Recap of ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019
February 1, 2019
We wrap up ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019 with great discussions from media and breakout exhibitors to learn what this year’s ÓÀÐǶij¡ meant to them.
Guests
-
Sara Fischer
Media Reporter, Axios
-
Mike Mansuetti
President of Bosch, North America
-
Dr. David Lipman
Chief Science Officer, Impossible Foods
Accordion
-
0:00:12-0:00:20 Sara Fischer
But now it’s become a place where global power brokers come to really set the tone for what the year is going to be.
0:00:20-0:00:42 Tyler Suiters
Hey everybody! We’re the Consumer Technology Association. I’m Tyler Suiters. We are the owner and producer of ÓÀÐǶij¡; the largest, the most influential tech event on the planet. That was Sara Fischer, she is a media trends reporter for Axios, a key media outlet here in D.C. and well beyond the borders of the nation’s capital I should say, covering policy and innovation and the intersection of technology in so many other industries.
So, she is talking about the key theme of this week’s podcast, ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019, a look back. The major themes, the big takeaways, the lessons learned and the evolution both of technology innovation and the show itself.
0:01:05-0:01:30 Tyler Suiters
So along with talking to Sarah and Axios, we are speaking with the key player in the self-driving vehicle sector. Vehicle Tech, a major element of ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019 and we are speaking with Bosch. You may not know them quite as well as some of the major automobile manufacturers that were at ÓÀÐǶij¡ but Bosch is a key player as we strive toward that self-driving vehicle future.
0:01:31-0:01:57 Tyler Suiters
Also, one of the break-out stars of ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019, you hear us say it all the time, every company is or needs to be a tech company in today’s marketplace. Well today we are talking with Impossible Foods. What are they doing at ÓÀÐǶij¡? It’s a fascinating answer to that and their place moving forward in their role in the tech sector. All of that is coming in this week’s edition of ÓÀÐǶij¡ Tech Talk.
0:01:59-0:02:12 Tyler Suiters
With us now from Parts Unknown is Sara Fischer from Axios. I say that jokingly Sara, your travel schedule, I know, has been crazy in and around ÓÀÐǶij¡ so really glad we found time with you.
0:02:13-0:02:16 Sara Fischer
Oh my goodness I am so happy to be joining you.
0:02:17-0:02:29 Tyler Suiters
Somehow, we got you in one location that is Las Vegas at the right time and in the right place during ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019. You’re a bit of a veteran of coming to ÓÀÐǶij¡, what’s your overview on this year’s show?
0:02:30-0:03:10 Sara Fischer
My overview is that it was more important than ever to be there. If you’re someone that needs to broker a deal in the media technology consumer technology automation space. In the past, ÓÀÐǶij¡ was really focused on the technology itself and it still is, but now it’s become a place where global power brokers come to really set the tone for what the year is going to be and if you’re not there it’s almost like it’s a business loss for you. You kind of have to make yourself present, make your company known, it’s just sort of the new standard.
0:03:11-0:03:29 Tyler Suiters
So, your time at least in terms of your demands require you that you were at C Space a lot. You were once again a speaker, a moderator this year. Let’s talk a little bit about what you both had to say up on the dais in front of the audience but also what you heard there while you were in the spotlight, Sara.
0:03:30-0:04:00 Sara Fischer
Yeah, so I think one of the big things that I heard a lot about was connected health. If all the consumer technology updates, I think what we could do to make it better for people to check in on elderly parents or relatives using video technology or sensors or what we’re doing to monitor blood pressure or insulin levels. That I think was the hottest thing from a consumer technology perspective.
0:04:01-0:04:20 Sara Fischer
But then as it pertains to my beat, you know I cover media and technology. I think the hot thing was really new forms of advertising in every kind of platform imaginable, so I didn’t even feel like we were talking about voice that much last year. This year voice exploded and how we’re going to market to people on voice assistants exploded.
0:04:21-0:04:43 Sara Fischer
You heard so many people talking about streaming TV and what the advertising ecosystem will look like there. Even the advertising system, they’re going to exist in regular internet of things devices in the home. Anything from a smart thermostat or smart refrigerator, marketers want to get in there, so that was another central theme.
0:04:43-0:05:19 Tyler Suiters
So, this is really where you live, Sara, this is your beat and it coincides so nicely with C Space which is the intersection of marketing and advertising of brands, entertainment, and Hollywood and media, as well, as a key part of that. Just recently you wrote about the expectations of much more personized advertising coming to us in terms of video advertising. Let’s do a quick back and forth on that. What you know now and what you see in the year ahead as far as that goes.
0:05:20-0:05:43 Sara Fischer
Yeah, so it used to be that with traditional ad mediums, it was really linear. It was a message coming to you and there was no two-way communication. If a consumer didn’t like the ad, if they didn’t think it was relevant, who cares -that was the ad you were getting served. Well that turned consumers off a lot, especially where digital advertising is much more of a two-way conversation.
0:05:44-0:05:58 Sara Fischer
You search for something, you get served an ad for something that will be relevant to you. And heck, if you don’t like it and you’re not going to be acting on it or buying something from it, that data goes back to the advertiser as a signal of “Hey this person is not interested, let’s move onâ€.
0:05:59-0:06:14 Sara Fischer
So two-way conversation through marketing is hot and if you are a legacy industry, television or radio and you weren’t doing two-way conversations through advertising, I think those industries are starting to realize now that they are far behind.
0:06:15-0:06:45 Sara Fischer
So, you’re seeing tv companies roll out with what’s called addressable advertising or targeted ads. You’re seeing audio ads become much more personalized. Pandora is rolling out sort of targeted, automated technology to make those ads better. So that’s the future. You’re not going to see as many broad-based ads that aren’t applicable to your needs anymore. No more ads for medicine if you’re not sick or ads for dog food if you’re a cat owner, that sort of thing.
0:06:46-0:07:31 Tyler Suiters
Yeah as a dog owner, I wouldn’t say I’m offended by cat advertisements, but I would much prefer to hear what my golden retriever might benefit from in terms of pet tech and others. Alright, personal preferences aside Sara. One of my favorite terms and this doesn’t apply only to the C Space world but really technology, in general, comes from representative Will Hurd from Texas and his phrase is “Data is the coin of the realmâ€. Just so it succinctly captures the fact that just as we say every industry is or needs to be a tech industry, data is or needs to be a consideration for every company in the advertising, marketing, entertainment, media space, correct?
0:07:32-0:07:47 Sara Fischer
Oh absolutely, I mean it goes back to what I was saying about the two-way conversation. If you are a media company and you’re not using data to inform your communications and marketing, and content strategies — you’re going to get left behind.
0:07:48-0:08:13 Sara Fischer
I mean take a look at some of the new age media companies. On Snapchat you have these companies like Vertical Networks that are producing really catered-to shows for a certain young demographic and those shows are created using data of how kids click through the scenes, of which ones they talk about online, they’re using the response of consumers to really craft the content.
0:08:14-0:08:44 Sara Fischer
It’s no longer good enough to just create a show and put it out there and hope that people like it. And I mean, I think the best example of this is you saw this the other day with Netflix and Birdbox. Birdbox was a show that I think it got in the 60s on Rotten Tomatoes; it wasn’t critically acclaimed. But Netflix was really smart at driving a conversation around it to get people to tune in. They got people to talk about it on social, they used those memes that users created to promote the show. And by doing that they were really able to drive viewership.
0:08:45-0:08:56 Sara Fischer
So if you’re not thinking about how you’re using data to deliver good content and to create good content, people are going to tune out. You’re not going to be able to win.
0:08:57-0:09:29 Tyler Suiters
Let’s talk a bit more about the technology themes, that you saw Sara, that are going to enable this two-way conversation, which is a great way in your words as you put it. One had to do with the partnerships we saw at ÓÀÐǶij¡, primarily between Apple and a number of television manufacturers — but there were other examples I’m sure. What on the technology side did you see that is the most immediate example or examples of game changing tech and the conversions in this space?
0:09:30-0:10:02 Sara Fischer
Well to the partnerships level, I mean you’re starting to see hardware companies really partner with software companies to enable that software to be accessible to consumer — no matter what device they’re on. So, you have Samsung and LG putting Apple’s software, whether it’s iTunes onto their TV system so that when a user goes to log onto their television set they can have a seamless experience with all their Apple content from their computer to their TV. So, partnerships is a big part of it.
0:10:03-0:10:29 Sara Fischer
As far as technology goes, I think what you’re seeing on the TV side of the television providers, so that would be the Cable and Satellite companies like a Comcast or Altice as well as television networks like a CBS or Fox or a Viacom. They’re really starting to tap into how can we leverage data from a set-top box, that little black box that kind of blinks when you get it from your cable company.
0:10:30-0:10:56 Sara Fischer
How can we take the data from that and use it to deliver really customized ads, also how can we get the data from that and use it to create a more customized discovery service for you? So, if you’re Xfinity or an Altice customer and you go to the content channel surfing module, the recommendations might be a little more tailored to your personal preferences than they would have been in the past. So in the tv space that’s a big thing you’re seeing.
0:10:57-0:11:20 Sara Fischer
And of course, in the voice space, all the media companies are now starting to really think about how do I create custom skills on a voice assistant technology like Alexa or how do I create a show that’s specifically for voice command? All these things, we weren’t really talking about even just a year or two ago. They’re so new but they’re going to be so crucial to the new media ecosystem.
0:11:21-0:11:58 Tyler Suiters
Yeah, voice everywhere seems to be the catchphrase that appears again and again. To that end, Sara, artificial intelligence clearly a key if not the dominant theme of ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019. As that evolves at such a lightening fast pace, it seems, that’s pretty much a critical element to all the companies involved in the technologies and almost a business strategy that you’re talking about at this point, which is adopting voice and whatever other manifestations AI offers to personalize that experience.
0:11:59-0:12:21 Sara Fischer
I think one of the key themes here is that Americans need to be informed and entertained but they need it to come in a way that is convenient with their life. You have stories about parents who are shipping kids off to school, taking a work call, trying to manage their laundry and making breakfast all within one hour.
0:12:22-0:12:37 Sara Fischer
They might not have time to sit in front of a television set, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t want the quality news and journalism that’s coming from a CNN or a CBS. So those networks need to be really thinking about “How can I deliver my great journalism to them in a way that makes sense to their life?â€
0:12:38-0:12:55 Sara Fischer
And I think voice is interesting for two reasons. One you can deliver the actual content in a way that is more suitable. If you’re a parent and you have a baby in one hand, you’re making peanut butter and jelly in another, and you’re loading a car; you can just listen to the news instead of having to watch it in front of a tv.
0:12:56-0:13:24 Sara Fischer
And then another big part of it too is the actual turning on and turning off media systems can be just as much as a burden. Again, if you are running around and your hands are tied, and it’s a hectic morning, all you have to do with your iPhone in your back pocket is say “Hey Siri or Hey Alexa†- do you have a device close to you that’s like an echo dot, “can you just play me the weather, can you just tell me what the traffic is likeâ€. And they’ll automatically do it for you and you don’t have to press a button for it to go on.
0:13:25-0:13:38 Sara Fischer
And so, what I think media companies are recognizing is that it’s not that they have to change with what they are at their core. They need to make sure that their product can be delivered to users in a way that makes sense with their new reality, which is quite frankly a hyper productive society.
0:13:39-0:14:18 Tyler Suiters
It’s fun to hear you talk in these third person voices, Sara, about exasperated parents and busy on-the-go professionals when you’re calling us between flights on an airport. I can hear the empathy in your voice in a lot of this. Wrapping up now, what about 5G connectivity? It’s a little tougher for consumers to get a grip on, simply because of the practical applications are on the way rather than something we’re seeing right now in our hands. But clearly a key platform technology for so much of what you saw and talked about at ÓÀÐǶij¡.
0:14:19-0:14:44 Sara Fischer
I mean 5G is the center of what was going on at ÓÀÐǶij¡ to a point where I feel silly that I didn’t even mention it in the first place. When you think about all these services that are internet connected, whether it’s a gaming counsel, a streaming device, a smart thermostat, a smart fridge, a computer, a laptop, a smart TV, you name it. The average American household has 13 internet connected devices. We need really strong internet to power them.
0:14:45-0:15:03 Sara Fischer
And I think one thing that most people forget is that internet is a physical thing, it’s an actual infrastructure that you build and that you quite frankly can wrong with. We see different societies where their internet infrastructure is really poor and so people can’t use those technologies at the same level at which we can here in the states.
0:15:04-0:15:26 Sara Fischer
But one big improvement that you’re seeing a big push on here in the United States as well as some of our competitors in places like China is with the technology called 5G, where essentially, it’s the next level of mobile communications that can really transform data at a high-speed reducing latency, so slow load times.
0:15:27-0:15:52 Sara Fischer
And it’s supposed to really be a game changer for society. It’s going to save energy, it’s going to reduce cost overall, and it has great implications obviously for important things in society like education and healthcare. With 5G, we can make it so that you can do remote surgery if you don’t live close to a hospital or we can have more remote education for kids that maybe are sick and can’t attend school physically every day.
0:15:53-0:16:12 Tyler Suiters
Sara Fisher is media reporter with Axios. Hey, everyone do yourself a favor, sign up for Sara’s media trends newsletter. It’s one of the best reads in my inbox each week. Sara, lucky to have you between your flights, taking your time with us, and great to see you at ÓÀÐǶij¡, as well. Much more to come.
0:16:12-0:16:16 Sara Fischer
Thank you so much. Good to talk to you and I’ll talk to you soon.
0:16:20-0:16:27 Tyler Suiters
Joining us now is Mike Mansuetti who is President of Bosch, North America. Mike, a long time ÓÀÐǶij¡ veteran, it’s great to have you with us.
0:16:28-0:16:30 Mike Mansuetti
Thank you, glad to be here.
0:16:31-0:16:41 Tyler Suiters
I assume to some extent you caught your breath and your voice has returned and you gotten new shoes to replace the ones you wore out to ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019 week.
0:16:42-0:17:01 Mike Mansuetti
Yeah, ÓÀÐǶij¡ was amazing. It was our 7th time there, we had another successful ÓÀÐǶij¡ and it was even bigger and better than any of the past ones and we had a chance to launch our IoT campaign. So, we were very excited to be there and again the show was excellent for everyone as well as for us.
0:17:02-0:17:17 Mike Mansuetti
We’re glad to be there. It is a great way to start the year, but for us in the automotive industry on the mobility side, we got a minute to take a breath and then we’re right into the auto show and then we’re in a winter snow storm.
0:17:20-0:17:43 Tyler Suiters
January is a full out sprint, we know, for the auto sector every year. You touched on the future of IoT and Bosch was very deep into the idea of connected mobility at ÓÀÐǶij¡. That’s becoming more and more of a buzzworthy term in and around the tech sector. What is your position on exactly what connected mobility means and how you brought that to life at ÓÀÐǶij¡?
0:17:46-0:18:02 Mike Mansuetti
Yeah, we’re really transforming, if you think about Bosch. I mean we’re working to change everyday lives with our IoT solutions. We want people to be able to live more easily and efficiently and safely in this connected world. As I was mentioning in our media briefing, we launched our IoT campaign.
0:18:03-0:18:28 Mike Mansuetti
Most of the people know Bosch for the products that we have invented over the years and produced, but we’re becoming much more than just a products company with our wide range of sensors, software, and services on top of that. And at ÓÀÐǶij¡ we displayed our IoT shuttle, if you will. So, as we look at this connected mobility, we gave people a glimpse of what mobility would look like in the future when you came by the Bosch booth.
0:18:29-0:19:03 Tyler Suiters
Well let’s talk about that shuttle a little bit because I think one of the ways the conversation is evolving around self-driving vehicles is that look we put a timeline on this as an industry. We’re talking about segmentation here, there are commercial fleets, there are personal fleets, and then there are various iterations in-between. So where do you see the IoT shuttle for Bosch in that kind of evolutionary line and the specific need that it will service for consumers and for business?
0:19:04-0:19:19 Mike Mansuetti
Yeah with the shuttle — first just to be honest, we’re not going to be getting into the market of producing shuttles, but we provide a lot of the elements that service and that mobility possible in this kind of shared mobility.
0:19:20-0:19:56 Mike Mansuetti
So, in the IoT shuttle and the booth, we were not only displaying some of the technologies like the sensors, for example or maybe some of the electrifications on the power train that makes that possible. But also, some of the services that go along with it. Imagine if you will, we showed off a business application where an old person was going to a meeting and on the way, they were able to have some phone calls and some other meetings and decided that they needed to pick up a person that would help them and they stopped by and picked them up. Together they can exchange, have the conversation, and do that work then arriving safely at their destination.
0:19:57-0:20:32 Mike Mansuetti
If you think about it there’s a lot of different things when you talk about mobility and you don’t have to worry about it driving itself. But you know having a shuttle at times it’ll take you somewhere. So those are the types of things we were talking about and just giving people like our customer a glimpse of what the possibilities are and getting their reaction. Because I think in the future it’s going to be a very holistic user experience. We want to see how people react and use these types of things in order to better tailor our services as well as the technology that goes behind it.
0:20:33-0:20:45 Tyler Suiters
Well I know you were having very high-level conversations, Michael, around ÓÀÐǶij¡ with that potential customer base or fellow leaders in that sector. What were you hearing? What was the reaction that you were getting?
0:20:46-0:21:19 Mike Mansuetti
I think all the customers were very engaged with the topics that we were displaying and the possibilities that could come as a result of this new technology that we were providing, so everybody is very excited. I think when we talk about this connected automated electrified mobility, it’s coming. think a little bit of the questions now is when will fully autonomous be coming in terms of mobility.
0:21:19-0:21:52 Mike Mansuetti
We’re starting to see that maybe push out a little bit, but I think some of these areas around shuttles in a very well-known environment, maybe a geo-fenced environment could provide a lot of benefits for the users. So, they were happy to see what we could provide and how we could help them. Another thing is the partnerships, really no one individual or company can do this by themselves, so we have a lot of good discussions with not only existing customers but future partners as well.
0:21:53-0:22:23 Tyler Suiters
Two of the key themes might overarching around ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019, both applied deeply to self-driving vehicles. One would be 5G and connectivity and the other is certainly AI, which permeated virtually. Every square foot of the show itself. Taking those one at a time and beginning with 5G, clearly this is a critical platform technology to enable the vast needs to what a vehicle system would look like.
0:22:25-0:22:51 Mike Mansuetti
Exactly, Tyler. 5G is going to be that technology that enables the connectivity to happen at speeds in real time and that’s the importance for this technology. When we’re talking about mobility, it’s live in real time and when you also look at the artificial intelligence or machine learnings, we need all of that to be happening at real time and this is what 5G will enable.
0:22:52-0:23:04 Tyler Suiters
And in the other arm of that, of course, is AI, right? Being able to capture all this data and analyze all the data and make such lightning fast real time decisions.
0:23:04-0:23:30 Mike Mansuetti
Exactly and like what I said before, real time is the key. Artificial intelligence, I think people are starting to understand a little more about what really is artificial intelligence and it’s really that umbrella that captures all these things around data, big data, data analytics and especially machine learning. And we’re starting to see that show up in everywhere and as you said it was all over in Las Vegas at ÓÀÐǶij¡.
0:23:31-0:24:03 Mike Mansuetti
We’ve been doing some things with artificial intelligence. We now have our Bosch center for artificial intelligence co-located in Sunnyvale, in Germany, and in India. There’s more and more we’re seeing the need to have the companies who’s around data, data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence because it’s just so important not just for the mobility sector and autonomous driving but we’re seeing almost in every sector of our business.
0:24:04-0:24:27 Tyler Suiters
We’ve mentioned timelines almost once or twice, Mike and understanding that one significant breakthrough in technology can change a potential timeline or forecast dramatically. Anything that you have to comment sharing from your and Bosch’s position in terms of what’s ahead in this sector across the next 1 to 10 years?
0:24:28-0:25:16 Mike Mansuetti
Yeah, I think we’ll continue to see more and more of these technologies emerge and become more common placed as we’re kind of in the level 2 of automation going to level 3 if you talk specifically about automated driving. I mean level 4 and 5, especially as I look out the window today in the middle of our winter blast and snow storm. Are we going to be fully autonomous everywhere in weather conditions such as this in the next few years? Probably not. But the technology is developing fast, we’re deploying those things. We talked about our deployment in San Jose together with our partner Daimler. So, we’re gaining a lot of miles, gaining a lot of experience, things like machine learning and artificial intelligence are helping us there.
0:25:17-0:25:50 Mike Mansuetti
I would say over the next 10 years, we’re going to see a lot of change in the automotive or the mobility industry that we’ve come to know it as now and I think over the next few years we’ll see a very rapid deployment of the technologies so that each and every individual and consumer can start to get familiar with these technologies. We see a lot of them on the automobiles today and we’ll continue to see just more and more acceptance and more and more proliferation on all the platforms across all the customers.
0:25:51-0:26:08 Tyler Suiters
Well Bosch will be a key player in bringing our self-driving future into the present at a very rapid pace. And Mike Mansuetti is President of Bosch North America. Mike, so glad you had a great ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019 and as always appreciate your insights on what is fascinating in the tech sector right now.
0:26:10-0:26:16 Mike Mansuetti
Thank you very much, enjoyed talking with you. Looking forward to next year’s ÓÀÐǶij¡. You know once it ends, we start with the next one.
0:26:26-0:26:41 Tyler Suiters
Dr. David Lipman is Chief Science Officer with Impossible Foods, the breakout star of ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019. Dr. Lipman I don’t think I’m going too far in saying that congratulations on a fantastic debut at ÓÀÐǶij¡.
0:26:42-0:26:45 David Lipman
Well thank you very much it was really an exciting event to take part in.
0:26:46-0:27:10 Tyler Suiters
Well let’s go about this chronologically, if you don’t mind. Why get involved with ÓÀÐǶij¡ in the first place? This was your first show. We love to say every company is or needs to be at ÓÀÐǶij¡. In fact, every company is or needs to be a tech company these days. What was the decision-making process there at Impossible?
0:27:11-0:27:33 David Lipman
That’s a great question. I mean the thing is that there’s no more important technology that humanity has than food. Food’s essential to life, it’s one of the great pleasures of life. Unfortunately, at least with the animals and food systems it’s incredibly destructive to the environment and in order to tackle it we need the best and deepest possible technology.
0:27:34-0:28:00 David Lipman
I think the impact of the work that we’re doing to try to eliminate the need of animals in the food system by making the most delicious plant-based meat. That work is going to have a far greater impact than a lot of things that we see on the news about social media and the rest. Anyway all the best technology companies are at ÓÀÐǶij¡ and we thought it was a great opportunity to introduce our new version of our hamburger.
0:28:01-0:28:28 Tyler Suiters
So, I know there are a number of options that are food-only shows or ag-only shows where you can reach a designated group of stakeholders that you want to speak to. How did the spark of ÓÀÐǶij¡ first come up? How did it come to the table there at Impossible Foods? You know, this is the largest, most influential tech event on the planet so it’s only natural that we’re going to be there.
0:28:28-0:29:02 David Lipman
Well my daughter is in the communications team at ÓÀÐǶij¡ for the Consumer Technology Association and I was serving her and her husband before the release of the new version of our burger. We just grilled it up and it was juicy and delicious. She took two bites and she just said “Dad, this should be introduced at ÓÀÐǶij¡â€. So, I hooked her up with Rachel Conrad, the head of our communications and both sides agreed that this was just the perfect event to announce the product.
0:29:03-0:29:23 Tyler Suiters
Let’s talk about that reception then, Dr. Lipman. With your arrival at ÓÀÐǶij¡ and your space, the constant lines that were there, but also your marketing approach. Your approach of how exactly you shared this product with attendees.
0:29:24-0:29:47 David Lipman
Well there were a number of parts to it, you know we had a food truck that was sort of in the parking lot area behind the large Google exhibit. In the beginning, there weren’t too many people who could find it, but then word gathered around that they can have a free Impossible burger and the lines really started to get there.
0:29:48-0:30:06 David Lipman
The event kicked off on a Monday at the Border Grill. We worked very closely with Mary Sue Milliken, who is a fabulous chef and co-owner of the Border Grill. She and her staff really created some terrific dishes using Impossible burger and I think that made a difference.
0:30:06-0:30:24 Tyler Suiters
And the word-of-mouth you heard there on the grounds. The media coverage was spectacular in terms of volume and just glowing reviews of your product. What about the feedback you got directly there, in a sense, running a food truck?
0:30:25-0:31:17 David Lipman
Let’s start with the precedent because we had several grills going. The Border Grill really provided some exciting dishes, the product is quite versatile, and we were hearing the side conversations of the journalists and so forth — they were very positive. When they can watch it being grill outside and have something right off the grill, that’s just seemed to have a major impact and you can see different journalists getting videos of them biting into it and so forth. Then there were other talks at ÓÀÐǶij¡, Pat Brown was involved in one of the panels. And again, what we saw after those things is that other interviews have brought in more and more people to the food truck. Once that got going then it just cascaded.
0:31:18-0:31:44 Tyler Suiters
The reviews were especially strong because part of the approach that you had was to roll out a suite of products. Impossible Burger, I think, maybe has the best name recognition, but you were serving all kinds of products and I think that depth and diversity of food that this technology could be applied to really made a difference in terms of the impression that you left.
0:31:45-0:32:22 David Lipman
You know that’s a great point. The Burger 2.0 is one product, but it is an ingredient that can be used every which what that ground beef can be used and that I think kind of really sparks your thinking. You’ve tried 2-3 dishes and you realize “wow this is something that, if I brought it home, I could use it in all different ways myselfâ€. And I think that was key and frankly a lot of the dishes that were provided were delicious, people like food.
0:32:23-0:32:51 Tyler Suiters
We do, which leads to the larger issue of resilience, a key theme at ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019. How do we keep ourselves warm and sheltered and fed and healthy in the face of natural disaster or disaster otherwise? Even slow moving, right? And as you said before Dr. Lipman, the food supply and food sourcing are such a critical part of that.
0:32:52-33:20 David Lipman
The thing that motivated Pat Brown, the founder of the company, ten years ago to start going this direction is the recognition that most folks really have not been aware of how damaging the animals and the food system have been in terms of carbon footprint, water, land use, all the rest. And the contribution global climate changes it’s either the worse or among the very worse, including transportation so forth.
0:33:22-0:33:42 David Lipman
So here you have this dire problem but because it’s always off it’s hard to convince people the worse consequences. You really have to give someone the ultimatum alternative that they choose. Right now, something that benefits them right now. His idea was yeah, we have this crisis problem but the way to solve it is by making the most delicious possible plant-based meat.
0:33:43-0:34:27 Tyler Suiters
On an earlier episode of this podcast, Dr. Lipman, we had one of our several media round tables from our journalists who were at ÓÀÐǶij¡ covering the show. This is in real time and one of them pointed out that Impossible Foods is such a natural fit at ÓÀÐǶij¡ and many other companies know their sectors would be because she saw that technologies emerging as an enabler, not just a final product, but as an enabler of key ideas and key innovations across a suite of sectors. Is that a fair description to where Impossible Foods fits in the greater tech ecosystem, the greater innovation ecosystem?
0:34:28-0:35:21 David Lipman
Absolutely, you know the same kind of language used. We have a technology platform, we have these partnerships, this is an enabler not just going up to the ultimate consumer, but for food service, for all these other things. There’s so many parallels with technology in other areas. I do think we are fairly unusual in that the level of technology that we’re bringing to bare to the problem. I think another thing to keep in mind is that the attendees are really excited about technology and really want to look into the future and solve problems. And so I think that you can generate more enthusiasm for what you’re doing if you’re surrounded by people reaching out to people who are really receptive to new ideas and new approaches and that’s what we saw at ÓÀÐǶij¡.
0:35:22-0:35:41 Tyler Suiters
Dr., final question if it’s fair to ask about future plans for Impossible Foods and ÓÀÐǶij¡. You plans to continue to engage in the tech sector, the international sector, the business sector as part of your business strategy and how you’ll do that moving forward.
0:35:41-0:36:19 David Lipman
We learned a lot by the experience of participating at ÓÀÐǶij¡ and I think that we are looking for other opportunities that have been different in the past to reach out to the media, to other technology companies and so forth. And so this has really been an eye opener for us but we’re also dealing with the consequences of ÓÀÐǶij¡, which is we are really scaling up what we’re doing because it’s generated so much interest in Impossible Foods.
0:36:20-0:36:36 Tyler Suiters
Makes us happy to hear that. Dr. David Lipman is Chief Science Officer with Impossible Foods, one of the break out companies that stared at ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019. Dr. Lipman, congratulations on your success and looking forward to more conversations in the future.
0:36:37-36:39 David Lipman
Thank you, Tyler. This was great.
36:40 Tyler Suiters
All right. And that is a wrap, not just on tech talk this week but on ÓÀÐǶij¡ Tech Talk 2019. No, not for the entire year coming but for ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2019. We’re going to take a brief break and let you catch up on all the back episodes of ÓÀÐǶij¡ Tech Talk that we just wrapped. And then we’ll start looking ahead, yes, to ÓÀÐǶij¡ 2020, a landmark year for some of the biggest players in the tech sector. And who knows who the breakout stars will be in the year ahead.
All that is what we’re going to look forward to in the next season of ÓÀÐǶij¡ Tech Talk.
Until then, for our outstanding, superstar performers here: our executive producer Tina Anthony, our chief engineer John Lindsey. I’m Tyler Suiters. We’re glad you’re with us, and let’s talk tech again soon.
