She never envisioned entrepreneurship nor nursed the ambition to start a company driving change in the global food industry.

For Julia Olayanju, her desire to help people live healthier and stronger lives started at the young age of seven. She had lost her dear aunt unexpectedly. Her aunt was initially misdiagnosed and  by the time doctors understood what was happening, it was too late to save her life. That experience left her curious. However, it was not until a few months later that young Julia made her career decision. She had visited a corner store with her cousin when the conversation about scientists working to find a cure for cancer came up. It was her first time hearing about scientists and their work, it was also the same day that she decided to become one when she grows up.

With two undergraduate degrees in Agriculture and Genetics, a Masters training in Molecular Genetics and a PhD training in Molecular Genetics, Olayanju’s desire to discover ways to help people live healthier only grew bigger as she worked hard on the bench.

However, her curiosity took a different turn while taking care of her late father who was on a special diet to manage his health. She noticed how quickly his body changed when he veered off his diet and she got really curious about food in a new way.

She started speaking with experts to better understand food and health interactions. The small meetings and expert panel conversation that she started while working on her doctorate degree at Rutgers University grew to become internationally recognized conferences bringing thought-leaders from around the globe together to promote a healthier food system.  FoodNiche® Global Health Summit creates a forum for thought-provoking conversations about food and health. With topics ranging from scientific discoveries driving innovation for healthier food products to showcasing how companies are intelligently innovating to meet consumer demands for healthier products.  While FoodNiche Tech Summit (formerly Disrupt Food Summit) focuses on bringing innovators together to discuss different strategies for leveraging technology to tackle some of the difficult challenges facing the food industry from farm to fork.

What started as an effort to understand and manage a personal health challenge led Julia Olayanju into the world of entrepreneurship and advocacy. Since then she has built a community of more than 50,000 food enthusiasts, innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs and investors. With the foodnicher.com she created a global platform to facilitate education, collaboration and unique opportunities for people to promote innovative food brands.

According to Julia Olayanju “ We can create a food system future generations will be grateful to this generation for, however the journey starts with strategic partnerships/ collaboration and education.”

To learn more about the innovators shaping a healthier food system or to join the global community of food industry leaders visit here.

The digital revolution has drastically changed the way people and organizations operate. Thousands of solutions have provided bridges and means for organizations to access a global audience and streamline formerly arduous and repetitive tasks and activities. A new platform, Giving Digitized, has become a disruptor in the non-profit sphere by providing an online giving portal that promises reliability and ease of use for donors and beneficiaries alike. 

Giving Digitized was formulated by Shazia Peeran, a young and talented entrepreneur, product manager and engineer who wanted to change the way people gave. The idea of the software looks to provide a breakthrough for thousands of nonprofits and charities around the globe. “We provide smart solutions for nonprofits and charities of all sizes and pride ourselves on our unparalleled, dedicated service,” shares the team on its website. “At Giving Digitized, we believe that the right understanding and technological edge can lead companies and charities towards a successful future.”

The new solution looks to make it easier for charities and the community to participate in social causes in a time of social distancing and vast digitization. The company commits to ease of use as a promise to all givers and fundraisers. The team at Giving Digitized built the solution with both the charities and communities in mind. The platform hopes to create a new wave of social participation and altruism—something that many researchers show brings greater joy and fulfillment to donors. Adjacent to that is its goal to empower more charities by giving them the infrastructure and platform needed to reach a greater donor audience and run more programs through the additional supplies and streamlined operational infrastructure with Giving Digitized’s help.

Since its launch back in 2020, Giving Digitized has served hundreds of families through seventeen charities spread out across four states. It has also enabled some of these charities to now serve up to 24,550 meals in the community and raise supplies on “Marketing Luther King Jr Day,” one of the organization’s most extensive one-day in-kind efforts to date where participants from over 24 cities came together to join hands for a cause. 

It is their goal to make it easier for the community to send supplies directly to charities. More than that, they want to make it easier for charities by streaming their operational flow throughout the process. In the near future, they want to add more features such as case management and career placement.

Giving Digitized has also served the Presidential Inaugural Committee National Day of Service, a celebration organized by AmeriCorps. Yet despite all those wins, the team still has its sights set on even more significant milestones. The company’s big audacious goal is to help over a million people in need through their digital service. They currently have ongoing efforts for causes that address hunger, homelessness, and poverty and hope to increase that scope in the coming years. 

The charities that Giving Digitized supports have raised supplies for all kinds of in-kind gifts for the underprivileged, including food, groceries, cleaning supplies, natural disaster relief, holiday toy baskets, winter gear baskets, family baskets, and many others. On top of providing a giving platform and centralized in-kind management dashboard, the company also runs an extensive press release and social media network that helps increase the network of various non-profits all over the nation. 

Yet the team at Giving Digitized remains hungry and passionate to help others. In the next few years, it hopes to polish its platform and provide more features such as case management and career placements that will help charities in their efforts to make the world a better place. 

There are opportunities throughout the year to participate in virtual giving drives head over to the site to sign up for free today. They are welcoming corporate and group memberships, and sponsorships. 

Learn more about Giving Digitized by visiting its website and Instagram profile.

Today’s ever-dynamic industry has allowed countless entrepreneurs and changemakers to create innovative breakthroughs that potentially revolutionize communities and build a better world. Some trailblazing individuals have resorted to the modernization of certain products and services while others have gone the extra mile and set new standards in this rising era. In the case of Robert Porter and Rene Reyes, esteemed entrepreneurs, changemakers, and innovative thinkers, it was the idea of taking social interactions to another level that brought them to the forefront of a highly competitive industry. Today, they stand as the co-founders of Karma the Game of Destiny, an immersive adult game designed for making friends and sparking interactions.

Passionately established to take socialization up a notch, Karma the Game of Destiny is currently making waves for its incredible approach to digitizing social interactions. While many enterprises focus on leveling up the playing field of specific trades, Karma has managed to mash a variety of facets across several spaces, making this emerging powerhouse a revolutionary force in the industry.

Over the years, Karma the Game of Destiny has managed to impress a number of established authorities, powerhouses, and peers across the industry, slowly cementing a reputable stance in the trade. From materializing its passion-driven purpose of creating a better world to providing communities a variety of services and solutions that help them thrive and succeed, this enterprise has proven itself worthy of its respected name. Without a doubt, Karma is more than an online game.

“This is the first inter-reality app ever. The world will never be the same again,” chairman and co-founder Rene Reyes said.

While some gaming and entertainment firms focus on the experience alone, Karma the Game of Destiny highlights the significance of creating an impact on people’s lives. Its gaming experience not only brings its players into a virtual world of fun and entertainment but also aims to give consumers a realistic encounter of worldly interactions. Much like an ordinary magazine, Karma offers a little of everything—from digitized advertising and listings of venues to making friends and creating subcommunities. The most significant of its services is its Ambassador App, which allows people to earn while having fun and playing games.

“This is a game that defies odds as it allows players to play by means of a token,” Rene Reyes said.

At the core of this promising enterprise is its ability to offer a refreshing way of interacting with others. Aside from online means, Karma the Game of Destiny introduces its gaming experience to the world by using the digital era’s most advanced technology, ranging from 2D and 3D to 4D and virtual reality. By continuing to challenge the odds, Karma transcends limitations, creating a new level of communications in the inter-reality space. Without a doubt, Karma is a league of its own.

“Karma the Game of Destiny works like an immersive inter-reality magazine that enables people to maximize social interactions into another level,” co-founder Robert Porter said.

As can be gleaned from the company’s journey, purpose, and vision, the digital era has allowed a number of changemakers to create several innovative breakthroughs that further shape society, allowing individuals to stand one step closer to their dreams. As Karma the Game of Destiny continues to stand at the forefront of innovation, it leads a variety of aspirants worldwide, inspiring them to take the plunge in transforming their dreams into reality.

“The team behind the game is an eclectic group of individuals. I am so thrilled to be working with people from different walks of life that all have a like minded goal of creation for the future. Our diversity in different industries allows us to come together with our expertise to make something truly remarkable and moving forward I can see even greater things to come!” Senior Vice President Andy Khan shared.

To know more about Karma the Game of Destiny, you may visit its website.

Zulkernyne Ibne Tahasin, currently working as Program Director for 5G Digital Transformation & Technology Consulting in Ericsson Japan, thinks Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) promises the merger of operational technology with classic enterprise IT, leveraging an extensive range of tools. They range from advanced analytics to supply chain monitoring and tiny environmental sensors. 

After graduation with an Electronics and Communication Engineering degree, Zulkernyne Ibne Tahasin has been actively involved with many critical telecom network design, new mobile technology introduction initiatives, and technology consulting around the world. Zulkernyne and his team did the commercial IoT launch in Japan in 2017.

Zulkernyne finds IIoT as a revolutionizing factor across all industry verticals. A couple of noticeable IIoT applications include:

1. Smart inventory management: This implies using IIoT sensors to gather product data in product lifecycle stages to detect how external factors impact the final product, and manufacturers streamlining their predictive maintenance processes to mitigate unnecessary labor expenses.
2. Remote Site Operation: IoT Edge is a mechanism that enables devices to operate even without an internet connection. Construction projects and plants in remote sites or greenfield locations would leverage such IoT benefits.
3. Work Safety assurance: IIoT systems can connect plant exteriors and loading docks to the interior, thereby collecting and dissecting safety data on a facility-wide scale to send real-time alerts to other employees and senior management in case of a mishap. In the US alone, the total cost pertaining to work injuries amounted to more than $170 billion in 2019. With IoT penetration into industries, the scope of employee safety can be tremendously increased.

While highlighting IIoT’s potential, Zulkernyne Tahasin also suggested that IIoT technology is yet to overcome specific challenges. Key challenges include:

1. Connectivity: Internet connection may not be available at a stable speed everywhere in the world thus posing operational glitches. This may be noticed in remote areas like drilling oil and extraction of gas. Further development and adoption of IoT Edge can address this concern.
2. Security Issues: IoT still is vulnerable to security flaws as they are prone to cyberattacks. This can be solved by the installation of very strong firewalls to secure the overall network and bridging security loopholes.
3. Interoperability and Compatibility: With many service providers, OEMs, and vendors operating, it is challenging to develop IoT interoperability. Networking and sensors continue to be the essential components of IoT. However, these networking capabilities and sensors are not available in every machine to share data. Moreover, sensors are having different capabilities of power consumption. These elements and the security benchmarks in legacy machines often fail to offer the same results. Integrating external sensors may be a possible solution. However, this can also be a challenge, considering the complexity in determining the respective parts and functions that would communicate.

IIoT is the future. Despite challenges, IIoT holds the key to future growth in almost every human area of activity. To uncover its full potential, all partners in the ecosystem need to cooperate – IoT developers need to work on existing technological shortcomings, government bodies and industry leaders need to work on global standards, security experts and manufacturers need to focus on identifying and implementing adequate security protocols. Such combined efforts from all stakeholders will lead us to the smooth adoption of IIoT in industries and accelerate the fourth industrial revolution.

Learn more about Zulkernyne Ibne Tahasin on his website. Also, be sure to connect with Zulkernyne Ibne Tahasin on Linkedin.