Described as a doyen of digital technology and marketing, Anurag Chakradhar has an innate ability to demystify the online space and create fine digital experiences. As speaker to forums such as Coraggio, iStrategy and ADMA, Anurag successfully joins the lateral with the rational to help leaders harness the power of digital technology.
Anurag grew up in New Delhi in an illustrious creative family of acclaimed poets and musicians. He came to Australia to complete a masters degree in digital media at the University of Sydney, and in 1999 joined the first online marketing boom. Over the next few years he worked at leading digital marketing and ad agencies including Ogilvy & Mather and Y&R. As director of digital at MercerBell, Anurag delivered online marketing strategy for corporates such as MasterCard and Adobe.
In 2005, Anurag started Thinkun, with a vision to create a ‘quick response digital agency’ that would bring to SMEs the process, quality and depth of service typically enjoyed by larger organisations. In a decade working with clients including ABC, SBS, Mark Webber, GoGet, Red Balloon and L'Oréal amongst many others, Thinkun has provided award-winning digital solutions that astutely marry a dynamic digital experience with tangible results.
Most recently, Anurag has founded Blrt - a groundbreaking new communications platform that recreates the way people collaborate in a meeting - without the need for an actual meeting that has a time and a place. Participants can talk, point and draw over websites, images and documents and create cross-platform conversations in the cloud - all in their own time.
Blrt's unique patent pending technology provides a high resolution video-like user experience at a fraction of the bandwidth of video. Instead of having to react on the spot, participants can respond in their own time while maintaining conversational continuity and communication clarity by capturing hand gestures like pointing, zooming and drawing in sync with their voice. Anurag can’t wait to send the first Blrt back from Antarctica.
AntarcticaUnstoppables expedition to use communications app Blrt
Blrt, an Australian-developed communications tool, will be used to produce and transmit a daily chronicle of the Unstoppables’ Antarctic expedition, as well as be available to participants. According to organisers, Blrt will be put to the ultimate test given the extreme scarcity and cost of Internet and phone in Antarctica. The expedition will see more than 100 of Australia’s top business minds participate in what may be the world’s most unique think tank experience. Blrtwill allow these entrepreneurs to work around exorbitant communications charges ($130 for 100 MBs)and patchy service, especially as many of them will need to continue to manage their companies from this incredibly challenging environment and time zone.
Blrt will allow participants to send interactive, video-like messages back home, while using only a fraction of the bandwidth required by other methods. According to Anurag Chakradhar, Blrt inventor and founder, video is nearly impossible to stream from Antarctica, but Blrtswill travel without much of an issue and can even generate a broadcast-quality experience.
“We are excited to provide this platform for Unstoppables in the ultimate Internet-hostileenvironment. For us this is extreme proof of concept, and we are confident that Blrt will perform well and earn its place as the primary communications tool for this expedition,” said Chakradhar.
Chakradhar said that cloud-based Blrt harnesses voice, gesture and image in a novel way so that it hasthe look and feel of video while being data light (a few hundred kilobytes instead of hundreds of megabytes). He said the app enables people in different locations and time zones to be able to meet on their own time and terms, and anticipates that the Antarctic trip which is focused on the kind of collaboration that will drive innovation in Australia and New Zealandwill benefit from this core feature.
Chakradhar said that his team had fast-tracked development of features that make Blrt much more shareable via social media and across the web. Any member of the public can participate and get rolling updates by visiting website.
“Unstoppables members will be able to send dailyBlrts back home without worrying about the huge costs associated with internet use in far-flungplaces like Antarctica,” he said. “"Most approaches focus on real-time communication, but the real issue is real-time availability. Blrt solves that problem which is critical because teams are incredibly geo-distributed now and no one works the way they used to anymore.”
Event organisers agreed, saying that this kind of real-time testing of new technology embodied the spirit of entrepreneurship at the heart of the Unstoppables expedition while also providing a valuable service.
The expedition is the brainchild of Julio De Laffitte, the founder and CEO of JDL Strategies, one of the country’s leading wealth management professionals.
“It’s a think-tank on steroids that will inspire radical thinking and will produce amazing business,” said De Laffitte. “The isolation and awe inspiring environment, coupled with the concentration of likeminded people, will form the perfect setting for innovative business strategies to be created.”
De Lafitte, 46, has invested $1.2 million of his own money to charter a 4 star Antarctic cruiser; yet is not doing so for financial gain. “I want to help change the way Australian business people interact because I don’t believe the current entrepreneurial environment is sustainable. Put simply, the different generations of Australian entrepreneurs aren’t speaking to each other.
“The expedition of Australia’s best business minds will provide the missing connection, linking the wisdom of older, well-established entrepreneurs with the young TechStars of the future.”
De Laffitte likens his Antarctica expedition to Kevin Costner’ Field of Dreams. “My aim is to create the perfect environment for business leaders and entrepreneurs to collaborate, to think and dream big, and to engage in some amazing opportunities while becoming fully accountable to each other for their legacy.”
The expedition begins in Punta Arenas, Chile, before embarking for 10 days to the Antarctic. Each day during the journey there will be workshops taken by top flight facilitators and business leaders covering topics such as
• Social entrepreneurship; the way of the future
• Solving the planet’s problems; the key to business wealth
• Profit without a purpose is a paradigm
• Low hanging fruit; the trend that can bring untold wealth and opportunity
• Competition to collaboration; the shift worth 1 trillion dollars in the next decade
• Legacy – how do we deal with the big issues in agriculture, sustainability, health, education, community, energy, transport and others?
All workshops will be skewed towards the unique entrepreneurial audience. Key outcomes intended from the trip are to cause $1BN worth of business on board and to create up to 20 new entities that solve critical issues for Australia and now New Zealand.
The Antarctic voyage has already secured close to a near full ship including the current EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Sebastian Eckersley-Maslin, who is the CEO of hot incubator firm, BlueChilli, Brisbane Entrepreneur John Odlum, who co-founded multi-million dollar Greencross Limited, which recently merged with retailer Petbarn in a deal worth more than $330 million to create one of Australia's largest pet care companies with a market cap of $750m, global social entrepreneur and Board Member United Nations Association Australia, Geoff Gourley of Nugreen Solutions, CEO of Austral Fisheries, David Carter and adventurer Geoff Wilson, the first Australian to ever cross the Antarctic continent solo and unsupported. “With so many powerful minds in one place, attendees are destined to walk away with new connections, ideas and perspectives,” concluded Julio De Laffitte.
Participants will also gain membership to De Laffitte’s ‘Unstoppables’ organization; a select group of entrepreneurs whose catch cry is ‘entrepreneurs sharpen entrepreneurs’.
