This week, Travis and Stewart wrap up 2016 - which has been such a great year </sarcasm> - with their predictions for the future of mobile, marketing, engagement, community, and everything else we manage to shoehorn into VB Engage each week. We also thank our families, producers, directors, makeup artists, and editors for 33 episodes of slightly above-average content, and reveal which publication was good enough to put us in their 'must listen' list of marketing podcasts for 2017.
Then, we interview Paddy Cosgrave - the founder of Web Summit - on how he and his team managed to grow this tech event from humble beginnings to an amazing 53,000 visitors in just a few short years. The answers include data science, network effect, and a serious amount of hard work.
This week, we bring you the first VB Engage to have been recorded live on stage! That's right: At Web Summit in Lisbon earlier this year, we got to interview Alan Schaaf of internet phenomenon Imgur about the evolution of the company, geek culture, community, and what it takes to create a success from seemingly meagre beginnings.
In the news segment, Travis quizzes Stewart about his trip to Helsinki -- where he spoke at Nexterday North and Slush -- and discovers what he learned about the near future, artificial intelligence, mobile marketing, and where technology is taking us next.