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 is CEO of Kinneir Dufort, a world leading user-centred Innovation and product development consultancy.

Merle joined KD in 2009 and in 2016 led a private-equity backed management buyout. She has 20 years’ experience in consultancy, an expert in Design Thinking, Strategy and Innovation, launching life-changing products and services globally for businesses such as Roche, AZ, Unilever, RB, Coca Cola and Raspberry Pi.

Merle sits on the board of Kerning the Gap, championing women in design leadership, as well as partnering with STEM organisations Teen Tech and the Big Bang, focusing on the next generation of innovators, designers and engineers.

Born on July 2nd, 1964 in Munich. Professional radio and television engineer, sound engineer. CEO of SAE, Austria’s first private sound engineering school. Deputy head of technology at Antenne Bayern radio station from 1989 to 1991; head of technology of 104.6 RTL (Berlin). Founder and CEO of Mondocom GmbH (Munich and Vienna) in 1992, which operates the technical premises of Austrian national radio Ö3 since 1998. From 2002 to 2007 Chief technology officer for Austrian national broadcaster ORF. Chief technology officer Officer of Red Bull Media House from 2007 to 2017. Since March 2017 Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) Red Bull Media House. Married, one son.

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.

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.

Joni Saylor directs IBM's Design Thinking team, with a mission to inspire adoption of human-centered research and design approaches amongst enterprise teams everywhere. She previously led IBM’s Designcamp for early career professionals, an interdisciplinary corporate education program that has prepared over 1000 graduates to join IBM's product and service teams. She has held senior positions in design research and industrial design and co-taught the InnovationSpace studio at Arizona State University.

Saylor is recognized as a leader in creating and disclosing intellectual property and regularly speaks with design and business audiences on design education and transformation. Her work has been recognized by IDEA, industrie Forum, and Core77.

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.

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.

Butzi, International French TEDx and Keynote Speaker, professional magician, author and actor uses his skills and experience to empower his audiences to be more creative and innovative. After writing 2 books on creativity (including one for magicians in which he publishes all the illusions he has created), he teaches “crazytivity” and body and mind creative workshops all around the world. His aim: to inspire his audiences to reconnect with their natural creativity using his words but also his magic…as a metaphor.

In a world where society is changing rapidly, novelties commoditize instantly and markets are no longer segmented in familiar ways, opportunities are driven by meaningful and relevant ideas nurtured through company systems into successful commercialization. Innovation success is no longer measured by technology convergence but is driven by social cultural impact. Being actively curious leads to discovery and progress, improving the world around you. The translation of technologies into meaningful solutions is a task of designers; their empathy and storytelling will humanize technologies into relevant solutions that impact people’s lives. We know design can deliver competitive advantage, but how can we harness collaborative creativity to take this one step further, driving value, stimulating growth, and igniting change?

Ben leads Cambridge Design Partnership’s design and front end innovation activities, and is a partner in the business. An industrial designer and Chartered Marketer, he was a lead member of the design team for Dyson’s original ‘ball vac’, and is recognised in numerous patents and design registrations. His perspective on innovation is founded on 20 years of global insight, and end-to-end product development experience working with businesses ranging from start-ups, to some of the biggest consumer goods and healthcare brands in the world.

Jorge Casimiro is Vice President of NIKE’s Global Community Impact team and President of the NIKE Foundation. In these roles, Jorge leads and directs Nike’s community impact strategy, focusing on Made to Play – NIKE’s ongoing commitment to getting kids active so they can lead healthier, happier and more successful lives. Delivering against Nike’s belief in the power of sport to move the world and unleash human potential, these efforts come to life through innovative and collaborative partnerships, leveraging NIKE's greatest assets – its employees and brands.

Before joining NIKE, Jorge held roles of increasing responsibility across Public Affairs, Communications and General Management at The Coca-Cola Company. These included two assignments in Latin America, Chief of Staff to the former Chairman & CEO and Group Director for International Public Affairs, leading the industry’s engagement with multilateral organizations and serving on several multi-stakeholder platforms. He began his professional career in higher education, working in International Advancement and Community & Government Relations at Brown University.

Jorge lives in Portland, Oregon, where he spends his free time enjoying the outdoors with his wife and three children.

In a world of constant change accelerated by the intersection of design & technology, there are but three things that persist: people, process, and performance. When we pay more attention to our own individual and collective preferences for how and where work gets done, and to the configuration of teams, we become more empathic, more productive, and  happier people. This talk will show you how to diagnose and solve for this People Layer of work, and hone skills that persist, such as:

> The value (and difficulty) of asking fundamental questions
> Agreements to honor a variety of working and learning styles
> Proven methods for giving, receiving, and socializing feedback
> Org charts, relationship maps, personal user manuals – and more

Voom is a long-term bet on urban air travel as an alternative to ground transportation in the world's most congested cities. At Voom and Airbus, we are investing heavily to bring urban air travel to life.

With Voom we are building a market, while answering pressing questions about urban air mobility: Is there demand for short-haul air travel? What is the right vehicle configuration? How will the regulatory environment respond? Airbus is taking an experimental approach with Voom, with a goal of answering these questions.

TeenTech helps young people understand the opportunities in the science, technology and engineering industries, no matter what their gender or social background. Our lively, focussed age appropriate initiatives help young people 8-18 understand their potential and raise their aspirations.

> Matt Boffey / Director of Consulting at Great State (Facilitator)
> Jane Buck / Global Director Pitch at Unilever
> Ileana Stigliani / Asst Prof of Design & Innovation at Imperial College London
> Kelly Ford / Dare To Try Regional Director at Pfizer
> Warrick Cramer / CEO at Tomorrow Street by Vodafone

Benjamin Earl-Evans uses design-thinking to help everyone - from creative professionals to business leaders - create more inclusive products and services. Currently, he works as Inclusive Design Lead for Airbnb where he leads a cross-functional product team dedicated to solving problems like racism, sexism and bias.

Chandrashekhar has over 15 years of experience in the technology industry in roles ranging from strategy, planning, application development, consulting and product management cutting across verticals like smart cities, education and retail. Over the last five years his focus has been around the broad area of the Internet things, and more specifically around harnessing the disruptive potential of open innovation ecosystems. He currently runs Cisco’s internal incubation program ‘thingQbator’ where he helps aspiring intrapreneurs turn their ideas into working prototypes and from there on to marketable products/solutions. The program was started in India and has now being replicated in other cisco locations in San Jose, London and Pune based on its success in Bangalore.

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.