VB Engage - Mobile, Marketing, & Technology Podcast from VentureBeat

This week, Travis and Stewart discuss the latest in VR experiences including a VR vacation simulator -- or VRacation simulator, if you like Travis' made-up words. They also discuss VR's marketing problem, and European standards for watching ads in VR. Yep, it's a VR-fest this week. And speaking of emerging technologies, the duo then interview Nirmal Mehta, who schools them in everything new and exciting just in time for us to take a short holiday break and head into the exciting technologies that lay ahead in 2018.

This week, Travis and Stewart interview Mike Wikan on the future of emerging technologies and what they're going to mean for both our daily lives and how organizations, businesses, and governments will be affected. In the news, we talk about A.I. that learns from all other A.I.s, Sophia the robot citizen, a new Messenger bot of note, and the world's most secure smartphone -- apparently the only one ready to hold cryptocurrency without fear of being hacked.

This week, Travis and Stewart discuss the latest in A.I.-powered apps and show that you don't have to be a massive organization to use artificial intelligence across your product or service. They also work their way through a list of 100 cryptocurrencies and explain what these blockchain-powered tokens mean for the future of payments. Then, we interview the amazing Peggy Anne Salz, who knows more about mobile marketing and the future of smartphones than almost anyone. The future looks bright, and not just because we turned up the screen brightness to cornea-burning levels.

This week, Travis and Stewart interview the awesome Steve Rayson of Buzzsumo, which has analyzed over 100 million headlines to learn what works, what doesn't, and what converts. In the news, we discuss a new solution for creating Alexa skills, the questions businesses must answer before creating a bot, and give a shout out to those of our friends that made this year's "30 under 30" list.

This week, Travis and Stewart talk about A.I. and the Internet of Things (still the worst tech term in existence), A.I. and customer service, and two opposing Facebook stories that are united by one common thread - how the social media levitation makes its money. We then interview Robert Rose, a content marketing genius who gives us the lowdown on what works, what doesn't, and how you can win.

This week, Travis and Stewart interview the incredible Erich Joachimsthaler, celebrated branding expert and author. This is one of the most impactful interviews of the year - Erich gives takeaway after takeaway. In the news, we discuss A.I.'s role in bringing TV advertising up to date and how computer vision is changing the world: not just in marketing through solutions like Google Lens, but in applications that will save lives. We also talk about Amazon's new delivery option that lets delivery drivers into your house and The Onion's fun/macabre take on it. Well, it is Halloween, after all.

This week, Travis and Stewart interview the amazing Shaul Olmert, who has grown Playbuzz from scratch to an audience of over 80 million. He tells us what it takes to not only make that possible, but maintain the community he helped build. In the news, we talk about Samsung's developer conference and the new products that were announced at the event, plus a new study that shows marketers are getting it wrong when it comes to holiday season campaigns.

This week, Travis and Stewart discuss the perils of unlocking phones with your face. Let's just say that Stewart isn't a fan. They then talk about Snapchat's newfound usefulness, location-based marketing, and a big raise for a geographical data company. They then interview Amit Walia about A.I., where it is making a real difference now, and what is going to happen next. Don't miss one of the smartest interviews of the year.

In this week's news, Travis and Stewart talk about A.I. domination at the Martech conference in Boston, where -- seemingly -- it was the topic on the lips of marketers, speakers, and vendors everywhere. We also highlight an A.I.-powered advertising technology that is making waves: More than $250 million in waves, in fact. Finally, we bring everyone back down to earth with the less-than-stellar findings held within the pages of Brian Solis' latest State of Digital Transformation study. Then, we interview Valentin Preobrazhenskiy of LAToken, who gives us a complete rundown of how to build a blockchain business, what it takes to gain and maintain a community of 11,000 people, and why ICOs are more about marketing than finance.

In this week's episode, Travis and Stewart talk about virtual reality advertising, Intercom's new lead-generation solution, and Amazon's smart goggles, which sound like they might be a terrible idea. Or they might be good. Stewart thinks, either way, that they'll be cheap because Amazon doesn't do premium products. In our guest interview, Sean Ellis - the man that invented the term "growth hacking" - gives us all his secrets. Well, not all of them, but a really good amount of them. This is one interview you won't want to miss if you're interested in landing more customers and building big communities.