Blockchain explained! The impact on media, business and the bottom line

Posted February 27, 2018

The implications of blockchain technology for media and business will be the subject of an executive briefing in Columbia on March 27. The session — which is intended for senior-level business executives and communicators — is sponsored by the University of South Carolina College of Information and Communications and the Darla Moore School of Business.

The session will have two featured speakers:

Sydney Lai, the head of strategy for ConsenSys, an industry leader in developing protocol-based open platforms. ConsenSys projects drive the Ethereum blockchain.
Joseph Olewitz, the founder and CEO of Virtual Chief Revenue Officer, who has been advocating blockchain and other disruptive technologies since early 2017.

“We are pleased to be able to bring to the Carolinas experts in a disruptive technology expected to revolutionize many aspects of business, media and information flow,” said Tom Reichert, dean of the College of Information and Communications. “We’ll learn the basics of blockchain and how it can be used to make communication more secure as well as how it will change business models and drive revenue,” he explained.

Blockchain is the foundation for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, but it has broader implications. According to The New York Times, blockchain has the potential to displace “much of what we now think of as the internet, while at the same time returning the online world to a more decentralized and egalitarian system.” And a recent article from the Northwestern Business Review asserts that blockchain technology may be just what the journalism industry needs to survive. Read more»

“I am passionate about revenue growth and blockchain is something businesses and all of us need to understand,” said Olewitz. “Sydney Lai is a great speaker, she’s knowledgeable about blockchain and she’s passionate about technology,” he added.

Registration

The first 10 people to register for the briefing will get an early bird rate of $125. Afterward, the rate will increase to $150.

For more information and to register, visit the link below.

Columbia, South Carolina
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
9:30 a.m. - Noon
USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
Room 318
800 Sumter Street

For More Information, Contact:

Terri S. Moorer
USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications
Email: moorert@mailbox.sc.edu
Phone: 803-777-4663

As a digital and product marketer with an award-winning background in sales and business development, Sydney grows products and services users want. Passionate about emerging technologies, she is a VR growth mentor at Upload Collective and now head of business and marketing at Audacy, a space startup.

Sydney has spent the past four years with Techstars mentoring and running accelerator programs, having come across hundreds of startups. She has been named an LGBT Technology Leader by The White House, Office of Science and Technology Policy. She is a TEDx Speaker on creating innovation and has appeared in TechCrunch.

For over 25 years Joseph Olewitz was responsible for revenue growth at major global digital agencies selling services to global brands. He was part of the global management team at the digital agencies USWeb/CKS, marchFIRST and Digitas/LBi.

In 2017, Joseph launched Virtual Chief Revenue Officer (VCRO), an online service business created for entrepreneurs and executives responsible for increasing services revenue in any size business.

Throughout his career, he has been on the leading edge of introducing innovative new digital platforms and is currently engaged in providing CEOs of SMBs with awareness and knowledge about technologies that could provide both opportunities and threats to future revenue growth.

College of Information and Communications