Behind the Scenes at Pure Sound - Starkey Expo 2018

Starkey Hearing Innovation Expo's are always amazing and inspirational learning events.  The events are designed to invigorate the hearing provider community to fulfill our mission of helping people hear better in the best possible way.  

The events are very large, with over 3,000 attendees from over 40 countries, and are held in Las Vegas, NV.  Keynote speakers range from Astronauts and neurologists to former US presidents and Super Bowl champions.  Speakers this year included:
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• Bill Austin, Founder of Starkey
• Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister of Great Britain
• George W. Bush, Former US President 
• George Blankenship, Executive at Apple, Tesla, and Gap
• Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO
• Daymond John, FUBU founder and co star of ABC's Shark Tank 
• Michio Kaku, World famous physicist, author, and TV personality
• Mark and Scott Kelly, Twin brother astronauts 
• Condoleezza Rice, Former Secretary of State
• Michael Strahan, Super Bowl Champion, Emmy Winner, and co host of Good Morning America
• Starkey Dr's, Audiologist's, Engineers, and Leaders

Here are a few of the behind the scenes pictures we took from our phones along with details for each one. 

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Here we are, Chrissy and Sean from Pure Sound with our Starkey reps, Michelle and Carrie from Starkey.

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Bill Austin, Starkey Founder, is an inspiring philanthropist who share the following with us: 

• The importance of generosity and helping others.
• The leverage of the hand of many can impact the world.
• The goal of the Starkey Foundation on their next mission is to fit 20,000 hearing devices in 8 days, which would be a Guinness world record!

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George W. Bush and Tony Blair, Former US President and British Prime Minister

These former heads of state spoke of leadership during tough times, as well as other topics.  They were very entertaining and provided many insights, such as the importance of a leader having a vision and sticking with it.  It was an unbelievable experience to see these two historic individuals in person.

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George Blankenship, Executive at Apple, Tesla, and Gap
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As an executive at Gap Apple and Tesla, George Blankenship reported directly to Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.  He spoke about the importance of constant product improvement and delighting your customers along the way.  His speech was both informative and invigorating. 

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​Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, LinkExchange Founder, New York Times best selling author, and Harvard Grad

Tony has led the effort to revitalize downtown Las Vegas.  He spoke about the importance of community involvement and the best ways to get involved.  He also spoke about “delivering happiness” to the customer by creating a great company culture.

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Daymond John, FUBU founder, co star of ABC's Shark Tank, and Starkey hearing device wearer.

Against all odds, Daymond John built a $5 billion global fashion powerhouse from his mother's house in Hollis, Queens.  He shared insights from his all-American journey and how to achieve your goals.

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Dr. Michio Kaku, World famous Theoretical Physicist,  and TV personality.

​Dr. Kaku provided insight into Artificial Intelligence and how it will completely reshape our world in the very near future. 

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Captains Mark and Scott Kelly​ are American astronauts and identical twin brothers.  They gave us an inspirational talk about the importance of teamwork and determination.  
They both struggled in flight school, but were determined to overcome their deficiencies through hard work and practice. They not only became attack and fighter pilots, but went on to become astronauts.

Additionally, one brother commanded and piloted the space station while the other has logged the most time in space.

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Condoleezza Rice, Former U.S. Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice has a long list of accomplishments.  She served as the 66th U.S. Secretary of State,  the second woman and first African American woman to hold the post.  She was also the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor. She is currently  professor of Political Science at Stanford University, and was voted the most powerful woman in world by Forbes.  

Dr. Rice grew up in segregated Birmingham. Alabama.  She spoke about how her parents attitude and motivation helped her overcome obstacles.  She also spoke about  American exceptionalism and how American businesses, like Starkey, are naturally inclined to help those in need around the world. 

Dr. Rice also made the following point:

• America is held together by the idea that you can do great things...despite our differences.
• About Starkey and their philanthropy impulse to do good around the world.
• Her parents advice included: to make it in life her goal must be to be twice as good as everyone else, there are no victims, don't let others prejudice be your problem, you cannot always control your situation but you should control your response to your situation
• Her parents also told her not to worry if someone does not want to sit next to her because of her skin color, as long as they move 
• Accept criticism to be a great leader

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Michael Strahan co-hosts ABC’s Good Morning America and serves as an analyst for Fox NFL Sunday.  He is an Emmy winner and Super Bowl Champion.

He was here to talk about attitude.  He shared the following points:

• He wakes up happy and excited to engage with people and inspire everyday.
• Make your mind up to make positive changes and work hard with that purpose to achieve them.  Having the purpose of helping people improve themselves is the best feeling you can have.
• Use the defining moments in your life, good or bad, to learn, grow, and improve.
• Make your job fun because the only thing you can control is your attitude.
• Make others lives better and enjoy life.
• Work hard with a purpose, be a good teammate, be kind, expect to be successful.
• Change the word “if” to “when”.
• It’s okay to be scared to death doing something.  Michael said he’s scared to host GMA everyday and he’s scared to give the speech he’s giving today.  Turn that fear into energy and use it to inspire.

• Do it yourself, no one owes you a thing.  You have to find your own way.
• Be bold and brave, but be happy.

​Chrissy, our Pure Sound Specialist from Mount Joy, being interviewed on camera about Starkey’s new products and this year’s expo.

Brandon Sawalich is the president of Starkey Hearing Technologies.  He hosted the expo and spoke about Starkey's future, as well as the bright future of the hearing technology industry. 

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Dr. Achin Bhowmik came to Starkey from Intel, where he was vice president of Perceptual Computing.  He joined Starkey because he felt he could apply his experience with enhancing machine perception to augment the human experience through hearing devices. 

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Dr. Martin McKinney, Starkey Principal Research Engineer, and Chris Howe, Senior Software Product Manager, explain how new aids will use machine learning algorithms to improve hearing aid performance.

In this classroom training we learned:

• How hearing aid specialists can better program Starkey hearing aids to automatically adjust to wind noise, music, and restaurant noise.  
• How artificial intelligence in better hearing aids can now learn to discriminate phonemes for better voice recognition.
• How hearing aids connected to smart phones allow data collection to the cloud for better hearing.
• How the hearing aids will be able to use the internet cloud to harness powerful computers to collect and use data to improve the aids for optimal use in different environments.  The cloud will provide hearing aid access to large powerful computers, while remaining small.
• An example of hearing aids using the cloud would be:
  • A hearing aid could be adjusted via smartphone linked to a hearing care providers office when the wearer is at a difficult environment like a hockey game.  If the wearer likes the new adjustment, they could hit the “like” button in their smartphone.  
  • When the user enters this hockey stadium in the future, the hearing device will automatically change programs to the “hockey stadium” program.
  • Also, this information is stored in the cloud.  Providers can access these setting and match them to other wearers with similar hearing loss and preferences, to provide the best hearing possible.
  • Additionally, the wearer can ask the smart phone to “make an adjustment”.  The hearing device can access stored settings from the cloud.  The user rates it and either tries again or uses the settings.  The results go into the cloud for future wearer adjustments.
  • This improvement will give immediate satisfaction.

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Carol Olson, from Starkey,  spoke about the importance of the human experience with a hearing professional compared to the over the counter approach to fitting hearing aids.  Studies show human interaction is required for better outcomes across the medical industry.  Starkey is committed to supporting hearing device providers with the best resources and training so Starkey wearers have the best hearing experience possible.

Dr. Sara Burdack, Au.D., Starkey's Chief Audiology Officer,  lectures on how to best facilitate the collaboration of healthcare providers and patients, when the provider is considered a colleague or advisor.  
In this lecture we discussed the best ways to help the digitally empowered patient:

• Use a patient's input to help offer the best solutions, recommendations, and advice.
• Help sort through online accuracies and inaccuracies.
• How to help guide patients who have specific product requests, gathered through online research, that do not fit the hearing profile.

Lisa Richards is in charge of the customer experience at Starkey.  

She shared key insights on the keys to delivering a great customer experience.
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We learned so much from this event and were honored to be invited.  Starkey is a company with a soul and truly care about their providers and those who are fit with their devices. 

If you are interested in finding out more about how Starkey Hearing Technology can help you or a loved one, please contact Pure Sound today.