Mark Theriault founded the startup FITY envisioning a line of clever cooling products: cold drink holders that come with freezable pucks to keep beverages cold for longer without the mess of ice. The entrepreneur started with 3D prints of products in his basement, building one unit at a time, before eventually scaling to mass production. Founding a consumer product company from scratch was a tall order for a single person. Going from preliminary sketches to production-ready designs was a major challenge. To bring his creative vision to life, Theriault relied on AI and his NVIDIA GeForce RTX-equipped system. For him, AI isn’t just a tool — it’s an entire pipeline to help him accomplish his goals. about his workflow below. Plus, GeForce RTX 5050 laptops start arriving today at retailers worldwide, from GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop GPUs feature 2,560 NVIDIA Blackwell CUDA cores, fifth-generation AI Tensor Cores, fourth-generation RT Cores, a ninth-generation NVENC encoder and a sixth-generation NVDEC decoder. In addition, NVIDIA’s Plug and Play: Project G-Assist Plug-In Hackathon — running virtually through Wednesday, July 16 — invites developers to explore AI and build custom G-Assist plug-ins for a chance to win prizes. the date for the G-Assist Plug-In webinar on Wednesday, July 9, from 10-11 a.m. PT, to learn more about Project G-Assist capabilities and fundamentals, and to participate in a live Q&A session. From Concept to Completion To create his standout products, Theriault tinkers with potential FITY Flex cooler designs with traditional methods, from sketch to computer-aided design to rapid prototyping, until he finds the right vision. A unique aspect of the FITY Flex design is that it can be customized with fun, popular shoe charms. For packaging design inspiration, Theriault uses his preferred text-to-image generative AI model for prototyping, Stable Diffusion XL — which runs 60% faster with the NVIDIA TensorRT software development kit — using the modular, node-based interface ComfyUI. ComfyUI gives users granular control over every step of the generation process — prompting, sampling, model loading, image conditioning and post-processing. It’s ideal for advanced users like Theriault who want to customize how images are generated. Theriault’s uses of AI result in a complete computer graphics-based ad campaign. Image courtesy of FITY. NVIDIA and GeForce RTX GPUs based on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture include fifth-generation Tensor Cores designed to accelerate AI and deep learning workloads. These GPUs work with CUDA optimizations in PyTorch to seamlessly accelerate ComfyUI, reducing generation time on FLUX.1-dev, an image generation model from Black Forest Labs, from two minutes per image on the Mac M3 Ultra to about four seconds on the GeForce RTX 5090 desktop GPU. ComfyUI can also add ControlNets — AI models that help control image generation — that Theriault uses for tasks like guiding human poses, setting compositions via depth mapping and converting scribbles to images. Theriault even creates his own fine-tuned models to keep his style consistent. He used low-rank adaptationmodels — small, efficient adapters into specific layers of the network — enabling hyper-customized generation with minimal compute cost. LoRA models allow Theriault to ideate on visuals quickly. Image courtesy of FITY. “Over the last few months, I’ve been shifting from AI-assisted computer graphics renders to fully AI-generated product imagery using a custom Flux LoRA I trained in house. My RTX 4080 SUPER GPU has been essential for getting the performance I need to train and iterate quickly.” – Mark Theriault, founder of FITY  Theriault also taps into generative AI to create marketing assets like FITY Flex product packaging. He uses FLUX.1, which excels at generating legible text within images, addressing a common challenge in text-to-image models. Though FLUX.1 models can typically consume over 23GB of VRAM, NVIDIA has collaborated with Black Forest Labs to help reduce the size of these models using quantization — a technique that reduces model size while maintaining quality. The models were then accelerated with TensorRT, which provides an up to 2x speedup over PyTorch. To simplify using these models in ComfyUI, NVIDIA created the FLUX.1 NIM microservice, a containerized version of FLUX.1 that can be loaded in ComfyUI and enables FP4 quantization and TensorRT support. Combined, the models come down to just over 11GB of VRAM, and performance improves by 2.5x. Theriault uses the Blender Cycles app to render out final files. For 3D workflows, NVIDIA offers the AI Blueprint for 3D-guided generative AI to ease the positioning and composition of 3D images, so anyone interested in this method can quickly get started. Photorealistic renders. Image courtesy of FITY. Finally, Theriault uses large language models to generate marketing copy — tailored for search engine optimization, tone and storytelling — as well as to complete his patent and provisional applications, work that usually costs thousands of dollars in legal fees and considerable time. Generative AI helps Theriault create promotional materials like the above. Image courtesy of FITY. “As a one-man band with a ton of content to generate, having on-the-fly generation capabilities for my product designs really helps speed things up.” – Mark Theriault, founder of FITY Every texture, every word, every photo, every accessory was a micro-decision, Theriault said. AI helped him survive the “death by a thousand cuts” that can stall solo startup founders, he added. Each week, the RTX AI Garage blog series features community-driven AI innovations and content for those looking to learn more about NVIDIA NIM microservices and AI Blueprints, as well as building AI agents, creative workflows, digital humans, productivity apps and more on AI PCs and workstations.  Plug in to NVIDIA AI PC on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X — and stay informed by subscribing to the RTX AI PC newsletter. Follow NVIDIA Workstation on LinkedIn and X.  See notice regarding software product information. #startup #uses #nvidia #rtxpowered #generative

So, Strasbourg has officially joined the world of Hollywood with the grand opening of Ex Persona, a motion capture studio that’s just a hop, skip, and a jump from the city center. Because, of course, what every aspiring actor needs is a high-tech studio where they can perfectly simulate the art of standing still while looking vaguely excited. Equipped with fancy Vicon cameras, I can only imagine the thrill of seeing your every awkward movement captured in stunning detail. Finally, you can bring your most cringe-worthy dance moves to life—because who wouldn't want their most embarrassing moments immortalized in 3D? Let’s just hope the talent they attract has more personality than their studio name suggests! #MotionCapture #ExPersona #Strasbourg

🌟 Hey there, fabulous friends! 🌟 Are you ready to take your market research game to the next level? 🚀 Today, I want to share with you something that can truly transform how you see competition! In this fast-paced world, every entrepreneur and marketer needs to be equipped with the right tools to uncover hidden gems in the market. And guess what? The answer lies in the **14 Best Competitive Intelligence Tools for Market Research**! 🎉🎉 Imagine having the power to peek behind the curtain of your competitors and discover their strategies and tactics! With these amazing tools, you can gather insights that will not only help you understand your market better but also give you the edge you need to soar higher than ever before! 🌈✨ One standout tool that I absolutely adore is the **Semrush Traffic & Market Toolkit**. It’s like having a secret weapon in your back pocket! 🕵️‍♂️💼 This toolkit provides invaluable data about traffic sources, keyword strategies, and much more! Say goodbye to guesswork and hello to informed decisions! Each piece of information you gather brings you one step closer to your goals. 🌟 But that’s not all! Each of the 14 tools has its own unique features that cater to different aspects of competitive intelligence. Whether it's analyzing social media performance, tracking keywords, or monitoring brand mentions, there’s something for everyone! It’s time to embrace the power of knowledge and turn it into your competitive advantage! 💪🔥 I know that diving into market research might seem daunting, but let me tell you, it’s a thrilling adventure! Every insight you uncover is like finding a treasure map leading you to success! 🗺️💖 So, don’t shy away from exploring these tools. Embrace them with open arms and watch your business flourish! 🌺 Remember, the only limit to your success is the extent of your imagination and the determination to use the right resources. So gear up, equip yourself with these 14 best competitive intelligence tools, and let’s conquer the market together! 🌍💫 Let’s lift each other up and share our discoveries! What tools are you excited to try? Drop your thoughts in the comments below! 👇💬 Let’s inspire one another to reach new heights! #MarketResearch #CompetitiveIntelligence #BusinessGrowth #Semrush #Inspiration

In early-stage start-ups, the pitch deck is often the first thing investors see. Sometimes, it’s the only thing. And yet, it rarely gets the same attention as the website or the socials. Most decks are pulled together last minute, with slides that feel rushed, messy, or just off. That’s where designers can really make a difference. The deck might seem like just another task, but it’s a chance to work on something strategic early on and help shape how the company is understood. It offers a rare opportunity to collaborate closely with copywriters, strategists and the founders to turn their vision into a clear and convincing story. Founders bring the vision, but more and more, design and brand teams are being asked to shape how that vision is told, and sold. So here are five handy things we’ve learned at SIDE ST for the next time you’re asked to design a deck. Think in context Designers stepping into pitch work should begin by understanding the full picture – who the deck is for, what outcomes it’s meant to drive and how it fits into the broader brand and business context. Their role isn’t just to make things look good, but to prioritise clarity over surface-level aesthetics. It’s about getting into the founders’ mindset, shaping visuals and copy around the message, and connecting with the intended audience. Every decision, from slide hierarchy to image selection, should reinforce the business goals behind the deck. Support the narrative Visuals are more subjective than words, and that’s exactly what gives them power. The right image can suggest an idea, reinforce a value, or subtly shift perception without a single word. Whether it’s hinting at accessibility, signalling innovation, or grounding the product in context, design plays a strategic role in how a company is understood. It gives designers the opportunity to take centre stage in the storytelling, shaping how the company is understood through visual choices. But that influence works both ways. Used thoughtlessly, visuals can distort the story, suggesting the wrong market, implying a different stage of maturity, or confusing people about the product itself. When used with care, they become a powerful design tool to sharpen the narrative and spark interest from the very first slide. Keep it real Stock photos can be tempting. They’re high-quality and easy to drop in, especially when the real images a start-up has can be grainy, unfinished, or simply not there yet. But in early-stage pitch decks, they often work against your client. Instead of supporting the story, they flatten it, and rarely reflect the actual team, product, or context. This is your chance as a designer to lean into what’s real, even if it’s a bit rough. Designers can elevate even scrappy assets with thoughtful framing and treatment, turning rough imagery into a strength. In early-stage storytelling, “real” often resonates more than “perfect.” Pay attention to the format Even if you’re brought in just to design the deck, don’t treat it as a standalone piece. It’s often the first brand touchpoint investors will see—but it won’t be the last. They’ll go on to check the website, scroll through social posts, and form an impression based on how it all fits together. Early-stage startups might not have full brand guidelines in place yet, but that doesn’t mean there’s no need for consistency. In fact, it gives designers a unique opportunity to lay the foundation. A strong, thoughtful deck can help shape the early visual language and give the team something to build on as the brand grows. Before you hit export For designers, the deck isn’t just another deliverable. It’s an early tool that shapes and impacts investor perception, internal alignment and founder confidence. It’s a strategic design moment to influence the trajectory of a company before it’s fully formed. Designers who understand the pressure, pace and uncertainty founders face at this stage are better equipped to deliver work that resonates. This is about more than simply polishing slides, it’s about helping early-stage teams tell a sharper, more human story when it matters most. Maor Ofek is founder of SIDE ST, a brand consultancy that works mainly with start-ups.  #sharpen #story #design #guide #startups

Asus ROG Xbox Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X to Start Pre-Orders in August, Launch in October – Rumour A new report indicates that the ROG Xbox Ally will be priced at around €599, while the more powerful ROG Xbox Ally X will cost €899. Posted By Joelle Daniels | On 16th, Jun. 2025 While Microsoft and Asus have unveiled the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X handheld gaming systems, the companies have yet to confirm the prices or release dates for the two systems. While the announcement  mentioned that they will be launched later this year, a new report, courtesy of leaker Extas1s, indicates that pre-orders for both devices will be kicked off in August, with the launch then happening in October. As noted by Extas1s, the lower-powered ROG Xbox Ally is expected to be priced around €599. The leaker claims to have corroborated the pricing details for the handheld with two different Europe-based retailers. The more powerful ROG Xbox Ally X, on the other hand, is expected to be priced at €899. This would put its pricing in line with Asus’s own ROG Ally X. Previously, Asus senior manager of marketing content for gaming, Whitson Gordon, had revealed that pricing and power use were the two biggest reasons why both the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X didn’t feature OLED displays. Rather, both systems will come equipped with 7-inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD displays with variable refresh rate capabilities. “We did some R&D and prototyping with OLED, but it’s still not where we want it to be when you factor VRR into the mix and we aren’t willing to give up VRR,” said Gordon. “I’ll draw that line in the sand right now. I am of the opinion that if a display doesn’t have variable refresh rate, it’s not a gaming display in the year 2025 as far as I’m concerned, right? That’s a must-have feature, and OLED with VRR right now draws significantly more power than the LCD that we’re currently using on the Ally and it costs more.” Explaining further that the decision ultimately also came down to keeping the pricing for both systems at reasonable levels, since buyers often tend to get handheld gaming systems as their secondary machiens, Gordon noted that both handhelds would have much higher price tags if OLED displays were used. “That’s all I’ll say about price,” said Gordon. “You have to align your expectations with the market and what we’re doing here. Adding 32GB, OLED, Z2 Extreme, and all of those extra bells and whistles would cost a lot more than the price bracket you guys are used to on the Ally, and the vast majority of users are not willing to pay that kind of price.” Shortly after its announcement, Microsoft and Asus had released a video where the two companies spoke about the various features of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. In the video, we also get to see an early hardware prototype of the handheld gaming system built inside a cardboard box. The ROG Xbox Ally runs on an AMD Ryzen Z2A chip, and has 16 GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM and 512 GB of storage. The ROG Xbox Ally X, on the other hand, runs on an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, and has 24 GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM and 1 TB of storage. Both systems run on Windows. Tagged With: Elden Ring: Nightreign Publisher:Bandai Namco Developer:FromSoftware Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PCView More FBC: Firebreak Publisher:Remedy Entertainment Developer:Remedy Entertainment Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PCView More Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Publisher:Sony Developer:Kojima Productions Platforms:PS5View More Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out! Summer Game Fest 2025 Saw 89 Percent Growth in Live Concurrent Viewership Since Last Year This year's Summer Game Fest has been the most successful one so far, with around 1.5 million live viewers on ... Asus ROG Xbox Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X to Start Pre-Orders in August, Launch in October – Rumour A new report indicates that the ROG Xbox Ally will be priced at around €599, while the more powerful ROG Xbo... Borderlands 4 Gets New Video Explaining the Process of Creating Vault Hunters According to the development team behind Borderlands 4, the creation of Vault Hunters is a studio-wide collabo... The Witcher 4 Team is Tapping Into the “Good Creative Chaos” From The Witcher 3’s Development Narrative director Philipp Weber says there are "new questions we want to answer because this is supposed to f... The Witcher 4 is Opting for “Console-First Development” to Ensure 60 FPS, Says VP of Tech However, CD Projekt RED's Charles Tremblay says 60 frames per second will be "extremely challenging" on the Xb... Red Dead Redemption Voice Actor Teases “Exciting News” for This Week Actor Rob Wiethoff teases an announcement, potentially the rumored release of Red Dead Redemption 2 on Xbox Se... View More #asus #rog #xbox #ally #start

What just happened? As protests against federal immigration enforcement swept through downtown Los Angeles last week, a wave of looting left several major retailers, including Apple, T-Mobile, and Adidas, counting the cost of smashed windows and stolen goods. Yet for those who made off with iPhones from Apple's flagship store, the thrill of the heist quickly turned into a lesson in high-tech security. Apple's retail locations are equipped with advanced anti-theft technology that renders display devices useless once they leave the premises. The moment a demonstration iPhone is taken beyond the store's Wi-Fi network, it is instantly disabled by proximity software and a remote "kill switch." Instead of a functioning smartphone, thieves were met with a stark message on the screen: "Please return to Apple Tower Theatre. This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted." The phone simultaneously sounds an alarm and flashes the warning, ensuring it cannot be resold or activated elsewhere. This system is not new. During the nationwide unrest of 2020, similar scenes played out as looters discovered that Apple's security measures turned their stolen goods into little more than expensive paperweights. The technology relies on a combination of location tracking and network monitoring. As soon as a device is separated from the store's secure environment, it is remotely locked, its location is tracked, and law enforcement is notified. // Related Stories Videos circulating online show stolen iPhones blaring alarms and displaying tracking messages, making them impossible to ignore and virtually worthless on the black market. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, at least three individuals were arrested in connection with the Apple Store burglary, including one suspect apprehended at the scene and two others detained for looting. The crackdown on looting comes amid a broader shift in California's approach to retail crime. In response to public outcry over rising thefts, state and local officials have moved away from previously lenient policies. The passage of Proposition 36 has empowered prosecutors to file felony charges against repeat offenders, regardless of the value of stolen goods, and to impose harsher penalties for organized group theft. Under these new measures, those caught looting face the prospect of significant prison time, a marked departure from the misdemeanor charges that were common under earlier laws. District attorneys in Southern California have called for even harsher penalties, particularly for crimes committed during states of emergency. Proposals include making looting a felony offense, increasing prison sentences, and ensuring that suspects are not released without judicial review. The goal, officials say, is to deter opportunistic criminals who exploit moments of crisis, whether during protests or natural disasters. #stolen #iphones #disabled #apple039s #antitheft

Jun 16, 2025Ravie LakshmananMalware / DevOps Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious package on the Python Package Indexrepository that's capable of harvesting sensitive developer-related information, such as credentials, configuration data, and environment variables, among others. The package, named chimera-sandbox-extensions, attracted 143 downloads and likely targets users of a service called Chimera Sandbox, which was released by Singaporean tech company Grab last August to facilitate "experimentation and development ofsolutions." The package masquerades as a helper module for Chimera Sandbox, but "aims to steal credentials and other sensitive information such as Jamf configuration, CI/CD environment variables, AWS tokens, and more," JFrog security researcher Guy Korolevski said in a report published last week. Once installed, it attempts to connect to an external domain whose domain name is generated using a domain generation algorithmin order to download and execute a next-stage payload. Specifically, the malware acquires from the domain an authentication token, which is then used to send a request to the same domain and retrieve the Python-based information stealer. The stealer malware is equipped to siphon a wide range of data from infected machines. This includes - JAMF receipts, which are records of software packages installed by Jamf Pro on managed computers Pod sandbox environment authentication tokens and git information CI/CD information from environment variables Zscaler host configuration Amazon Web Services account information and tokens Public IP address General platform, user, and host information The kind of data gathered by the malware shows that it's mainly geared towards corporate and cloud infrastructure. In addition, the extraction of JAMF receipts indicates that it's also capable of targeting Apple macOS systems. The collected information is sent via a POST request back to the same domain, after which the server assesses if the machine is a worthy target for further exploitation. However, JFrog said it was unable to obtain the payload at the time of analysis. "The targeted approach employed by this malware, along with the complexity of its multi-stage targeted payload, distinguishes it from the more generic open-source malware threats we have encountered thus far, highlighting the advancements that malicious packages have made recently," Jonathan Sar Shalom, director of threat research at JFrog Security Research team, said. "This new sophistication of malware underscores why development teams remain vigilant with updates—alongside proactive security research – to defend against emerging threats and maintain software integrity." The disclosure comes as SafeDep and Veracode detailed a number of malware-laced npm packages that are designed to execute remote code and download additional payloads. The packages in question are listed below - eslint-config-airbnb-compatts-runtime-compat-checksolders@mediawave/libAll the identified npm packages have since been taken down from npm, but not before they were downloaded hundreds of times from the package registry. SafeDep's analysis of eslint-config-airbnb-compat found that the JavaScript library has ts-runtime-compat-check listed as a dependency, which, in turn, contacts an external server defined in the former packageto retrieve and execute a Base64-encoded string. The exact nature of the payload is unknown. "It implements a multi-stage remote code execution attack using a transitive dependency to hide the malicious code," SafeDep researcher Kunal Singh said. Solders, on the other hand, has been found to incorporate a post-install script in its package.json, causing the malicious code to be automatically executed as soon as the package is installed. "At first glance, it's hard to believe that this is actually valid JavaScript," the Veracode Threat Research team said. "It looks like a seemingly random collection of Japanese symbols. It turns out that this particular obfuscation scheme uses the Unicode characters as variable names and a sophisticated chain of dynamic code generation to work." Decoding the script reveals an extra layer of obfuscation, unpacking which reveals its main function: Check if the compromised machine is Windows, and if so, run a PowerShell command to retrieve a next-stage payload from a remote server. This second-stage PowerShell script, also obscured, is designed to fetch a Windows batch script from another domainand configures a Windows Defender Antivirus exclusion list to avoid detection. The batch script then paves the way for the execution of a .NET DLL that reaches out to a PNG image hosted on ImgBB. "is grabbing the last two pixels from this image and then looping through some data contained elsewhere in it," Veracode said. "It ultimately builds up in memory YET ANOTHER .NET DLL." Furthermore, the DLL is equipped to create task scheduler entries and features the ability to bypass user account controlusing a combination of FodHelper.exe and programmatic identifiersto evade defenses and avoid triggering any security alerts to the user. The newly-downloaded DLL is Pulsar RAT, a "free, open-source Remote Administration Tool for Windows" and a variant of the Quasar RAT. "From a wall of Japanese characters to a RAT hidden within the pixels of a PNG file, the attacker went to extraordinary lengths to conceal their payload, nesting it a dozen layers deep to evade detection," Veracode said. "While the attacker's ultimate objective for deploying the Pulsar RAT remains unclear, the sheer complexity of this delivery mechanism is a powerful indicator of malicious intent." Crypto Malware in the Open-Source Supply Chain The findings also coincide with a report from Socket that identified credential stealers, cryptocurrency drainers, cryptojackers, and clippers as the main types of threats targeting the cryptocurrency and blockchain development ecosystem. Some of the examples of these packages include - express-dompurify and pumptoolforvolumeandcomment, which are capable of harvesting browser credentials and cryptocurrency wallet keys bs58js, which drains a victim's wallet and uses multi-hop transfers to obscure theft and frustrate forensic tracing. lsjglsjdv, asyncaiosignal, and raydium-sdk-liquidity-init, which functions as a clipper to monitor the system clipboard for cryptocurrency wallet strings and replace them with threat actor‑controlled addresses to reroute transactions to the attackers "As Web3 development converges with mainstream software engineering, the attack surface for blockchain-focused projects is expanding in both scale and complexity," Socket security researcher Kirill Boychenko said. "Financially motivated threat actors and state-sponsored groups are rapidly evolving their tactics to exploit systemic weaknesses in the software supply chain. These campaigns are iterative, persistent, and increasingly tailored to high-value targets." AI and Slopsquatting The rise of artificial intelligence-assisted coding, also called vibe coding, has unleashed another novel threat in the form of slopsquatting, where large language modelscan hallucinate non-existent but plausible package names that bad actors can weaponize to conduct supply chain attacks. Trend Micro, in a report last week, said it observed an unnamed advanced agent "confidently" cooking up a phantom Python package named starlette-reverse-proxy, only for the build process to crash with the error "module not found." However, should an adversary upload a package with the same name on the repository, it can have serious security consequences. Furthermore, the cybersecurity company noted that advanced coding agents and workflows such as Claude Code CLI, OpenAI Codex CLI, and Cursor AI with Model Context Protocol-backed validation can help reduce, but not completely eliminate, the risk of slopsquatting. "When agents hallucinate dependencies or install unverified packages, they create an opportunity for slopsquatting attacks, in which malicious actors pre-register those same hallucinated names on public registries," security researcher Sean Park said. "While reasoning-enhanced agents can reduce the rate of phantom suggestions by approximately half, they do not eliminate them entirely. Even the vibe-coding workflow augmented with live MCP validations achieves the lowest rates of slip-through, but still misses edge cases." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE     #malicious #pypi #package #masquerades #chimera

Reading Time: 9 minutes In the ever-evolving landscape of customer engagement, staying ahead of the curve is not just advantageous, it’s essential. That’s why, for Chapter 7 of “The Customer Engagement Book: Adapt or Die,” we sat down with Mirela Cialai, a seasoned expert in CRM and Martech strategies at brands like Equinox. Mirela brings a wealth of knowledge in aligning technology roadmaps with business goals, shifting organizational focuses from acquisition to retention, and leveraging hyper-personalization to drive success. In this interview, Mirela dives deep into building robust customer engagement technology roadmaps. She unveils the “PAPER” framework—Plan, Audit, Prioritize, Execute, Refine—a simple yet effective strategy for marketers. You’ll gain insights into identifying gaps in your Martech stack, ensuring data accuracy, and prioritizing initiatives that deliver the greatest impact and ROI. Whether you’re navigating data silos, striving for cross-functional alignment, or aiming for seamless tech integration, Mirela’s expertise provides practical solutions and actionable takeaways.   Mirela Cialai Q&A Interview 1. How do you define the vision for a customer engagement platform roadmap in alignment with the broader business goals? Can you share any examples of successful visions from your experience? Defining the vision for the roadmap in alignment with the broader business goals involves creating a strategic framework that connects the team’s objectives with the organization’s overarching mission or primary objectives. This could be revenue growth, customer retention, market expansion, or operational efficiency. We then break down these goals into actionable areas where the team can contribute, such as improving engagement, increasing lifetime value, or driving acquisition. We articulate how the team will support business goals by defining the KPIs that link CRM outcomes — the team’s outcomes — to business goals. In a previous role, the CRM team I was leading faced significant challenges due to the lack of attribution capabilities and a reliance on surface-level metrics such as open rates and click-through rates to measure performance. This approach made it difficult to quantify the impact of our efforts on broader business objectives such as revenue growth. Recognizing this gap, I worked on defining a vision for the CRM team to address these shortcomings. Our vision was to drive measurable growth through enhanced data accuracy and improved attribution capabilities, which allowed us to deliver targeted, data-driven, and personalized customer experiences. To bring this vision to life, I developed a roadmap that focused on first improving data accuracy, building our attribution capabilities, and delivering personalization at scale. By aligning the vision with these strategic priorities, we were able to demonstrate the tangible impact of our efforts on the key business goals. 2. What steps did you take to ensure data accuracy? The data team was very diligent in ensuring that our data warehouse had accurate data. So taking that as the source of truth, we started cleaning the data in all the other platforms that were integrated with our data warehouse — our CRM platform, our attribution analytics platform, etc. That’s where we started, looking at all the different integrations and ensuring that the data flows were correct and that we had all the right flows in place. And also validating and cleaning our email database — that helped, having more accurate data. 3. How do you recommend shifting organizational focus from acquisition to retention within a customer engagement strategy? Shifting an organization’s focus from acquisition to retention requires a cultural and strategic shift, emphasizing the immense value that existing customers bring to long-term growth and profitability. I would start by quantifying the value of retention, showcasing how retaining customers is significantly more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Research consistently shows that increasing retention rates by just 5% can boost profits by at least 25 to 95%. This data helps make a compelling case to stakeholders about the importance of prioritizing retention. Next, I would link retention to core business goals by demonstrating how enhancing customer lifetime value and loyalty can directly drive revenue growth. This involves shifting the organization’s focus to retention-specific metrics such as churn rate, repeat purchase rate, and customer LTV. These metrics provide actionable insights into customer behaviors and highlight the financial impact of retention initiatives, ensuring alignment with the broader company objectives. By framing retention as a driver of sustainable growth, the organization can see it not as a competing priority, but as a complementary strategy to acquisition, ultimately leading to a more balanced and effective customer engagement strategy. 4. What are the key steps in analyzing a brand’s current Martech stack capabilities to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement? Developing a clear understanding of the Martech stack’s current state and ensuring it aligns with a brand’s strategic needs and future goals requires a structured and strategic approach. The process begins with defining what success looks like in terms of technology capabilities such as scalability, integration, automation, and data accessibility, and linking these capabilities directly to the brand’s broader business objectives. I start by doing an inventory of all tools currently in use, including their purpose, owner, and key functionalities, assessing if these tools are being used to their full potential or if there are features that remain unused, and reviewing how well tools integrate with one another and with our core systems, the data warehouse. Also, comparing the capabilities of each tool and results against industry standards and competitor practices and looking for missing functionalities such as personalization, omnichannel orchestration, or advanced analytics, and identifying overlapping tools that could be consolidated to save costs and streamline workflows. Finally, review the costs of the current tools against their impact on business outcomes and identify technologies that could reduce costs, increase efficiency, or deliver higher ROI through enhanced capabilities. Establish a regular review cycle for the Martech stack to ensure it evolves alongside the business and the technological landscape. 5. How do you evaluate whether a company’s tech stack can support innovative customer-focused campaigns, and what red flags should marketers look out for? I recommend taking a structured approach and first ensure there is seamless integration across all tools to support a unified customer view and data sharing across the different channels. Determine if the stack can handle increasing data volumes, larger audiences, and additional channels as the campaigns grow, and check if it supports dynamic content, behavior-based triggers, and advanced segmentation and can process and act on data in real time through emerging technologies like AI/ML predictive analytics to enable marketers to launch responsive and timely campaigns. Most importantly, we need to ensure that the stack offers robust reporting tools that provide actionable insights, allowing teams to track performance and optimize campaigns. Some of the red flags are: data silos where customer data is fragmented across platforms and not easily accessible or integrated, inability to process or respond to customer behavior in real time, a reliance on manual intervention for tasks like segmentation, data extraction, campaign deployment, and poor scalability. If the stack struggles with growing data volumes or expanding to new channels, it won’t support the company’s evolving needs. 6. What role do hyper-personalization and timely communication play in a successful customer engagement strategy? How do you ensure they’re built into the technology roadmap? Hyper-personalization and timely communication are essential components of a successful customer engagement strategy because they create meaningful, relevant, and impactful experiences that deepen the relationship with customers, enhance loyalty, and drive business outcomes. Hyper-personalization leverages data to deliver tailored content that resonates with each individual based on their preferences, behavior, or past interactions, and timely communication ensures these personalized interactions occur at the most relevant moments, which ultimately increases their impact. Customers are more likely to engage with messages that feel relevant and align with their needs, and real-time triggers such as cart abandonment or post-purchase upsells capitalize on moments when customers are most likely to convert. By embedding these capabilities into the roadmap through data integration, AI-driven insights, automation, and continuous optimization, we can deliver impactful, relevant, and timely experiences that foster deeper customer relationships and drive long-term success. 7. What’s your approach to breaking down the customer engagement technology roadmap into manageable phases? How do you prioritize the initiatives? To create a manageable roadmap, we need to divide it into distinct phases, starting with building the foundation by addressing data cleanup, system integrations, and establishing metrics, which lays the groundwork for success. Next, we can focus on early wins and quick impact by launching behavior-based campaigns, automating workflows, and improving personalization to drive immediate value. Then we can move to optimization and expansion, incorporating predictive analytics, cross-channel orchestration, and refined attribution models to enhance our capabilities. Finally, prioritize innovation and scalability, leveraging AI/ML for hyper-personalization, scaling campaigns to new markets, and ensuring the system is equipped for future growth. By starting with foundational projects, delivering quick wins, and building towards scalable innovation, we can drive measurable outcomes while maintaining our agility to adapt to evolving needs. In terms of prioritizing initiatives effectively, I would focus on projects that deliver the greatest impact on business goals, on customer experience and ROI, while we consider feasibility, urgency, and resource availability. In the past, I’ve used frameworks like Impact Effort Matrix to identify the high-impact, low-effort initiatives and ensure that the most critical projects are addressed first. 8. How do you ensure cross-functional alignment around this roadmap? What processes have worked best for you? Ensuring cross-functional alignment requires clear communication, collaborative planning, and shared accountability. We need to establish a shared understanding of the roadmap’s purpose and how it ties to the company’s overall goals by clearly articulating the “why” behind the roadmap and how each team can contribute to its success. To foster buy-in and ensure the roadmap reflects diverse perspectives and needs, we need to involve all stakeholders early on during the roadmap development and clearly outline each team’s role in executing the roadmap to ensure accountability across the different teams. To keep teams informed and aligned, we use meetings such as roadmap kickoff sessions and regular check-ins to share updates, address challenges collaboratively, and celebrate milestones together. 9. If you were to outline a simple framework for marketers to follow when building a customer engagement technology roadmap, what would it look like? A simple framework for marketers to follow when building the roadmap can be summarized in five clear steps: Plan, Audit, Prioritize, Execute, and Refine. In one word: PAPER. Here’s how it breaks down. Plan: We lay the groundwork for the roadmap by defining the CRM strategy and aligning it with the business goals. Audit: We evaluate the current state of our CRM capabilities. We conduct a comprehensive assessment of our tools, our data, the processes, and team workflows to identify any potential gaps. Prioritize: initiatives based on impact, feasibility, and ROI potential. Execute: by implementing the roadmap in manageable phases. Refine: by continuously improving CRM performance and refining the roadmap. So the PAPER framework — Plan, Audit, Prioritize, Execute, and Refine — provides a structured, iterative approach allowing marketers to create a scalable and impactful customer engagement strategy. 10. What are the most common challenges marketers face in creating or executing a customer engagement strategy, and how can they address these effectively? The most critical is when the customer data is siloed across different tools and platforms, making it very difficult to get a unified view of the customer. This limits the ability to deliver personalized and consistent experiences. The solution is to invest in tools that can centralize data from all touchpoints and ensure seamless integration between different platforms to create a single source of truth. Another challenge is the lack of clear metrics and ROI measurement and the inability to connect engagement efforts to tangible business outcomes, making it very hard to justify investment or optimize strategies. The solution for that is to define clear KPIs at the outset and use attribution models to link customer interactions to revenue and other key outcomes. Overcoming internal silos is another challenge where there is misalignment between teams, which can lead to inconsistent messaging and delayed execution. A solution to this is to foster cross-functional collaboration through shared goals, regular communication, and joint planning sessions. Besides these, other challenges marketers can face are delivering personalization at scale, keeping up with changing customer expectations, resource and budget constraints, resistance to change, and others. While creating and executing a customer engagement strategy can be challenging, these obstacles can be addressed through strategic planning, leveraging the right tools, fostering collaboration, and staying adaptable to customer needs and industry trends. By tackling these challenges proactively, marketers can deliver impactful customer-centric strategies that drive long-term success. 11. What are the top takeaways or lessons that you’ve learned from building customer engagement technology roadmaps that others should keep in mind? I would say one of the most important takeaways is to ensure that the roadmap directly supports the company’s broader objectives. Whether the focus is on retention, customer lifetime value, or revenue growth, the roadmap must bridge the gap between high-level business goals and actionable initiatives. Another important lesson: The roadmap is only as effective as the data and systems it’s built upon. I’ve learned the importance of prioritizing foundational elements like data cleanup, integrations, and governance before tackling advanced initiatives like personalization or predictive analytics. Skipping this step can lead to inefficiencies or missed opportunities later on. A Customer Engagement Roadmap is a strategic tool that evolves alongside the business and its customers. So by aligning with business goals, building a solid foundation, focusing on impact, fostering collaboration, and remaining adaptable, you can create a roadmap that delivers measurable results and meaningful customer experiences.     This interview Q&A was hosted with Mirela Cialai, Director of CRM & MarTech at Equinox, for Chapter 7 of The Customer Engagement Book: Adapt or Die. Download the PDF or request a physical copy of the book here. The post Mirela Cialai Q&A: Customer Engagement Book Interview appeared first on MoEngage. #mirela #cialai #qampampa #customer #engagement

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 series is expected to make its debut later this year alongside the next-generation foldables. As we wait for the official unveil, renders of the purported smartwatches have surfaced which corroborate previous leaks and suggest that Samsung could bring the unique “Squircle” design of the Galaxy Watch Ultra to other models this year. According to a report, a total of three smartwatches may be launched as part of the Galaxy Watch 8 lineup.Squircle Design of Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 SeriesAndroid Headlines shared exclusive renders of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 series in a report. The publication claims that three smartwatches will be introduced this year — Galaxy Watch 8, Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, and a Galaxy Watch Ultra successor, and all three models will sport a squircle design which debuted last year with the Galaxy Watch Ultra.Photo Credit: Android HeadlinesIt is expected to comprise a circular display housed inside a square dial. Renders also suggest that the standard Galaxy Watch 8 will have a two-button design, while the Watch 8 Classic and 2025 Watch Ultra models could be equipped with three buttons, including a Quick button which may be accented in a different colour.Notably, it is a customisable button which is designed to toggle a workout mode or for playing a siren on the Galaxy Watch Ultra.The purported Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is also shown sporting a rotating physical dial, similar to other Classic models of the past. This usually gives it a more traditional watch aesthetic while retaining smartwatch functionality.This report corroborates a previous discovery in the animation files of the leaked One UI 8 Watch which hinted towards the implementation of the squircle design across Samsung's next generation Galaxy Watch lineup. The unreleased firmware contained references of two smartwatches — the Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic. Further, the report also suggested that the smartwatches could also benefit from stronger vibrations, aided by extended vibration pattern support akin to the flagship Galaxy Watch Ultra. #leaked #samsung #galaxy #watch #series

Meet Martha Swope, the Legendary Broadway Photographer Who Captured Iconic Moments From Hundreds of Productions and Rehearsals She spent nearly 40 years taking theater and dance pictures, providing glimpses behind the scenes and creating images that the public couldn’t otherwise access Stephanie Rudig - Freelance Writer June 11, 2025 Photographer Martha Swope sitting on a floor covered with prints of her photos in 1987 Andrea Legge / © NYPL Martha Swope wanted to be a dancer. She moved from her home state of Texas to New York to attend the School of American Ballet, hoping to start a career in dance. Swope also happened to be an amateur photographer. So, in 1957, a fellow classmate invited her to bring her camera and document rehearsals for a little theater show he was working on. The classmate was director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, and the show was West Side Story. One of those rehearsal shots ended up in Life magazine, and Swope quickly started getting professional bookings. It’s notoriously tough to make it on Broadway, but through photography, Swope carved out a career capturing theater and dance. Over the course of nearly four decades, she photographed hundreds more rehearsals, productions and promotional studio shots. Unidentified male chorus members dancing during rehearsals for musical West Side Story in 1957 Martha Swope / © NYPL At a time when live performances were not often or easily captured, Swope’s photographs caught the animated moments and distilled the essence of a show into a single image: André De Shields clad in a jumpsuit as the title character in The Wiz, Patti LuPone with her arms raised overhead in Evita, the cast of Cats leaping in feline formations, a close-up of a forlorn Sheryl Lee Ralph in Dreamgirls and the row of dancers obscuring their faces with their headshots in A Chorus Line were all captured by Swope’s camera. She was also the house photographer for the New York City Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company and photographed other major dance companies such as the Ailey School. Her vision of the stage became fairly ubiquitous, with Playbill reporting that in the late 1970s, two-thirds of Broadway productions were photographed by Swope, meaning her work dominated theater and dance coverage. Carol Rosegg was early in her photography career when she heard that Swope was looking for an assistant. “I didn't frankly even know who she was,” Rosegg says. “Then the press agent who told me said, ‘Pick up any New York Times and you’ll find out.’” Swope’s background as a dancer likely equipped her to press the shutter at the exact right moment to capture movement, and to know when everyone on stage was precisely posed. She taught herself photography and early on used a Brownie camera, a simple box model made by Kodak. “She was what she described as ‘a dancer with a Brownie,’” says Barbara Stratyner, a historian of the performing arts who curated exhibitions of Swope’s work at the New York Public Library. An ensemble of dancers in rehearsal for the stage production Cats in 1982 Martha Swope / © NYPL “Dance was her first love,” Rosegg says. “She knew everything about dance. She would never use a photo of a dancer whose foot was wrong; the feet had to be perfect.” According to Rosegg, once the photo subjects knew she was shooting, “the anxiety level came down a little bit.” They knew that they’d look good in the resulting photos, and they likely trusted her intuition as a fellow dancer. Swope moved with the bearing of a dancer and often stood with her feet in ballet’s fourth position while she shot. She continued to take dance classes throughout her life, including at the prestigious Martha Graham School. Stratyner says, “As Graham got older,was, I think, the only person who was allowed to photograph rehearsals, because Graham didn’t want rehearsals shown.” Photographic technology and the theater and dance landscapes evolved greatly over the course of Swope’s career. Rosegg points out that at the start of her own career, cameras didn’t even automatically advance the film after each shot. She explains the delicate nature of working with film, saying, “When you were shooting film, you actually had to compose, because you had 35 shots and then you had to change your film.” Swope also worked during a period of changing over from all black-and-white photos to a mixture of black-and-white and color photography. Rosegg notes that simultaneously, Swope would shoot black-and-white, and she herself would shoot color. Looking at Swope’s portfolio is also an examination of increasingly crisp photo production. Advances in photography made shooting in the dark or capturing subjects under blinding stage lights easier, and they allowed for better zooming in from afar. Martha Graham rehearses dancer Takako Asakawa and others in Heretic, a dance work choreographed by Graham, in 1986 Martha Swope / © NYPL It’s much more common nowadays to get a look behind the curtain of theater productions via social media. “The theater photographers of today need to supply so much content,” Rosegg says. “We didn’t have any of that, and getting to go backstage was kind of a big deal.” Photographers coming to document a rehearsal once might have been seen as an intrusion, but now, as Rosegg puts it, “everybody is desperate for you to come, and if you’re not there, they’re shooting it on their iPhone.” Even with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the hottest tickets in town and the biggest stars of the day, Swope remained unpretentious. She lived and worked in a brownstone with her apartment above her studio, where the film was developed in a closet and the bathroom served as a darkroom. Rosegg recalls that a phone sat in the darkroom so they could be reached while printing, and she would be amazed at the big-name producers and theater glitterati who rang in while she was making prints in an unventilated space. From left to right: Paul Winfield, Ruby Dee, Marsha Jackson and Denzel Washington in the stage production Checkmates in 1988 Martha Swope / © NYPL Swope’s approachability extended to how she chose to preserve her work. She originally sold her body of work to Time Life, and, according to Stratyner, she was unhappy with the way the photos became relatively inaccessible. She took back the rights to her collection and donated it to the New York Public Library, where many photos can be accessed by researchers in person, and the entire array of photos is available online to the public in the Digital Collections. Searching “Martha Swope” yields over 50,000 items from more than 800 productions, featuring a huge variety of figures, from a white-suited John Travolta busting a disco move in Saturday Night Fever to Andrew Lloyd Webber with Nancy Reagan at a performance of Phantom of the Opera. Swope’s extensive career was recognized in 2004 with a special Tony Award, a Tony Honors for Excellence in Theater, which are given intermittently to notable figures in theater who operate outside of traditional awards categories. She also received a lifetime achievement award from the League of Professional Theater Women in 2007. Though she retired in 1994 and died in 2017, her work still reverberates through dance and Broadway history today. For decades, she captured the fleeting moments of theater that would otherwise never be seen by the public. And her passion was clear and straightforward. As she once told an interviewer: “I’m not interested in what’s going on on my side of the camera. I’m interested in what’s happening on the other side.” Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox. #meet #martha #swope #legendary #broadway