Ben Hammersley

GLOBAL LEADER, EXPERT IN POST-DIGITAL GEOPOLITICS AND STRATEGY.

EDITOR AT LARGE, WIRED MAGAZINE. HOST OF “CYBERCRIMES WITH BEN HAMMERSLEY” ON BBC CHANNEL (2007-18).

Ben Hammersley futurist speaker, trends, wired

As one of the world’s leading futurists, Ben Hammersley has been advising companies, governments, and individuals for the past twenty years. His deep technical expertise combines with an extremely eclectic international career to produce unique insights, guidance, and products that are particularly suited to the non-linear strangeness of the world today.

English

Ben Hammersley is a futurist, author, and digital thought leader. He has been called one of the most thought-provoking futurists of our time and has addressed audiences around the globe for over 10 years. He brings a practical, proactive approach to future technologies, inspiring and educating audiences and preparing them for the future, while exploring the effects of the internet and the digital network on the world’s business, political and social spheres.

Over the past 20 years, he has been a technology journalist for the Times and the Guardian, a war reporter covering Afghanistan and Beirut, an author of 5 books, the presenter of a landmark BBC and Netflix television series, the Editor at Large of UK’s WIRED magazine, a consultant to the UK and US governments and the European Commission, the inventor of the word “podcast”, and a pilot, emergency medic, rescue diver, and ultra-runner.

As host of Cybercrimes (2007-18), he explored 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 book64 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.

From audiences of 10,000 Brazilian hacker kids, to closed sessions of summits of Heads of State; from all-hands gatherings of international marketing agencies, to board meetings of investment banks, Ben Hammersley’s keynote speeches have long been widely considered among the most inspiring, insightful, and educational of their kind. Individually crafted to the needs of the audience and the event organizer, and backed by decades of stagecraft and production experience, booking a speech from Ben Hammersley is the surest, safest, most exciting way to brief your staff, your customers, your board, or your rising stars on the trends and developments that will shape their world.

From the Future of Work, to Emergent Attack Surfaces; from Multidisciplinary Synthesis, to Cognitive Risk, his advisory services, keynotes, training, and product design offer his clients a competitive edge into the new decade.

Skills for Future Leaders.

We all know the world is changing. And many can give examples of the technologies or trends that are contributing to that change. But that is not the whole picture. In this topic, we teach audiences about the skills, techniques, and cognitive tools that leaders need to both understand those changes, and shape their own future. Ideal for executive learning and development programs, or thought-leader positioning customer events, these keynotes are consistently rated as life-changing, with plenty of actionable take-aways for the audience. This topic also extends well into subsequent break-outs and workshop sessions, which can be provided.

The shape of the Post Digital World.

With so much change, so many disruptions and innovations, transforming the culture, systems, and the politics of the world we grew up in, into the world of the 2020s, we have found that most of our clients have a mental model of the world that is, if not entirely out of date, then dangerously incomplete. In this topic, we show the workings and the shape of the interconnected, interdependent, networked, co-arisen modern world, and how it affects the audience’s business and lives. From youth culture in Brazil, to high-speed rail in China, Russian postmodern foreign policy to non-human corporations, weaponized memetic infections to European nationalism, solarpunks to 山寨, climate mitigation to shadow economies, we provide a true grounding in today, without which you cannot possibly plan for tomorrow. This is especially appreciated by c-suite audiences, and has been a repeated hit at evening events with partners and spouses.

Cognitive Risk and the Nature of Threat.

We are all bringing yesterday’s war to today’s battlefield. In the modernity of 2020, we have a profound misunderstanding of the nature of geopolitical, commercial, and personal threat. It isn’t kinetics that will get us, but confusion. The post-modern asymmetric reaction to the extreme commercial and military hegemony of the West, or the quasi-Monopoly power of the large corporation is no longer one of physical violence, but of memetic infection, and purposeful, weaponised, confusion. For these audiences, leadership, and strategy, is the art of making the best decisions with the knowledge available. But making those decisions requires accurate data, clear analysis, accurate thinking, without interference. In this talk we detail the ways that the final line of risk is the individual executive’s ability to think clearly, how this is under specific targeted attack, and how to defend against that. This topic is of deep interest to multinational top tier executives, or those being shaped into becoming so. It can also include follow-up reading, and online sessions.

Global Innovation Trends.

What is happening in your sector? What is new and cutting edge in the world? What technologies are shaping the future, and where are they already being used? Using the experience, contacts, and understanding developed over 20 years of technology reporting and consultancy, Ben Hammersley will bring these insights and understandings to your audience, leaving them educated, excited, and prepared to take on the world. Since this topic is constantly changing and very audience specific, Ben will prepare takeaways and predictions tailored precisely to your organization’s needs.

A.I. and the Future of Work.

Everything you know about working is wrong. Decades of research in neuroscience, architecture, and cognitive science, and the examination of countless hours of high-pressure elite-operative jobs in emergency medicine, military aviation, and space travel, are combining to show that the cliches of the modern workplace are not only unsuitable for the future, but actively harmful to a thriving business. There are new challenges everywhere: from the measurable drop in IQ from working in open-plan offices (and the danger of distractions), to the development of personal assistant Artificial Intelligences, advanced remote collaboration systems, and the new mental and physical skills that are reshaping the modern corporation. In this enlightening talk, Ben’s will show audiences how they can utilize the proven science to reassess, redesign, and revolutionize their work.

How to Face the Digital Future Without Fear.

Today’s change, tomorrow’s work: the fundamental shifts of the future.

Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley.

Now For Then: How to Face the Digital Future Without Fear.

In NOW FOR THEN, guru of the digital age Ben Hammersley gives us the essential guide to the things we need to know for life in the 21st century. Explaining the effects of the changes in the modern world, and the latest ideas in technology, culture, business and politics, this book will demystify the Internet, decode cyberspace, and guide you through the innovations of the revolution we are all living through. This is not a book for geeks. NOW FOR THEN is for everyone who wants to truly understand the modern world, to no longer be confused by the changes in society, business and culture, and to truly prosper in the coming decade. 'An easy-to-read analysis of some of the key cultural and technological changes of the 21st century...' Press Association

Now For Then: How to Face the Digital Future Without Fear.

64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then: How to Face the Digital Future without Fear.

Presents a guide to essential knowledge for the twenty-first century, exploring the latest ideas in technology, business, and culture while explaining such concepts as how the Internet and cyberspace work.

64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then: How to Face the Digital Future without Fear.