Blue Phoenix

How To Scale Blockchain to 100,000 Requests Per Second - BLOCKCHAIN ECONOMIC FORUM 2017

Answered by a professor, a tech entrepreneur, and an engineer. Engineer: CTO Hunter Prendergast @MimirBlockchain Professor: Joseph Bonneau @josephbonneau Tech Entrepreneur: Tom Bollich @tombollich 

In this segment, John Licata of Blue Phoenix speaks with CNBC and gives his outlook for renewable energy and ways digitalization technologies such as blockchain can power clean energy.

9 Quick Thoughts on #Blockchain

Blockchain is a hot topic these days, and rightly so due to its vast potential in helping to shape news ways to transparently perform real-time transactions and evolve the future of secure global business. With such a lighting in a bottle type of disruption at our fingertips, the internet as we now know it is about to look like black and white televisions. Here are some quick thoughts on blockchain I put together and wanted to share with you.

The beauty of #blockchain technology = that feeling when you walk into an airport and know you could really go anywhere. #innovation

Don't think of #blockchain as unlocking encryption, think of it as unlocking opportunity.#innovation

Change is good but disruption can be awesome. #blockchain #innovation

Disruption being led by blockchain advancements will open the door to new industrial growth/jobs. #blockchain

Post the recent tragic earthquakes seen in Italy, I can't help but wonder how predictive#blockchain capabilities could help diminish affects of natural disasters.

Innovation leads disruption. Disruption leads to more innovation. #blockchain

Blockchain platforms will not only support the Internet of Things (IoT), they will drive it.#innovation #future

Layoffs are the worst part of early innovation, but that same innovation will create unprecedented job creation. #cloudcomputing #blockchain

Blue Phoenix is now bringing energy to Snapchat 

We continue to believe that it's imperative for today's energy companies to embrace new content mediums and tap modern technologies in order to reach a younger demographic, especially millennials. That's why we thought it was a no-brainer to kick-off our new Energy Stories and bring real energy to Snapchat.

Energy technology can help millennials afford home ownership

More and more millennials are buying single family homes outside the city limits due in part to urban centers reaching “peak millennial” as stated by Professor Dowell Meyers of USC. Many of these rural homes are older - something that can make the purchase more affordable, along with mortgage rates that are still near 40-year lows. However, aging homes often need upgrading and are not nearly as energy efficient as compared to newer construction. This makes new technologies which can help tailor and personalize energy for residential users a very intriguing growth opportunity for energy companies and entrepreneurs to focus on especially if they are looking to capitalize on the growth in the Internet of Things (IOT) and the convergence of the connected car and home (something further validated by Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity).

What if utility companies could market like Apple?

With news that Apple has created an energy subsidiary reverberating throughout the energy sector in the past week, power providers need to quickly figure out how they could market their services like the tech giant.

Apple has notoriously been known to make a splash, a big splash actually, in any market they enter, and energy should be no different. With amazing technological access to consumers through Apple TV, HomeKit, iPhones, and Watch, Apple can push notifications and foster a new form of two-way energy communications with its customers in ways utilities simply can’t rival. That means utilities must embrace creative marketing and new touchpoints as well in order to stay in front of customers who have a growing list of power choices thanks to advances in renewables, distributed networks and energy storage devices.

Apple Energy LLC., the name of the energy subsidiary, may be a foreshadowing to Apple providing direct charging power to future owners stemming from Project Titan, a not so secret Apple electric vehicle (EV) initiative.

So if Apple gets approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to sell renewable power directly to consumers at retail prices, it could turn the utility industry on its head and market to loyal, Apple followers and users via its smorgasbord of Apple devices. This possibility, I mean reality, that Apple will sell excess renewable energy to consumers, should prompt utility managers  to explore creative ways to reach customers and keep their message simple and fresh, things Apple is a pure master at.

Most millennials don’t generally look at utility companies as trendy or hip, but they do when they think of Apple. Therefore iterating energy innovation and generating new branding focus and content that millennials can easily access, understand and want to share with their friends is key for today’s utility companies whose business models must look to evolve.

In today’s world of marketing, content is king. I’m sure you heard that a million times in 2015. Yet, as much as content can be created and used positively to help build awareness, education and credibility, it can also hurt your brand if the content is not ironclad. Here are some ideas to help you avoid some common content marketing mistakes and make sure your content stands out for all the right reasons.

Make sure your hyperlinks work. There is nothing worse for a reader than to be interested in your content enough to want to learn more about a point made in your piece only to click on a bad link or be directed to the wrong site. It’s a waste of your readers time and that may have been enough to cause them to dismiss your content and simply move on.

I love infographics but make sure your reader gets the masterpiece you think you have created. Think more Picasso than Dali. If the infographic is too busy and filled with an abundance of data-points, sometimes the clear message that was intended to come across is not easily digested by the reader.

Using studies or statistics from reputable sources is absolutely awesome. Nothing better than supporting your work with real numbers to back the point you are trying to make. Where I’ve seen some people hit a speed bump is citing a study or statistic that is not current. Content loses credibility if your trying to back up your view with data from 5 or 10 years ago. Trust me, it happens. Try and get a very updated source to help support your work. It can only help.

Know your audience. One size fits all content is no longer applicable, actually was it ever? 2016 will be the year where “personalization” is rewarded across industries.  Content marketers need to embrace this notion or they risk not having their content resonate with the intended audience, especially millennials.

Don’t be afraid to paint a picture. Talking about a new product or service, especially in the energy and technology sectors, two areas converging like never before, is great but your content will really stand out if you tell the reader something he or she doesn’t already know (i.e. potential impacts your product or service can have on other industries, any credible sustainability angles or the benefits/challenges of any future legislation). At the end of the day, content marketing can’t be seen as thought leadership if it simply regurgitates someone else views. That’s not value added.

Leaving content in left field or the digital abyss. You must push your content to social media outlets (it can be time-consuming but that’s the new world of digital content). Additionally your work could gain more traction if you provide social share functionality which allows your content to take a life of its own. Too many times I’ve seen a great article on a client’s website that was never added to LinkedIn, Twitter, Flipboard, etc. How can you build brand awareness if you don’t promote your own content?

Failure to engage your own colleagues. Content is truly an all-hands on deck theme today. Don’t be afraid to employ paid social amplification capabilities to your content or campaign. But, don’t forget to also get your employees on board with your branding message. Employees are often an overlooked resource as brand ambassadors.