Podcasts about alexa conference

Welcome to episode #779 of Six Pixels of Separation. Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation - Episode #779 - Host: Mitch Joel. You never know who you are going to meet and become friends with online. Going back to the early days of Amazon's Alexa, Google Home, Siri and beyond, the idea of apps (or skills, as they are called) for these interactive audio platforms has always interested me (so much so, that I was an investor in a voice skills company, and became interested in running it for a short period of time). At the forefront of this space (and other audio platforms and technologies) is Bret Kinsella. Bret is founder, CEO, and research director of Voicebot.ai. He was named commentator of the year by the Alexa Conference in 2019 and is widely cited in media and academic research as an authority on voice assistants and AI. He is also the host of the Voicebot Podcast and editor of the Voice Insider newsletter. I reached out to him several times back when I was investing in the space, but he was too busy to connect. Then, through the power of Clubhouse, we met and became fast friends. Our world continues to evolve. Smart audio, podcasting, bots, and more are becoming a powerful tool for businesses smart enough to understand the potential, opportunity and inevitability of it all. Enjoy the conversation... Running time: 59:11. Hello from beautiful Montreal. Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts. Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Six Pixels of Separation. Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook. or you can connect on LinkedIn. ...or on Twitter. Here is my conversation with Bret Kinsella. Voicebot.ai. Voicebot Podcast. Voice Insider newsletter. Follow Bret on LinkedIn. Follow Bret on Twitter. This week's music: David Usher 'St. Lawrence River'.

In episode 91 Julie Daniel Davis interviews Bradley Metrock. Bradley is the CEO of Score Publishing and the creator of "This Week In Voice VIP," the daily letter to the voice & AI tech communities. Bradley is the reason Julie is involved in the voice industry. Going all the way back to the 2018 Alexa Conference where Bradley invited Julie to be a part of what felt like a very grassroots event. Having his eye on this emerging tech and its possibilities, Bradley serves as a knowledgeable guest. In this episode, Bradley shares his thoughts on the future of voice and education, what's slowing it down, and who to watch.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Mark Tucker, an Alexa Champion, Bixby Premier Developer, the current Senior Architect of Voice Technology at Soar.com, and the creator of the revolutionary Alexa game, Number Spies.Welcome, Mark!Mark Tucker is a software developer and architect with over 25 years’ experience. He started his voice-tech journey in 2016 when there were only 4,000 skills in the Alexa Skills Store, and has worked at 2 startups creating innovative voice experiences for customers. Mark finds time to create his own Alexa Skills and Bixby Capsules, and is the organizer of the Phoenix Alexa Meetup and the Phoenix Chapter of the Ubiquitous Voice Society.He has spoken at conferences including the Phoenix Mobile and Emerging Tech Expo, The Alexa Conference, Voice Summit, and Project Voice. Mark is the creator of Speech Markdown which he released as open source and can be found at SpeechMarkDown.org. He enjoys finding ways for non-profits to benefit from voice-first. He has a passion for family, voice technology and serving others.Getting Into VoiceHis first run in with voice technology when was he was a teenager. He had just received his first home computer and it had a voice synthesis module which could say about 80 words or phrases. He found that very cool.He learned how to do programming on that computer and later in high school advanced his programming knowledge.He has been involved in technology ever since and most of his skills are self-taught.He came across Alexa in 2016 when there were about 3,000 skills in the US Skills store. He started by mastering all sorts of things from Amazon Web Services to all their cloud services.When he got into Alexa development, he fell in love with the conversational nature of the technology and the fun experiences that one can build with it.Number Spies is the most ambitious project that he’s ever done and it had been an idea in his head for more than a year.The Idea For Number Spies and How it WorksHe came across the concept of a number station, which spies used to communicate during the Cold War and World War 2, and he was fascinated by it.One spy would use a short wave radio to transmit a series of digits and the other spy tuned to that frequency would be able to hear the digits, but they couldn’t decode the message unless they had the one-time pad that was similar to the one the sender had. That made the message an unbreakable cypher.Mark learned more about that and he used some features of that concept in creating Number Spies. For example, the game produces poly-generated numbers that sound like it’s a real radio transmission. He had to mix down files together on the back end and he now has a content management system where he has can put in a message and it will encode it. The system then builds a file that can be listened to through a flash briefing.One can then go to a website and enter the numbers they have heard, and that can help them figure out what the secret was if they have the corresponding one-time pad.One can choose to manually decode a message or ask Alexa to help make the process faster.When one manually decodes the message they get more points.Playing the GameThe player takes on the role of a spy, Agent 313, who is brand new to the agency.The game gives the new player a walk through as part of their initial briefing after which they will be sent to spy school so they can understand the main commands they will need to use to play the game. After that, the player can start the game.The player can also go to the website where all the commands are listed.They can play at least two or three times a week decoding messages and solving puzzles.Inside the messages that the player has to decode, they can be told to visit a country or city, and travelling there can earn them points.Everything that happens in the game is tied to a certain day so the player has to play, decode the message, and complete their mission within 24 hours.The game also has levels and as the player moves up the levels, the missions they go on become harder and more complex.The player can go into a different mission every 90 minutes from when they successfully complete another one.There is in-skill purchasing that the player can do. For example, they need money to travel to their different locations depending on where they travel.The agency that one belongs to is based out of Washington, D.C. and so the farther one travels the costlier it is. The more missions one completes, the more money they get.When they run out of money, they can purchase more money.One has to use an alias when they’re travelling and so at the beginning of the game, the game creates an auto-alias for the player and then as they play the game they can create other aliases for themselves.The goal of playing the game is to become a master spy.There are many fun and entertaining aspects of the game that make it so awesome to play. List of resources mentioned in this episodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseNumber Spies OnlineNumber Spies on FacebookNumber Spies on TwitterMark on TwitterOther useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.ca See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Show Notes:In this episode, we talk with Julie Daniel Davis. Julie is the "voice" for voice in education, a Bixby Premier Developer, and an Alexa Champion.Julies shares how she was an early adopter of voice in the classroom. She shares the story of getting her first voice assistant, being inspired by the first Alexa Conference, and early and ongoing experiments putting Alexa and voice devices into a classroom.Julie is the host of a podcast and flash briefing "Voice in Education' and she talks about the history of the podcast and where it is now. Julie also shares some valuable insight for those thinking of creating their own podcasts/flash briefing. We dive deep into how technology is used in schools today and what works and doesn't work. What are the opportunities for voice? What are teachers doing today with voice and what should they do tomorrow? We talk about how the experience and lessons learned from remote education during the Coronavirus epidemic can change and improve education. What does the voice industry need to do to have voice fulfill its enormous potential in education?Our children are our future, if you are interested in how voice can help educate our children or the huge opportunity in voice in education, this is a must-listen showLinks from the show:Julie DavisWeb: https://www.juliedavisedu.com/email: juliedavisedu@gmail.comTwitter: @juliedavisEDULinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliedavisedu/Voice in Education Podcast - https://www.juliedavisedu.com/podcastVoice in Education Flash Briefing - https://www.amazon.com/JulieDavisEDU-Voice-in-Education/dp/B07NJ27XMB/Julie's Favorite Voice ExperiencesMusic Bop by Ilarna Nche (Adassa Innovations) - https://adassainnovations.com/Kids Court by Adva Levin (Pretzel Labs) - https://www.pretzellabs.co/Down Home in Alabama Flash Briefing: https://www.amazon.com/AL-coms-Down-Alabama-Ike-Morgan/dp/B072DXNG6ZAll Bixby Developers Chat Episodes available at:bixbydev.buzzsprout.com/Guests: Julie Daniel DavisJulie Daniel Davis is a passionate and tireless advocate for voice in educationHost:Roger Kibbe (@rogerkibbe) is a senior developer evangelist for Viv Labs/SamsungMore about BixbySamsung Bixby is a next-generation, AI platform that enables developers to build rich voice and conversational AI experiences for the Bixby Marketplace, and Bixby devices including phones, watches, televisions, smart appliances, and more.Bixby Developers Homepage - www.bixbydevelopers.comBixby Developers YouTube Channel - www.youtube.com/c/bixbydevelopersBixby Developers Twitter - twitter.com/BixbyDevelopersBixby Developers Github - https://github.com/bixbydevelopersBixby Developer News/Blogs - bixby.developer.samsung.coSupport the show (https://www.bixbydevelopers.com)

In this episode, Teri welcomes Dave Kemp, a thought leader in the intersection between voice first technology and hearables.Dave is part of a company called Oak Tree Products and they provide medical supplies and devices to the hearing technology industry. He also has a blog called FuturEar.co where he documents the rapid technological breakthroughs that are occurring in the hearables niche, including biometric sensors and voice assistants that are being incorporated into the hearable devices.Key Points from Dave!How he became an expert in hearables and voice technology.The content that he wrote in a chapter of the book, Voice Technology in Healthcare.Concrete examples of case scenarios where voice technology can be used to make a difference in people’s lives.Voice Technology and Hearables: The Origin StoryThe first time he was introduced to voice technology was at one of the first Alexa Conference events. He had gone there because he was researching what would happen with hearables due to that fact that hearing aids were becoming Bluetooth enabled.In 2015/2016, all the hearing aids that were coming to market were Bluetooth enabled and so he started thinking about the app economy and what else could be done technology wise in the hearing aid arena.The person who got him interested in voice technology was Brian Roemmelle when he came across his content on Twitter and read it.Brian talked about voice technology as something that would simplify everything back to the basics such that a four-year-old could communicate with the technology just as a 95-year-old could. That’s what gave Dave the aha moment, and he started to see the potential of smart speakers.He realized that if smart speakers continued to proliferate and people continued to increasingly depend on them for more and more things, then people would probably want that type of functionality on their person. He saw the Bluetooth enabled hearing aids as a potential tech to fulfill that.Voice Technology in Healthcare BookDave wrote a chapter in the book about hearables and how they're becoming enabled. He started by talking about the technical side of it and progressively wrote about how they would impact the end users.There’s been the development of consumer grade devices that have the type of technology that legitimizes them as medical grade wearables and hearables. An example is the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch series 4 even has an ECG monitor.There will be a number of applications and environments where that technology will be applied but Dave is more focused on how the everyday person could build a longitudinal health data set (this refers to how someone can collect data about their health a few times a year through a wearable)He talked a lot about how the devices work through PPG sensors, which are the optical based sensors that are increasingly being placed into different wearable devices, for example, on the underside of an Apple watch.The sensors don’t really capture new things and the machine learning algorithms that are layered on top of them are the ones that create new insights by detecting patterns. Dave talked all about that in the chapter from a data collection standpoint.He also wrote about how voice technology could be layered on top of that. He dived into how that would be impactful to end users, caregivers, and all different types of stakeholders.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseVoice Technology in Healthcare Bookwww.FutureEar.coFuture Ear Radio Podcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Julie Daniel Davis, a leader in the voice education space and the Director of Instructional Technology and Innovation at a private school in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Welcome, Julie!She is a go-to EdTech guru and has been doing a lot of work in her school by helping to implement voice technology in a safe and effective manner for her students. Julie has also been speaking in multiple places about the same and comes on to talk about education and using voice technology to help fulfill educational goals.Taking Advantage of Voice Technology for EducationShe spoke at the first Alexa Conference (now known as Project Voice) in Chattanooga, TN in 2019.By sharing some of the blogposts she had written about using Alexa to explain her interest, Bradley Metrock, the event coordinator of the conference, not only invited her to take part in the conference, but also asked her to be a speaker.She asked Bradley if an educator could just sit in the back of the room and observe. She had beforehand dabbled with the idea of using voice in the classroom and even tried the concept out a few times, but held back due to privacy concerns.When the Echo Dot Kids Edition came out, she approached Bradley Metrock and told him she would like to pilot them in the classroom, and Bradley connected her to Dave Isbitski who helped her get a few of the Echo Dots to place in the classroom.They started using the Echo Dots for routines, reminders, and relevant Alexa skills.Blueprints were not available for the Echo Dot Kids Edition, so she begged Amazon to create them, and eventually Amazon came through.She believes in personalizing education and that formed the basis for their program where they make Alexa study guides for kids to study for tests. Teachers share those Alexa skills for studying with their families so that their families can use them to study at home.They also have an international program at their school through which Julie has been working with four international students who are English language learners. She is using Alexa to help them study for other exams, but what she has seen is that when the students answer Alexa, it helps them with their English pronunciation.She will be speaking at Project Voice 2020 and the students will be going with her to share their experiences.Teachers Using the Echo DevicesTeachers are not only using the devices in the classroom but also assigning students homework to go and use their devices at home.One of the advantages of having Alexa in a classroom is that it allows for small group instruction. A teacher can work with four or five kids over in one corner with one Echo device, and other small groups in other corners with their own Echo devices. They call that Station Rotation.Privacy Issues and Using Multimodal DevicesThey don’t have to only use the Echo Dot Kids' Edition.She freely uses other Echo devices because she doesn’t have to be FERPA and COPPA compliant at her school.She advises educators to be careful with how they set up their devices, how they use them, and how they store data.She has created a lot of infographics on her website that help educators set up their Alexa devices in a way that protects their students.For students under the age of 13, she only uses the kids' edition Echo Dot, because the device is COPPA compliant. She uses other Alexa devices in the other grades.She has not used Alexa devices with screens because of their price point, but what she loves about using smart speakers in the classroom is their price point. They can put a smart speaker into a classroom for $30 to $50 and every student has access. In a world where there is so much talk about equity of access, this could be a huge way for rural or poorly funded areas to make sure students have access to the world at large.Classroom Management via Smart SpeakersShe advises that a teacher should start off by telling the students what the expectations are. For example, students can’t just ask Alexa any question they want.A smart speaker helps keep the students engaged and listening to the responses that Alexa gives to the educational questions they collectively ask.Teachers’ ReactionsJulie asks teachers to pilot the smart speakers and that way teachers get to experience the benefits.When she first started out, some teachers were very skeptical about using them, and even now, some teachers don’t use them at all.List of resources mentioned in this episodeVocal IDThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseHow to Turn FreeTime on Alexa On or OffJulie’s WebsiteJulie on TwitterJulie on InstagramOther useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.ca See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri will do a recap of the ten best episodes of the Alexa in Canada podcast in 2019. These episodes will be great for anyone who wants to learn more about how they can get started with their Amazon Alexa device. They are based on the podcast episodes that have been downloaded the most and they are all accessible at AlexainCanada.ca. And the 10th Most Listened Episode is!#10: 73 - Voice Design with Obeid Ahmed of BotmockObeid is an entrepreneur, mentor, and technologist, and has been involved in a lot of early stage startups.He came on the show to talk about Botmock, a platform he created to allow people to publish skills to Alexa and other platforms. Botmock is designed to create conversations between a user and Alexa in a simpler drag and drop editor, so the user doesn’t really need to know code to do it.Botmock allows developers to share their prototypes and get feedback all in one centralized location. It’s helping companies and individuals build better voice experiences.Obeid has a great use case that he talks about where they used Botmock with the Canadian Blood Services to create some conversational design experiences.The episode can be found at AlexainCanada.ca/73#9: 62 - The 2019 Alexa Conference RoundupThis was a very popular podcast.Teri recorded this episode at the 2019 Alexa Conference. He approached a number of key leaders and influencers in the voice space and asked them for a little bit of a sound bite and then he put them together to produce a kind of mashup.It’s available at AlexainCanada.ca/62#8: 78 - How to Setup Alexa in Canada in 2019 This was an update on Teri’s original episode on how to set up Alexa.It’s available at AlexainCanada.ca/78#7: 75 - Awesome Aariv Modi: A Grade 5 Alexa Skill DeveloperTeri interviewed a grade 5 voice technology enthusiast and developer, Aariv Modi, who was accompanied by his dad. Aariv is making Alexa skills and creating educational videos. He is all in on Amazon Alexa and is such a bright young man.Aariv is going to be speaking at the Project Voice event in January 2020.The episode is available at AlexainCanada.ca/75#6: 66 - The Last Interface with Brian Roemmelle Brian Roemmelle is one of those visionaries that don’t come around often.He has been termed “The Oracle of Voice” and is the one who came up with the term “Voice First”He has often times been described as the “Modern Day Thomas Edison”This episode was all about Brian’s ideas about where we are going with voice technology and how he feels that voice is the primary input and output device of the human being.The episode is available at AlexainCanada.ca/66#5: 3 - How Does Alexa Work?Teri went through the basic terms of what the difference is between Alexa and an Echo, what a skill is, the different components of an Echo Device, what happens when someone speaks to Alexa, etc.The episode is available at AlexainCanada.ca/3#4: 61 - How to Create an Amazon Alexa Flash BriefingThis was an episode Teri did about how to create an Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing.Teri has a comprehensive course on how to create a flash briefing available at FlashBriefingFormula.com, and it’s absolutely free.#3: 60 - 2019 Top Ten Amazon Alexa Skills in CanadaTeri went through the Amazon Skill Store and looked at what the top skills in Canada were at that time.He did not include the ambient sound skills in the list because they’re so many.#2: 65 - Interactive Storytelling with Amy Stapleton of TellablesThey talked about interactive storytelling in the context of Amy’s company, Tellables, and in particular their Alexa skill called, My Box of Chocolates. It’s a very unique concept that allows users to ask Alexa about boxes of chocolates where the different chocolates in the boxes represent different stories. The different storytellers have different personas.And Now For the Top Alexa in Canada Podcast Episode for 2019…#1: 4 - How to Setup Alexa in Canada It was the first episode Teri did that was specifically about addressing how to set up Alexa in Canada.It was the most listened to podcast episode.List of resources mentioned in this episode:Flash Briefing FormulaCrack the Code 2020Other useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.ca See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Clothes manufacturers are starting to build voice technology into their garments, while Amazon's new doorbell tech allows it to have autonomous conversations with whoever's at the door. This week, Adrian Weckler goes through some of the latest developments in voice technology from companies like Google, Amazon and Nuance. He's joined by Bret Kinsella, founder of Voicebot.ai and commentator of the year on voice technology as defined by the Alexa Conference. For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/ The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Ian Utile, an innovative strategist, business development executive, entrepreneur, optimistic tech futurist, and keynote speaker. Welcome, Ian Utile!Ian is the co-founder of Kukui Corp, a company ranked by Inc 500 as the #1 fastest growing private organizations in San Jose (#76 in the US). He specializes in starting software tech companies and is a partner in different non-tech projects. He is also the founder of WMVAI (We Magnify Voice for Attention and Influence), a B2B SaaS platform that automates posting content to Amazon Alexa. WMVAI will in future be available in Google Home/Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri, and Samsung Bixby. Ian's hobby is supporting large international non-profits.Teri and Ian met at the Alexa Conference. Ian was there live streaming some of the content and Teri did a live interview with him that was broadcasted to both their audiences. Ian is very excited about voice technology and he comes on to the podcast to share some of his really cool ideas for the future, and where we are going with voice technology.Attending the Alexa ConferenceHe was excited about the Alexa Conference because the people that are developing tech today and vision for where voice as operating system is going to go were going to be at the conference.Vision of the Future for VoiceThe last interface is voice. The likelihood of anything else replacing voice is very low.Voice devices will understand us better than any human being does, and we will understand what they communicate to us better than other human beings can communicate to us.The benefactors of voice being the last interface will include the billions of people who cannot read, write or understand the most common languages. Those people, who have the least amount of opportunities will become productive in society.Future scenario: Imagine a future where when you have a thought of something you need to do, you can tell Alexa, “Hey, Alexa. I just thought of a business idea. I want you to go to domains.com and I want you to buy TerisNewIdea.com” Alexa says, “It’s not available, but TerisNewIdea.io is available”, and you say, “Okay, great. Buy the domain and get me the five sites…..” Alexa does it in 7 seconds because she doesn’t need time to think or contact anybody. She just does what needs to be done.People won’t need to have all the right training, certifications, connections, and relationships. The voice operating system will become a real companion to a person.The Impact Voice will have on the Elderly in the FutureThere are 10,000 people on average in America that turn 65 every day.Iron Man or the Avengers movies have a great example of augmented reality in Jarvis. This Jarvis kind of operating system will not start the way we see it in the movies. It will start by being an audio system like an Alexa, maybe augmented by a TV screen.Future scenario: Imagine a future 2021 or 2024 when an elderly person has an Alexa in their room, they wake up in the morning and there is a sensor that detects that they have woken up, the lights will turn on in just the way that is best for their physiology, the TV screen will come up, and a photograph of his/her family members will come up on the screen. Alexa will then talk to him/her in a familiar voice, for example the voice of his/her deceased spouse, explaining all the things that he/she could be forgetting every day due to dementia.If we get people to start thinking through voice as an operating system with a long view, we’ll make much better decisions about what we build, what we promote, what we stand behind, and what we support, because we will be thinking about our great, great, great children that we will never meet, but who we will affect with our actions today.The Silver LiningThere are two most important core technologies; Voice and Blockchain.Voice as an operating system is the most important technology that there is ever going to be for individual human beings. Voice will make a more pleasurable and productive impact on our lives than any other technology.Blockchain will be used to ensure data security and enable existing and new organizations to be semi or fully decentralized. Voice technology devices will have to release some of the control that they have in the centralized power system and give people access to their data. The Blockchain ledger being used will hold the related company accountable. The company and the technology will be held accountable. It’s going to be very hard for hyper-centralized companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon to compete with the new emerging structures unless they themselves are willing to make some changes.List of resources mentioned in this episode:Ian on LinkedinIan on TwitterBrian Roemmele InterviewVoice of the Car SummitOther useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.ca See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Stuart Crane, the Founder and CEO of Voice Metrics, a company that helps businesses get their key information by voice. Welcome, Stuart Crane!Stuart co-founded CPR+ in 1993, and it ultimately became the dominant enterprise system used by the Specialty Pharmacy market, an industry providing high-tech pharmaceuticals to patients in the home. After 20+ years of building software, growing the B2B business, making acquisitions, and learning a ton about metrics and measuring business performance, Stuart and his partner sold CPR+ to Mediware Information Systems in July, 2013.In 2017, Stuart created Voice Metrics, an API-based service that allows any business to access their KPI’s, metrics, and important company information, just by asking. While dashboards, spreadsheets, and even email attachments will still have their place to help a business succeed, the ability to get key business metrics any time, any place, without logging in or even touching a device, has been Stuart’s vision since the advent of Siri, and now Alexa and Google Assistant. VoiceMetrics recently launched “SurveyLine” which allows businesses and individuals to create a survey and send it out through voice assistantsDeveloping an Interest in VoiceFrom way back in the 80s, Stuart always liked listening to things, and years later got into podcasts in a big way. He was always interested in voice recognition (how a computer can understand what a person is saying)In Christmas 2014, he got an Amazon Echo and it fascinated him.He was also deeply into smart homes and home automation since the 80s and 90s.SurveyLineThis is a platform like SurveyMonkey where you just go in and create your survey then it’s available to take by voice.They launched SurveyLine at The 2019 Alexa Conference in Chattanooga, TN, and they got a very good reception.It’s a way for anyone (a company, organization or individual) to create a survey, like people do with SurveyMonkey, with questions that can be multiple choice, free form, yes/no, ratings, and others.Instead of sharing out the survey through a link, one makes it immediately available on Amazon Alexa or Google Home so that the participants/audience can take the survey using their voice assistants.The SurveyLine skill is on the Alexa skill store and anyone can create a survey, and their audience can take the surveys instantly by saying “Open SurveyLine” and then saying the name of the survey.A survey can also be white-labeled or branded so that a user can use a brand name to launch a particular survey, for example, “Open BestBuy survey”They are focused on building the platform out so it can do all kinds of capabilities like branching, logic, conditional responses and all the things that traditional surveys need to be able to do.They just added the capability to do real voices. Surveys can be conducted by recorded voice talents instead of just the typical voice of Alexa or Google Assistant.Creating a Voice Survey with SurveyLineEvery voice survey is available on the SurveyLine skill.When one creates their survey they have to name it, for example “Skyline Chilli Survey” One has to give it a name that doesn’t conflict with another survey that’s already on the platform.When one is done creating the survey, anyone can say, “Alexa, start SurveyLine” and then SurveyLine runs, and comes up and asks, “What survey would you like to take?” and the user will say, “Skyline Chilli Survey”If Skyline wants to brand their survey, SurveyLine can create a skill and push it into the Alexa skill store by getting it certified, and it would be called “Skyline Chilli Survey” so then the user will only need to say, “Start Skyline Chilli Survey”SurveyLine has an announce function that when clicked creates a clipboard text that the user can put into Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, text, or email.In the SurveyLine app, there is a button called “Results” which when clicked opens up a grid showing all of the results of all the people who have taken a particular survey. Right now the respondents are anonymous. Each row on the grid is a respondent and it shows every question and what the respondent answered. The user can then export the survey results to Excel or CSV.Freeform surveys are converted to text.SurveyLine Use Case Success StoriesThey are testing out in a lot of different areas.In healthcare, they are creating patient satisfaction surveys and drug usage surveys.In retail, they are creating surveys for visits to stores and restaurants.They are working with a very large global market research company that wants to use SurveyLine for all their clients.They are also targeting digital agencies and market research companies rather than different brands directly.Different people are using SurveyLine to create surveys and are pushing them out to their co-workers or families just to test it out.The FuturePotentially, they will integrate with SurveyMonkey and other survey platforms where users can convert their surveys to voice.They are working with the APL (Alexa Presentation Language) to develop SurveyLine for different Amazon Echo devices.They will be attending the “Voice of the Car Summit” because in the near future people will be able to easily take surveys while in their cars. For example, when a person goes to a drive-through restaurant like Taco Bell, all their receipts read “take our survey” somewhere on the receipt, but nobody really takes them because they have to go to their computer and type in a long URL. Such a survey will be easier for people to take in their cars through voice. List of resources mentioned in this episode:SurveyLine See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The 2019 Alexa Conference highlighted a number of interesting developments in the voice space, and Bradley Metrock joins the show to discuss how the boundaries are being pushed and what it means for voice design. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/design-for-voice/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/design-for-voice/support

Prepare for some mind blowing folks - this one we go DEEP into the Future of Voice with the unique perspectives of Mr Ian Utile. In this conversation recorded at the Alexa Conference with James Poulter, Ian discusses his perspectives on the far future of voice as an operating system and how the blockchain could also help democratise content creation. You're going to wanna strap in for this one!

In this episode, Teri welcomes Emily Binder, a leading voice marketing strategist and a consultant to brands.Welcome, Emily Binder!She is the founder of Beetle Moment Marketing, a voice-first marketing agency where she helps brands reach customers in this voice-first world. She is a frequently sort after speaker and received rave reviews at the 2019 Alexa Conference for her talks on marketing in this voice-first world. She comes on the show to talk about her background, why she is so enthusiastic about voice, sonic branding and why flash briefings are such an incredible opportunity when it comes to getting a brand’s voice heard in the voice-first world.BackgroundShe has been in marketing for over a decade and started out with a heavy focus on social media and content marketing. Over the last couple of years, she has shifted her core focus onto voice, but still works on social media.The Compelling Nature of Voice She was one of the early adopters of voice technology back in 2014. She got the 1st-Gen Echo early when it was gifted to her. It got her thinking about how the technology could be used to make marketing much easier, efficient and hassle-free.The Graph on Adoption of Consumer Technology in the USEmily has shared the graph at different conferences and it shows the adoption on consumer technology in the US from the time of introduction to the market until it reaches between 25% and 50% penetration.The graph shows that the computer, radio, internet and smartphone all had quicker growing curves.Smart speakers reached 50% of the US population in just a couple of years. Their curve on the graph was almost a hockey stick. We are already at a point where we have more mobile phones/smartphones than there are people on the planet, and of course there will be more voice-activated smart devices.Social Media Verses VoiceSocial media is a problematic business model because it’s all based on manipulation and feedback loops. All products are ad-supported (ads are served based on mining users’ data)A lot of the things that happen on social media are just about comparison and the highlight reel where people don’t always see the bloopers.There is something very negative and nasty about social media for society as a whole. The power and beauty of voice is that we can get off the negativeness of consuming social media.A Fatigue for AppsResearch by Gartner shows that by 2019, 20% of brands will abandon their mobile apps.The Importance of Voice to BrandsPeople want the convenience and ease of use so any brand that wants to figure out the easiest way for their customers to shop, should think about voice.The voice assistant will be accessible everywhere so brands will need to optimize whatever kind of presence they have including websites, Amazon listings, and others, for voice. Optimizing for voice will be like SEO.Sonic BrandingThis refers to audio logos.Marketers are focusing more on sonic branding (audio branding) as voice continues to rise.A brand’s audio logo is critical in keeping customers happy and engaged.An example, MasterCard just introduced their audio branding and they got modern musicians to help with it. It will play every time someone swipes their Mastercard and any other time they interact with MasterCard from listening to ads to being on hold with customer service. People will start to associate that sound with the brand.When someone uses Venmo and there is that little cha-ching or cash register sound, they get a little physical sensation from knowing they have money.Flash briefingsA flash briefing is a mini-podcast and is also referred to as a briefcast.They can be heard every day on any Amazon Alexa device including smartphones through the Amazon app.They’re usually about a minute long.They’re very powerful because it’s warm, human, intimate audio going right into a customer’s ear on a daily basis.A flash briefing must not go beyond 2 minutes.The Beetle Moment Marketing Flash BriefingEmily has had it for about a year.She used to listen to flash briefings and realized she could make one herself. She has been podcasting for more than 10 years.She realized that there weren’t many marketing oriented flash briefings so she saw an opportunity.List of resources mentioned in this episode:Beetle Moment Marketing WebsiteEmily on TwitterEmily on InstagramEmily’s Voice-First BlogBeetle Moment Marketing Flash BriefingFree Flash Briefing Course See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Brian Roemmele, the “Oracle of Voice” and the “Modern Day Thomas Edison. Brian is the consummate Renaissance man. He is a scientist, researcher, analyst, connector, thinker and doer. He is actually credited for having come up with the term “Voice First”. Over the long, winding arc of his career, Brian has built and run payments and tech businesses, worked in media, including the promotion of top musicians, and explored a variety of other subjects along the way.Brian actively shares his findings and observations across fora like Forbes, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Slate, Business Insider, Daily Mail, Inc, Gizmodo, Medium, Quora (An exclusive Quora top writer for: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013), Twitter (quoted and published), Around the Coin (earliest crypto currency podcast), Breaking Banks Radio and This Week In Voice on VoiceFirst.fm that surfaces everything from Bitcoin to Voice Commerce.Key Points from Brian!The future of Voice: The Last Interface, the Intelligence Amplifier and the Wisdom KeeperWhere Voice Technology is goingThe talk he did at the Alexa Conference was dubbed “The Last Interface” and was based on the term “What if?”The Last Interface refers to the last interface that we will have with technology.We type to computers because they cannot understand our volition and our intent.Computers are already intelligent enough with current technology to take a user’s context and present to them the information that they are searching for. That’s the premise of The Last Interface.Intelligence AmplificationBrian presented this idea by searching through history how we developed the concept of why we speak (why we developed language). He found that we did it because our brain got too large.Humans had to offload memories into archival systems which became known as writing. Typing is an example of an extension of an archival system which means we are storing the things that we can’t pass on generationally on an offloaded system. Computers took over that and now we archive in systems and places like websites, Google, PDFs, and others, but it’s still an archival system and it still doesn’t transmit the volition and intent of an individual. The short term aspect is what Brian calls “The Intelligence Amplify”He doesn’t fully believe in the concept of AI (Artificial Intelligence) because he doesn’t think we can fully define what intelligence is in humans and where it comes from, and therefore, we cannot artificially create it in any way, shape and form that is human like.We have been trying to amplify our intelligence by archiving our world and our stories, whether they be allegorical, mythological or “factual”. Factual is as we see it today. All of our facts today will 1,000 to 10,000 years from now look allegorical to people because they will not be facts any longer, they will be seen as primitive.The Intelligence Amplify takes in everything around us. How this works; in this world, with the technology that exists today, the moment you’re born to the moment you die, is a device that will have a camera and a microphone. Assume that it has the highest security you can ever imagine and it never goes on the internet (it has no internet connection). It’s recording everything you’ve ever seen, everything you’ve ever read, every comment you’ve made, every comment you’ve heard, and everything is archived. All those things will be presented to you as the basis of your AI to derive context and to understand not only your paradigm (how you make you as you because you are the sum total of the experiences, good and bad, that define us as human beings), and so it starts amplifying your intelligence.During his talk at the 2019 Alexa Conference, he pointed out that the human being discards (exformation) over 99% of everything that comes through our senses.With The Intelligence Amplify, the best of us can be amplified.The Wisdom KeeperWhen we die, everything is thrown away, but not in the world of The Last Interface, because the next stage is called The Wisdom Keeper.The Wisdom Keeper (your Wisdom Keeper) is important because it is the sum total of all of your experiences, the essence of your experiences. All that data will be stored on your person in form of a holographic crystal memory.Every human being has some wisdom to contribute to the world.A person’s Wisdom Keeper will be their testament, who they were.Holographic Crystal MemoryThe breaches of people’s personal data like emails, pictures and others, and having that data leaked out to the greater public, will lead to some sort of rebellion to the idea that we will all have our privacy reaped apart.We are made to be private because that creates the dignity of an individual.The cloud has proven itself to be ineffectual to store even a few emails. Brian is not advocating for storing everything in the cloud, he just advocates that we are going to do it regardless, but hopes that people will be guided on it.When we have an intelligence amplifier in the wisdom keeper world, the penalty for hacking this non-internet connected device without the permission of an individual will be equivalent to a murder one charge.With current technology, we can store 15 to 20 years of a person’s life easily. These devices will eventually go smaller.In future, we will have holographic crystal memory. Crystalline structures are incredibly stable for holding information over long periods of time. We are using nano-doping within crystals to create the substrate that allows us to store information.The sum total of our experiences will be stored in holographic crystal memory because it will sustain over the ages. It is the survival archival system that will have the throughput, bandwidth, and storage system (petabyte capabilities) to store every single waking and sleeping moment of a person’s life.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to SizeDr. Teri Fisher on TwitterDr. Teri Fisher on LinkedInPlease leave a review on iTunes See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Brian Roemmele, “The Oracle of Voice” and “The Modern Day Thomas Edison”Welcome Brian Roemmele!Brian is the consummate Renaissance man. He is a scientist, researcher, analyst, connector, thinker and doer. He is also referred to as the “Oracle of Voice” and is actually credited for having come up with the term “Voice First”. Over the long, winding arc of his career, Brian has built and run payments and tech businesses, worked in media, including the promotion of top musicians, and explored a variety of other subjects along the way.He actively shares his findings and observations across fora like Forbes, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Slate, Business Insider, Daily Mail, Inc, Gizmodo, Medium, Quora (An exclusive Quora top writer for: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013), Twitter (quoted and published), Around the Coin (earliest crypto currency podcast), Breaking Banks Radio and This Week In Voice on VoiceFirst.fm that surfaces everything from Bitcoin to Voice Commerce. He recently spoke at the 2019 Alexa Conference about where voice technology is going and introduced some of his incredible ideas.Where Voice Technology is goingThe talk he did at the Alexa Conference was dubbed “The Last Interface” and was based on the term “What if?”The Last Interface refers to the last interface that we will have with technology.We type to computers because they cannot understand our volition and our intent.Computers are already intelligent enough with current technology to take a user’s context and present to them the information that they are searching for. That’s the premise of The Last Interface.Intelligence AmplificationBrian presented this idea by searching through history how we developed the concept of why we speak (why we developed language). He found that we did it because our brain got too large.Humans had to offload memories into archival systems which became known as writing. Typing is an example of an extension of an archival system which means we are storing the things that we can’t pass on generationally on an offloaded system. Computers took over that and now we archive in systems and places like websites, Google, PDFs, and others, but it’s still an archival system and it still doesn’t transmit the volition and intent of an individual. The short term aspect is what Brian calls “The Intelligence Amplify”He doesn’t fully believe in the concept of AI (Artificial Intelligence) because he doesn’t think we can fully define what intelligence is in humans and where it comes from, and therefore, we cannot artificially create it in any way, shape and form that is human like.We have been trying to amplify our intelligence by archiving our world and our stories, whether they be allegorical, mythological or “factual”. Factual is as we see it today. All of our facts today will 1,000 to 10,000 years from now look allegorical to people because they will not be facts any longer, they will be seen as primitive.The Intelligence Amplify takes in everything around us. How this works; in this world, with the technology that exists today, the moment you’re born to the moment you die, is a device that will have a camera and a microphone. Assume that it has the highest security you can ever imagine and it never goes on the internet (it has no internet connection). It’s recording everything you’ve ever seen, everything you’ve ever read, every comment you’ve made, every comment you’ve heard, and everything is archived. All those things will be presented to you as the basis of your AI to derive context and to understand not only your paradigm (how you make you as you because you are the sum total of the experiences, good and bad, that define us as human beings), and so it starts amplifying your intelligence.During his talk at the 2019 Alexa Conference, he pointed out that the human being discards (exformation) over 99% of everything that comes through our senses.With The Intelligence Amplify, the best of us can be amplified.The Wisdom KeeperWhen we die, everything is thrown away, but not in the world of The Last Interface, because the next stage is called The Wisdom Keeper.The Wisdom Keeper (your Wisdom Keeper) is important because it is the sum total of all of your experiences, the essence of your experiences. Every human being has some wisdom to contribute to the world.A person’s Wisdom Keeper will be their testament, who they were.Listener Questions Do you feel that society is actually ready for what Brian has described (The Last Interface, The Intelligence Amplifier and The Wisdom Keeper)Will we ever be ready for the scenario that Brian is describing?Will this happen by default (is it already happening)?Use the Twitter hashtag #AIC66 to tweet your responses to the questions. Feel free to ask Brian a question and I will curate those questions and ask them to Brian at a future date. List of resources mentioned in this episode:The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size Other Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.ca See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Technological advancements start growing exponentially fast (whereas before it was logarithmic). - Kurzweil's concept of The SingularitySee the most popular chart from the Alexa Conference, which I believe hints at our rate of growth edging closer to Singularity-level exponential pace:7 Powerful Stats About Voice Technology & #VoiceFirst MarketingVenture a guess how many Flash Briefings there are? It was 5,000 about nine months ago... tweet me with your guess: @emilybinderGet help with your Flash Briefing and voice strategy at beetlemoment.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brian Roemmele’s presentation at The Alexa Conference 2019 was easily the most controversial of the week. Some people were inspired, others confused, and some left skeptical. But, it certainly led to a lot of discussion throughout the conference. Voicebot sat down with Brian to distill the expanse of his vision for an ultra-personalized AI assistant that he believes will be with people from birth to death. It is his first interview on the topic and project he says has been decades in the making. Brian first started working with voice technology in the 1980’s and recently expanded his research efforts that will include a forthcoming book called “The Last Interface,” and product concepts named the Intelligence Amplifier and Wisdom Keeper. The Intelligence Amplifier will be a tool that records your life in real-time and instantly enables you to retrieve any information from your life experiences as needed. It will also have agency to anonymously gather information or execute tasks on your behalf. The wisdom keeper will be your manifestation while you are not there and can represent you both in life and afterward. Brian talks about some things that are being done today and others only seen previously in science fiction. It’s a provocative conversation with a practical application of AI and voice.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Brielle Nickoloff and Neha Javalagi from the company Witlingo.Welcome Brielle and Neha!Teri met Brielle and Neha at the recent Alexa Conference and is featuring them on the podcast to talk about some incredible products that they have launched, namely; Castlingo (a micro-podcasting tool which has been live for a while now) and Buildlingo (which they just launched). Brielle is the Lead for Product Marketing and Neha is the Lead for Product Management, and they’re going to talk about how their products make it so simple for people to get their content onto a voice assistant platform.WitlingoThey started in early 2016. The founder of the company, Ahmed Bouzid, was on the Amazon Alexa team.They focus on building products and solutions to enable brands and companies to get their presence onto voice in a way that provides a great customer experience for their own customers. It requires no coding.They started out building custom skills for people.CastlingoIt’s a micro-podcasting platform. It’s an app available in both iOS and Android.Anyone who wants to share their thoughts with the world can record up to 77 seconds of audio, post them on their own branded Alexa skill or Google Action. The audio content will be searchable so people can get the audio content that matches their interests which makes Castlingo interactive. The audios are referred to as “casts”They did beta testing and realized that 77 seconds is good enough time to get across one particular idea or thought. People can also convert the 77-second audio into a flash briefing.They visualize a future where casts can interact with each other.BuildlingoIt’s a product that enables a brand or company to create and maintain a voice experience on Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant by just recording audio clips on a mobile app. The audio can be focused on helping customers quickly get answers to questions about the brand or company’s products and services.The most challenging part for companies when they want to develop a skill is how to design a compelling, delightful and good user experience.Witlingo understands what a good voice experience entails and have created template-like solutions that anyone can use easily. A user records audio snippets on the app and inputs them into a template by assigning each audio into the relevant section of the template.A company can even convert its FAQs into an interactive voice experience.Along with the Buildlingo app, users are also provided with a web portal which provides them with analytics on how their skill or action is doing, what customers are asking, what the frequently used keywords are, and other things. They can also upload MP3s into the web portal.They already have brands that are using Buildlingo like publishers providing information about the next books that are coming out. There are schools that are using it to provide information to teachers about school events and other things.Every audio that is recorded within the app or uploaded into the portal is automatically indexed in the backend.There is a manual tagging system in the portal so users can assign keywords to audios if they need to.Anybody who needs to sign up for Buildlingo can get the mobile app and start recording audios or record the audios and upload them to the portal. Witlingo can also provide voice actors if a brand or company needs them.Witlingo can have a company’s Buildlingo skill set up in just a matter of days. The skill takes about 4 or 5 days to be up and running.List of resources mentioned in this episode:WitlingoCastlingoBuildlingoFree Flash Briefing CourseOther Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Shanthan Kesharaju, the creator of Sermo Labs, which specializes in Alexa Skill development. Welcome Shanthan Kesharaju!Shanthan has created a number of skills over a number of years, which are all geared towards some type of educational principle. They include top trending Alexa skills like 1-2-3 Math, World Mathematics League and Hungry Birds. Shanthan also works as the Product Manager of Artificial Intelligence in a financial services company. His interests are in Artificial Intelligence and Analytics. He is brilliant, knows his technology, has a great business sense and on top of that, he has a really good heart.Sermo Labs and Getting into Voice TechnologySermo Labs focuses on building voice applications which make learning fun and engaging.They have so far built three different Alexa skills which help users hone their math and logical skills.Their flagship skill is the 1-2-3 Math which they created in 2014.It has three different difficulty levels; Easy, Medium and Hard. The Easy level consists of simple addition, subtraction, and lower elementary topics.In the Medium level, the user can test their multiplication, division and simple equations.In the Hard level, equations require the user to do at least two or more operations to get to the answer.The Easy level is mostly for lower elementary kids. Medium is for elementary and middle school kids while Hard level is for anyone who is interested in solving math problems.They once received an email from someone whose grandfather was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and a doctor suggested cognitive exercises for him. They somehow came across 1-2-3 Math and his grandfather was using it every day to keep his mind sharp by practicing 5 minutes a day. This was an eye opener for Shanthan because he never imagined that it could be used by someone on the edge of getting Alzeimer’s.1-2-3 Math has been featured on various high profile blogs like Business Insider, Mashable, and Common Sense Media as one of the best Alexa skills to practice math. It has also received raving reviews on the Amazon Alexa store.World Mathematics LeagueThe second skill is the World Mathematics League. It’s based more around competition. Users get a few minutes every day to answer as many math questions as possible. The user’s score is then automatically added to their team score. Being enrolled into a tea is based on location. One is enrolled based on their country or state.World Mathematics League won the grand prize in the Amazon Alexa’s Tech for Good Hackerthon. It also won the Best Alexa Skill for Education at the 2019 Alexa Conference.Hungry BirdsHungry Birds is a multimodal skill that focuses on teaching kids programming by preparing them to understand programming as they grow up. The skill is based on a bird trying to reach its nest. The path to its nest is made with worms and corn. When the bird lands on a worm or a corn, it can perform either of two moves; it can moves forward, turn left, turn right or do nothing. When the game starts, the first scene has a bird, a nest, a bunch of worms and corn, and a fox. The user has to select two moves for the corn and two moves for the worm so that when the bird lands on a corn, it performs the two moves associated with corn or when it lands on a worm, it performs the two moves associated with a worm.If one selects the right moves at the start, they end staying on the right path and reaching the nest directly. If one doesn’t select the right moves, they go off path and get caught by the fox.There are 10+ challenges where the user gets to pick these moves and see how well their choices are. This skill teaches a programming concept called “Functions”In programming, a function is a block of code which given a name and when it’s called, it performs that block of code.Talking at the Alexa Conference about 1-2-3 MathWhen Amazon announced Alexa, he was one of the first people to pre-order the device in the hope that he would be able to develop some skills, even though he didn’t have any idea about what skill he would create.His preschool son came home one day and he was face-timing Shanthan’s brother in India, telling him about how he had learnt addition in school. Shanthan’s brother asked Shanthan’s son some few math questions and the son kept getting them right. They did this so long until the uncle got tired, but the boy wanted more. This gave Shanthan the idea to create an Alexa skill where Alexa keeps asking the math questions without stopping.When Shanthan created the skill, he tested it with his son, and when he liked it, he tried it with a few of the kids in the neighborhood, and they liked it, but some of them felt it was too easy. That gave Shanthan the idea for difficulty levels.He launched the skill 2014/2015, and from people’s response, Shanthan was able to keep improving the skill.The skill is a success story and has been featured in education blogs.They just launched premium content in the 1-2-3 Math skill where users can enhance their question base by about 20 to 25 questions.List of resources mentioned in this episode:1-2-3 MathWorld Mathematics LeagueHungry BirdsShanthan on LinkedinShanthan on TwitterShanthan on YouTubeOther Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Announcements - what's happening in February 2019 (first two minutes of show):This week I’ll be on Bradley Metrock’s show, This Week in Voice, which should air February 1, 2019If you’re in Atlanta, come to the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA) event on February 6, where I’m moderating a panel about voice technology with Kesha Williams from Chik Fil A (she was the main keynote at The Alexa Conference), plus speakers from Home Depot and 360i: How Voice Will Disrupt the Buyer Journey - Innovation Series presented by Nebo AgencyNext podcast appearance: Alexa in Canada, the Voice Experience with Dr. Teri Fisher. This will air the week of February 11.Social Media Week Austin: #SMWATX Feb 19-22, I’m speaking about voice marketing. Date and time announced Feb 11.Show notes:CPG and FMCG especially need to pay attention to the updates in Alexa: ISP (in-skill purchasing) just got a facelift in the Developer Console, making it easier to upsell. This is just getting started. Skills with very high conversion rates for upsell to premium version (34-50%!): Big Sky (weather) and Escape the Airplane (game)Voice in the car - HUGE opportunity (car is faster growing and has 60% higher MAUs than smart speakers)Today is like first gen iPhone: you can't multitask - only one app at a timeWhere we are with skills now: you can only do one thing at a timeThis will improveVoice is for EVERY brandTyping is unnatural, awkward, and slow. We are computing in computer-ese. Let's talk. We can speak and process so much faster than we can talk or read. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the heels of The 2019 Alexa Conference, host Bradley Metrock discusses the #VoiceFirst news of the week with guests Brielle Nickoloff (Witlingo) and Lucas Wonderley (SAP). Stories include KFC opening up voice-first ordering in India, Sherpa.AI raising $8.5M, and Alexa saying something truly offensive perhaps for the first time ever. This Week In Voice is part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

In this episode, Teri does a round-up of the conversations he had about voice with different people at the 2019 Alexa Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Teri was a speaker at the conference and talked about voice technology in the context of healthcare. He also led a workshop on how to create a flash briefing and recorded a flash briefing live for his Voice in Canada flash briefing. Shanthan Kesharaju He is the founder of Sermo Labs, LLC. They build educational Alexa skills that ignite young minds to learn interest in maths especially by practicing at home.They built “1-2-3 Math” which has been top trending on the Amazon store in different categories. It has three difficulty levels; easy, medium and hard. It can be used by any school going child up to middle school depending on what their skill levels are. Parents have said the skill helps their children in doing their homework.Shanthan gave a talk at the conference about how he built a top trending Alexa skill and shared his journey. Armel Beaudry KembeHe is the founder of Trebble.FM, a free service that allows users with no technical experience to record byte-size “shortcast” voice messages (aka “capsules”) on Trebble.fm using your smartphone or internet browser. Then, anyone in the world with a voice-activated speaker, such as the Amazon Echo, is able to listen to those shortcasts instantly.He is excited about voice and thinks 2019 is going to be a great year.Expects Amazon to announce a lot of great voice features/devices around cars.Pete EricksonHe is the founder of Modev and the creator of the VOICE Summit.They opened their call for proposals for the VOICE Summit during the Alexa Conference. The response was fantastic.Stuart PattersonHe is the co-founder and CEO of Lifepod.He liked the HealthTrack, a dedicated healthcare track which was a great mix of healthcare institutions, developers, and industry analysts. It gave Lifepod the opportunity to demonstrate their proactive voice capabilities along with the skill linking that they do in the session management that they do in their dialogue management system for caregivers.Daniel Hill He is the founder of Daniel Hill Media.He teaches small business owners how to use Instagram and has the The Instagram Stories podcast.He launched the Alexa flash briefing skill, The Instagram Stories, where he gives up-to-date news on Instagram, discusses news articles and also does a Q&A session he answers whatever questions people have about the platform.He learnt a lot at the conference about what other people are doing in terms of making skills.He wants to move more into skill development.Dave KempHe also writes the blog, FuturEar. He is quickly becoming one of the leading voices on smart hearables.He has observed a huge adoption of smart assistants within the senior population.As people get older, they tend to lose their hearing, and Dave sees there being a combination between hearing aid adoption and smart assistant adoption because the two can work in conjunction very well. There is smart assistant integration taking place in hearing aids and hearing devices in general.Doug SchumacherHe is the founder of Arrovox, which strategizes and develops digital marketing solutions.He is the creator of the Homie and Lexy Podcast, a satirical podcast that dives into the lives of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant from their perspectives. Doug uses text-to-speech and quality voices to create a dialogue between the two assistants.He also runs the podcast, Voice Marketing.Doug learnt more about the voice space and developing voice solutions for businesses.Amy StapletonShe is the founder of Tellables, a company that creates conversational stories for voice first devices.She gave a talk at the conference about using Alexa to capture attention as a story teller.She was also promoting their new skill, “My Box of Chocolates”, which is available in the US and Canada. One can say, “Alexa, open my box of chocolates” and they get an interesting little candy that’s not real, but is associated with a funny little story and one can talk to Alexa about the story. They are currently soliciting content from authors to be published with their chocolates.Brielle NickoloffShe is the Lead, Product Marketing at Witlingo.Witlingo created the CastLingo skill to help people record short snippets of whatever they want their audience to hear, and connect with them in a very unique way that conveys emotion through voice. They think this is the future of how people start connecting with their followers and audience.Dr. Neel DesaiHe is from the company, MedFlash Go.The MedFlash Go skill will be geared towards the medical education space with the goal of helping medical students save time, money and anxiety. The skill will help them study for their exams.John DeanHe is the Co-Founder at Triad Health A.I., which uses smart speakers to make smart exercises for Parkinsons. They see the opportunity to do things that are interactive in a home environment so people can stay independent, and also capture interesting data. They capture the performance data with the exercises and they couple that with the audio which provides them with a lot of very interesting information from people with Parkinsons.Brian RoemmelleHe was introduced at the conference as the Modern Day Thomas Edison and the Oracle of Voice.He is writing a book called “The Last Interface”The Last Interface is a combination of many different ideas that he is trying to put together so that more people can understand it. It’s a wisdom keeper which stores all of the knowledge and wisdom that we have accumulated within us by seeing and reading things.He believes that in the next year we are going to start seeing a very gradual, but noticeable shift of being able to actually have conversations with our voice AI systems. List of resources mentioned in this episode:1-2-3 MathTrebble.FMModevThe Voice SummitLifepodThe Instagram StoriesFuturEar BlogHomie & Lexy PodcastTellablesMy Box of ChocolatesCastLingoDr. Neel DesaiBrian Roemmelle Interview 1Brian Roemmelle Interview 2Flash Briefing Formula CourseOther Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri shares a recording of the talk he did at the Alexa Conference 2019.Teri was recently at the 2019 Alexa Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was privileged to give a couple of talks, one of which he was able to broadcast live titled, “No Appointment Necessary; Your Healthcare Team Now Lives in your Home” The talk was about how voice technology is completely changing the way that we are experiencing healthcare, and how this is going to occur over the next number of years. He took the recording of that talk and produced it as a podcast for those of us who didn’t get the opportunity to attend the conference or tune into the live episode. Enjoy the Talk!Scenario: Imagine waking up and feeling like something is off. You have been rolling over in bed, you have a scratched throat, a headache and it’s like you’ve sweating all night. You start thinking you’ll have to call in to work, you don’t know how you’ll get your kids to school, and maybe you need to see the doctor. You drag yourself into the car, drive to the doctor’s (assuming you’ve been able to make an appointment), you wait in the waiting shivering, the doctor says you have to go to the pharmacy to pick up your prescription, so you do it. You go back home and climb into bed. What an ordeal!Healthcare SystemsThere are a lot of great things going on in different healthcare systems but there are also a lot problems.Teri has always struggled to figure out how we can make a change in healthcare systems. Attempts have been made, but things are very much the same. With voice technology, we will be able to radically transform the way that we all experience the whole healthcare journey.Reference: The movie “Elysium”In the movie, people have sick bays (little mini-clinics) in their homes.It gives us an idea of where we could be going in the future.There is no doctor in the picture; it’s all based on what’s going on in the home.We are now in the primitive stages of such a scenario with voice technology, where we can now start to interact with these devices through our voices in a frictionless way such that pressure is taken off the healthcare system and that has a profound impact on patients.The technology has caught up to the fact that we no longer have to adapt to technology, the technology is adapting to us in our most natural form of technology.Changing the way we experience healthcareWe have yet to see a major change in healthcare.The ideal solution comes down to three factors; the right care, the right time, and the right place.The right care: To know the right care for us whenever we feel sickly, we would need some type of resource to explain it to us. British Columbia, Canada has the HealthLink BC line where anyone can call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and get in touch with a health service navigator that gets them in touch with live health care professionals who can advise them accordingly. This type of service can be put intoThe right time: This is a big problem in healthcare. People don’t get the healthcare they need at the exact time they need it. Voice assistants can become the triage nurses in homes, and they can play an important role in determining the right time for someone to get proper healthcare.The right place: It’s always hard to determine where to go when one is feeling sick, for example, the hospital, the doctor’s office, the community clinic, a travel clinic, a therapist’s office, etc.Vocal biomarkersThese are the metadata for voice.The metadata is different in someone’s voice when they say the same thing in different situations.Using algorithms and AI, we can pick out the different patterns in that metadata to make diagnosis, monitor cognitive decline and many other possibilities that haven’t been thought of.Currently, vocal biomarkers can be used to aid in diagnosis. They can be used in real time emotional insights and can detect cognitive diseases.Patient-centered healthcareThe concept is based on the patient being at the centre of the healthcare team and everybody is doing their best to look for the patient, and make sure that the patient is at the forefront of everybody’s mind.The problem with the concept is the maze of bureaucracy in healthcare systems which is very difficult for patients to navigate.Patient-first healthcareSince we are going into “voice first”, we need to think about “patient-first healthcare” where a patient will be the leader of their healthcare. This can be achieved if the patient can tap into the technology in their home, get the guidance they need, and access the healthcare they need, as needed, at the right time and at the right place.The Alexa devices we have in our homes can become little med-bays (little medical clinics). That would relieve so much pressure on the healthcare system and the overworked healthcare workers. It would also greatly improve the patient experience and the overall quality of care. Links and Resources in this EpisodeAging in placeLifepod See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jan 22, 2019 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brian Roemmele first started working with voice technology in the 1980's and recently expanded his research efforts. At the Alexa Conference in January 2019, Brian offered an update about his work including a forthcoming book called "The Last Interface," and product concepts named the Intelligence Amplifier and Wisdom Keeper. The Intelligence Amplifier will be a tool that records your life in real-time and instantly enables you to retrieve any information from your life experiences as needed. It will also have agency to anonymously gather information or execute tasks on your behalf. The wisdom keeper will be your manifestation while you are not there and can represent you both in life and afterward. Brian talks about some things that are being done today and others only seen previously in science fiction. It's a provocative conversation with a practical application of AI and voice. 

Day three of the Alexa Conference powered by Voice First FM. . Leave Feedback:  "Alexa, Open SurveyLine".  When prompted, use Code: "voice 1st podcast". . Survey Line: https://www.surveysbyvoice.com/ Voice Metrics: https://www.voicemetrics.io/ Stuart Crane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-crane-11a2401/ Paul Cornewell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-cornwell-8604a513/ . Voice First Tech Get Started: voicedrycleaner.com LinkedIn: goo.gl/h8GdnM Instagram: goo.gl/5ypZke  Facebook: goo.gl/bzr2Pp  Twitter: goo.gl/sdyjwK  YouTube: https://bit.ly/2F8eTwt  . RJ Pikus Twitter: https://twitter.com/rjolayolay   . Pat "Sweets" Sweetman Instagram: goo.gl/i3ufET  LinkedIn: goo.gl/PyPFMW . Leave Feedback: "Alexa, Open SurveyLine".  When prompted, use Name/Code: "voice 1st podcast". --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/voicefirstai/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/voicefirstai/support

In this episode, Teri is at the Alexa Conference 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee where he recorded this episode live.Teri was a speaker at the conference and talked about voice technology in the context of healthcare. He also led a workshop on how to create a flash briefing and recorded a flash briefing live for his Voice in Canada flash briefing.Flash Briefing BasicsA flash briefing is a small, short, audio piece of content. It’s similar to a podcast but it’s short.Starting a flash briefing or podcast is an opportunity to become a leader in whatever your field is..If the title and description of your flash briefing has the appropriate keywords, people searching for the products that match those keywords on Amazon will stumble onto your flash briefing.Unlike with other skills, once somebody has enabled a flash briefing, they never need to remember the invocation name again because it’s now part of their subscription.People tend to listen to flash briefings during the transitional moments of their day like when one is getting dressed or when driving.There are few flash briefings and less competition which makes it much easier to be found.There are about 70,000 Alexa skills and flash briefings are about 8,000 worldwide.For every 80 podcasts out there, there is one flash briefing, which illustrates the opportunity right now.You can do your flash briefings hourly, daily or weekly, but the best one Teri recommends is daily.Make short, quick and to the point flash briefings with valuable content.How to create a flash briefingPlan out your flash briefing.Decide on your topic (s). Determine who the show is for.Take some time to learn about the Amazon developer portal so you can easily set up your flash briefing and have complete creative control over it.Come up with a title, a short description, a long description and the keywords. These will make an impact on your SEO.Create a variety of call to actions. The first ones should be to ask for reviews.Create your flash briefing icon. It must be round.Create a unique audio branding.You need hardware and software to set up. Click here for a list of all the relevant software and hardware atRecord and export an episode. Teri recommends that you don’t write a script, keep it natural, smile when you speak (it makes a difference) and have fun with it.List of resources mentioned in this episode:How to Create a Flash BriefingFlash Briefing Hosting ServiceEasy-to-Use Graphics PlatformOther Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Day two of the Alexa Conference powered by Voice First FM. . Leave Feedback:  "Alexa, Open SurveyLine".  When prompted, use Code: "voice 1st podcast". . Survey Line: https://www.surveysbyvoice.com/ Voice Metrics: https://www.voicemetrics.io/ Stuart Crane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-crane-11a2401/ Paul Cornewell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-cornwell-8604a513/ . Voice First Tech Get Started: voicedrycleaner.com LinkedIn: goo.gl/h8GdnM Instagram: goo.gl/5ypZke  Facebook: goo.gl/bzr2Pp  Twitter: goo.gl/sdyjwK  YouTube: https://bit.ly/2F8eTwt  . RJ Pikus Twitter: https://twitter.com/rjolayolay   . Pat "Sweets" Sweetman Instagram: goo.gl/i3ufET  LinkedIn: goo.gl/PyPFMW . Leave Feedback: "Alexa, Open SurveyLine".  When prompted, use Name/Code: "voice 1st podcast". --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/voicefirstai/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/voicefirstai/support

Brian Ross, VP of Product and Services at Privakey, joins host Bradley Metrock to discuss the importance of data security and privacy in a voice-first world, and the role that Privakey has to play in providing secure authentication which potentially enhances voice applications on any platform. The conversation, taking place before CES and The Alexa Conference, discusses both of the January events, along with Ross explaining the need for voice tech to develop killer apps in order to continue to gain traction. The VoiceFirst Roundtable is part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

Day one of the Alexa conference. . Leave Feedback:  "Alexa, Open SurveyLine".  When prompted, use Code: "voice 1st podcast". . Survey Line: https://www.surveysbyvoice.com/ Voice Metrics: https://www.voicemetrics.io/ Stuart Crane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-crane-11a2401/ Paul Cornewell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-cornwell-8604a513/ . Voice First Tech Get Started: voicedrycleaner.com LinkedIn: goo.gl/h8GdnM Instagram: goo.gl/5ypZke  Facebook: goo.gl/bzr2Pp  Twitter: goo.gl/sdyjwK  YouTube: https://bit.ly/2F8eTwt  . RJ Pikus Twitter: https://twitter.com/rjolayolay   . Pat "Sweets" Sweetman Instagram: goo.gl/i3ufET  LinkedIn: goo.gl/PyPFMW . Leave Feedback: "Alexa, Open SurveyLine".  When prompted, use Name/Code: "voice 1st podcast". --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/voicefirstai/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/voicefirstai/support

Jan 15, 2019 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mari talks from the Alexa Conference just ahead of presenting at the panel of Podcasting in the age of Alexa at The Alexa Conference, See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alexa Conference Presented by Voice First FM. Jam Jan 15-17 at the Alexa Conference hosted by Voice First FM. A massive community of Alexa developers, hobbyists, business-people, and voice enthusiasts. Alexa Conference: https://www.voicefirst.fm/alexaconference Team RJ Pikus: https://twitter.com/rjolayolay Get Started: VoiceFirstTech.com LinkedIn: goo.gl/h8GdnM Instagram: goo.gl/5ypZke Facebook: goo.gl/bzr2Pp Twitter: goo.gl/sdyjwK YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCs8lN2Bfhou5PTC34-Vt6_A Pat "Sweets" Sweetman: Instagram: goo.gl/i3ufET LinkedIn: goo.gl/PyPFMW --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/voicefirstai/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/voicefirstai/support

In this episode, Teri welcomes Harry Pappas, the Founder and CEO of the Intelligent Health Association (IHA) Welcome Harry Pappas!Harry is a serial entrepreneur and has never worked for the corporate world. His core goal is to get the healthcare community to adopt new technology, software, apps, voice and other forms of technology that can have a dramatic impact on improving patient outcomes, patient care and patient safety while driving down the cost of Healthcare for all citizens.The Intelligent Health Association (IHA)A healthcare incident concerning his mother made him realize how bad the healthcare system is the US and worldwide. He promised his mother that he would use all his talents, resources and connections all over the world to improve the delivery of healthcare by educating the healthcare community around the world to adopt new technologies and processes.He divested his companies and decided to do social good.He started out by forming the RFID in Healthcare Consortium which then led to the formation of the Intelligent Health Association because he realized that RFID and RTLS technologies were only tools that needed to be surrounded by other complementary technologies.They have an Alexa in Healthcare Consortium and other technology oriented alliances.IHA is focused on education. They are vendor neutral technology agnostic and the association is by invitation only.Similarities of Voice to the Early Stages of the Dotcom BoomVoice is similar to the Dotcom enterprises, but Voice is more consumer oriented because an individual doesn’t need a laptop or any knowledge about how the web works.Voice is going to be the next WWW.Getting involved with the Alexa ConferenceWhen he was approached by Bradley Metrock to contribute to the organization of the conference, he jumped on-board because his goal is always to help educate the community. They decided to create a track on healthcare and bring in real-world applications of voice.He will be doing a panel session where they will have both vendors and end-users talking about real-world application of voice.List of resources mentioned in this episode:Harry on LinkedinTeri's Live Broadcast at the Alexa ConferenceTeri's Live Workshop at the Alexa ConferenceOther Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This Week In Voice host Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) turns on the mic, right before the holidays, to thank listeners for sharing such a great year for voice-first technology with us. We preview The Alexa Conference (coming up in January) and reflect on the top 3 stories of the year. This Week In Voice is part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Bradley Metrock, the brains behind the VoiceFirst.FM network.Welcome Bradley Metrock!Bradley is the CEO of Score Publishing which runs the Digital Book World, The Alexa Conference, The Voice of Healthcare Summit, and the global podcast network VoiceFirst.FM. The Alexa Conference will be taking place between January 15 to 17th 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The conference is a worldwide gathering of Alexa developers and enthusiasts.VoiceFirst.FMHas a number of podcasts across the world that people enjoy including the Alexa in Canada podcast.The podcasts have a total of more than 100,000 listeners across 56 countries.Top Stories of 2018Apple failed to be more competitive. Siri has made some strides but Apple is still flailing about at the end of 2018. New consumer habits are being formed on a daily basis and they don’t involve the Apple ecosystem, but instead involve the Amazon Alexa and Google ecosystem.Samsung rolled out their new developer tools and showed an entirely new paradigm for how development on a voice assistant will work for Bixby. This means Samsung is going to be fertile ground for third-party developers. They’re going to be a healthy competitor for Amazon and Google.Google Duplex came out over the not summer and it was so advanced that it shocked the market. It is more advanced in several significant ways than what Alexa can do at the moment.Amazon has had a good year. They have sold a huge amount of devices and they have had a steady drum beat of new features that have come out over the course of the year. They have entered into many new locations, not just the US.Research shows the use of voice assistants and smart speakers has reduced usage of the smartphone.Prediction: By December 2019, Samsung will be just as much a part of the conversion with activity around voice assistants like third party development and general growth, as Amazon and Google.Samsung is about to take a big leap. If they continue with their efforts, they are poised to challenge both Amazon and Google.There are features of the Samsung voice assistant ecosystem that don’t exist on the Alexa and Google Assistant ecosystems.Amazon has a huge lead, a huge install base for Echo devices, a hug developer community, and a huge community of evangelists.The Alexa ConferenceIt is the worldwide gathering of the Alexa development community.2019 is the 3rd year it’s taking place. It’s the first year that Amazon has supported the event as a platinum sponsor.There will be more than 500 people. There will be a lot of exhibitors showcasing products and services related to Alexa.It will be the first dedicated exhibit hall to Alexa dubbed “The Alexa World Fair”There will be an awards program called “The Alexa Awards”The overall goal of the conference is to gather together the Alexa development community as well as many other enthusiasts who include executives, marketers, developers and strategists.Legendary entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell will be co-presenting about his new company, X2 Games which is a game developer that is only creating games for Alexa. He will also talk about their new murder mystery game called St. Noire.Gimlet Media, a huge narrative fiction podcast company, will be there sharing how they have used smart speakers.Mayo Clinic will be there talking about how they have deployed voice technology in their organization.List of resources mentioned in this episode:The Alexa ConferenceVoice First FMVoice First EventsOther Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Alexa ConferenceJan 15-17Chattanooga, TN (home of the fastest internet in the US!)Info: https://www.voicefirst.fm/alexaconferenceTix: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-2019-alexa-conference-tickets-42352800366Get 20% off with my promo code: ALEXASPKR203 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Bradley Metrock, CEO of Score Publishing and the creator of the Voice of Healthcare Summit.Bradley Metrock is the man behind the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network, The Alexa Conference, and now the Voice of Healthcare Summit, and he joins me today to recap the 1st Voice of Healthcare Summit that took place on August 7, 2018 in Boston at the Martin Conference Center on the campus of Harvard Medical School.Key points about the Voice of Healthcare Summit from Bradley!Bradley, along with Dr. Matt Cybulsky, host the Voice of Healthcare Podcast. The voice of Healthcare Summit began as an extension of the podcast.There were 150 registered attendees for the inaugural pilot Voice of Healthcare Summit 2018.In an age of social media and the internet, it has never been more important to have physical, in person, live events for people to connect and collaborate.Some of the feedback for next year has been to create break-out sessions to focus on areas such as health and wellness, drug adherence, implementation in the OR, and others.Attendees came from many different companies, organizations, academic institutions, as well as healthcare providers.A report will be forthcoming on the results, key findings, and takeaways from the conference.The #VOHSummit18 hashtag had close to 1.5 million impressions on social media over the 24 hour period of the conference!Speakers covered many different areas, resulting in a very successful and engaging program, highlighted by the 2 keynote speakers: Rowena Track from Cigna and Ilana Shalowitz from Emmi.The same venue has been booked for a 2 day event in 2019: Aug 5-6, 2019. Next year’s event will be expanded to 2 days and include an exhibitor component as well.Links and Resources in this EpisodeBradley Metrock on TwitterVoice of Healthcare SummitVoice of Healthcare PodcastVoice First Health Podcast Interview with Keynote Speaker, Rowena TrackVoice First Health Podcast Interview with Keynote Speaker, Ilana ShalowitzDr. Teri Fisher on TwitterDr. Teri Fisher on LinkedInPlease leave a review on iTunesThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Kesha Williams. Kesha is a software engineer, mentor, professor, speaker, tech blogger, and S.T.E.M. advocate. She is the Founder of Colors of STEM & the Inventor of SAM (a predictive policing machine inspired by Minority Report that predicts the likelihood of crime) & Live Plan Eat (an Amazon Alexa skill that takes the stress out of meal planning).Welcome Kesha Williams!Kesha’s love for technology started a long time ago. In fact, as a child, she referred to coding as “playing on the computer.” And play she did. Starting in middle school, and all the way through high school, she spent hours coding so that when it came to choosing her major, she chose Computer Science without a second thought.What are you doing now?Kesha has been an Engineer Manager at Chick-fil-A for thirteen years. She currently leads a team that builds custom software applications for both corporate and customers. Her team researches cool and emerging technology, and that’s how they came to know Alexa. Kesha has won the “Think Different” award from Chick-fil-A for the three Alexa skills her team has created.What kind of skills are they?One of them is for Chick-fil-A customers so they can get nutritional information, such as how many calories are in a Chick-fil-A sandwich. The other two skills are more for the business side. One is for sales, so operators can see what their breakfast, lunch or dinner sales are, and help them make real-time business decisions based on the data. The other skill is an “on-the-clock” skill. This skill allows operators to know who is on the clock and who should be on the clock but isn’t!Tell us more about Live Plan Eat.Live Plan Eat is a complete meal-planning skill that Kesha developed to help with her own meal planning for her family. The skill helps create a meal plan/schedule and helps choose a variety of dishes from different cuisines.What makes Alexa a smartspeaker?There’s a lot goes on behind the scenes. A.I is a branch of Computer Science that teaches machines how to operate with little to no human intervention. In A.I, there’s a sub-field called machine-learning, where a computer looks at a bunch of data and finds pasterns and trends. In order to teach Alexa how to understand human language, there’s a lot of machine learning that needs to happen. Alexa takes what the user is saying, then parses it to understand what the user is saying and after that, the speech is sent to the skill or app and a response comes through.How do you and your family use Alexa?As a very busy person, Kesha Williams uses the Echo Show to plan her week ahead, and to listen to music and to relax. Her boys use it for setting timers, specially when they are helping in the kitchen. Along with her daughter, Kesha has developed spelling and multiplication skills to help her daughter with her school work.Tell us about your passion for promoting S.T.E.M.?Kesha says that she unfortunately doesn’t see a lot of women in the technology field, but hopes that this changes in the future. Kesha leads the Georgia Chapter of Technovation, a global computer program that teaches middle and highschool girls to build mobile apps for their communities. One Saturday each month, Kesha teaches programming to children. She also mentors with the New York Academy of Sciences, along with other women.What’s your personal take on voice tech and its future?Kesha says she is very excited about where voice tech is now and where it’s going in the future. When she got the first echo device, she felt like she was in Star Trek. She thinks Alexa will be at her best when its integrated in every area of life, like vehicles, for example.Where is Kesha speaking next?Kesha Williams will be the keynote speaker in the Alexa Conference, in Chattanooga TN, in January 2019.List of resources mentioned in this episode:Kesha’s blogKesha’s Live Plan Eat SkillThe Alexa Conference18th Annual International Healthcare Summit: Transforming Healthcare Through Digital Platforms and InnovationTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunes See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In a special preview edition of the upcoming 2019 Alexa Conference, Presented By VoiceFirst.FM (and sponsored by Amazon) (www.voicefirst.fm/alexaconference), Dave Kemp (Business Development Manager, Oaktree Products) and Kesha Williams (Software Engineering Manager, Chick-Fil-A) discuss the latest in voice technology news, including the current market share information for smart speakers within the United States, the Echo Show now being available to the public, Siri's next frontier, Sonos' new Beam soundbar, and conflicting views on whether Amazon's Echo Dot Kids is appropriate for children. This Week In Voice is hosted by Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) and is part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

Today, we’re getting into detail about what it’s like to be a full-time VUI designer. We’re discussing the details of the role, the day to day duties and the skillsets that are important to succeed in designing voice user interfaces.The role of a VUI designer has been around for a while, but it’s not so common. However, with the rise of voice as an access point for controlling technology, this is one of the roles of the future.If you’re planning for that future and are considering seeking work in the voice first space; or if you’re a voice first design hobbyist looking to take it full-time; or if you’re generally interested in what it takes to create conversational interfaces, then this is a great episode for you.We’re joined by two professional VUI designers, Ilana Shalowitz and Brian Bauman of Emmi, and together they’ll be taking us through the ins and outs of the role that designs voice user interfaces for Emmi’s care calls.In this episodeIlana takes us through an overview of the VUI designer role and discusses what skillsets are important. She takes us through the interview process, bedding in, and drops some detailed knowledge voice user interface design based on her years of experience in the field.Brian then takes us through the role in more detail and looks at the specifics of the role, where a VUI designer fits into a project, what the day to day activities and duties are, and what he found during his first 30 days.We also discuss things like:How to pronounce VUI (V.U.I. or "Vooey")The difference between chat bot design and conversational vuiWhat is prosity and why is it importantLanguageBreathingError recoveryDirecting voice talentReporting and measuring successBroader voice user interface design tipsOur guestsIlana Shalowitz is the VUI Design Manager at Emmi and has a background in marketing and design. Ilana is forming a great reputation in the voice first space and is quickly becoming a leading voice for voice in the healthcare sector. She featured at the Alexa Conference 2018, spoke at the AI Summit 2018, has featured on the VoiceFirst.FM Voice of Healthcare podcast (Episode 5) and is a keynotes speaker at the Voice of Healthcare Summit in August in Boston.Brian Bauman is a former playwright and joined Emmi recently, taking on his first role as a VUI designer. Brian has a background in the creative arts and is a former playwright. He fills us in on what his first month as a VUI designer was like and how his creative background gave him some valuable transferable skills.About EmmiEmmi solutions is part of the Wolters Kluwer stable and helps care organisations extend the reach of their care through using technology.Ilana and Brian both wore on the automated voice-based outbound calls side of the company. They create call scripts and dialogue flows that are turned into real calls that patients receive and can interact with in conversation. This means that healthcare providers can speak to thousands of patients without needing make make any manual calls at all.LinksApply to be a VUI designer at EmmiJoin the VUI designer slack channelFind out more about EmmiRegister at the Voice of Healthcare Summit 2018 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode 9 of The Alexa Podcast, presented by VoiceFirst.FM, features special guest Dave Isbitski (Chief Evangelist, Alexa and Echo, for Amazon). The discussion spanned what constitutes success for a technology evangelist, how he responds to questions about Amazon's data security and privacy, resources Amazon makes available for developers, and the next generation of Alexa skills which go beyond mere information recall. Dave Isbitski will speak as part of Digital Book World 2018 (www.DigitalBookWorld.com) this October in Nashville, and Amazon will sponsor The Alexa Conference, Presented By VoiceFirst.FM, taking place in January 2019 (www.voicefirst.fm/alexaconference). The Alexa Podcast is hosted by Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) and Kevin Old (software developer, LifeWay).

Bradley Metrock, the CEO of Score Publishing and a leader in the voice technology space, joins Teri to recap this year's Alexa Conference and to discuss the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network. Teri also makes 2 very special announcements!http://AlexaInCanada.ca/13 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joined by Katie Ernst, CEO and founder of Select A Story, and featuring a cameo from #VoiceFirst leader Brian Roemmele, this episode features a special announcement of a new venture between Roemmele and Score Publishing, a wrap-up of The 2018 Alexa Conference, discussion of the HomePod's release date announcement, Alexa favoring the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, and more. Hosted by Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) and part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

This Week In Voice returns with a look at stories coming out of CES, as well as a preview of The Alexa Conference, coming up Jan 18-20 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Special guests include Tim Kahle and Dominik Meissner of Germany's 169 Labs. This Week In Voice is hosted by Bradley Metrock and is part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

An all-star duo (Mandy Chan, Brian Roemmele) discuss the latest in voice technology news, including Google and Walmart's epic partnership to challenge Amazon in the realm of #VoiceCommerce, Bixby expands to over 200 countries and territories worldwide, a new Alexa skill helps families better conserve food, Google readies AirPod competitors for the holiday season, Apple launches a new machine learning journal available to the public, and The Alexa Conference announces a new sponsor and new programming for the January 2018 summit in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hosted by Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) and part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

An all-star panel (Karen Kaushansky, Ahmed Bouzid, Brian Roemmele) discuss the latest in voice technology news, including Amazon's new Alexa Accelerator in partnership with Techstars, China being "slow" to embrace smart speakers, the launch of the HTC U11 with built-in Alexa, Inc magazine reporting that marketers are "scrambling" to catch up to AI and voice technology, Google Home launches in Australia with a masterfully-orchestrated release, voice-first technology expands horizontally with Bespoken's new "Silent Echo" tool and Opearlo's Sound Owl tool to publish 'shortcasts,' Chattanooga (and the state of Tennessee in general) goes all-in on voice technology by supporting The Alexa Conference, and Amazon moves to disrupt food marketplaces by marrying Alexa with food delivery service. Hosted by Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) and part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.