Darren Huston News on Media in Canada

The online travel booking site started rolled out a number of spots, including three that are already in market in the United States, says Canadian-born expat Darren Huston, CEO, Booking.com. The creative is focused specifically on that feeling of euphoria when, after hectic travel, a hotel room meets all a traveller’s expectations, he says.

Bookingdotcom launched its first-ever traditional marketing push within the Canadian market with media by Wieden + Kennedy New York and creative from Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam.

Darren Huston said, “We tested it quite extensively with Canadians.”  “And they’re even more attracted to the humour [than Americans, where some of the commercials have been on air for about a year]. They also see themselves in the characters, and that’s very important too.”

The commercials target a wide-swath of the population, he says. Within the Canadian market, there’s an even gender split among Booking.com users and the site attracts everyone from the high-powered business executive to the thrifty college student.

To reach the wide-ranging audience, the site and the media buyer will test different types of creative across different media channels and will change up the media buy on a weekly basis based on which spots generate the most direct traffic to the website. For example, a business-oriented spot, might start on an after-work business affairs show, but based on site visits, might change to air during a sports broadcast, Darren Huston says.


Read Full Article @ https://mediaincanada.com/tag/darren-huston/

Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer AI Can Build E-Commerce and Delivery Apps in Eight Weeks

Engineer.ai, a no-code software development platform that lets people build software without ever needing to understand technology, today announced that it’s launching The Studio Store, a new range of pre-packaged apps – beginning with e-commerce and delivery – designed to bring businesses online faster and at a fraction of the cost of building from scratch. As COVID-19 heavily impacts small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Engineer.ai will help all SMBs build their e-commerce or local delivery app with The Studio Store and provide the first three months of live service for free. This launch is part of Engineer.ai larger mission to make the process of building a digital future more accessible, cost effective and efficient.

Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer AI

“Businesses need to adapt to survive. Customers now expect to communicate with businesses via digital channels – whether it’s through an app or a website. However, while businesses recognize this, a lack of skills, coding or technical knowledge has traditionally been a barrier,” said co-founder and CEO Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer.ai. “At Engineer.ai, we make it as easy and as affordable as possible for businesses to amplify their digital presence.”

The first apps will serve the specific needs of businesses across e-commerce and delivery – such as flower shops, grocery stores and clothiers – and can be delivered to a customer in less than eight weeks. The e-commerce app makes selling to an ever-mobile customer effortless, and retailers can showcase their goods with a scrollable carousel and offer a wide range of secure payment methods. The app includes features that will handle the soup to nuts of most e-commerce experiences, the aftercare to keep the app working and the cloud needed to run the app and scale the business. The delivery app makes online distribution smooth and simple with features including payment integration, in-app notifications and FedEx integration. The Studio Store can also serve as a stepping-stone as customers can add features from Builder Studio to make their app more customized over time.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, Engineer.ai will help SMBs with e-commerce or delivery needs build their Studio Store app and provide the first three months of live service for free. This offer will remain available for the next three months.

Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer AI continued, “We are seeing a disruption across all industries globally by COVID-19, and the way many of us interact with our customers overnight has stopped, changed or morphed. Among those most vulnerable are the smaller businesses without an online presence that depend on their customers to walk through their doors. Although there is a lot of uncertainty right now, SMBs are presented with an opportunity to rethink how they do business. Having a thoughtful digital presence for businesses will be critical, which is why we are offering this assistance to all SMBs so that they can use this time to leapfrog ahead.”

Read full story @ https://www.cxotoday.com/press-release/smbs-can-build-e-commerce-and-delivery-apps-in-eight-weeks/

Darren Huston - Workable

Darren Huston is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of BlackPines Global Advisors B.V. incorporated in May 2016 in The Hague. BlackPines’ mission is to help both owners and leaders of private companies optimize the value of their investments.

They target opportunities where they can take an active role in the business and co-operate with management to help develop strategies both domestically and abroad. Their approach to investing enables them to leverage their long term relationships with strategic partners and portfolio companies to source and manage deals.

Since July 2016, Mr. Darren Huston has been working as an Executive Advisor to Hill house Capital, Asia’s largest investment firm. In January 2017, his work with Hill house Capital became non-exclusive and he took on two leadership roles. The first as Chairman of Magento, the world’s largest eCommerce software platform, and the second as Executive Chairman for Allegro, Poland’s largest eCommerce site.

 

Visit: https://apply.workable.com/darren-huston/

I Deserve It - Poem by Darren Huston

 I DESERVE IT

 

Laugh at me i deserve it,
I don't have the choice.
Look at my face & listen to my voice.

Push me, I deserve it,
I'm going to the wrong way.
Someone needs to show me where I have to stay.

Hit me, I deserve it,
for I have done something wrong.
I must have lied and pretended I was strong.

Kill me, I deserve it,
I'm just not strong enough.
Someone hurry up!
THIS LIFE IS JUST TOO MUCH. 

Visit: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-deserve-it-2/

Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer.ai launches Builder Now platform

Builder.ai (formerly known as Engineer.ai) combines AI with crowdsourced teams of designers and developers to build bespoke digital products faster that it would take to create a team. That’s what Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer AI says. Last year the company raised one of Europe’s largest Series A investments at $29.5 million, led by Lakestar and Jungle Ventures, with participation from SoftBank’s DeepCore. So far it’s been used to create products like BBC, DiditFor, Manscore and ZikTruck.

Now, while it’s pretty common to have platforms claiming to build your apps faster than a team, actually experiencing it in real life makes a huge difference. So when I swung by the Builder.ai booth at the Slush conference last Friday, I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be.''

At the conference, the company launched Builder Now, an instant prototyping tool that helps anyone design an app in as little as 10 minutes. I honestly did not believe it was possible until I saw it. But, to build an MVP, or even a more sophisticated app, it’s far faster than I could have imagined.

Read full article @ https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/25/engineer-ai-launches-its-builder-now-platform-for-rapid-app-prototyping-and-building/

Engineer AI To Transform Healthcare : Preparing For Another Pandemic

Artificial Intelligence has risen to a level of universality. Humans have managed to engineer AI that can achieve a vast array of possibilities - from the field of robotics, to cybersecurity – professionals engineer AI to be used in various systems, for a better, more effortless functionality. Artificial intelligence has been used to alleviate cumbersome activities that have been traditionally done through low skilled labour. One of the most rapid growth, is within the field of healthcare – especially now, as the globe is experiencing a crunch in manpower because of the coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic.

Engineering AI For A Better Pandemic Response

Within the field of AI, we have been able to engineer better machines, expediting the field towards advancement in the process. By 2030, the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will have permeated every industry currently in existence. Healthcare is the most obvious example in this regard. Scientists have been able to engineer AI algorithms, which have accomplished everything from creating medicines (like antibiotics), to performing human-assisted surgeries, and providing full-body analysis, just to name a few.

Putting the existing threat of the coronavirus into picture, Artificial Intelligence has achieved in a span of three months, what humans couldn’t in a generation. Rapid scanning of patients, especially who harbour contagious pathogens, can be safely tackled with Robot Doctors (as they have come to be known). Scientists in China managed to engineer AI paramedics that can provide a descriptive analysis of the patient’s physiology in no time.

These AI are not limited to scanning, they can also proficient in creating potent medicines – ones which a team of humans can spend up to 10 years researching towards. Scientists are banking on engineering AI that will bring about the cure for Covid-19, embarrassingly faster, than it would take a human to do.

All in all, having a remote robot deal with a patient during an outbreak such as the coronavirus of 2020, is much more feasible (not to mention safer), than for a human being performing the same functionality.

Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure

For all the leaps forward we have taken to Engineer Artificial Intelligence within healthcare, the reluctance to implement these systems supersedes any viable implementation it might possess. A lot of the countries affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic just don’t have the monetary fortitude to support such a leap in technological infrastructure.

Every penny that went into the provision of a Covid-19 testing kit could’ve easily gone to fund an AI-based pandemic response squad beforehand. Nearly 11,000 people have succumbed to this horrid disease, but it’s not too late yet. Nation-states can lend their coin to engineer AI bots, in a joint cloud based race to find the cure that mankind so desperately seeks. The answer might be beyond the realm of humans, but is it beyond a machine? If we never try, we’ll never know!

BlackPines Capital Partners, An Investment Firm: Darren Huston

Darren Huston is the founder and CEO of BlackPines Capital Partners which is a private investment firm.

The mission of BlackPines Capital Partners is to help both owners and leaders of private and public companies improve their investment results. 

Darren Huston BlackPines achieves this by deep and committed engagement in a select number of large-scale, high-profile, growth-oriented opportunities.

Checkout: Darren Huston Email

BlackPines Current Engagements Include:

• Executive Chairman at Allegro, Poland's largest eCommerce site (www.allegro.pl) 
• Poznan and Warsaw, Poland.
• Chairman at Magento, one of the world's largest and most flexible eCommerce platforms (www.magento.com)
• Campbell, California, USA