Last week, I had the chance to sit down with Lisa Aussieker, VP and Head of Marketing and Communications, to discuss my first year as MediaKind’s CTO. During the interview, Lisa and I discussed some of the highlights and challenges of the past year, the arrival of Matt McConnell as MediaKind’s new CEO, our product roadmap, and exciting technologies and innovations emerging in the media industry. I hope you enjoy it!

It feels quite strange to discuss my experiences as MediaKind CTO this past year. It’s been a whirlwind 12 months, and the anniversary milestone seems to have arrived very quickly! It’s been a great journey so far. I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this fantastic global organization and working alongside our various R&D teams worldwide on the development of new technologies. It has been an enriching experience.

Of course, it’s not played out in quite the way any of us could have anticipated back in October last year. COVID-19 has dominated both our work and home lives, and we have had to adapt quickly, whether that be through remote work or rethinking how we liaise with our colleagues, customers and partners. It’s been a long time since many of us have had the opportunity to travel to the office or attend physical conferences or events.

Delivering innovation in an unprecedented year

Nevertheless, this period has provided an opportunity to streamline our work processes and refocus on how our talented team has utilized its skills. As I mentioned in my recent blog post on the importance of agile-lean thinking, MediaKind has adjusted internally to leverage new technologies to innovate and to continue to be productive. Just look at how we’ve managed to enable several events, including the Chattanooga Film Festival, to go virtual, leveraging the cloud to spin up as pop-up events and continue to support businesses across a wide range of industry verticals to get their message to their audiences.

While there are high hopes that physical trade shows and conferences will resume next year, these events’ virtual elements are here to stay. The acceleration of collaboration tools means that when things go back to ‘normal,’ we just won’t need to travel as much. We have all become more adept at working within remote environments.

From virtual film festivals to working alongside some of the biggest names in live sports, it has been inspiring to be part of the MediaKind organization this year. Our teams have shown real resilience in so many different contexts and played a vital role in enabling video content back on screens. This, despite unprecedented challenges and disruption. There are some fascinating developments currently going on behind the scenes at MediaKind, which we will hopefully be able to share with you in the not-too-distant future – stay tuned!