TechBurst Talks

Cyber attackers aren't smashing down doors anymore. They're moving in, settling down, and learning the house before anyone notices. Host Charles sits down with  Adam Basedow , CTO at VECTRA (an Ensign InfoSecurity company), to unpack why AI is accelerating cyber risk faster than most organisations can keep up — and why the fundamentals still matter more than ever. Adam brings twenty-five years of...

Your board has an AI strategy. It's probably rubbish. Nathan Bell has spent 25 years delivering transformation programmes inside the world's biggest telcos. Now a Partner at Kearney, he's the person companies call when the proof-of-concept graveyard keeps growing and the CFO starts asking uncomfortable questions. In this episode: why most AI programmes are expensive theatre, how to actually get RO...

The New World Order: It's Not a Transition, It's a Rupture The world's gone completely mental since Andy Staples left The Economist and launched GeoPol Asia . Turns out his timing was perfect - just in time for Trump's tariff chaos, military interventions, and the complete breakdown of the "rules-based order" everyone keeps banging on about. The old playbook is dead. This isn't your typical trade...

Telco's Sophistication Paradox: Why They Can't Explain Their Own Genius The Telco Century Club (100+ years of telco experience between us) is back with a brutal reality check on an industry that's mastered building brilliant technology but completely botched explaining why anyone should care. Charles teams up with telecoms veterans Rob Jones (Sylva Growth Partners) and Chris Lewis (Lewis Insights,...

Here's the complete description with show notes for Libsyn: IoT Reality Check: Fresh Insights from the Latest Benchmarking Report - Matt Hatton from Transforma Insights Breaks Down What's Really Working In this episode of TechBurst Talks, I sit down with Matt Hatton, founding partner at Transforma Insights, to dive deep into his latest IoT peer benchmark report covering 27 MNOs and MVNOs worldwide...

Why IoT Failed (And What's Finally Working) - Alistair Fulton After 25 years in IoT, Alistair Fulton has watched the industry make nearly every mistake possible—and he's not holding back about what went wrong. From incubating Microsoft's Azure IoT platform to growing Semtech's IoT division to $300M in revenue, Alistair witnessed the gap between IoT's trillion-dollar promises and harsh reality. Thi...

Antony Slumbers is a leading voice on the future of real estate, keynote speaker, and educator on AI for property leaders. Antony Slumbers doesn't just talk PropTech—he created it. Long before "PropTech" was even a word, he launched the UK's first commercial real estate website in 1995. Now he's teaching the industry how to survive what's coming next. This isn't your typical tech cheerleading sess...

Building the IoT Ecosystem That Actually Works - Wienke Giezeman (The Things Industries) The Collaborative Approach That Made LoRaWAN a Global Success Wienke Giezeman didn't just build a company—he built an entire ecosystem. As CEO and co-founder of The Things Industries, Wienke has orchestrated one of the most successful collaborative strategies in IoT, growing from a startup idea to managing 3 m...

The Reality Check You Need Jeff Apcar spent 24 years as a Distinguished Engineer at Cisco and has zero patience for tech BS. After 46 years in the industry, he's watched every hype cycle crash and burn. What's Actually Broken 5G? Overhyped garbage that nobody can monetize. IoT? A connection problem pretending to be a collection solution. Service providers? Becoming irrelevant dinosaurs while hyper...

Space-Based Computing Revolution: Building Data Centers in Orbit with Rob DeMillo From JPL to Orbital Computing: The Future of Space Technology In this episode of Tech Burst Talks, Charles sits down with Rob DeMillo — former JPL engineer, serial entrepreneur with 7 exits from 9 startups, SparkLabs Venture Partner, and CEO of Sophia Space — to explore the cutting-edge world of orbital data centers...

Middle East's Tech Revolution: From Regional Ambitions to Global Leadership with Nokia's Danial Mausoof The Middle East's Rise as a Global Telecom Innovation Hub In this episode of TechBurst Talks, Charles sits down with Danial Mausoof , Vice President of Mobile Networks for the Middle East & Africa at Nokia , to explore how the Middle East tech ecosystem is transforming from regional player to gl...

Corporate Survival in the US-China Crossfire: Geopolitical Intelligence for Asia Business Leaders Navigating Supply Chain Wars and Superpower Tensions with GeoPol Asia's Andrew Staples In this explosive TechBurst Talks episode, host Charles sits down with Andrew Staples , battle-tested geopolitical expert who transitioned from The Economist to founding GeoPol Asia , his own strategic advisory firm...

Global Tech Supply Chains Under Siege: Tariffs, AI Revolution, and the Race Beyond Smartphones Smartphone Industry Disruption and Manufacturing Pivot Strategies with Bryan Ma In this episode of TechBurst Talks , Bryan Ma joins Charles to unpack the seismic shifts reshaping the global smartphone and device industry . From US-China tariff warfare to Apple's manufacturing exodus toward India and Viet...

AI-Powered Billboard Revolution: How Digital Out-of-Home Advertising is Disrupting Traditional Marketing Real-Time Ad Targeting Meets Street-Level Intelligence with Flow City's Dagny Lacka 🚀 AI is transforming advertising , and in this TechBurst Talks episode, we dive deep into how digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising is revolutionizing the marketing landscape. Charles sits down with Dagny Lack...

B2B Marketing Revolution: Creativity vs. Corporate BS in Tech Industry Portfolio Career Mastery and Authentic Personal Branding with Jon Buckthorp 🚀 Tech, Marketing, and a Football Obsession—What Could Go Wrong? In this episode of TechBurst Talks , Charles sits down with his old mate Jon Buckthorp —Commercial Director of Differentiated , founder of Jon B Studios , and the kind of guy who juggles...

Samsung Galaxy AI Revolution: On-Device Intelligence and Enterprise Mobile Solutions Next-Gen Smartphone AI Features and B2B Innovation with Samsung's Ian Chong In this episode of TechBurst Talks , Charles sits down with Ian Chong from Samsung Electronics to explore his work on the mobile B2B team and the cutting-edge advancements Samsung is making in AI technology for smartphones . Discover the r...

In this episode of TechBurst Talks , we're cutting through the AI hype and making sense of the endless buzzwords flooding the industry. You've heard them before— AI, ML, DL, LLM, SLM, RAG, ChatGPT, Custom GPT, NLP —but what do they actually mean?   Joining me is Bernard Leong , host of the Analyse Asia podcast, founder of Dorje.ai , and a leading expert in AI. Together, we break down these terms i...

In this episode of the Techburst Talks podcast, we delve deep into the current challenges and future prospects of the telecom industry. I'm joined by industry veterans Chris Lewis from Lewis Insight and Rob Jones , CEO of Bluefire , the discussion spans a wide array of topics including: the financial viability of 5G - is anyone actually making $$$? the adaptation of telcos to new technologies like...

TechBurst Talks Season 4 Episode 2 IoT Re-Imagined: Practicality over Promises In this episode of the Tech Burst Talks podcast, host Charles interviews Gerhard Loots, CEO of Kallipr.  Gerhard discusses his transition from running the IoT business at Telstra, Australia's largest telecoms operator, to a startup environment, his current role at Kallipr and the company's innovative IoT solutions. He e...

The tech industry loves to talk about disruption, innovation, and the next big thing —but what about the one algorithm we still struggle to solve? Ourselves. In this episode of TechBurst Talks , we're shifting gears. No hype, no buzzwords—just a raw, honest conversation about life, purpose, and what truly matters beyond the boardroom. Joining me is Uma Thana Balasingham , a former tech leader turn...

If you keep up to date with the latest technology news, you know that the momentum and investment has shifted from Asia to the Middle East. But gone are the days where countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE just import technology and talent - the new trend across the Middle East is how to create a home-grown technology startup ecosystem - and this is what we are going to cover in today's podcast....

In Part II of our Middle East Deep Dive , we talk with Carrington Malin to find out how the government's in the Middle East are driving unprecedented growth and innovation.  But it's more than just the tech, they are up-skilling their workforces and training students on how to leverage emerging technologies to transform the traditional industries that support their economies - and develop new ones...

This is the first in a series on Technology and Innovation trends in the Middle East. Things have gone quiet in Asia post-pandemic - and the global recession has not helped.  However, the Middle East is thriving.  Hardly a week goes by where there isn't another jaw-dropping announcement related to emerging technologies like AI, autonomous vehicles and the Metaverse in the Middle East - or the mass...

We need to face the facts - our Return to the Office strategies are failing. Giving away free beer once a week is not enough to make our employees WANT to come back to the office. So what will make them? That's what we are going to discuss today.  I'm joined by Helen Snowball, JLL's Global Head of People Solutions and Experience, to discuss how showing empathy, creating purpose and delivering enha...

One of the challenges with Sustainability is that while people like talking about it, it can be hard to find people driving real impact. But luckily for you, today's guest is one that it driving impact. In this episode of the TechBurst Asia podcast, we will speak to Adrien Desbaillets, the CEO and Co-Founder of Salad Stop, about the growth of his business - and how they were able to deliver SouthE...