BIO: Wayne Caswell — Technical Marketing & Strategy
As a social entrepreneur, Wayne founded Modern Health Talk, an online community to connect people with low- and high-tech solutions for home healthcare and to help control our nation’s spiraling healthcare costs. He serves as president and senior editor of this rapidly growing bootstrapped venture.
As a consumer advocate, Wayne co-founded .Homeowners of Texas, a nonprofit advocacy for homeowners in the Texas Legislature. In classic “David versus Goliath” style, HOT, in its first year and with no outside funding, took on the powerful lobbyists of a $35 Billion Texas Homebuilding industry and won in a legislative battle at the Capitol. Wayne was instrumental in convincing lawmakers to establish new consumer protection laws and abolish an abusive state agency, the Residential Construction Commission.
And as a technologist, futurist and marketing strategist with IBM, Dell, Siemens and his own consulting firm, Wayne knows the positive effect digital technologies can have on society and the challenges of adopting them. His passions include “Universal Adoption of BIG Broadband” and “Technologies for Home Healthcare and Aging-in-Place.” His vision is “Consumers with Easy access to services and service providers with Equal access to consumers.”
Wayne’s corporate experience, management style and personal outlook began with a 30-year career at IBM that progressed from punch card & computer operator through programming & systems engineering, and into marketing & market strategy. He introduced the company to the emerging Home Systems industry, promoted a unified Home Systems strategy, influenced OS/2 & HomeDirector product development, helped pioneer the Residential Gateway concept & RG standards, and served as the Marketing Chairman of the HomeRF Working Group, an initiative that converged voice, data & entertainment networks.
Wayne spearheaded the first COMDEX Home Networking pavilion, which has continued each year since at both CES and COMDEX. He’s also credited for naming the CONNECTIONS™ conference, which is produced by Parks Associates and the Consumer Electronics Association. The name – which portrays the connection of devices in homes, homes to network services, and the personal connections that come from conference attendees – stuck, was trademarked, and has been used ever since.
Wayne retired from IBM when the company started pulling out of consumer markets and founded CAZITech Consulting, a digital home consulting business. There he helped organizations find and exploit opportunities in broadband, wireless and home networking markets. His services included strategic planning, market & competitive analysis, and market development; and he wrote and spoke often and passionately about causes he believed in.
Wayne’s advocacy began when he worked with a small band of volunteers to successfully lobby the Texas legislature and protect the rights of communities to install municipal networks. He also served on the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee in three working groups: (1) Advanced Technology, (2) Homeland Security, and (3) Rural & Underserved Populations. Although Wayne earned a decent income at CAZITech, it was inconsistent, and he learned hard lessons about the ups & downs of being an independent consultant.
Wayne eventually gave up his consulting business, his BIG Broadband advocacy, and his volunteer position on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee to accept an influential position in Dell Product Group. He served as Messaging Manager for consumer desktop PCs and established consistent product messaging across all media and regions worldwide — messages that inspired sales teams, terrified competitors, captivated customers and increased PC sales and market share. Wayne’s influence at Dell extended well beyond his own products and included development of online learning centers for Family Safty, Home Theater and Home Networking.
Wayne now writes for Modern Health Talk, but a list of his older white papers, articles & presentations is online at CAZITech.com. Included are market research reports on “Home Technology Integration: A Technology Forecast,” “Home Systems: Home Controls,” and “Information Appliances and Pervasive Web Access.”
Wayne holds four degrees including a BS Technology Management from American University. He lives in Austin and is a member of the Austin Wireless Alliance, CABA (Continental Automated Buildings Association), and the World Future Society. An accomplishment that Wayne is especially proud of was to be awarded The Vigil Honor, the highest honor that the Order of the Arrow can bestow upon its members. Wayne received this honor in high school as a Boy Scout, and he values it more than Eagle.
About CAZITech Consulting
CAZITech, which is no longer seeking new clients, offered strategic marketing and management services that included management education, strategic planning, market & competitive analysis, business development, evangelism, communication, and related activities.
CAZITech Vision: An information society where consumers have easy access to services (all services) and service providers have equal access to consumers (all consumers), without worrying about wiring or incumbent competitors that control that infrastructure.
CAZITech Mission: Help organizations discover, analyze, develop, and evangelize new opportunities that exploit truly high-speed broadband networks for a positive impact on societies in the information age.
CAZITech Purpose: Encourage the construction of electronic onramps to an information superhighway that accelerates the benefits of e-commerce, e-government, telecommuting, distance learning, and telemedicine. Where possible, these onramps should provide universal access and support people with special needs. And they should rely on open standards, protocols, APIs, and file formats so no one company gains monopolistic control.
CAZITech Clients: Client organizations are often involved in the deployment or use of broadband, wireless and home networks but need a better understanding of how these various markets are converging, the various market drivers and inhibitors, and the role they can play in the value chain to capture a bigger piece of the pie or accelerate forecasted growth rates to form a larger pie.
Market Segments and Domain Experience:
- Sleep Wellness
- Digital, Mobile & Modern Healthcare
- Broadband Networks
- Data Networks
- Wireless Networks
- Voice Networks
- Entertainment Networks
- Control Networks
- Security Networks
- Home Network Wiring
- Fiber Optic Networks
- Residential Gateways
Contact Info:
| Phone: | 1-512-507-6011 |
| Email: | waynecaswell AT mhealthtalk DOT com |
| Blog: | mhealthtalk.com/articles/ |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/waynecaswell |
| Linkedin: | linkedin.com/in/waynecaswell |
| Facebook: | facebook.com/waynecaswell.austin |
With Age Comes Wisdom
Why are we so quick to discard our seniors from the workforce? Don’t employers know that their experience has significant value that you can’t get from hiring college grads? Why not blend the youthful enthusiasm and energy of millennials with the wisdom of older employees as mentors, of nothing else? Too often, when older workers are laid off because their job was outsourced or replaced with technology, they have a hard time being rehired, just because they’re thought of as being too old and possibly unable to learn new systems or fit into a more vibrant culture. That’s baloney.
With some 40 years of experience, I’m now older and wiser but still am enthusiastic and physically fit. I keep learning new things and pushing new boundaries and am attracted by the intersections of MiniTrends, looking for innovative companies with a promising future and a corporate culture that I can support and believe in, or starting my own.
This is an example of maturity and experience that can’t be found in younger workers — benefits that are especially important for startups and small businesses to help them avoid expensive mistakes. So check out my bio and portfolios. And for other benefits of hiring older workers, see:
- “12 Benefits of Hiring Older Workers” by Stephen Basien and
- “Focus shifts to recruiting older workers” by Alyssa Rosenberg.
Finding PURPOSE in your life
PURPOSE was the topic of a talk I gave last month (10/16/2015) at the LaunchPad job club. It’s one of the largest job clubs in the nation, and they posted this video. The first 15 minutes discussed my journey seeking purpose after IBM and leading to Modern Health Talk. The next 15 minutes was spent on my interest in sleep wellness, and that generated 21 minutes of Q&A afterwards.