Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell AO FTSE FAHA is a renowned anthropologist, technologist, and futurist. Genevieve completed her PhD in cultural anthropology at Stanford University in 1998 and is best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technology development.

She is currently the Director of the School of Cybernetics and Florence Violet McKenzie Chair at the Australian National University (ANU) and a Vice President and Senior Fellow in Intel Labs at Intel Corporation.

Genevieve joined the ANU in 2017 after spending 18 years in Silicon Valley guiding Intel’s product development and social science and user experience research capabilities. Genevieve was appointed the inaugural Director of the 3A Institute, co-founded by the ANU and CSIRO’s Data61. The Institute’s mission is to establish a new branch of engineering to responsibly and sustainably scale AI-enabled cyber-physical systems. In 2021, she was appointed Director of the new School of Cybernetics at the ANU, which in addition to housing the 3A Institute, is focused on building capacity in Systems and Design.

Genevieve will be delivering the keynote “New Cybernetics: Notes For The Future”. Please see the Program for details.

Simon Kemp helps the world make sense of what people are really doing online. Every year, millions of people in more than 230 countries read his marketing books, guides, and widely acclaimed Global Digital Reports. Simon is the founder and CEO of Kepios, a management consultancy, and chief analyst at DataReportal. He also sits on the advisory boards of a number of the world’s most progressive marketing services organisations. Over the past 20 years, Simon has helped to define brand and marketing strategies for many of the world’s most admired companies, including Unilever, Google, Coca- Cola, Nestlé, and Diageo, and he continues to advise the world’s top marketers and investors on the latest trends in global digital behaviours. In addition to consulting work, Simon runs briefings, workshops, and seminars for clients across the globe, and delivers regular guest lectures for leading universities and organisations such as Google Squared and Hyper Island. Prior to starting Kepios, Simon was Regional Managing Partner for We Are Social in Asia, before which he worked at BBH, Universal McCann, Starcom Mediavest, and Accenture. Outside of work, Simon is a music producer and DJ, and also runs the Singapore Whisky Society. You can find Simon all across the internet as eskimon.

Simon will be delivering the keynote “Don’t Believe The Hype: The Surprising Truth About What People Are Really Doing Online”. Please see the Program for details.

Dr. Grant Reaber is Head of research and co-founder of Respeecher based in Ukraine. Respeecher makes technology that lets one person speak in the voice of another. For instance, if you are dubbing a movie, one actor can voice two characters, or the same character can be voiced by two actors. Dr Reaber is an acknowledged expert in deep learning, especially generative models of speech. Dr Reaber did his P.hD. at the University of Aberdeen and his Masters degrees at Carnegie Mellon University.

Grant will be facilitating the Special Live Demonstration: “Building Respeecher, a Ukrainian startup Replacing One Voice With Another”. Please see the Program for details.

Max leads a product team focussed on KPMG Origins – platform enabling complex ecosystems to thrive. KPMG Origins product suite delivers value across agricultural, retail, financial services and construction sectors. Max has extensive experience in helping organisations transform their business models using distributed ledger technology. His work with clients to design blockchain strategy, ecosystems and communities helps him to support organisations in extracting value from changing market dynamics and innovation.

Max will be delivering the short talk “The Future on the Blockchain”. Please see the Program for details.

Kellie is Deloitte’s lead Partner for Artificial Intelligence in Australia and is passionate about working with organisations to turn data into insight and embed AI and Cognitive technologies into business and government to deliver a better world. She specialises in AI strategy and transformation and has over 10 years’ experience partnering with clients across multiple industries to become more AI fuelled organisations.

Kellie will be delivering the short talk “The Future of AI in Australia: Let’s Get Real”. Kellie will also be facilitating the workshop “Two Hours of AI Power!”. Please see the Program for details.

Michela Ledwidge is a director who specialises in realtime and virtual production. As a digital storytelling pioneer, she has almost 30 years experience creating interactive and immersive experiences in the space between film and games. As co-founder of Sydney studio, Mod she creates and operates virtual worlds including many multi-user VR spaces crafted for the COVID era. Her most recent release is Mod’s VR documentary experience, A Clever Label.

Michela will be delivering the short talk “Virtual World Building”. Please see the Program for details.

Adam is one of Australia’s leading creative strategists, and a consumer psychologist. Adam began work life as a criminal psychologist, before becoming a cool hunter (and completing his masters in psychology in ‘Identifying the Underlying Constructs of Cool People’) and then co-founding Naked Communications APAC. Naked was a wild trip and became one of Australia’s most audacious and successful agencies, embracing a strategically focused behavioural change model. Following that, Adam co-founded Thinkerbell – where they practices ‘Measured Magic’ – bringing together marketing science and hardcore creativity. After just 3 years Thinkerbell was officially recognised as Mumbrella’s 2021 Creative, Full Service, and PR Agency of the Year – the first time one agency has won all three awards, and is the 2021 B&T PR Agency of The Year.

In other news Adam is also the author of two books “The Advertising Effect” (Oxford), and ‘Stop Listening to the Customer’ (Wiley). Adam co-hosts the potentially multi-awarding winning podcast ‘Black T-Shirts’, and is a regular media commentator on Sunrise and The Project (and served his time on the panel of Gruen for 6 years). Adam is married to Anna and has two sons Asterix and Arturo (like the Kardashians but with an ‘A’).

Adam will be delivering the short talk “Innovation Starts with a B(ee)”. Adam will also be co-facilitating, with Keir Vaughan and Mike Seymour, the workshop “Design Thinking with DALL-E”. Please see the Program for details.

Keir is Head of Craft at Thinkerbell, where his focus is not only on the craft of the agency’s work, but also how a design sensibility can be applied throughout the entire business.

Whether creating a new brand, digital experience, creative campaign or integrated design system, Keir is passionate about driving deeper brand engagement and building more meaningful connections with people.

He’s a great believer that ingenious solutions exist in every challenge and that everyone has something valuable to contribute. It’s the reason he loves collaboration and working across diverse teams, while always looking for new technologies to increase impact.

Keir will be co-facilitating, with Adam Ferrier and Mike Seymour, the workshop “Design Thinking with DALL-E”. Please see the Program for details.

Mike is a lecturer at the University of Sydney, BIS focused on Digital Innovation, Agile Project Management, and CX. Mike was awarded Early Career Researcher of the year 2021 at USYD Bus School. He was most recently awarded a SOAR Sydney University Award for 2021-2022.

Mike is an Internationally respected researcher & expert in Digital Humans and Virtual Production. His background is in both visual effects and business is a perfect fit for the coming modern age of AI-driven CX. Mike has previously worked in film and TV R&D and in production, winning an AFI and being nominated for an Emmy Award. Mike is based in Sydney but has worked internationally, and was recently called “literally, the rocket scientist of virtual production.”

Mike will be co-facilitating, with Adam Ferrier and Keir Vaughan, the workshop “Design Thinking with DALL-E”. Please see the Program for details.

Fiona is a commercial Executive Leader with extensive international HR experience and is focused on opportunities that arise when innovation, technology and high performing teams meaningfully intersect. As Founder and CEO of The Social Index, she is passionate about the commercial and individual success that is possible when business brands and individual reputations are aligned. Fiona has worked within large multi-national organisations in industries including Financial Services, Logistics, Private Equity as well as successful Tech startup businesses.

Fiona will be co-facilitating, with Scott Ward, the workshop “Storytelling for Humans in a Digital Age”. Please see the Program for details.

As Adobe’s Principle Digital Transformation Strategist for JPAC, Scott Ward is a recognised as a leader in the areas of customer-led transformation, and commercialisation.

As a specialist in the use of emerging technologies to expedite business strategy, Scott draws from a unique blend of experience in business, technology and human behaviour. His success is in large part thanks to the anchoring belief that despite the rapid explosion of technology, “going digital” remains a human process. Scott has designed several industry leading frameworks and approaches, to assist consolidate and speed-up how organizations approach digital strategy and change – many of which are now used by some of the world’s leading brands. With clients across the globe, Scott works across sectors such as: Finance; Government; Technology; Telecommunications; Construction; Health; Professional Services; & Retail, amongst others.

Aside from working with Adobe, Scott is also a current recipient of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional Award (MVP); sits as a mentor to CSIROs ON incubator program; is a founding industry member of the University of Sydney’s’ Digital & Disruption Research Group (DDRG); and is a guest lecturer at UTS on “Transforming Business in a Digital World”

Scott will be co-facilitating, with Fiona McLean, the workshop “Storytelling for Humans in a Digital Age”. Please see the Program for details.

Kai is a Professor at The University of Sydney Business School. His expertise is in Enterprise Social Networking, e-Collaboration, inter-firm networking, virtual work, social impact of ICTs, and the practical philosophy of technology. Kai is currently doing research into technology adoption and sense-making, infrastructure technologies and the adoption and management of Enterprise Social Networking. He has held positions with the University of Muenster in Germany, Melbourne University and University College Dublin and consulted with a range of companies both in Europe and Australia. Kai is the founder of the Digital Disruption Research Group (DDRG) and convenor of DISRUPT.SYDNEY.

Kai will be co-facilitating, with Sandra Peter, the workshop Unlearning “The Future”. Please see the Program for details.

Dr Sandra Peter is the Director of Sydney Business Insights at the University of Sydney Business School. She contributes to research, public conversations, policy and critical thinking by working with leading experts in industry, government and community. Her research focuses on current understandings of the future, and how the future of emerging technologies, their social, ethical and political implications can be conceptualised in novel, more productive ways. Her new podcast series is The Unlearn Project. She also co-hosts one of Australia’s leading Business and Technology podcasts The Future, This Week and the Sydney Business Insights podcast series.

Sandra will be co-facilitating, with Kai Riemer, the workshop Unlearning “The Future”. Please see the Program for details.

Dr Daniel Schlagwein is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at The University of Sydney Business School. Daniel’s research focuses on digital work, digital nomadism, crowdsourcing and IT-enabled openness. Currently, he is the lead investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project on digital nomadism (DP190102780, A$390,000, 2019-21). Daniel has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, including in leading journals such as the Information Systems Journal, the Journal of Information Technology, the Journal of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and The Journal of Strategic Information Systems. The AIS Research Ranking 2018 puts him in the top 100 of Information Systems researchers worldwide, while the Financial Times Ranking 2019 puts him in the top 100 of German Business researchers. Daniel’s research featured in, for example, Sky News, The Sydney Morning Herald and McKinsey Quarterly. Before his academic career, Daniel worked in the ICT industry for companies such as Vodafone.

Daniel will be co-facilitating, with Julian Prester and Blair Wang, the workshop “Working As and With Digital Nomads”. Please see the Program for details.

Julian is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney. His expertise and research interests lie at the intersection of technology, work and organisations, focusing on various forms of Digital Work. Julian’s research has been published in international journals such as The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Decision Support Systems and Information & Management.

Julian will be co-facilitating, with Daniel Schlagwein and Blair Wang, the workshop “Working As and With Digital Nomads”. Please see the Program for details.

Blair joined the discipline of Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney Business School in 2022. His research and teaching focuses on the digital futures of work, particularly knowledge work.

Blair will be co-facilitating, with Daniel Schlagwein and Julian Prester, the workshop “Working As and With Digital Nomads”. Please see the Program for details.