Josh Kampel

Responsibility plays a vital role for entrepreneurs, celebrities, and others to channel their success back to the common good.

In the face of global challenges, we must collaborate and work in unison to find practical solutions.

QR codes have been around for a while, but haven’t found their killer application. An unlikely group of activists are getting excited about a new use for them.

Techonomy's CEO recently met with the mayors of two big U.S. cities to discuss how technology can help drive inclusive growth. Here are some takeaways from those conversations.

Two presidential candidates, an NFL wide receiver, and the CEO of a Google incubator all walk into...wait for it...Techonomy NYC.

Recording artist Alex Aiono, who built his career on social media, performed at Techonomy 2018 at the end of a long day. Then with the help of the assembled Techonomists he recorded an energetic mash-up of ‘We Will Rock You’ with his song ‘Her.’ Watch it here.

In the first months of 2018, I’ve attended a lot of events, and they all had one thing in common.

Penny Pritzker was U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017. She appeared onstage with Beth Comstock at Techonomy 2017 and also chatted with us on tech leadership and much more.

Join Techonomy President Josh Kampel in a series of brief video interviews with some of the most influential and outspoken business leaders. This video series highlights brief excerpts from talks backstage at Techonomy 2017.

Beth Comstock is GE’s outgoing Vice Chair.  She has lead the 100+ year old company’s efforts to accelerate new growth through digital transformation, a post she is leaving in the new year. We spoke to her on the sidelines of our recent Techonomy 2017 conference. Comstock operates GE Business Innovations, which develops new businesses, markets, […]

Ulf Ewaldsson is Ericsson’s Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Digital Services. He has more than 20 years of experience in product management, industry development, and customer relations, which has taken him to leadership positions at Ericsson in China, Japan, Hungary and Sweden. Ewaldsson says as devices need to become more intelligent, networks […]

A 20-year veteran of Accenture, Marc has seen it all and now is seeing it in extended reality. He served as the global lead for emerging technology, working across several cutting-edge areas of IT including voice recognition, knowledge-based systems, and neural networks. Marc predicts a shift in the VR market, from one driven by consumer applications, […]

Voice interfaces seem to be everywhere, and are evolving rapidly. But Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, and Siri point towards the future of AI, and an automated society.

While we will shortly slice up and archive each session’s video individually, here is the conference video in it’s entirety.  Please refer to the agenda if you need help finding a specific session. Sunday Afternoon: Monday Morning: Monday Afternoon: Tuesday Morning:

Instinct is no longer what it takes to identify hit. Now, like in every industry, analytics are all. For emerging pop star MAX (who performs at the upcoming Techonomy 2017), Crush Music identified a hit using data, which enabled it to convince radio stations and Spotify they should play it.

Techonomy President Josh Kampel and Jeremy Legg, CTO of Turner, recently chatted about the ways that technology is changing Turner, from their distribution to their customer experience.

Innovating effectively is an urgent imperative for big companies. Now some are working with Indiegogo to crowdfund consumer products that might not have met former thresholds for money and attention. If interest is there, the scale-up happens fast at companies like Whirlpool and GE. (From the latest issue of Techonomy Magazine)

Missed Techonomy Health or want to see it again? You can watch any individual session, in order, or click through with the arrows and select specific sessions. Very shortly the sessions will all be archived and transcribed in our “events” section.

It is hard to put into word what makes our Techonomy events so unique. The blend of highly developed programming, thoughtful room-wide conversations, and amazing networking. The carefully curated group of top thinkers, business executives, and entrepreneurs. Our conferences provide a fertile environment for collaboration and discussion focused on tech’s impact on business and society. […]

Missed Techonomy NYC or want to see it again? You can watch any individual session, in order, or click through with the arrows and select specific sessions. Very shortly the sessions will all be archived and transcribed in our “events” section.

Making wine has become as much science as art, and tech is playing an increasing role. Hahn Family Wines in California partners with Verizon to deploy sensors throughout their vineyards. The sensors collect data that is analyzed and used to increase output and improve flavor.

Advancements in connectivity and batteries have enabled new products that offer great convenience and freedom. We tested devices that leverage rapid advancements in wireless technology-including headphones, flying cameras, and devices to keep tabs on your kids or your home.

NASA has increasingly taken a backseat in the world of manned space exploration. While that trend may not be great for America's role in space, it has opened the door for a revolution in private sector space projects. From Elon Musk's Space X project to the rise of nanosatellites, outer space has never been so open for investment and innovation. This piece was originally published in the 2014 edition of Techonomy magazine.

In an interview with Techonomy’s Josh Kampel, NYU’s Arun Sundararajan, author of the newly-released The Sharing Economy, talks about how the Internet of Things intersects with the sharing economy, and how the energy industry is about to be disrupted. Sundararajan  is speaking at Techonomy NYC on May 26 at NYU. To join us, email [email protected].

Connected refrigerators, bras that monitor your heart rate, and, of course, autonomous vehicles were the kinds of things CES attendees focused on this year. It now seems inevitable that more or less everything will eventually be connected, and that raises new security, business, and technical questions for manufacturers, network providers, marketers, and consumers– the IoT ecosystem. What a few days scrambling around Las Vegas got me thinking.

Standing in a dark club during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, among CEOs and political leaders, we all wait for The Killers to take the stage. I strike up a conversation with the person who just happens to be standing on my left–cultural icon and music superstar will.i.am. He shows me a device he's wearing, a sort of watch being developed by a company he started called i.am+. I can see how proud he is of it. He walks me through the functions, highlighting the user interface and how you can connect to the Internet without needing a phone. He pauses, looking for an indication of my thoughts. He's just one of a number of music industry veterans now finding their way into tech.

When we were asked to participate in Omidyar’s “Future of Media in India” event, David Kirkpatrick and I both questioned what we could add on a topic that was pretty far from our own experience. In hindsight, we knew more than we gave ourselves credit for. The India market, it turns out, is not much different than that of the US, maybe just a couple of years behind. Publishers and journalists are eager to transition from print to digital, they are trying to figure out how to reach their readers in a mobile-first world, and they are struggling to find a sustainable business model to support their efforts. 

It was one of those days. ... Monday morning after a long weekend and I was rushing to get out the door to make a 9 am meeting. I got in my car, drove to the train station, and realized I had left my wallet at home. I paused for a second and decided I would attempt to brave the day with no ID, no cash, and no credit cards. Although it's not as ambitious as living for a day on Bitcoin, I figured I could take advantage of the investments made by Apple, Google, PayPal, and others into the mobile payments ecosystem. Armed with my Android phone, I set out to see how easy it would be to have independence from my wallet. Fortunately for my experiment, I switched a few weeks ago from Windows Mobile, where my options would have been even more limited.

As anticipation grows around the impending launch of Google’s MVNO service (Mobile Virtual Network Operator, for those of us not in the traditional telecom industry), I think back to the Techonomy session "A Future Without Industries." Google was once easily defined by their core search-engine product, but with its expansion into everything from robotics to glucose-monitoring contact lenses to connected thermostats, it’s hard to put Google into any one box. This isn’t Google’s first connectivity project. Their Google Fiber initiative is looking to redefine Internet and TV in the home.

Describing what it is like to be in Davos during the World Economic Forum annual meeting is almost impossible. (Which is why this article features an iPhone video produced using tools by our partner, Magisto.) Set at the base of a spectacular snow-covered mountain, Davos convenes heads of state, titans of industry, and celebrities to debate topics ranging from international trade policy to environmental issues to data security. By day, sessions held at the Congress Centre bustle with leaders from every continent. By evening, guests cram into venues all over the city for exclusive dinners and receptions hosted by some of the world's biggest influencers.

I’ve been to CES more times than I can count. The bright lights, loud music, bustling executives held up by groups of awestruck consumers—the CES show floor has always felt like Rockefeller Center during the holidays. This year, it was hard not to be impressed with the booths from Samsung, LG, Sharp, and Panasonic showing bigger, higher-definition televisions, but to me, it was the smaller and extremely innovative companies that were most exciting. Watch some of my experiences in Vegas and at CES in this video, produced using tools from our partner, Magisto.

The convergence of faster and less expensive bandwidth, cheaper storage, data and analytics, and advancements in sensor technology has enabled rapid growth of the Internet of Everything. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show it seemed that every booth featured some type of wearable or connected device. One company, SensibleParent, is building a sensor that attaches to your sleeping newborn via a customized onesie that monitors and reports ambient temperature, movement, and even your baby’s position (face up or down) to your network-connected smartphone or tablet.

Spending time in the various Vegas casinos alongside last week’s CES, I was reminded that play isn’t just for children. But how we play in our youth has the potential to mold our long-term interests and even influence our career choices. For many, carrying the playfulness of childhood into adulthood is a sign of good health and a robust imagination. As I approached the Orbotix booth, I saw a large group of adults itching to control a small translucent ball as it rolled through a series of tunnels, ramps, water hazards, and other obstacles—all using their smartphones.

While Washington legislators try to figure out how to enact policy to reduce the growing number of mass shootings, technologists are looking for alternative solutions. A group of investors led by Ron Conway has formed the Technical Committee to Reduce Gun Violence, aimed at applying technology to reduce gun violence. "Smart guns" that can only be fired by their owners could be one option. While the concept makes sense, its reliability has been questioned.

What do nuclear power plants, aircraft carriers, and the new Blackberry 10 have in common? They all run on a software platform developed by a little known company from Ottawa, Canada, called QNX. In fact, Blackberry (Research in Motion at the time) bought the company back in 2010 as they looked at how to create a larger ecosystem of interconnected devices powered by a single scalable platform. QNX claims to be more stable than Linux and Windows, and is ideal for running mission critical applications with little to no maintenance. So reliable and stable that over 11 million automobiles shipped in 2011 using the QNX platform to power safety systems, telematics, and entertainment. With customers including Audi, Cisco, Honeywell, Hyundai, General Electric, GM, and Samsung, we have all been impacted by QNX and didn’t even know it.