Thinking Digital has announced the final line-up for its first Manchester conference next month.
The event, which has run in Newcastle for the past eight years, will be staged at HOME on November 2nd and 3rd.
HOME, the venue for Thinking Digital
Speakers include Adrian Woolard, the BBC’s head of North Lab and Connected Studio, Andrew Thomson, international director of boohoo.com, and Conrad Wolfram, the European CEO of the Wolfram Group.
Also appearing will be Eddie Obeng, the founder of the world’s first virtual Business School, poet Lemn Sissay, DJ Graeme Park andhead of Tech North, Claire Braithwaite.
Herb Kim, founder of Thinking Digital, said: “We are grateful for the incredible support we’ve received for our very first Thinking Digital Manchester.
“Our speaker lineup is one of the very best we have ever produced for any Thinking Digital so we can’t wait to host everyone on 2 and 3 November.
“We look forward to producing a fabulous day of learning and inspiration for Manchester.”
The full line-up of speakers:
• Andrew Thomson – is the International Director for famed Manchester etailer, boohoo.com. Andrew has enjoyed a substantial career working with global powerhouse brands and their ecommerce offerings and will be bringing this experience to bear, to bolster the international success of boohoo.
• Hugh Campbell – a Manchester Grammar School alum, Hugh is a co-Founder and the Managing Partner of GP Bullhound, a leading European dealmaker for tech scaleup’s. He has sold businesses to Tesco, Disney and Accenture among many others.
• Conrad Wolfram – is physicist, mathematician and the European CEO of the Wolfram Group who produce the Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine, Mathematica software and the Wolfram computing language. They also power the answers for Apple’s Siri.
• Adrian Woolard – is a leading member of the team that helped create the BBC R&D North Lab at MediaCity UK in Salford. He leads the BBC’s Connected Studio collaborative R&D programme and is joint head of the BBC Taster, the BBC’s recently launched digital pilot platform.
• Stephen Waddington – is the Chief Engagement Officer for Ketchum, the global PR behemoth. And while he’s a senior officer at one of PR’s oldest and most prestigious firms, Stephen is best known as an industry thought leader helping push the industry into the 21st Century. He was the President of CIPR in 2014 and the co-author of #BrandVandals and Brand Anarchy.
• Eddie Obeng – has agreed to open Thinking Digital Manchester. Eddie is an electric presenter who specialises in provoking people and organisations to reconsider the unwritten rules and assumptions that often invisibly lead us to sub-optimal outcomes. A former engineer, Eddie went on to become Europe’s youngest ever head of a business school. Since then, Eddie founded Pentacle, the world’s first virtual Business School and previously was a member of the board of the Design Council.
• Martin Bryant – is based in Manchester but is Editor in Chief of the global technology publication, The Next Web, which is headquartered out of Amsterdam. Somehow Martin combines productivity, intelligence, realism, optimism and humility all in one neat (slightly hipster) package.
• Julian Treasure – is arguably one of the world’s greatest evangelists in helping organisations understand how sound affects our working environments for better and for worse. He’s been featured as a sound expert in media publications such as TIME and the Economist. As a world-class communicator, Julian’s TED Talks have been viewed over 20 million times.
• Claire Braithwaite – is the Head of Tech North, a division of Tech City UK. Claire is leading the effort to build national and international awareness of the North’s growing tech narrative. She is also working with partners across Northern England to ensure continuing growth and success for the North’s growing ranks of digital entrepreneurs.
• Tom Chatfield – is the author of multiple books including Fun, Inc., How to Thrive in a Digital Age and his latest Live This Book! – a beautifully designed, print only book that challenges readers to disconnect digitally for a moment and reconnect with the motivations, curiosities and passions that make us human. A popular speaker on technology and culture, Tom has spoken at TEDGlobal, TED@Cannes, The Story and is a Fellow at Alain de Boton’s School of Life.
• Peter Gregson – is a hugely accomplished cellist and composer. Most recently, he was personally recruited by Alan Rickman to score Rickman’s latest Hollywood production, A Little Chaos, which has now been nominated for the 2015 World Soundtrack Awards. Outside of music, Peter is also a media technology innovator working with organisations such as MIT Media Lab, Microsoft and Twitter.
• Kev Moss & Emma Foster – in a previous life, Kev & Emma created the highly successful London new media agency, Incline, which served clients such as Playstation, Audi, Channel 4, the FT and Virgin. After a sale to WPP, Kev and Emma have been on a long journey following their passion combining storytelling and digital media innovation. The result has been their newest startup – Tell Player – which promises to become an exciting new platform for digital storytellers.
• Pam Warhurst – is a Northern Powerhouse unto herself. While Pam has held various senior posts through her career she is best known for co-founding the grassroots organisation entitled Incredible Edible Todmorden. And while her organisation is ostensibly about food, it’s also a wonderful illustration of what can happen when we empower people and communities.
• Lemn Sissay – is the newly elected Chancellor of the University of Manchester but he best known for his long and celebrated career as a poet. He was commissioned to write for the London Olympics and his Landmark Poems can be found in locations throughout London and Manchester
• Rory Sutherland – was once described as “the Boris Johnson of behavioural economics”. As the Vice Chairman of the Ogilvy Group, Rory is one of the funniest and most insightful observers of human behaviour. His TED Talks have garnered over 5 million views.
