doing this they communicate and represent the values and norms the company uses to decide how work needs to be done to create business value.”

AI will never be able to figure out how to build a productive and forward-looking work culture.

(Disclosure: In my role as an independent consultant, I have performed project work over the past year for IDC, mentioned in this post.)

From Enterprise Tech in Perfectirishgifts

The Best Laptops Of 2020…And Other Small Business Tech News

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The Best Laptops Of 2020…And Other Small Business Tech News

(Photo by Ulrich Perrey/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?

1 — These are the best laptops for 2020 according to Tech Radar.

Tech Radar— a consumer technology news and review site based in the UK—has revealed its picks for the top 15 laptops of this past year. The picks include laptops that have the most up-to-date mobile technology, the most cost-effective, efficient laptops, as well as 2-in-1 laptops, to name a few. Currently, the top pick for best overall laptop goes to the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) due to its long battery life, and fanless, silent design. Dell’s XPS 15 and HP’s Spectre x360 rounded out the top three. (Source: TechRadar)

Why this is important for your business:

A great list from a very reputable source. If you’re planning on laptop purchases in 2021 this should be on your research list.

2 —TikTok launched a new small business resource center for marketers.

TikTok has announced that they are adding business offerings by launching its new Small Business Resource Center. The feature will provide small businesses with a variety of case studies, tools to help creativity and video production, and information to assist owners navigate many other areas of business. (Source: Social Media Today)

Why this is important for your business:

With more small businesses planning to bolster digital marketing to include TikTok, the newest addition will assist owners and provide support on best practices.

3 —Congress approved a COVID-19 spending bill with contentious copyright measures.

Congress has approved a new COVID-19 relief package but not without including a highly contended copyright bill titled the CASE act. According to the act, internet users illegally streaming for profit could be charged with a felony and fined $30,000. The bill appears to target individuals who profit from their illegal streaming services, but the bill doesn’t necessarily hold accountable Twitch streamers who potentially use work that is unlicensed as part of what they stream. Additionally, the bill will allow designers and artists to make copyright infringement challenges without the need to federally open a case. (Source: Engadget)

Why this is important for your business:

The new provisions may add extra liabilities for your business if you’re using copyrighted material – unknowingly or unknowingly – on your website or on social media platforms. On the other hand, the bill is also providing you with more protections if others are doing the same with your copyrighted material.

4 — RingCentral acquired conversational AI startup DeepAffects.

Cloud product platform RingCentral announced that it has obtained startup DeepAffects which focuses on conversational AI. DeepAffects has been developing tools that can identify unique voice prints through an audio clip, recognize emotion, detect intent, recognize multiple speakers, and metrics surrounding conversation. (Source: VentureBeat)

Why this is important for your business:

The technology is allowing businesses to extract analytics from their voice-based communication which is believed to be vital as businesses continue to work remotely or using a hybrid schedule. It is being predicted that 15% of customer service exchanges will be done using AI by 2021, which is 400% more than what it was in 2017 – a growing trend that may impact your customer operations.

5—Bambee raised $15 million to help small business owners solve challenging HR issues.

Bambee—which provides HR solutions for SMBs—shared that it has raised $15 million. Launched in 2016, Bambee provides an experienced HR manager to small and medium-sized businesses who otherwise did not have one. The goal is to help reduce the often contentious relationship that can be the result of businesses lacking an HR strategy or expertise. Bambee plans to use the funding to expand its offerings in order to help more businesses. (Source: AIThority)

Why this is important for your business:

The majority of SMBs in the United States do not have a qualified, professional HR manager, typically due to the high cost. Bambee is one of a growing number of HR platforms that are providing lower cost tools to help allow small businesses behave more like big businesses, particularly in this era of more regulation.

From Enterprise Tech in Perfectirishgifts

Digital Careers Ahead: AI Instructors, Remote Work Heads, Digital-Charged Marketers

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Digital Careers Ahead: AI Instructors, Remote Work Heads, Digital-Charged Marketers

Every job — even non-tech roles — will have a digital component.

Every organization wants to build their future on digital technologies, but what does it take to make it all happen? To get a better sense of the skills and talents that will be in demand, I reached out to experts and entrepreneurs across the landscape to get their views on what it takes to build a career in this new world. This is part of an ongoing series.

It’s well understood that learning digital, AI and machine learning skills is a must for information technology professionals and data scientists. But, it’s going to be just as important for non-tech business professionals to at least understand the power of digital and AI technologies as well. With it will come re-designed and re-oriented job roles.

The impact of digital and AI may even be more profound on business professionals than it is on their technology counterparts. “Digital and AI technologies have definitely disrupted the business mindset and delivery models, but has not necessarily required any landslide shift in skills and titles,” says Brad Fisher, partner with advisory services at KPMG. The primary changes in technical roles include “the evolution of data engineer into cloud engineer, data scientists into full-stack developers, and product manager into digital product manager.”

The big difference is now being seen downstream from the data center, Fisher continues. “Downstream businesses now have to embrace the need to engage machine learning elements in their business processes. This includes skills like annotation, labeling, and itemizing every step of the decision-making process so that they are machine learning ready.”

The next generation of jobs will need to “focus on taking subject matter experience and translating them into machine learnable labels and annotations,” he continues. “Today, these activities are being done at a very low-wage, daily knowledge management level, but soon there will be need for highly qualified subject matter experts to engage in this work. A potential job role for these highly skilled, subject matter experts, such as ‘AI instructors,’ who train complex machine learning systems, could be seen as a necessity within each subject matter area — like medicine or legal.”

Along AI and machine learning, the hybrid workplace that now has sprung into a very pronounced existence will also call for more roles to help employees and managers cope with it. Renato Profico, CEO of Doodle, predicts more companies will requires “heads of remote work,” not necessarily as standalone roles, but added to existing management roles. It’s also likely these leaders will be remote workers themselves, he adds. “They have already been working remotely full-time for many years and have a unique perspective and insights into what it takes to make remote working successful.”

Companies will also need people who can delve deep and understand the productivity implications of hybrid work culture. This is an area that is not yet well understood. “As companies yo-yo back and forth between fully remote and hybrid working models,” there may be greater demand for something called industrial psychologists, Profico predicts. As the title suggests, this is a role that applies psychological principles to the workplace. “A person with this title would explore what motivates employees to do great work, how training can bring out leadership qualities in employees, how to cultivate alignment with cultural values and even be part of the candidate screening process.”

Related to this is will be professionals adept in the areas of organizational development and learning. “Companies will need people who can adapt extremely fast, and those who are self-disciplined to function on their own,” says Dr. Ted Sun, president and chief innovations officer of Transcontinental University. “This calls for much redesign of existing organizational structures, processes, and tasks. The organizational learning aspect will be a key piece to keep people loyal to a company, while proactively learning from multiple sources. This will drive the continuous innovation that all companies need.”

This is recasting non-technical careers such as financial, marketing, sales, or HR. “We’re already seeing digital technologies become a major part of non-technical careers,” Profico says. While roles in sales and marketing aren’t technical in nature, “they rely heavily on digital tools and automation for their success. In many instances, marketing and sales teams are using 20-plus different digital tools for CRM, marketing automation, website analytics, SEO, conversion-rate optimization, email marketing, content management, website development, scheduling, database management, webinars, social media management and PR measurement.”

A growing number of non-technical teams “are also using project management tools to stay organized, collaborate with team members and manage the development and launch of projects,” he adds. “Rather than keeping these tools at a distance, people in non-technical roles will find themselves in a better position for career growth and development if they look for ways to integrate technology into their everyday processes.”

With the emergence of the AI push “comes the change management that every role will need to embrace,’ Fisher says. “For example, with HR services embracing AI, most of the mundane low-complexity tasks will get automated away through algorithmic decision making. This will allow the HR representatives to now focus on more complex and engaging tasks.” Similarly, he adds, “areas like legal and medical professions that need hundreds, if not thousands of hours of historical assimilation of knowledge, could benefit from having AI technologies do the heavy lifting, thereby making their jobs easier, if not very efficient. Preparing for greater AI adoption will require professionals to fundamentally understand where these technologies excel and where the human element – judgement, perspective, problem solving, etc. will be important.”

Digital means new roles for executives and managers “who not only understand how the digital technologies work, but deeply understand and appreciate the business drivers and how to scale exceptional services exponentially,” Fisher says. At the middle-management level, it’s essential “to understand the value of low-code and no-code automation capabilities and engage them as needed within their workforce.”

There will also be changes in corporate culture at all levels, Fisher says. Corporate leaders will need to “inculcate digital product ownership in their teams. It will be important to recognize how digitization is changing the skills needed at the individual level. With opportunities to automate certain functions, skills like critical thinking and problem solving will be essential to thriving in the digital economy.”

To succeed and advance, managers and professionals need to adopt greater systems thinking – “knowing how different systems are interconnected and learning to design new systems,” Sun advises. This is important, “since those who design systems can always be successful, while most others only play a part in someone else’s system.”

Profico also urges a “mindset shift” for people to prepare for the digital world ahead. “When people have been doing things a certain way for years, it can be daunting and uncomfortable to even think about changing processes,” he says. “If non-tech workers want to advance in their careers in a digitally-driven world, then they need to prepare themselves mentally for it first. The best thing they can do is to lean on the guidance, feedback and recommendations of tech professionals.”

At Doodle, provider of an online scheduling tool, “we recently hired agile specialists to help other teams who aren’t so technically agile to find ways to use technology to become more nimble, improve their project management skills and increase collaboration between teams,” Profico says. “If you’re a non-tech professional, don’t try to figure it all out yourself. Ask people in your team who might already be using digital technologies more holistically for tips and advice.”

That’s the key to today and tomorrow’s organization — working as a team, closely collaborating, drawing on the skills — technical and non-technical — every team member brings to the table.

From Enterprise Tech in Perfectirishgifts

Indiana Pacers Make Handful Of Waivers And Finalize Roster For Season

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Indiana Pacers Make Handful Of Waivers And Finalize Roster For Season

Naz Mitrou-Long of the Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers announced a group of transactions that finalized the team’s roster for the beginning of the regular season.

NBA rosters become officially set for the regular season today, so each club made a frenzy of waivers over the weekend. Training camp units are permitted to have 20 players, but regular season rosters have a maximum of 17 (15 standard two two-way contracts). Since the waiver process takes 48 hours to complete, teams had to cut down rosters by 5 p.m. on Saturday.

The Pacers did just that, but they made the cuts in groups. On Friday, the team first parted ways with center Amida Brimah and forward Rayshaun Hammonds. Brimah and Hammonds each had an exhibit 10 clause in their contract, meaning that both players will receive a bonus if they play with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the G League this season.

Brimah missed all three of Indiana’s preseason games. He was not with the team, and Head Coach Nate Bjorkgren did not provide a comment when asked about why. Brimah played for the blue and gold in the 2019-20 preseason before tearing his ACL.

Hammonds made his Pacer debut in the team’s first preseason game against the Cavaliers. He played in the final 49 seconds of the game, though he was unable to accrue any stats.

These two waivers brought the teams roster down to 18, but both cuts were made on Friday. That meant the team had another day to get the roster to 17. So, on top of the roster cuts, the Pacers actually signed two more players to obtain their G League rights: Josh Gray and Devin Robinson.

Gray played in two games for the Pelicans last season and averaged one point and one assist per game. Robinson spent two seasons with the Wizards from 2017-2019, where he appeared in eight games and averaged 6.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 0.8 assists per game.

Both players were waived the very next day, though, as the team just needed to ink them to a deal to acquire their G League rights. On Saturday, the Pacers parted ways with Gray, Robinson, and guard Naz Mitrou-Long.

Mitrou-Long played for the Pacers last season on a two-way contract. He was a depth piece that helped guide Indiana to a win in Brooklyn when some other key guards were injured. He earned an opportunity to fight for a roster spot this season.

Mitrou-Long was unable to receive a two-way contract this season, so he signed a deal with an exhibit 10 clause. He played acceptably in eight minutes of preseason action, scoring three points and dishing out three assists, but he didn’t stand out enough to steal a roster spot from another player and was ultimately waived. Should he report to the Mad Ants, he will be one of the more talented players on the roster.

Earlier in the offseason, Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard indicated that there would a battle for the final roster spot(s) in training camp. Hammonds, Brimah, and Mitrou-Long were given a chance to earn a position on the regular season roster throughout the preseason. Pritchard and Bjorkgren wanted to generate some competition in camp.

Those three players were mainly competing with Kelan Martin and, to a lesser extent, Jalen Lecque for a spot on the Pacers roster. Lecque and Martin both have some guaranteed money in their contracts, so they had an advantage before training camp even opened.

“I’m just looking for those that compete,” Bjorkgren said of the guys vying for the final roster spots. “I’m looking for those that are the best team players for this team — who would fit a need or fit a role. How they handle themselves in the locker room, how they handle themselves on and off the court. All of those things factor in.”

Kelan Martin of the Indiana Pacers

Martin popped in preseason action and earned his role on the team. Lecque made some nice plays and cemented his already mostly-secure spot. Once those two beat out everyone else for the last pair of spots on the team, the competition was over and the other players were waived.

“When it does come time it will be tough to release them,” Bjorkgren said of the players prior to the transactions. He liked what he saw from most of his team throughout the preseason.

The Pacers roster stands at 17 players and is now set for opening night. Financially, the team currently projects to spend just enough money on player salaries to pay the luxury tax this season, which will likely be something the front office tries to avoid. Martin’s contract is only partially guaranteed, so he could be cut sometime in the middle of the season to save Indiana’s ownership some money. The front office could also make a trade to save some cash and get under the luxury tax.

But it’s premature to think about those decisions now. The Indiana Pacers have their roster for the 2020-21 season, and they are ready to show what continuity can do.

From SportsMoney in Perfectirishgifts

COMO Hotels: 30 Years Leading Sustainability In Luxury Travel

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COMO Hotels: 30 Years Leading Sustainability In Luxury Travel

Castello del Nero, the newest hotel in the COMO group

Hotels and the tourism industry as a whole, have been extremely adept at responding to increasing consumer demand for sustainable practices. Providing refillable toiletries, asking guests to reuse towels, using eco-friendly cleaning products and sourcing food and other products locally has become commonplace in hotels globally. Statista‘s worldwide survey of over 20,000 regular travelers showed that 61% intended to stay at least once in an eco-friendly or green accommodation in 2020. And research conducted by hotels’ site Booking.com this year (in 22 global markets with 1000 participants per market) revealed that 82% of travellers said they find sustainability an important topic but only 50% said there’s enough choice when it comes to places to stay and 38% were not even sure where to look for sustainable accommodation.

The Mirrorcube one of seven rooms at the eco-friendly Treehotel, Harads, Sweden.

With statistics like these indicating the keen demand for sustainable accommodation and with vital issues like climate change dominating the news and influencing consumer habits, it becomes increasingly important for hospitality businesses, like hoteliers and restaurants, not to just simply react to demand but to actually lead the way in ethical and eco-friendly practices.

Pikaia Lodge, Galapagos, Ecuador

There are plenty of hotels taking sustainable steps, including luxury properties. Building with sustainable materials and using renewable solar and wind energy sources is a start. Sonop, a luxury safari camp in the Namibian desert uses solar power entirely in the main lodge and guest accommodation while Pikaialodge, in the Galapagos Islands, heats its water using solar panels. Salinda Resort in Vietnam was built using Accoya wood, acknowledged as the world’s most sustainable and durable wood. Petit St Vincent, Grenadines uses a reverse osmosis desalination plant to process ocean water to supply fresh drinking water. Treehotel in northern Sweden has seven unique treehouse rooms in the woods featuring incinerating toilets and a sustainable Rukkamoika water system.

COMO Maalifushi Tai Restaurant

Some luxury hotels like the COMO Group are further taking the lead in sustainability initiatives by following the key objectives set out by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. Each of the fifteen hotels in the COMO Group aims to support sustainable tourism defined by the UNWTO as “a full awareness of the current and future impact of tourism in economic, social and environmental terms in order to satisfy the needs of visitors, industries, nature and host communities.”

A suite at The Halkin, a hotel in the COMO group

Since the COMO group was launched in 1991, with the Halkin in London, COMO’s brand ethos has been strongly based on wellness and sustainability. COMO leads rather than simply follows, by identifying and working with the existing authenticity and diversity of each destination. COMO CEO, Olivier Jolivet, says that creating environmentally-conscious experiences for guests, based on what’s available in a destination, is key. In the works is the “iNaturalist app” for hotel guests to document and monitor the biodiversity of local flora and fauna.

The pool and terrace at Castello del Nero, Tuscany, the newest hotel in the COMO group

Sustainable hotels are designed to respect the environment and the people in the area they’re located. Every COMO hotel is developed to respect and showcase the natural and cultural heritage of the destination. The group’s latest property, Castello Del Nero, opened in 2019, is a 740-acre estate in the Chianti wine region of Italy. Each of the 50 rooms and suites in the medieval castle have been expertly refurbished by renowned Italian designer Paola Navone who has done an extraordinary job blending the old and the new, ensuring the castle’s original terracotta flooring, fresco walls and vaulted ceilings remained intact. La Torre, the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant, serves a menu supplied by Tuscan food producers and their own kitchen garden. The estate’s vineyard, olive groves and bee hives are still in active use and supply the kitchens with quality Chianti produce.

COMO Maalifushi in the Maldives uses solar panels for renewable energy.

The COMO group tries to minimise environmental impact through installation of efficient fixtures and sourcing locally from small producers, entrepreneurs and non-profit organisations. COMO Maalifushi in the Maldives uses solar panels for renewable energy and the restaurant uses locally sourced ingredients and produce from the hotel’s own vegetable gardens. In COMO Uma Ubud in Bali, they purchase cashew nuts and roselle from Muntigunung Community Social Enterprise that promotes livelihood sustainability for villages in Northeast Bali.

The historic Treasury hotel, part of the COMO group is in a former government building in Perth, … [] Australia

At every COMO property, social support and investment into local communities are implemented through jobs training, mentorship and scholarships. At The Treasury, housed in the 19th-century State buildings, in Perth, Australia, they have strong ties with the local community. The hotel buys and commissions linens, tableware and art from Perth companies and purchases seasonal produce from farmers around Western Australia. They also provide support for local projects and non-profit organisations such as Youth Focus and Lifeline.

Olivier Jolivet , the CEO of COMO hotels

COMO CEO, Olivier Jolivet, says that “the future of travel depends so heavily on our ability to preserve and protect the natural environment we enjoy on our destination holidays. And, weaving sustainable practice into the business model is how hospitality businesses can chip away at the gargantuan task of making the world a better place.”

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An Informative Intel Industry Analyst Conference 2020

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An Informative Intel Industry Analyst Conference 2020

I spent close to three days attending the 2020 Intel industry analyst day last week. All the new information was NDA, I am not going to rehash what has already been said over the past year, but I did want to share some of my high-level opinions exiting the week. Comparatively, there was less new information shared than in previous years and less one on ones to get down to the nitty gritty details. I do not see this necessarily as the company withholding information, but rather, the inconveniences brought on by Covid-19 and the lack of face to face communications. Net-net, my view of Intel has improved in some areas and remains the same in others. If you have not read my previous opinions on Intel’s strategies and products, please check out the resources at the very bottom of the article.

My goals of the week were to re-assess Intel’s strategy, get an update on its fab position, its products, and position in AI training.

Strategy

I still think that Intel’s strategy is the right one. It is focused on six pillars of innovation and remaining an IDM. Intel has expanded the definition of compute, which Intel calls the “XPU” across multiple types of compute, the CPU, GPU, FPGA, and ASIC. I have believed in this approach for 20 years and I still believe it is the right path. And I also think right now, IDM (Integrated Device Manufacturer) is still the right move for Intel, with the ability to tweak and tune the designs. If a company is executing well on an IDM strategy, it can also be the lowest cost, and it has the most flexibility. The challenge is on Intel’s 10nm execution but try not to confuse that with the merits of strategically being an IDM.

Intel strategy- simplified view

And I think disaggregating chip design makes sense for Intel, even though this is not what the mobile players are doing right now. Qualcomm and Apple, for the time being, are sticking with monolithic designs. AMD has already disaggregated, and Xilinx and NVIDIA are on its way. You see, the larger the die area and the more heterogeneity the SOC, the bigger the need for a 2D, 2.5D, or 3D design. AMD got there first with 2D, and it is paying off well so far. Intel is first on 3D which is early but looks very promising to achieve more density in new designs. I know we’ve seen Intel 3D in lower power designs, but I’m more excited seeing this in datacenter products for mix and match IP.

Intel CSO Saf Yeboah-Amankwah outside perspective

Intel Fabs

When you ask most people in the tech industry about the state of Intel fabs, I think they would say they were “broken”. I understand this sentiment, but I believe it is too simplistic and not accurate. Intel has had big issues with 10nm execution, delayed over two years, and issues with 7nm execution, which have been delayed another six months. This is an issue, but fundamentally what people are missing are what the company is doing with 14nm and the real progress on 10nm. Intel is servicing 90% of the server and PC industry mostly with a super-optimized 14nm process and silicon designs. Intel even had to “back-port” features and parts from 10nm to 14nm. In the notebook market on 10nm process, Intel is competitive and would say most competitive with battery life. Intel has never shared yield in the 30 years I’ve known them, and the company did not share 14nm or 10nm yields with the group.

I did have the chance to talk 1:1 with Dr. Ann B. Kelleher, SVP and GM of Technology Development at Intel. She is responsible for the research, development and deployment of next-generation silicon logic, packaging and test technologies, and before that led manufacturing where she managed a significant expansion of 14nm supply and ramping the 10nm process. Here is the high-level of what she shared with me that I can share here. Note, I cannot share everything that was discussed.

Overall: Fabs are at full capacity, including Ireland, Israel, Arizona and Oregon. The rumored cost issues based on fab underloading is just not happening. Every open space is being converted to factory space including a café in Israel. 14nm is at peak performance and capacity, better than any process she had seen in her 24 years at Intel. Yields continue to improve on 14nm and 10nm.

10nm: Crossover between 14nm and 10nm volume will be sometime in 2021, meaning Intel is adding more 10nm capacity as we speak. Comparing 10nm Ice Lake onwards (not 10nm Cannon Lake), 10nm is within a quarter or so of where 14nm was in its lifetime. Israel, Arizona, and Oregon are all doing 10nm in high volume. SuperFIN has been instrumental in increasing 10nm performance.

7nm: We can expect an official 7nm update in January, but clearly there is an intense focus on meeting product schedule commitments.

More fabs: Building even more fab space in Oregon and Ireland and starting additional site prep to have room for 7nm and 5nm.

Net-net for me is the Intel fabs are full, 14nm is performing great, 10nm is better than rumors, we have to wait until January on 7nm, but the focus is there, and Intel is building enough capacity as quickly as it can, short-term and mid-term.

External Fabs

Now let’s talk about external fabs.

First off, Intel has used external fabs a lot historically if it got into a jam or if it made an acquisition and that design was externally fabbed. We saw this in chipsets, FPGAs and LTE modems. So, when the world went nuts after CEO Bob Swan suggested it was going to look at external foundries, I was puzzled, as it already did that. While I think it could have been more strategically communicated, I suppose Swan had to tell the street coincident when he knew it. What I do understand is the surprise at the notion that Intel would take some of leading edge designs to a foundry. That is new.

I spent nearly 10 years at an OEM (chip customer) and 11 years at a chipmaker and for the most part, customers don’t care where a part is fabbed as long as it is on time, feature complete and at a good cost. Customers want predictable cadence. Therefore, I think the notion that Intel fabs must compete with TSMC and Samsung for future designs is a great idea and doesn’t negate the strategic benefit of Intel’s IDM strategy. I would love to see Ice Lake on TSMC’s 5nm process, wouldn’t you?

Products

Let’s talk products. I left the conference more confident with the client computing roadmap through 2022 that was shared for reasons I cannot divulge under NDA. Gregory Bryant aka “GB” answered all my questions and I think he had a great grasp of the market situation and answers for most. Let me just say that GB and the client group isn’t backing down. At all.

Innovate Through Platforms

I had a good 1:1 chat with Lisa Spelman, who leads the Xeon product line . I am quite intrigued by the upcoming Xeon roadmap, particularly in 2023. I think strategically, given where Intel is, what it wants to accomplish, and the competitive set, it’s the right direction. Spelman also briefed us all on an exciting new category of datacenter products but unfortunately, I cannot dive into it. There is a market need for these new products and I am excited about them. I expect we’ll hear more about this in the new year.

3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor

AI training

One of the biggest things investors and CSPs are clamoring from Intel was a competitive accelerated ML and DL training solution. Nervana didn’t pan out as planned, GPUs weren’t coming to the rescue, so Intel intelligently acquired Habana Labs. The great news was that Amazon AWS announced at its 2020 re:Invent that same week that it was creating instances based on Habana Gaudi. I wrote about this here. Promised in 2021, AWS set a goal of delivering up to 40% better single-node price-performance compared to its current GPU-based EC2 instances supporting ML. This is a really big deal as NVIDIA hasn’t any competition in training from a tier 1 silicon vendor. I know the EC2 folks at AWS pretty well and don’t think for a second that AWS would productize anything that it didn’t deem competitive, no matter the price. While one CSP make not a market, if you’re going to start with anyone, you want it to be AWS to pull through all the other CSPs, tier 2s and enterprises.

AWS CEO Andy Jassy announces Intel Habana Gaudi Instances

Summary

Overall, I felt much better exiting Intel’s industry analyst day than I did entering it and I appreciate everybody at Intel taking the time to do it. I liked almost everything I saw on the slides and in the conversations, but in the end, it really does come down to Intel’s execution.

I think Intel is going to coming storming back. This does not mean I think the company will achieve the same market share in its traditional 95% PC and server markets- I don’t. I think the cat is already of the bag on that.

I do think Intel can grow as it has widened the aperture considerably when I look at its increased TAM and SAM. The “old” Intel did CPUs and chipsets with monolithic designs for datacenter servers and PCs. The “new” Intel does a family of XPUs (CPU/GPU/NPU/FPGA) with disaggregated designs for datacenter server, storage and networking, the edge, carrier and autonomous cars. The new Intel will use the fab or foundry that is best suited for its disaggregated designs that best meets its customers needs by decoupling design from the state of the fab or its technologies. If that’s the Intel fab-great. If not, TSMC or Samsung. Customers don’t care.

If I were a customer, I would prefer the new Intel over the old. Now it’s up to Intel to prove everybody wrong and execute.

To get up to speed on my opinions of Intel’s products and strategies, please find these resources below:

Intel Announces Gold Release Of OneAPI Toolkits And New Intel Server GPU

Intel’s 11th Gen Core Processors And ‘Evo’ Platform Brand Raises The Notebook Processor Competitive Stakes

Intel Architecture Day 2020 Gives A Glimpse Into A Brighter Future

Intel Core With Intel Hybrid Technology Marks A New Way Forward

Intel’s Amps Up Its 2030 CSR Goals Amongst The COVID19 Crisis Backdrop

Intel Beefs Up Capabilities In Managed Notebooks With Latest VPro

Intel’s Gaming CPU Brings Competition We Like

Intel Quietly Becoming A Player On The ‘Edge’

Intel Aggressively Updates Xeon And Announces Key 5G Product Lines

Intel Lays Out Strategy For AI: It’s Habana

Intel Shows Off PC Platform, Compute And Graphics Futures At CES 2020

Intel Demonstrates At Data-Centric Day That It’s The Datacenter Technology Company To Beat

Intel Registers Solid Q2 Earnings And Its Future Opportunities Look Even Brighter

Note: Moor Insights & Strategy writers and editors may have contributed to this article.

Moor Insights & Strategy, like all research and analyst firms, provides or has provided paid research, analysis, advising, or consulting to many high-tech companies in the industry, including 8×8, Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Applied Micro, ARM, Aruba Networks, AT&T, AWS, A-10 Strategies, Bitfusion, Blaize, Box, Broadcom, Calix, Cisco Systems, Clear Software, Cloudera, Clumio, Cognitive Systems, CompuCom, Dell, Dell EMC, Dell Technologies, Diablo Technologies, Digital Optics, Dreamchain, Echelon, Ericsson, Extreme Networks, Flex, Foxconn, Frame (now VMware), Fujitsu, Gen Z Consortium, Glue Networks, GlobalFoundries, Google (Nest-Revolve), Google Cloud, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Honeywell, Huawei Technologies, IBM, Ion VR, Inseego, Infosys, Intel, Interdigital, Jabil Circuit, Konica Minolta, Lattice Semiconductor, Lenovo, Linux Foundation, MapBox, Marvell, Mavenir, Marseille Inc, Mayfair Equity, Meraki (Cisco), Mesophere, Microsoft, Mojo Networks, National Instruments, NetApp, Nightwatch, NOKIA (Alcatel-Lucent), Nortek, Novumind, NVIDIA, Nuvia, ON Semiconductor, ONUG, OpenStack Foundation, Oracle, Poly, Panasas, Peraso, Pexip, Pixelworks, Plume Design, Poly, Portworx, Pure Storage, Qualcomm, Rackspace, Rambus, Rayvolt E-Bikes, Red Hat, Residio, Samsung Electronics, SAP, SAS, Scale Computing, Schneider Electric, Silver Peak, SONY, Springpath, Spirent, Splunk, Sprint, Stratus Technologies, Symantec, Synaptics, Syniverse, Synopsys, Tanium, TE Connectivity, TensTorrent, Tobii Technology, T-Mobile, Twitter, Unity Technologies, UiPath, Verizon Communications, Vidyo, VMware, Wave Computing, Wellsmith, Xilinx, Zebra, Zededa, and Zoho which may be cited in blogs and research.

From Enterprise Tech in Perfectirishgifts

Sarah Brightman On New ‘A Christmas Symphony’ Livestream And Embracing The Christmas Spirit During Pandemic

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Sarah Brightman On New ‘A Christmas Symphony’ Livestream And Embracing The Christmas Spirit During Pandemic

LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 28: Sarah Brightman performs at the 5th annual Holiday Tree Lighting at … [] L.A. LIVE & opening of LA Kings Holiday Ice held at Nokia Plaza L.A. LIVE on November 28, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/WireImage)

Amidst turbulent times during a holiday season defined by the quarantine of pandemic, music can be an uplifting force.

As the world’s best-selling soprano, vocalist and musician Sarah Brightman has moved in excess of 30 million records, first tackling the holiday season in song on the A Winter Symphony album in 2008.

Brightman is no stranger to holiday-themed concert tours. But as COVID-19 continues to upend live music, the singer has been forced to think outside the box, launching her first ever livestream performance this weekend.

Sarah Brightman: A Christmas Symphony will originate from the historic setting of London’s Christ Church Spitalfields, a fully restored, English Baroque-style Anglican church built in the early 1700s. It’s a global livestream event which will broadcast in four time zones on December 20 and 21.

“Christmas, for me, has always meant a lot. I have a huge family and we’re very close. So those moments of being together – as I’m sure it is for many other families in the world that celebrate Christmas – are important,” said Brightman of the idea of Christmas in 2020 which, for many, will mean being away from loved ones despite the special time. “This has been very, very challenging. I find a huge amount of people, even close people that I know, their spirits have gone really downhill. I’m just hoping that everybody will look back on this and just take on what happened, understand it, learn by it and, at the same time, say, ‘That was a blip year. We need to move on.’”

More than just staging an entertaining holiday special, Brightman’s Christmas livestream was born out of the necessity of helping others during a more stressful than usual holiday season.

During the internet era, monetizing recorded music has become more difficult than ever before. With live performance off the table indefinitely, many are struggling to find work and make ends meet.

For Brightman, putting people back to work was crucial. But equally important was making sure A Christmas Symphony contained a charitable component.

In the spirit of giving back, and in recognition of the increased level of difficulty for charities operating during a global pandemic, Brightman has partnered with the Global Foodbanking Network, a group which oversees food banks in over 40 countries, feeding nearly 17 million people each year.

“A lot of people have lost their homes. And a lot of people don’t have enough food. And that really, really upsets me – and I’m sure everybody else,” said Brightman. “So, actually, this thing I wanted to do, this streaming event, we really thought about which charity we could sort of put ourselves with and maybe help in some way. You have to think of others continually in this situation and be very understanding,” she said.

“I’m not the most technically savvy person on the planet. But once I got my head around the idea and worked out what I could do, I thought it would be a lovely way to employ a lot of musicians that weren’t working very much and employ people in a specific filming area with production teams. Even within rehearsals, there’s been a huge amount of COVID monitoring by COVID monitors. Everybody is going to be very spaced apart in it,” said Brightman of the livestream event. “I worked very closely with the lighting designer and my set person, whom I’ve worked with for years. They’ve come up with a beautiful concept in this lovely old church in old London, in Spitalfield – which is always an interesting area for me. It’s a beautiful space to work in and the lighting’s going to be beautiful. It’s hymns and songs that lift people’s spirits and make it very spiritual and beautiful.”

One of the reasons holiday music continues to resonate is the warmth provided by the familiarity of the Christmas canon. But the songs are familiar to artists and fans alike and, as a result, tend to carry expectations. People expect to hear them a certain way. That can make it difficult for musicians to approach the material with a fresh perspective.

For Brightman and company, the key to keeping things fun and interesting was in maintaining a respectful balance between the old and new. Bing Crosby’s televised 1977 duet with David Bowie on “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” was an inspiration, a performance in which visual presentation was equally as powerful as the audio delivered.

“There’s a reason why these pieces have stayed around for so long: because they’re written so well. So you can’t veer away too much, musically, from them. Maybe bring in different things with the arrangements, etc.,” said Brightman.

“For example, there’s a song I do with Andrew Lloyd Webber which he wrote years ago – actually for a movie called The Odessa File. It was actually set within a Christmas scene in that movie. He wrote ‘Christmas Dream’ with Tim Rice. We’ve been working on the arrangement and giving it a completely different flavor – bringing in bells and all sorts of things that he didn’t have in the original recording of it. And singing it with a different perspective,” said Brightman of a performance with Andrew Lloyd Webber which will take place during the A Christmas Symphony special. “I’ll also be singing ‘Silent Night.’ People have different ways of doing ‘Silent Night.’ But I’ve always felt that simplicity gives the best message. And I have a particular voice that works well with that. So I just work with them in the way that I love to work with these pieces. And they’re always a little different than the way that we originally know it when we’re singing it in church around Christmas at that time.”

LONDON – OCTOBER 9: (L-R) Earl Carpenter, Sarah Brightman, Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Rachel … [] Barrell attend the 20th Birthday celebratory performance of The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s Haymarket on October 9, 2006 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images)

The reworked take on “Christmas Dream” is the product of pandemic, as Brightman and Webber swapped ideas during socially distanced park sessions while walking their dogs in New York City.

But Lloyd Webber won’t be the only guest. The livestream will also feature a full orchestra, Trinity College chorister, choir Gregorian and Welsh singer Aled Jones, whose voice was featured on an updated take of “Walking in the Air,” the Howard Blake-penned centerpiece of the 1982 animated British TV film The Snowman, which climbed the UK charts again in 1985 thanks to Jones’s vocal.

“This was a personal thing of mine in that I love the movie The Snowman. It’s something that takes me back to innocence and as a child growing up through Christmases in Britain. That movie really captures that. It’s very special. So to have Aled come onto the show will be wonderful,” explained Brightman. “He’ll sing his part as an adult. And the part that he sang as a child will be taken by a lovely chorister named Leo. He’s just a small boy but he sings beautifully. So that’s a lovely touch to it. I think it’s just going to be a beautiful, magical night. This is an evening that I would like to watch just before Christmas. And I hope that everybody else enjoys it.”

Limited edition merchandise is available to accompany this weekend’s holiday livestream. And, with tour dates scheduled to take place next winter in support of her twelfth studio album Hymn, Brightman looks forward to what lies ahead in 2021.

Productive amidst quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic, the vocalist remains optimistic despite uncertain times.

“I became quite sort of introspective about things. And, actually, this time also gave me time to really work on my vocals. Because, often, as a touring artist, you don’t get that much time to do that. So I’ve been able to do a huge amount of work and discover things vocally that I can do that I never thought that I could,” observed Brightman, who already sings in a range encompassing more than three octaves. “I think that we’ll all move as artists incredibly fast. Because we’re so desperate to get back out there. Our way of living our lives is about communication – we communicate with our musicianship in whatever form that is. And without that, we kind of die in a way. We get very depressed. This is what we do. So I think we’re just raring to go and will be very happy to do whatever we can to get it all going again.”

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