Whether you personally love or hate listicles that mention industry influencers and people to watch, you can’t deny the value of knowing who your audience pays attention to. Anyone your audience follows closely and perceives as influential is someone who should be on your radar…

True influence is hard to nail down, so it’s good to look at the big picture and keep these people on your radar: […]

9. Brian Solis, Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group; Author; and Keynote Speaker

Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders, speakers, and published authors in new technology, digital marketing, and culture shifts. He is the author of “X: The Experience When Business Meets Design,” along with three other bestselling books.

VR gives you that Jay-Z feeling, where you could almost high five Knicks and Nets or trip a referee. And while you aren’t seated next to a celebrity and you won’t get a rebound, you can’t get much closer to the action without suiting up. Altimeter Group principal analyst Brian Solis, who literally wrote the book on user experiences (called “X”), says that while the current VR setup may be somewhat isolating, “it’s as good as you can get without being at the game.”

“Innovation centres are corporate attempts at thwarting digital disruption. And companies seeking to manoeuvre disruption usually become the disruptors in their space. With Asia’s dominance in this edition of our research, it’s clear that innovation is becoming globally democratised. Furthermore, by tracking associated technology trends, the focus on AI suggests that the future of corporate innovation will realise new business models, products and processes emanating out of Asia with global effects” said Brian Solis, co-author and principal analyst at Altimeter, a prophet company.

“[Digital nomads] don’t subscribe to the standards of previous generations for what defines happiness, what defines productivity, what defines success. I think they’re freeing themselves from the shackles of previous generations,” says Brian Solis, a self-described digital anthropologist and principal analyst at technology research firm Altimeter Group, which is part of the marketing firm Prophet Company. He is also the author of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design.

Insights from a crowdsourced panel of 100 financial services leaders, industry analysts and banking providers from around the world [including Brian Solis]

“More than ever, the mobile apps that become the ‘Uber of banking’ are becoming the minimum ante to compete in a connected economy. Technology aside, I believe that 2017 is a year that calls for transparency in banking, operations and customer engagement. The prophecy is coming true; we do in fact live in interesting times. Customers and employees are evolving – and how they think about banking, money and success is deviating from the old normal. It’s time for leaders to disrupt themselves before the gift of disruption is given to them by someone else.”

ContactMonkey scoured the web and handpicked 10 of the best marketing blogs to follow as you get ready to tackle 2017…
#10. Brian Solis is an award-winning author, blogger and speaker. And while a lot of people in this industry claim to be experts, not all of them have a combined social media following of over half a million people. Solis’ outstanding blog is a must-read and is regularly ranked as one of the world’s leading marketing and business blogs.

Social media, especially around election time, has a tendency to become an “ugly soapbox” for people of all political leanings, Brian Solis, principal analyst at the research firm Altimeter Group, told CIO: “It brings out the darker side of digital introverts in that we are willing to say anything … without logically thinking about its impact on what’s reality and what people will think about us beyond this election.”

Twitter in particular, which does not require users to use a real name or photo and allows any user to tag any other user in a tweet, has allowed those wishing to spread racist, sexist, or anti-Semitic messages to more easily attract the attention of high-profile figures.

Airbnb is also offering “social impact experiences,” hosted by nonprofits, in which all proceeds from the activity go to the nonprofits without Airbnb taking a cut. Initially, “experiences” will be available in 12 cities: Detroit, London, Paris, Nairobi, Havana, San Francisco, Cape Town, Florence, Miami, Seoul, Tokyo and Los Angeles. But Airbnb plans to add more than 50 cities in the next year.

“Dominant hoteliers such as Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt built their reputations on ensuring that guests could expect consistently, predictable experiences anywhere in the world, but connected consumers now want the opposite of that,” said Brian Solis, principal analyst for Altimeter Group. “As much as Airbnb commercialized personal space, the real play was to get to the root of what consumers really want…experiences.”

Even if this idea never comes to market, it won’t necessarily be a failure, said Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group and an expert on corporate innovation. Airbus, he noted, is one of many corporations that has set up a Silicon Valley outpost in hopes its California-based employees can “sort of breathe the air and drink the water to create new products.”

Sometimes the innovation centers do not not produce viable products, and the corporation still benefits, Solis said.

“Digital transformation is one of those terms that is open to interpretation. So, if you’re in IT, it’s about modernizing the infrastructure –moving to the cloud, changing operations, apps, and processes– to accommodate how to do business in a digital economy. If you’re in Marketing, it’s about understanding the new customer and investing in customer experience. If you’re in Service or Support, it’s looking at optimizing loyalty or CRM. But it’s actually all these things, right? I think this is where digital transformation has its greatest promise…”