Ben Hammersley

Speaker Ben Hammersley is a preeminent international futurist, thought leader and author on the networked world. He is host of Cybercrime with Ben Hammersley for BBC World News, editor-at-large for Wired and author of Now for then: How to face the Digital Future without Fear. As an in-demand, high-level consultant to global organizations, governments and companies, Hammersley’s work stems from the realization that the thinking of most people, companies, governments and institutions, come from a theoretical basis of pre-digital, pre-complexity 20th century thinking. That thinking no longer works, and so to truly prosper in the 21st century, we need to pause and examine the true contexts of our lives. In his keynotes, digital and trends guru Hammersley will help you discover the new realities, see the forces that drive our world today and guide you to strategies and techniques to give you the advantages you need.

As host of Cybercrimes, he explores a global threat that could impact us all—the dark world of hacking. A new generation of highly organized cybercriminals run complex commercial enterprises, involving leaders, planners, engineers, infantry and hired money mules. Hammersley also is the author of the acclaimed book 64 Things You Need To Know Now For Then, a guide to the new concepts of the modern world. His most recent book, Now For Then: How To Face The Digital Future Without Fear, is on the latest ideas in technology, culture, business and politics. It demystifies the Internet, decodes cyberspace and ushers us through the innovation revolution in which we are all living. Additionally, Hammersley is editor-at-large for WIRED magazine, a columnist for BA Business Life magazine and the Principal of Onwards, Friend, a program that develops science and launch platforms for high-altitude and low-earth orbit. In fact, he is building his own personal satellite.

When Hammersley speaks to audiences, he dissects intricate concepts and developing technologies and adds fascinating stories and analogies to make these topics accessible. While some speakers and pundits use a “doom and gloom” method to scare people about our rapidly developing future, Hammersley employs humor and common sense to illustrate his views. His methods are especially helpful when illustrating that spheres of power and influence have dramatically changed in the last generation, and how most of us employ a way a thinking that doesn’t line up with today’s society—or the future. “Our jobs, our businesses, our institutions and governments and civic infrastructure, the marketplace, the flow of ideas, wars and the supply chain, are all—to a degree I think most would find terrifying—far more complex and weird than we’re generally aware. This is partly because of a reluctance to truly look, partly because orthodox understandings of the world are deeply culturally embedded, and partly because we lack the cognitive tools to actually do that thinking,” Hammersley says.

A speaker and consultant that can mold to any industry’s needs, Hammersley consults with organizations and corporations about trends, technology and security, whether it’s in travel, financial services, human resources or government. But he doesn’t just talk to the big guys; he also consults with smaller associations and organizations. Through detailed research, he will sort through the issues troubling you, find your strengths, and devise a completely customized speech and action plan that will help your organization move forward. He’ll share what holds your company back, what or who the disrupters are in your sector and exactly how you to navigate, succeed and thrive—in the future. We pay for goods with our phones, attend “face-to-face” company meetings via computer screen, and some of us even conduct government business on iPads. What are the missing tools, technologies, techniques and ways of seeing that we’re missing? And if we properly mastered this wayward knowledge, how would they help us grow? Book Ben Hammersley before your competition does.

RESUME

• Host, Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley
• Author: Now for then: How To Face The Digital Future Without Fear; 64 Things You Need To Know Now For Then; A Smart Guide To Utopia: 111 Inspiring Ideas For A Better City
• Innovator in Residence, Centre for Creative and Social Technologies at Goldsmiths at the University of London
• Faculty member, School of Life
• Academic Fellow, European Policy Centre
• Non-executive director, Digital Jersey Ltd
• Principal, Onwards, Friend (a program to develop science and launch platforms for high-altitude and low-earth orbit)
• Judge, Awesome Foundation, London chapter
• Editor-at-Large, WIRED magazine
• Columnist, BA Business Life magazine
• Freelance reporter and presenter, BBC
• UK Prime Minister’s Ambassador to Tech City in East London
• Robert Schuman Fellow, Global Governance program at the European University Institute
• Member of the European Commission High Level Group on Media Freedom
• Non-resident Fellow, 21st Century for Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C