 Think Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech Tech. Think Tech Tech Talks. That's one PM, one o'clock rock here on Think Tech on a given Tuesday. And we have a special guest, Bill Hosey of Verizon Wireless. He's a managing partner of business sales there. And he's got this great program we want to know more about. Welcome to the show, Bill. Thank you, Jay. Great to have you here. Great to Verizon, you know? Verizon, woo! Right, thank you. Yeah, fantastic, yeah. I better turn it off, though you did. Yeah, turn the ringer off. That's a fair enough. Right. I swear by Verizon, okay. Thank you, Jay. I appreciate that, absolutely. So anyway, and it's not because I haven't been around. I've been around and I swear by Verizon anyway. Right, good, good. Yeah, we pride ourselves on that. So you have this program. Yes. And it's a national program. Right. And it's an apps challenge. Yes. So what's going on? What is this program? How did it get started? Okay, so back in 2012, Verizon, as being an innovations leader, we were constantly looking for opportunities to involve, in particular, young people in the development of what's happening today and in our future. And so, we developed what's called the Innovate App Challenge and it encourages middle school and high school students to participate in developing an app. Why? What we're seeing is young people are really driving what's happening in innovation. And so, we wanted to make sure that we encouraged them to participate. There's rewards and we'll talk about our awards. And also, we're seeing some innovative things happen by the young people. They're thinking how they approach things is so much different than how you and I approach them. Sure, more and more. Yeah, absolutely. That's because we're getting older. That's right. Inevitably. But they're getting younger. That's right, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, you know, I was talking to you before the show about what happened when the iPhone came out. Yes. It was visibly disruptive because they put all those components together and now you can have a computer in your hand. That was quite remarkable. And I was waiting for that for a long time that the iPhone should come out. That was 2008 or 2009. Yeah, right. But what I didn't realize, I think a lot of us did not realize that the apps thing was sneaking up from the side with the developer kit and all of a sudden there was gonna be an industry building apps. And for a while there was only a handful of them, but then you looked again and there were thousands and then hundreds of thousands and then millions. Correct. And it kept getting better and better. You know, the ones that started out way back when have evolved, you know. Absolutely. To a tremendous effect. Yeah. And there's so many new ones coming out every day, every day. Yes. Doing things that change our society. So it's interesting, if you look at it back down the road, that, you know, the real, you know, the real amazing disruptive phenomenon here is not so much the iPhone that can be copied, but the notion of having apps. Absolutely. Yeah, and I think we saw the opportunity to really help drive that. And as you said, millions and millions of people are doing it now. And it's more and more younger generation that's driving what's happening. It went from calendar apps now to astronomy apps. You get, you look at the sky and see exactly where the planets are and the stars are. And then you can do things like just everything from reminders to, you know, what are you, you know, driving and you know, what are you plans and what do you want to eat? And just you name it. There are apps out there to accomplish it now. You know, it's funny. We had a journalist in that chair last week and he said, you know, watch the way the media works. It works so quickly. You know, just when you finished your website, thinking that your website would be the statement of your company to be all into all about you, you know, and deliver your message on it. The website becomes almost irrelevant because it's now all on a smartphone. And the smartphone's become smarter all the time. And so, you know, you can never assume that what works today is gonna continue to work tomorrow. That's correct. I'd say that smartphones are gonna be around for a while. And I think they'll be smarter, but they'll be around. And Verizon is counting on that, isn't it? Absolutely. Verizon is doing this program, this challenge, because it feels, one, it wants to do the right thing in the community, but two is it wants to sell a lot of phones and more apps we have, the more phones will be sold. Absolutely. And even more than that, then beyond the phones, it's what can technology do for you as an individual or as a business, as a corporation and encouraging that forward thinking, you know, what's next, what isn't being done now? And what we've seen in Innovations App Challenge is we've seen young people thinking differently about how they can impact their space, the environment and the world for that matter. And they're developing apps that, for example, there were some that were talking about how can I get information on advancement in my education? And they solve challenges with being able to access data. What tests do I need to prepare for? What grants are out there? What school's the best? And they started developing apps around that. And now a student can take an application and really kind of script where they want to go as far as their education's concerned. So that's just a small example of some of the things that we're seeing from these young people. And you mentioned global, and there's a global implication here because other countries can develop apps, too. And other countries have smartphones. Other countries can do very elegant things, you know, simplicity is all. And I remember seeing a thing about China, how you can buy a newspaper by taking a picture on your phone of, what do you call it, key design? The QR code. QR code on the newsstand, right? And then you hold it up to the news vendor and he sees on your phone that he just got credited for a dollar. He sees that, that's enough of him. And so that's it, now you get your paper. All this transaction takes about five seconds. Yes. And it works well and millions and hundreds of millions of people use that. How simple could that be? I mean, really, it's a matter of figuring out the human condition, the human daily experience and what can fit right in there and make it better for us. I think anywhere in the world works. Absolutely, and I think you touched on it. It's convenience. It's can I do something in a simpler way or an easier way or more convenient? And if you think of the generational changes that we're kind of going through as a country and as a world, younger people do everything remote from purchasing, you know, Amazon and you buy, you know, you buy things online and you, you know, online banking and we're hearing things about the largest bank in the world's an online bank. And then, you know, even into cable and things like that can be done remotely. And so it's, you know, developing something of convenience that people want. And so their thought process, their lives are just really fundamentally different than, again, like I said, like when I came up and it was on paper and in a book and now it's on a device, electronic device. You are really a think tech kind of person, Bill. Thank you. You get stars. Awesome, good. That's good to hear. Well, let's talk about, take a minute and talk about the actual challenge. Yes. How does that work? Okay, so each school has to enroll first. That's the most important thing and the deadline is November 18th. They can go online and I'm gonna look at it to make sure I say it correctly but there's a website, appchallenge.tsaweb.org. And you can go to that website and I'll say it again next to me. Appchallenge.tsaweb.org. And they can go to that site, it tells you all about the program, it tells you the awards, the processes, how you register, you know, there's requirements for students to get a parental approval and those kind of things. But it goes through the entire process of it. And what's really nice is that each state has winners go into this challenge. So we focus on the middle and high school students. It's really kind of enforcing the STEM which is really important to rise in science, technology, engineering, mathematics. And we're constantly looking for areas that we can impact that with our young people. And so they can go online, they register, they go out and develop whatever happens. With teams, with teams. With teams, that's right. I come and I register myself with my buddies and we have a team for that school. That's right. And so you have a team for each school or you can have multiple teams for the school and however that works. But then there's a state winner for both middle and high school. And those winners receive a $5,000 grant to the school that could be used for development, for travel, to support the faculty traveling with the students if need be. But each student then will go to the national level, I mean excuse the regional level and there's a national level as well in Orlando. You'll pay their way? Yes, yes. So it's expense paid for the student and for one adult to go to national conference in Orlando. That's right. They're very interesting. Yeah, and then they, just the power of it, they actually get to code with MIT innovation type. Well, you make your whole day. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You're splitting headache like that. Yeah, that's right, yeah. It's beyond me but they're going, yeah, I understand that completely, so. Yes. Okay, so do you give them parameters about what kind of app you like or they should be focusing on? Do you, do you give them categories? Do you give them something you believe that Verizon believes would be a successful, useful app? Or do you let them go unharnessed? It's kind of unharnessed. And the reason is we want to see what they come up with. And as I said, we're seeing things from how a student can better utilize the resources to get into the college level courses or into a college. And you name it, we've seen numerous, numerous types. But ultimately it's to allow those young people to develop what they feel is a game changer, so to speak. Yeah, well, this is really all about game changing. You can hardly, you know, I went out and bought an Amazon Fire Stick. Yes. And I got something in the mail about that and it was so seductive. You know, it was $39 I had to buy it and it came in yesterday. It's amazing. Yeah. You know, I won't go into detail, we're not talking about that today, but just to say that things move so fast, new technologies, new apps all the time, you can hardly not, you know, keep track of all this. Absolutely. And we're, you know, we're educating, in my space I work in the business channel for Verizon, for Hawaii and Alaska. And one of the things that we try to, not only our customers, but just people in general is, is what's happening. We're going through a technological revolution, really. Things that were just had to be hardwired, had to be plugged into a wall. That's just not the case anymore. And you can do so many things from a remote location, from a wireless device, that the applications that are, that can be developed now are just exploding. And so it's a great place to be. I love it because it's, we're seeing these changes rapidly. Things that were years and years and years in the past now are happening in days. So it's just a, it's a phenomenal place to be. Yesterday, the Kano, Hawaii, which is a public policy organization, was sitting in that chair and they, and they rolled out their most election game program. Yeah. Which, unless you see whether your sensibilities are more like one candidate or another. And instead of myself, gee whiz, you know, you could actually put your own column of opinion down. Maybe you're better than the other guys. Maybe you should run for office. Yeah. Well, you know, how far are we from electing national candidates or for that matter, local candidates on our cell phones? It's coming. It is probably happening in some places already. Yeah. And insecurity on the wireless devices is just improving beyond, you know, beyond measure. And it's, so I do see things like that. And I was just on a board a judging panel with the governor a few weeks ago and we were doing the Hawaii code challenge. Oh, the HACC, the Hawaii annual code challenge. Yeah, we covered that. That's right. And so I was fortunate to be able to participate on the board, judging board. And we saw apps specifically, you know, geared at that, you know, how do I get political information? How do I, you know, those kind of things? And again, several other different types, but you're right, things are evolving so quickly and it's all kind of focusing on what I can do wirelessly. And again, it gets to that convenience and I never have to leave my house to do something. Well, you know, as you said, it's explosive in the sense that you give a bunch of grade schoolers and high schoolers or college kids an opportunity to get on platforms like, you know, Verizon could help them catapult themselves onto national platforms and you know what's gonna happen. They could think of something that would be catching like wildfire that could change our society, be disruptive all in itself, you know, another step of disruption. And this is all possible when you have an apps challenge this way. Absolutely. And one other thing I wanna point out is, and it's been a challenge that we've tried to address and make sure that we're on top of is getting more females involved in the technological world and science world and those type things. And so we've, proud to say that almost half of the winners and we're talking 3,500 teams nationally and 24,000 individuals, nearly half of those are females. And so, you know, it's encouraging everyone to get involved in it, not just, you know, what would be a typical type person involved in the past. I wanna talk more about that after this break. That's Bill Hosea of Verizon Wireless. He's managing partner of business sales and we are learning so much about him. I mean, from him. And about him. Yeah. I'll be right back. Hello, I'm Marianne Sasaki. Welcome to Think Tech, Hawaii where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on. I have a show on Wednesdays from one to two called Life in the Law, where we discuss legal issues, politics, governmental topics, and a whole host of issues. I hope you'll join me. Aloha, I am Reg Baker and I am the host of Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from two to 2.30 in the Think Tech studios in downtown Honolulu. We highlight successful stories about businesses and individuals and learn their secrets to success. I hope you can join us on our next show on Thursday at two o'clock. Until then, Aloha. Bingo, me and Bill Hosea of Verizon, managing partner of business sales, talking about the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. The national program, but also happening in Hawaii, encouraging middle schoolers and high schoolers to develop apps. And really, in our world today, we have to encourage them to do that. You know, there was a time when we said, oh, well, in the U.S., we're the innovative guys, we're the creative guys, wrong. The whole world is creative now and it's competition and we have to get these kids incentivized to do it. This is an incentive. Absolutely, yeah, and you're right, Jay. It's something that the world's changing and technology, and particularly wires technologies, the loud areas and countries that really weren't that involved have become hugely involved. And so now it's opening up that competitive level to a new world, a new world, really. And so like you said, yes, we used to pride ourselves in being technologically advanced and so forth. Now we're really on par with everybody else and so it's kind of a level playing field. And so now how do you continue to stay at the forefront? And that's what Verizon's trying to do. And we have some innovation labs as well that we have two in the U.S. What is the main innovation lab? It's a lab that Verizon has that we'll allow customers to come into and this is kind of getting past the innovations app challenge, but a little bit background, yeah, absolutely. And so it allows customers that have applications that they would like to test in a wireless environment. It's kind of a sandbox. And so you can actually come to our labs, it's free of charge, we'll help you develop it, we'll help you test it, we do it in the sandbox. So it's on a live network, but not one that's ever public exposed. And you go from A to Z all the way, suit the nuts and developing, enhancing, testing and that type of thing, any type of application that works on a wireless device. Well, this takes me to what I was gonna ask you about here in the second part of our show. And that is make me a kid, make me a kid 12 years old, 13 years old, middle school kid. And I say, gee, I saw that thing with Bill Hosey, I wanna do that, I wanna get involved, I'm gonna file an application, get my buddies, I'm gonna have a school, support me to participate and I'm gonna make a nap. So where does he start? Where does his team start? How do they shape the idea? They talk to their teachers? Yes, they have an advisor in a school that's paired with the team that kind of, they can give them guidance, but again, it's really being driven by the young people. And I was talking with the Waipahu High School that had won it in 2015. They got some really good science teachers. Absolutely. And I was talking with the teacher about it and we were talking about how she allowed them to just kind of go and do and it was really being driven and that's what we're trying to foster is them driving this, nurturing it, developing it. And so it kind of encourages one leadership in these young people because you have to sign responsibilities, okay, I need you to do this piece of a bill and you're responsible for that. Absolutely. And so, and then there's enthusiasm, because they're getting to express themselves and in many instances, they had not been able to. And one thing that really struck me as probably most important was its encouraging students that sometimes sit on the sidelines that let other people kind of go and do, it was encouraging them to get involved and do something, come up with that idea. Change their lives. Absolutely. Give them a confidence they never had before. Absolutely. Yes, it is. So you were a part of the judging committee on Vi annual code challenge. They say annual, but it was the first year. They wanted to be annual. That's right, yeah. That's the goal. How does that differ from the Verizon challenge? We actually had high school students involved in that code challenge as well, absolutely. So, and I have to say we're absolutely some of my most impactful, I saw some of the most impactful designs from those young people. And it's similar in many ways, but indifferent. Certainly the group is middle school and high school students. We're in the code challenge. It was adults and from all ages, all age groups. And but the ideas and the development and the processes were very, very similar. And so one of the things that we did in this case are in previous cases is that they vet a lot of it and they actually help them kind of streamline. Counseling. Yeah, counseling. Yeah, right. And mentoring maybe, it might be a good term too. But it's helping them to kind of see flaws. Presentation skills is important. Always. Yeah, it is. And so those kind of things get enhanced by the process in both cases. Well, when we covered the Hawaii annual code challenge which was a government program, a state government program organized by, I guess the information, the chief information officer. Right. There were challenges, actual challenges. For example, the one stick to my brain was the two women came down from the prison system. And they said, we have a problem organizing visits by families who want to see their relatives in prison. And we're not well organized and so if somebody could please, you know, I thought it was a great challenge. Really an important thing. And it could solve the, you know, the problem. Absolutely. Yeah, and I remember those. There were, I believe, two groups that had really powerful solutions for that. And one of them, if I'm not mistaken, don't quote me, but if I'm not mistaken, one of them actually went to one, the governor selection comedians and they're, you know, narrowed it down and so forth. And actually with prize winners and there was a tie for first in that. But I remember the application they had developed was using a database, you know, type solution. And you would actually register online when you wanted to come in and it would immediately update the database. It would tell you if there was windows of time available, if they had an event that occurred, you know, water line rupture was an example. I think one of them used, then they could reshuffle people and you were notified automatically. You didn't have to come down and get turned away. So it was, it was a really powerful app. And I remember the governor talking about how phenomenal some of these solutions were to problems that they have faced for years and years and years and how easily and quickly solutions and come once you focus on it. Absolutely, absolutely. Working on an app like that too, you know, to schedule guys like you to come in and talk shows with them. Well, it's not the same thing as the prison app. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I hope not. I hope I'm not coming from the wrong reason. I'm coming from the right reason. So, but in the Verizon challenge, you're not actually throwing out challenges. You're just saying it's a general challenge. Yeah. You just figure out what you need to do and then you do it. And we'll counsel with you, provide mentoring, I guess. And then at the end of whatever period it is, we'll look at your app and we will have judges, am I right? Yes. And the judges will decide which apps win. Yes. Who are the judge? Are you a judge? I'm not a judge and I'm not certain who the judges are. I can tell you the website that I gave you earlier has all of that information. It enhances the rules, the process, how to register, all the step-by-step information, when the awards are given, you know, the process and all of that type of information for your access. You know, I've never designed an app. I've always wanted to design an app. I mean, an app on a smartphone, that kind of app rather than a program. So, I suppose you have to go and you have to go to the kit, you know, for Apple, you go to the Apple Programmer's Kit and for Android and so forth. And I guess there's another kit for the brand new Pixel phone. Yes. Are you selling that, by the way? We are, yeah. It's solely from Ryzen. You're right on it. It's a Ryzen, solely from Ryzen device. Absolutely. Oh, no kidding, yeah. They chose the best network. So, it's available right now? I can go down and buy one? Yeah, absolutely. We're gonna talk. There you go. Yeah, we'll get you set up. Yeah, we give numerous stores in Oahu that we could take care of you. So, I could do an app for any one of those phones. Yes. Android, Pixel, or iPhone. Correct. Yes. And so, I need a Programmer's Kit, an API, whatever it is. Are you gonna help me with that or am I on my own to find, you know, the coding tools that I need to code a particular app? Don't quote me on it. Again, I'd have to get to the site but we provide the majority of that or guidance on where to get those type of things, how to get access to it and so forth. But there is no coding knowledge needed to participate. Well, you know, I was gonna guess to say that, you know, if you have all these people, millions of people trying to do apps because it's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Yes. Not that every app makes money, but some make a lot of money and some of them are a career, if you will. I mean, a business that goes on and on that flowers into other things. But if, you know, if you're gonna do that, then there, you want tools. Yes. And there are people out there who would like to build the tools for you, maybe sell them at some modest price. Absolutely. You can build your app faster. And as you said, without actually having to code. Yeah. You're right. And one thing I want to point out is that this application, once it's fully developed and is, you can sell the app. And so we can go on the apps to the correct. That's a big point. We didn't make that clear earlier. Absolutely. It's still your app. Absolutely. You could make a million, billion. Nobody's gonna stand in the way. Absolutely. Even though you did it under the auspices of this code chat. Absolutely. And in our innovations labs are the same way. It's all, the information, all the data, the application, everything belongs to the developers. It does not belong to Verizon Wireless. We just encourage the development. We encourage it because we know that data is where the world is going to. And we want to be at the forefront of impacting how that's done. Yeah. While you said that, Bill, I'd like to ask you a small question that flows out of it. Where is the world going? Where is the world going in apps? Where is the world going in smartphones? We need to know and you can help us. Okay, this is my, this is my idea on it. Everything is going wireless. It is going wireless for convenience, for the ability to do things remotely. During your travel, you know, we've all experienced it. You know, you want to eat a particular restaurant. Well, you don't know. I just got into San Francisco. I don't know San Francisco. I've never lived there. So I need to find out where I want to eat. And immediately there's an app that can help me do that. There are apps that can help, you know, people do tracking vehicles and love ones. You know, there are car apps. Sure, sure. You name it. Know where your family is at any moment in time. Absolutely. And so I see the world evolving into a more of a wireless position where you can do things remotely. You can work remote. You can, you know, that type of thing. So I believe that's where I see it going. We see it in the business space. We see it in the private sector as well where it's all going to that wireless environment. Yeah, and that's the first year. The first year, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, at the same time, and this is the second question, man, at the same time the smartphone itself as a smart device can't change. I mean, can't stay the same. It's got to change. And it's going to change fast because the stakes are high. There are so many millions and millions of phones being sold every day around the world. It's not just Verizon. Absolutely. Correct. And so the stakes are high to find the technology, to make it a better battery, better processor, better everything. Where do you think it's going to go? Where are the improvements going to be revealed? I think hardware, I think it's kind of a, maybe the short answer. People want the battery to last longer. We all have, you know, the battery's going dead and now I've got to find- Without smoking. Yeah, or exploding. And I do want to say that as you try new things, as you push the envelope, things happen. It happens with our cars. It happens in everything we're involved in on a day-to-day lives. And so I applaud people pushing the envelope. And so battery technology is pushing the envelope. Can we do it? Can we have it last longer and can we charge it faster? That's two questions almost every phone user wants to know. Can I get it last longer? Can I get it charged faster? And so we're pushing the envelope on that. All the developers are. And all the hardware developers are. And so that's one thing, I think. The capability of the device, if you think about what a smartphone can do today versus what a computer could do just 10 years ago. It's like- Unbelievable. Absolutely. And so I see, I think you said it, I see everything consolidating, getting smaller and smaller, but more and more powerful so that I can do more and more things with my wireless device. So the platform is better and therefore the opportunities for apps are better. Absolutely. And probably the app languages, the app functionality is better all the time and you can do more better and using the cloud, you can keep huge amounts of data out there even though a little tiny phone is where it's working for. Absolutely. So I give you a minute now. Can you face camera one and tell the kids and their parents and the schools what they should know what they should do about getting involved in the Verizon Apps Challenge? Absolutely, it's really simple. You wanna go to the website and I'm gonna read it again. You wanna go to appchallenge.tsaweb.org and it has all the information you need. It has a registration. How do you go online and do that is all there for you. It tells you all the stipulations, the forms that need to be filled out. There is a video that you have to create a three minute video explaining your app and it kind of gives you an idea of what you wanna do and again, make sure that you hit that deadline. Jay, that's the most important thing but we wanna encourage everyone to participate. That's the goal of this is to get as many schools in Hawaii involved in this. Middle and high school, we encourage you to come out. And again, I wanna share a story if I can, Jay, real quick if I have a moment. I was in high school. I was, you remember the paper football? No. Okay. Used to fold up a piece of paper and you'd make a little triangular paper football and we'd play that on the desk and I came up with the idea in high school and this was back in early 80s to make that a game. And I didn't. I never brought it to fruition. And just a few years ago, I was given a plastic paper football from a company that manufactures now for colleges, for pro teams and everything and it's making million dollars on my idea that I never pushed it. And so I'm saying that to encourage people, this is a great opportunity to take that idea that you've kind of been just chewing on, been sitting there and really do something with it. Yeah. Carpe diem. Carpe diem. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. Great to have you here.