Take a peek into The Conference(s) of the past. Listen to all the speakers who’ve shared their time, wisdom and experience with us over the last 14 years (and enjoy some photos!)

2024

Our 2024 program focused on the powerful triad of hindsight, foresight and insights. Presenters unpacked what we’ve already learned—and what we could learn more from—in uncertain present day by going from “oh, f*ck” on day one, to “Now, what?” on day two.

Jemma Foster (Wild Alchemy Lab), Georgina Voss (author, Systems Ultra), Nipun Mehta (Service Space), James Taylor-Foster (Curator, ArkDes), Somya Joshi (Stockholm Environment Institute), Trudy Painter (Google Creative Lab), Michael Kibedi (First & Fifteenth), Rosa Whiteley (CLIMAVORE), John de la Parra (Rockefeller Foundation), Seewoo Nam (Clever Franke), Seán Ronayne (Author, Nature Boy), Lore Oxford (Reddit), and many more. Watch all the presentations from 2024 here. 

2023

We delved into the “soft middles” of the systems and tools that are shaping us, and explored topics like repair as growth, care-full technologies, tender transformations, and finding ecological, economic and digital balance in our spinning times. The experience and presentations focused on being in right relationship with ourselves, each other, our technologies and the planet (and beyond!). 

Cassie Robinson (Stewarding Loss, Joseph Rowntree Foundation), Monika Bielskyte (Futurist), Sasha Costanza-Chock (Design Justice Network), Audrey Tang (Minister of Digital Affairs, Taiwan), Ovetta Sampson (Google), Marie Kilg (Deutsche Welle Media Lab), Kader Bagli (RISE Visual Effects), Dr. Nighat Arif (BBC, NHS), Michael Slaby (Harmony Labs), Ledama Masidza (Oceans Alive), Debbie Chachra (Olin College), Becky Lyon (artist), Ling Tan (Umbrellium), Dan Lockton (TU Eindhoven), and many more. Watch all the presentations from 2023 here. 

2022

Paraphrasing Donna Haraway, we aimed to explore methods and models on how to "stay with the trouble". We discussed how systems thinking as a method could be utilised across sectors  and we uncovered what human, natural and artificial intelligence means. We covered how to end (and begin) things and dived into what a good life really might be. 

Vaughn Tan (Strategy professor), Jordi Roca (the world’s best pastry chef), Carolyn Steel (Architect and writer), Susanne Wedlich (slime expert), Liam Young (Director and Speculative Architect), Hillary Juma (Mozilla), Maya Man (artist), Carl Benedikt Frey (Future of Work at the Oxford Martin School), Lucia Taha (Meta), Tega Brain (artist and environmental engineer), Karol Gobczyński (Ikea), Magnus Nilsson (chef) and many more. Watch all talks from 2022 here.

2019

The entanglement of AI, Automation and the dilemmas of transhumanism. Maintaining yet evolving democracy and looking further, and maybe even optimistically, into the void. The Conference 2019 navigated the unruly waters of disrupting movements with the past, present and possible futures as a map.

Meghan O'Gieblyn (Essayist), Che-Wei Wang (Designer), Dr. James Beacham (CERN), Brett Scott (Author & economic hacker), Anna Åhberg (Oatly), Anthony Onumonu (BBC R&D), Daniel Padgett (Google), Mollie Claypool (The Bartlett School of Architecture), Gabi Ivens (Open source investigator), Xiaowei Wang (Logic magazine), Paul Soulellis (Library of the printed web), Amanda Michel (The Guardian) and many more. Watch all talks from 2019 here.

2018 

The Conference made the connections between play, innovation and design and their ultimate potential for change while questioning both deterministic outlooks on futures as well people's behaviours.

Kevin Slavin (MIT Media Lab), Dr. Lisa Mosconi (Neuroscientist & Author), D. Fox Harrell (MIT), Shu Yang Lin (TaiwanPDIS), Ahd Kamel (Filmmaker & actress), Alexander Silva Lopera (Neurons Inc), Charlotta Ahlber (Volvo Cars), Linda Lukias (Author Hello Ruby), Dr Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (Artist), Karin Pettersson (Schibsted Media Group), Fredrika Inger (Children's IKEA) and many more. Watch all talks from 2018 here.

2017 

Patterns of disruption in identity making, urbanisation and knowledge as we know it came under the lens of The Conference in 2017. The entering of a post-truth ERA gave ripples on a society as a whole and the futures seemed even more uncertain.  

Nathaniel Raymond (Harvard Humanitarian Initiative), Leyla Acaroglu (The Un-School of Disruptive Design), Stephanie Dinkins (Stony Brook University), Erin Malone (Forward Together & Hometown Connect), Jenny Odell (Visual Artist), Amy Whitaker (New York University), Muneeb Ali (Founder of Blockstack), Gene Kogan (Artist and Programmer), Mari Magnus (Web Producer of SKAM) and many more. Watch all talks from 2017 here.

2016

The human mind and body amidst ever-evolving systems of technology, infrastructure and media were at centre at The Conference in 2016. the futures of food, the city and the online realm as a democracy all were topics.

Refik Anadol (Artist), Angela Oguntala (Futures consultant), Leah Reich (Slack), Gabo Arora (United Nations VR), Arielle Johnson (Noma), Indy Johar (Zero Zero), Sha Hwang (Nava), Liam Young (Architect), Guy Standing (University of London), , Maya Weinstein (IBM Watson), Latoya Peterson (Racialicious), Charles Spence (Psychologist, Oxford University), Matt Orlando (Amass), Nazanin Daneshvar (Takhfifan) and many more. Watch all talks from 2016 and many more. Watch all talks from 2016 here.

2015

The Conference 2015 pondered the life and death of the organisational models and processes as well as finding signals on how biology, nature and tech will merge at the same time tackling the burning issues of safe spaces online and around us.    

Kate Darling (MIT Media Lab), Nicolas Felton (designer), Mike Hearn (software developer),  Senongo Akpem (Cambridge University Press), Roland Paulsen (Lund University), Tim Leberecht (NJJB), Nick Gray (Museum Hack),), Heather Barnett (Artist and researcher), Derek Sivers (Entrepreneur and Programmer), Kati London (Microsoft research), Rosie von Lila (Burning Man) and many more. Watch all talks from 2015 here.

2014 

Looking to the cycles and creation of texts as they are made, circulated and reused the 2014’s The Conference both dwelled deeper on the connections between community building, creativity and design as tools for exploring and changing the futures as they unravel.

Brian Reed (This American Life), Ge Jin ( IDEO), Erika Hall (Mule Design),Ivan Poupyrev (Google ATAP), Lisa Lindström (Doberman), Per Cromwell, (Studio Total), Juliana Rotich (Ushahidi), Erin Moore (Twitter), Kevin Allocca (YouTube), David Gram (Lego Group's Future Lab), Jenny Wilson (Artist), Uffe Elbaek (social entrepreneur politician), Eva Hoffman (Author), Stephanie Pereira (Kickstarter), Ingrid Burrington (Lifewinning) and many more. Watch all talks from 2014 here.

2013

Circling in and around the philosophical and political opportunities and tensions that arise on the creative and technical horizon the 2013 The Conference saw a blend of speakers taking on challenging subjects of digital ownership, freedom of speech and the past as a guide to the present. 

Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Giorgia Lupi (Accurat), An Xiao Mina (Artist), Gary Marcus (New York University) , Tomonori Kagaya (Neurowear), James Bride (Artist and Technologist), Anita Sarkeesian (Feminist Frequency) , Mike Dewar (The New York Times), Peter Sunde (co-founder of The Pirate Bay), Cindy Gallop (MakeLoveNotPorn and IfWeRanTheWorld), Suzannah Lipscomb (Historian at New College of the Humanities) and many more. Watch all talks for 2012 and many more. Watch all talks from 2013 here.

2012 

Weaving together perspectives on human centred design as well as the ability of adapting business, networks and behaviours through new insights 2012’s The Conference took a broad look on what to expect when we really try to understand human interactions with technology. 

Ben Hammersley (Writer and Technologist), Anna Haupt (Hövding), Maria Popova (Brainpickings), Danya Chiskis-Gold (Skillshare), Hojun Song (Artist and Engineer), Venkatesh Rao (Researcher), Jake Barton ( Local Projects), Michal Migurski (Stamen Design), Tricia Wang (Cultural Sociologist), Mark Kaigwa (Storyteller), Öjje Holt (Spotify), Jens D. Mikkelssen (Brain Scientist), Maria Åkerlund (Ericsson Consumer Lab), Kate Hartman (Wearable Design Technologist) and many more. Watch all talks from 2012 here.

2011 

The very first The Conference took a bird's view of the media industries as a whole threaded together by the three themes of foresight on the emerging media consumers and markets, how technology will blend into media experiences and on the creation of new artefacts and texts.

Paola Antonelli (MoMA),Bill Drummond (The KLF and Artist and Band manager), Naveen Selvadurai (Co-Founder Squarespace), Amber Case (Cyber Anthropologist and UX Designer), Riyaad Minty (Head of Social Media at Al Jazeera), Rahul Sen (Interaction Designer), David Cuartielles (Founder Arduino), Joakim Formo (User Experience Lab at Ericsson), Alex Olwal, (MIT Media Lab), Vivian Rosenthal (CEO of Goldrun), Susan Maushart (Author), Benjamin Joffe (+8*) , Britta Riley (Co-Creator Window-farms project), Simon Klose (Documentary Director) and many more. Watch all talks for 2011 here.