An experienced innovator & brand strategist, Tom leads insight and innovation consultancy Brand Genetics, having previously been Managing Director of Big Green Door and Director of Strategy & Research at 1HQ. Tom has extensive experience innovating with brands around the world and across categories - from beer in the US and China, to personal care in India, to white goods in Europe. He likes to move fast and break new ground and is constantly seeking for disruptive insights to help shape breakthrough opportunities - but ultimately he is passionate about helping clients find sustainable ways to grow their businesses and have a positive impact on consumers' lives.

As London’s first Chief Digital Officer, Theo will play a leading role in realising the Mayor’s ambition to make London the world’s smartest city, ensuring that the capital’s status as a global tech hub helps transform the way public services are designed and delivered, making them more accessible, efficient and responsive to the needs of Londoners.

This talk takes a step away from the well understood 'how's of innovation at Alphabet (10X thinking, design thinking, etc), and examines instead the roots of its overall culture of innovation. If one accepts, for the sake of argument, that Google is demonstrably innovative, what differentiates them from other large organisations -- what are the factors that contribute to that culture?

Merle Hall, CEO and Craig Wightman, CDO (Chief Design Officer) lead Kinneir Dufort, a world leading user-centred Innovation and product development consultancy, focused on Designing a Better World.

Between them they have 50 years’ of expertise in Design Thinking, Strategy and Innovation (but are still learning everyday) as they launch life-changing products and services globally for businesses such as Roche, AZ, Unilever and Raspberry Pi.

Merle also sits on the board of Kerning the Gap, championing equality in Design Leadership and the DBA (Design Business Association), as well as KD partnering with STEM organisations Teen Tech and the Big Bang, concentrating on the next generation of innovators, designers and engineers.

The “unknown” comes with fear. People are worried about the impact of new technologies rather than embracing the chances. At GIF London, Andreas Gall, Chief Innovation Officer at Red Bull Media House, will demonstrate how technology is in fact set to re-activate our senses. In a world where sensors and artificial intelligence generate new information, the data-fueled digital buddy is designed to help human beings to navigate and even extend their physical and emotional limits. Join Andreas for on an exciting adventure of digital exploration.

As Head of Research, Eleanor is responsible for all research efforts across IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking portfolio. Together with her team, she works to understand and communicate the needs of the people they serve, and consistently deliver delightful experiences. Eleanor also leads the offering’s Sponsor User Program, where designers partner with end users to inform platform experience and strategy.

Eleanor previously served as lead for IBM’s Design Research Practice and as a researcher with IBM’s Power Systems, where she helped executives understand the needs of system administrators. Prior to IBM, Eleanor spent several years at PwC helping Fortune 500 clients practice human-centered design, innovate amidst change, and improve business performance.

She is a native Texan who currently resides in Austin with her family.

Hear about Entrepreneur First's accelerator and learn about entrepreneurship from its most promising start-ups. 
> Introduction to Entrepreneur First. 
> Discussion with start-ups from program. 
> Q&A with the audience.

We will take a look at traditional design systems as devices of control, and how multicultural aesthetics are evidence of a zeitgeist shift which will affect our future.

With the proliferation of technology, from transaction to interactivity to automation, there’s a seismic shift in the retail landscape. In this session learn what brands can do to spark retail insight and innovation.

4.5 years ago, DBS set aside a small group of people to build a digital bank.  Going after 3 of the 4 largest countries in the world, DBS has shown significant success, and can now be found inspiring followership around the world in banks, non-banks, and even business school case studies.

Thelissa is one of the founding team of Digital Bank.
She led customer experience, experiments, and was one of the first to conduct ethnographic research for Digital Bank in India, personally setting the example of senior leaders speaking to customers directly and bringing insights back to product and experience development.
Before that, DBS appointed her as the General Manager of YOLO, a social gaming app to study customer behavior and learn how to capture and use data in new ways.
She has data engineering experience overseeing “Data First” for digibank in Indonesia, a program to deliver data analytics capabilities and a data driven culture in Digital Bank, ahead of our launch in Indonesia last year.
She has set up and led the U.S.E. (Usage, Sales and Experience) team for Digital Bank.  She has also developed digital strategy for DBS at the group level, and in various emerging and developed markets, including Vietnam and Japan.  Thelissa’s work on DBS’s group digital strategy is now studied in business schools and at competitors.
She is now leading a confidential initiative on the next wave of digital.  With an increasingly broad global following, we are careful about releasing our strategies before they are ready.
Thelissa is a global citizen, holding passports from the UK and Brazil, is multi-lingual.  She has lived and worked in the UK, Australia, France, Singapore, Brazil, and Chile.

Professor Shafi Ahmed is a multi award winning surgeon, teacher, futurist, innovator and entrepreneur. He is a 3x TEDx and an international keynote speaker and is a faculty at Singularity University, US.

Shafi made world headline news in 2014 by streaming a live operation using Google Glass to 14,000 students and trainees across 132 countries. On April 14th, 2016 he performed the world’s first virtual reality operation which was watched by 55,000 people in 140 countries, and reached 4.6 million on Twitter. In December 2016 he used the Snapchat spectacles to records and teach surgery across the globe which has had over 100 000 downloads and viewed by over 2 million people and reached 54 million people on twitter

His mission is to merge the world of medicine, global education, and virtual and augmented reality to democratize and scale surgical education to make it affordable and accessible to everyone using the power of connectivity to allow equitable surgical care. He cofounded Medical Realties who have just released the world's first VR Interactive Surgical Training Module. He is a non executive director of Medic Bleep, a communications platform for healthcare professionals. He is an advisor for companies working in Digital Health, Artificial intelligence and Robotics.

In the English language, we refer to the future as singular. But in reality, it should be plural. At any given moment, there are multiple parallel futures vying for dominance. Some emerged from corporate visions. Others from Sci-Fi. Some from political parties. Others from counter cultures. In all cases, they need design to compete. Leland Maschmeyer will delve into this point of view and share how this way of thinking transform Chobani into a design-led organization helping one possible future triumph.

Sheelika Ravishankar formulates and executes strategies designed to make the TeamIndus GLXP mission one of the most inclusive space missions ever. TeamIndus is amongst last 5 teams in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition. TeamIndus is building a privately funded Spacecraft to land on the Moon, a mission planned for December 2017. Designed to be inclusive and an open mission, TeamIndus is inviting everyone to join its #HarIndianKaMoonshot program.

An experienced innovator & brand strategist, Tom leads insight and innovation consultancy Brand Genetics, having previously been Managing Director of Big Green Door and Director of Strategy & Research at 1HQ. Tom has extensive experience innovating with brands around the world and across categories - from beer in the US and China, to personal care in India, to white goods in Europe. He likes to move fast and break new ground and is constantly seeking for disruptive insights to help shape breakthrough opportunities - but ultimately he is passionate about helping clients find sustainable ways to grow their businesses and have a positive impact on consumers' lives.