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NAMM Music Show, Amazon Scout & More on CHOM FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away about what’s going on in the digital world. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

Just back from the awesome NAMM trade show in California. Nothing better than mixing my speaking about innovation with the music instrument industry. I attended the Gibson private party on Thursday night that featured performances from Heart‘s Nancy Wilson, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Peter Frampton, The Doors’ Robby Krieger, drummer Kenny Aronoff, Rolling Stones’ bassist Darryl Jones and a ton more great musicians playing live. I recorded the 50th episode of Groove – The No Treble Podcast with Michael Anthony (Van Halen, Chickenfoot, The Circle) last Friday (and, yes, I asked him about the Van Halen reunion rumours).
Amazon unveiled Scout. This mini, Star Wars-looking robot safely gets packages to customers as an autonomous delivery device. They are the size of a small cooler, and roll along sidewalks at a walking pace. Starting last week, these robots began delivering packages in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington. Amazon currently has six robots doing this during the week (and during daylight hours). Good thing, we don’t want roving gangs of Scouts in our neighbourhoods at night causing terror! The company assures us that these devices can safely and efficiently navigate around pets, pedestrians and anything else in their path.
Facebook is back in the news (isn’t it ALWAYS in the news?). Mark Zuckerberg announced that that they will be uniting the backend technology on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. Is this a good idea (users will be able to send messages across the platforms)? A terrible idea (privacy, data, government regulations)?
App of the Week: Ditty.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.