Starkey Hearing Innovations Expo 2016: Leading with impact and purpose

With audiologists and business owners from morethan 40 countries, this global gathering has firmlyestablished itself in the audiology calendar as a‘must go to’ event.

Starkey Hearing Technologies InnovationsExpo in Las Vegas has been confirmedby Brandon Sawalich as a biennial event,that’s here to stay. The first Expo in 2012was about inspiring new thinking, andpushing the boundaries. Then in January2014 more than 3,000 delegates were “Inspired to takeaction.” Brandon Sawalich, Senior Vice President ofSales and Marketing at Starkey said at the time, “Theoverall purpose, whether 2012 or 2014 or beyond, is tobring together a group of likeminded people that arehere for the greater good of better hearing.” And so to2016 and 3,200 hearing healthcare professionals areback in the room. Some have been at all three events,for others it was their first time.

Hollywood actor, Ben Affleck, two former US Presidents– George W Bush and Bill Clinton – former basketballstar, turned business man, Magic Johnson and allfour ‘sharks’ from the US television show Shark Tankwere the household names who provided keynotespeeches or participated in Q&A sessions. In addition,there were 20 plus industry speakers with Nina Krausand Anu Sharma leading the audiology line up andmany American hearing healthcare professionalssharing best practice from their businesses. Morethan 50 Starkey presenters covered a huge range ofsubjects. Whether you wanted to know about the latestor future technology, social media for your practice, adifferent perspective on pricing strategies, the uptakeof wireless in the US, getting the most of our youremployees or tracking your marketing, every area ofbusiness was covered.

Hear better. Live better.

This year’s Expo was focused on ‘leading withimpact’. With the Expo designed as “A launching padfor concepts, innovations and new ideas,” BrandonSawalich described the event as “The dream teammeeting,” with a line-up of world-famous speakers anda roomful of business owners able to create their ownfuture. Each day would have a different focus. Day onewould be about the science and innovations in hearing healthcare, day two would focus on the market place,with social media, marketing and the art of selling! Thefinal day at Expo would be all about valuable role ofpurpose in business. “We want to educate and inspireyou,” Sawalich said.

Talking about innovation and idea implementation, thefirst featured speaker was Mike Maddock. He was ableto immediately split the room into two camps, explainingthat people were either “Idea Monkeys or Ring Leaders.”According to Starkey, a Twitter poll of attendees didindeed split down the middle with 50% saying theywere an idea monkey and 50% claiming to be a ringleader! Describing himself as a writer, an inventor and achampion for revolutionary innovation, his talk focusedon inspiring and empowering creativity in yourselfand your team. An entrepreneur who has worked withmultiple international businesses inspiring new ideas,Maddock will be working with Starkey this year.

The Dash partnership

A surprise announcement at the expo came from thenext speaker. Tim Trine, Starkey’s Chief TechnicalOfficer broke the news of the Company’s partnershipwith Bragi. Bragi is the company behind one of themost successful Kickstarter products – “The Dash” –described as the world’s first true hearable device.Nikolaj Hviid, President of Bragi, took to the stage totell his story. Fed up with his existing company, Hviidsold his business to “Do something different”. The“Different” that was created was The Dash, a hearablethat Hviid says allows freedom of movement, “Amazingsound and maximum comfort.” This wireless productfeatures an eartouch interface, audio transparency,biometric sensors to monitor heart rate, bluetoothheadset, standalone music player and fitness tracker.This is supported by a ‘virtual personal assistant.”Nikolaj Hviid said, “The Dash entertains you, enablesyou and protects you.” He gave a glimpse in to thefuture possibilities with the technology and the Bragi/Starkey partnership.

“Starkey and Bragi have a shared vision thathearing aids and hearables can empower peopleto communicate and enhance their abilities,” Bragifounder Nicolaj Hviid said. “The partnership betweenthe two companies creates immense value for ourrespective customers. Bragi’s advanced integrationof sensorics provides tremendous value to hearing aid consumers, while Starkey’s invaluable knowledgeof advanced audio processing and psychoacousticsexpands Bragi’s potential to enable people to utilizecontextual computing audible interfaces.”

In a series of ‘Spark’ talks of innovative ideas in actionSimon Carlile, Brian Dobson and Tim Trine providedtechnology-focused presentations about existing and future capabilities in cognition, hearing and products.Dr Simon Carlile is Senior Director of Research, leadingthe Starkey Research team in Berkley, California. Hisfifteen minutes focused on the future capabilities of theindustry with the progression of Moore’s Law and theinternet of things. Manager of Mechanical Engineering,Brian Dobson talked about the current situation andfuture growth of 3D printing with the industry worthbillions of dollars in just a few short years. Hearingaid manufacturers have been at the forefront of 3Dprinting, using this technology to make earmoulds forover 10 years now. The future of 3D printing is bothexciting and scary in equal measure as you can print aprosthetic limb or a gun…

‘Made for Life’

The second big announcement came from Tim Trineas he provided a sneak preview of the new productscoming from Starkey in March. ‘Synergy’ with AcuityOS is the new product platform, there is a new productline called Muse, a SoundLens upgrade and additionalfunctionality in the Halo2. The Synergy platformfeatures an extended bandwidth upto 10kHz whichis essential for the new music algorithm, an algorithmwhich Tim Trine described as “Incredible.” A newwireless CROS/BiCROS product, TruLink 3.0, TruLinkBeacons, 24 channels and bands on the premiumproduct range, an MPO Boost, MultiFlex Tinnitusincluded in Synergy products and new SurfLinkproducts are a taste of things to come in March.

Trine then took his presentation one stage further bytalking about listener intent in future products. Wewon’t need EEGs to read a listener’s mind or intent,we can use their eyes. Ocular movements couldwell feature in some format in future hearing aidtechnology and a demonstration of this was availablein the Innovations Centre during the Expo. Finally hespoke about the rechargeable hearing aids that will becoming next year from Starkey.

Following an expertly-handled Q&A session by Dave Fabry with ‘Shark Tank’ millionaire entrepreneurs,delegates spread out across 13 breakout sessions foran afternoon of audiology, technology and research.Nina Kraus and Anu Sharma provided stimulatingaudiology presentations.www.brainvolts.northwestern.edu is the place to find the research work of Kraus andher department. Those delegates not in presentations,spent time in the solutions hall, finding out aboutthe new products at the Genius Bar or exploring theInnovations Centre.

The first day at Expo was closed by keynote speaker,Peter Diamandis. Bestselling author, founder of the XPrize and named by Fortune Magazine as one of “TheWorld’s 50 Greatest Leaders”, Diamandis inspireddelegates with his positive take on life and enthusiasmfor future achievements. He encouraged everyone tohave “Moonshots!” One of Diamandis’ moonshots isto extend the healthy human lifespan, so he partneredwith the human genome finder, created HumanLongevity Inc and is aiming to “Make 100 the new 60.”As part of this business, they have created the largesthuman genome sequencing centre in the world! HisX Prize competitions are changing the world. Theyregularly offer millions of dollars in prizes for winninginnovators who frequently spend far more than thecash prize to achieve the goal!

Don’t worry about the competition

To help delegates lead in their market, the second dayat the Innovations Expo covered sales and marketingtools. To cheers from the thousands of independent business owners in the auditorium, Brandon Sawalichsaid, “You will never see Starkey Hearing Technologiesworking through Big Box, competing against you, ourcustomers.” He urged the audience to “Control whatyou can control, don’t worry about the competition.”Randi Zuckerberg of Zuckerberg Media used to runthemarketing department for her little brother’s companyfrom 2005 to 2011. When she joined her brother’scompany there were a few dozen employees, when sheleft Facebook in 2011 there were more than 10,000. In an enthusiastic hour Zuckerberg talked through thefast-paced history of Facebook and social media.Now she is independent, she is able to go through hersocial media top five that businesses should be using:Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitterto spread their messages. She followed this with hertop tech trends and finished by extolling the virtuesof ‘unplugging’ from technology and then she sang asong!

The ear is the new wrist

Starkey has a new global marketing and innovationadvisor. Satjiv Chahil has been in the leadershipteams of Apple, Palm and HP and has advisedcompanies such as Beats by Dre, BMW and Sonyand now he is working with Starkey. Chahil wasinstrumental in the initiating the partnership betweenBragi and Starkey. “The potential for Starkey andBragi to transform the way customers enjoy music andentertainment, understand and manage their healthand communicate with the world is inspiring,” Chahilsaid. “The next generation of wearables and hearableshas the potential to be ubiquitous.”

Chahil named 2016 “The year of the ear” and has setgoals to achieve including creating global awareness,reframing perceptions, making hearing tests a part ofthe health routine and removing barriers to purchase.He wants to see a fifth ‘P’ added to the four marketing ‘P’s of Price, Product, Place andPromotion. The fifth ‘P’ is Purpose.“Starkey has thousands of stories forsocial purpose.”

Dave Fabry followed Chahil on stageto say the ear is the new wrist! Hegave a whistle-stop tour throughhis time in audiology from 1983when President Reagan was fittedwith hearing aids, to the wearables/hearables of 2016. Fabry believes,“We are on the verge of combiningthe cool factor with the health factor.”With the ear being a much better wayof measuring the body, he statedthat “The ear is the new wrist” forwearable technologies.

“A brand is a promise,” saidCarol Olson, Starkey’s Director ofConsumer and Digital Marketing.“How you make people feel is justas important as what you make.”Starkey wants to become the mostrecognised brand in their sector and so the hardwork of branding has begun. Looking to inspire, buildtrust, educate and help, Starkey has initiated a newmarketing programme with Conde Nast. As one ofthe largest media and publishing houses, Conde Nastreaches more than 100 million consumers throughtheir magazines and websites. Starkey has alsobecome an exclusive partner to WedMD, a websitedevoted to healthcare that has millions of users everyweek. Part of this agreement features a hearing test onthe website with 96% of people taking the test showingsome degree of hearing loss.

Big brother/big data

Continuing the marketing theme was Chri sMcCormick, Starkey VP of Marketing who spoke aboutBig Data. In a world where everything we do, on andoff line is tracked, this man may soon know when youturn the volume up on your TV and will be able to targetmessages about hearing specifically to you. Starkeyis compiling a huge database of people who havepurchased hearing aids or PSAPs. 3 million MSA 30Xsound amplifiers were sold in 2014. That’s just oneproduct, multiply that by the multitude of companiesand products…and you have big data.

Daniel Pink provided the Friday morning keynote. Abestselling author, Pink was named one of the top15 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers 50 in2013 and has spent time as chief speech writer forVice President Al Gore. Focusing on what many see as a ‘dirty’ word, Sales, Pink highlighted that the worldhas changed from “buyer beware” to “seller beware”with the world of sales changing more in the last 10years than in the previous 100. He listed the three keyqualities needed to be an effective sales person as“ABC” – Attunement, Buoyancy and Clarity.

The end of day two saw a return to the Expo for the42nd US President – Bill Clinton. Focusing on thetopic of purpose, Clinton spoke about his ClintonGlobal Initiative and the Starkey Hearing Foundation.He spoke about one of his favourite topics, the butterflyeffect, and also about his flourishing relationshipwith George W. Bush. “We’ve had more argumentsthan you can shake a stick at,” but they now run aleadership development programme together andwork together in many other areas to achieve commonobjectives. He was on good form when taking abouthis wife’s presidential campaign, “When you are expresident,you can say what you want…until your wiferuns for president!”

It’s a kind of magic

The third and final day at Expo was all about leadingwith a purpose and there was another ex-Presidenton the agenda. The day started with Earvin ‘Magic’Johnson who was the biggest surprise for manydelegates. An NBA hall of famer and hugelysuccessful business man, Magic Johnson has a verysimple formula for business; it has to do well and it hasto do good. Honest, passionate and walking amongthe audience, Johnson endeared himself to everyonewith his stories about his poor upbringing but hugesuccess which he is now using to payback in to urbancommunities. He said, “I grew up poor, but I didn’t have poor dreams.” Now with the multimilliondollar turnover from his businesses he openstechnology centres, gives scholarships andhelps grandparents learn to text and email “Asthe kids don’t answer their calls anymore!”Johnson always reinvests in his businesses,in people and technology, he over-deliversto his customers and he gives back in hiscommunities.

Andy Andrews carried on the themes fromBill Clinton and Magic Johnson, referencingthe butterfly effect and customer service.Andrews said he helps business compete at alevel that the competition doesn’t even knowis going on! He told the audience to examinewhat their competition was doing and thenturn around and go the opposite way! “Youwant a customer who is a raving lunatic fan.You can’t advertise against great word ofmouth!”

The morning session finished with DaveFabry and Bill Austin talking about the work of theStarkey Hearing Foundation and working together toachieve great things. Austin said, “We’re going to makedevices that help people live longer and healthier lives.”

“42 yesterday, today 43.”

The final session at the Innovations Expo ended withtwo Q&A sessions. The first featured Stephen Sawalich,Director of Media, talking to actor and philanthropistBen Affleck about his Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI),which he founded in 2009. He described it as the“Thing that I have done that I am most proud of.”The initiative invests in people. People don’t wanthandouts, people want to work, so ECI works oncultural entrepreneurship to help people get back ontheir feet and proud of what they are achieving.

Brandon Sawalich then spent the final session talkingwith George W Bush. They discussed his time inoffice – Bush has a host of stories to tell of his timeas president that feature various heads of state – hemet with Vladimir Putin 28 times so has many talesto tell! He also provided a fascinating break-down of a‘typical’ day in the White House. President Bush alsospoke about how he spends his time now he is nolonger in the Oval office – oil painting, writing books,lectures and global humanitarian initiatives featureheavily. He even described President Clinton as, “Mybrother with a different mother,” when talking abouttheir joint projects and initiatives!

Even after three days of presentations, discussionsand inspiration the Expo was not over yet. The farewellparty featured rock god Sammy Hagar and the BeachBoys at an open air party by the pool on the 4th floorof The Cosmopolitan.