Anel O'Neil talks to Geniene Preston about her Scan Me Save Me Journey
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From "Landscape Gardening" to Google Play: Geniene Preston's 50-Year Vindication
Featuring Geniene Preston, in conversation with Anel O'Neil on Business Hour, Remoer Radio
In 1981, a 16-year-old Geniene Preston sat a programming aptitude test and was told, in no uncertain terms, that computers weren't for her — landscape gardening was the suggestion instead. Fifty years on, she's the named developer behind Scan Me Save Me, live on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
This conversation traces the full arc: a stint as "the worst secretary ever" (her words) with a typewriter built for speed over accuracy, a rejected application to formally train as a programmer, and six unpaid months learning to code from scratch after a company finally said yes. After her daughter passed away in the late '90s, Geniene walked away from computing entirely — into radio, then into publishing a magazine so rough in its first issue she describes it as "a piece of toilet paper," which nonetheless grew into the in-room magazine for City Lodge hotels under Chevrolet Publishing.
The heart of the interview is Scan Me Save Me itself — sparked by her husband Keith's 2019 stroke and his continued love of motorbike riding. Geniene walks through exactly how the NFC tag works, why addresses and ID numbers should never go on it, the accidental discovery that some tags fail on metal surfaces (solved after a client in Nigeria kept reporting "it doesn't work"), and the full range of wearables now available — from bracelets and helmet stickers to a business-card product called Be Unforgettable, printed with Batman on one side and ducks on the other, because it's hers.
Featuring Geniene Preston, in conversation with Anel O'Neil on Business Hour, Remoer Radio
In 1981, a 16-year-old Geniene Preston sat a programming aptitude test and was told, in no uncertain terms, that computers weren't for her — landscape gardening was the suggestion instead. Fifty years on, she's the named developer behind Scan Me Save Me, live on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
This conversation traces the full arc: a stint as "the worst secretary ever" (her words) with a typewriter built for speed over accuracy, a rejected application to formally train as a programmer, and six unpaid months learning to code from scratch after a company finally said yes. After her daughter passed away in the late '90s, Geniene walked away from computing entirely — into radio, then into publishing a magazine so rough in its first issue she describes it as "a piece of toilet paper," which nonetheless grew into the in-room magazine for City Lodge hotels under Chevrolet Publishing.
The heart of the interview is Scan Me Save Me itself — sparked by her husband Keith's 2019 stroke and his continued love of motorbike riding. Geniene walks through exactly how the NFC tag works, why addresses and ID numbers should never go on it, the accidental discovery that some tags fail on metal surfaces (solved after a client in Nigeria kept reporting "it doesn't work"), and the full range of wearables now available — from bracelets and helmet stickers to a business-card product called Be Unforgettable, printed with Batman on one side and ducks on the other, because it's hers.
