This Week in Tech: Marching to MWC, Combatting “Deepfakes”

Welcome back to SHIFT’s weekly tech news roundup – your one-stop shop for the trends and stories that our B2B PR teams were monitoring throughout the week.

Gearing up for a marathon March

If you have a client working on anything even remotely related to mobile, chances are you spent this week in final prep mode for Mobile World Congress. This year’s theme, Intelligent Connectivity, spans a wide array of topics, but you can expect 5G to be front and center in news from the show. Long discussed and slowly becoming a reality, 5G will enable the speed, flexibility and agility to power new services and create the innovative business models that will power Industry 4.0. Other trends likely to make news at MWC include new mixed reality AR/VR devices and services, and the implementation of artificial intelligence for security use cases such as fraud detection, data protection and privacy. Also coming up in March: RSA Conference (a SHIFT client for 15 years), SXSW, Enterprise Connect and the Game Developers Conference.

Fast Company names most innovative companies

This week, Fast Company released its annual list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies, and – spoiler alert! – Apple has fallen from the Top 10 for the first time since 2015 (dropping to No. 17 from the top spot last year). Topping the 2019 list were two “super apps” – China’s Meituan Dianping, a platform that expedites the booking and delivery of services such as food, hotel stays, and movie tickets, and Singapore’s ride-hailing app Grab, which has expanded into food delivery and travel booking, with plans to add healthcare services later this year.

One company that caught our eye is No. 16, Truepic, which uses blockchain technology to document the veracity of images in the era of fake news. Truepic’s free camera app imprints photos and videos with permanent metadata such a geolocation and a time stamp. Once the image or video is submitted to Truepic for verification, it is recorded to the blockchain and stored on a Truepic server. The company works with NGOs (to verify humanitarian abuses), insurers (to determine value and speed claim reimbursement) and in working to enlist social media platforms in an effort to combat “deepfake” images and videos.

Gen Z picks big blue

Also this week, employer review site Glassdoor revealed the results of a study on what Generation Z, the first members of which have started to enter the workforce, is looking for in an employer. Perhaps not surprising for the digital native generation that came of age during the Great Recession, the results show that Gen Z’ers are looking for stability and want to work in tech. “Software engineer” and “software developer” were the top two in-demand jobs based on applications submitted through the site. The top employers attracting Gen Z workers according to the Glassdoor data were in tech, led by IBM, Microsoft and Google.

Related pro tip

Heading out to one of March’s many conferences? Be sure to check out some trade show do’s and don’ts from SHIFT Creative Director Pete Buhler, or download our Modern Guide to Trade Show Marketing eBook, which outlines a full range of best practices and lays out an analytical approach to achieving ROI.