Thinking Digital Manchester is now less than a month away and we couldn't be more excited to host everyone on 2 & 3 November. With over 90% of our places booked, we're grateful for the support of the very first Thinking Digital in Manchester. If you'd like to join us please register now.
Here's our latest update on our fabulous speaker lineup including..
Andrew Thomson – International Director for famed Manchester etailer, boohoo.com.
Hugh Campbell – Hugh is a co-Founder and the Managing Partner of GP Bullhound, a leading European dealmaker for tech scaleup’s.
Conrad Wolfram – physicist, mathematician & European CEO of the Wolfram Group who produce the Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine, Mathematica software as well as the content for Apple's Siri.
Adrian Woolard – led the team that created the BBC R&D North Lab. Adrian 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.
Eddie Obeng – will open Thinking Digital Manchester. He's an electric presenter who specialises in provoking organisations to reconsider the unwritten rules that often invisibly lead us to sub-optimal outcomes. Eddie founded Pentacle, the world’s first virtual Business School and previously was a member of the board of the Design Council.
Kev Moss & Emma Foster – in a previous life, Kev & Emma created the highly successful London digital agency, Incline, which served clients such as Audi, Channel 4, the FT and Virgin. After a sale to WPP, they've invested their energy into Tell Player, a highly promising new platform for digital storytellers.
Martin Bryant – based in Manchester, Martin is Editor in Chief of the global tech publication, The Next Web. Somehow Martin combines productivity, intelligence, realism, optimism and humility all in one neat (slightly hipster) package.
Julian Treasure – arguably one of the world’s greatest evangelists in helping organisations understand how sound affects our working environments. He's also a world-class communicator and his TED Talks have been viewed over 25 million times.
Claire Braithwaite – 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 working with partners across Northern England to ensure continuing growth and success for the North’s growing ranks of digital entrepreneurs.
Tom Chatfield – author of Fun, Inc. and How to Thrive in a Digital Age, Tom's latest book is Live This Book! - a beautifully designed, print only book that challenges readers to disconnect digitally and reconnect with the motivations and passions that make us human. Tom has spoken at TEDGlobal, TED@Cannes, The Story and is a Fellow at Alain de Boton’s School of Life.
Peter Gregson - an accomplished cellist and composer, Peter was recruited by Alan Rickman to score Rickman’s latest Hollywood production, A Little Chaos, which has been nominated for the 2015 World Soundtrack Awards. Peter is also a media tech innovator working with organisations such as MIT Media Lab and Microsoft.
Pam Warhurst – Pam is a Northern Powerhouse unto herself and is best known for co-founding grassroots organisation, Incredible Edible Todmorden. While her organisation is ostensibly about food, it’s also a powerful illustration of what can happen when we empower people & communities.
Lemn Sissay – the newly elected Chancellor of the University of Manchester, he is best known for his 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.
Full details on all of our speakers are on the TDC MCR website
In addition to our keynote speakers we have some awesome pre-Conference sessions running on the afternoon of Monday, 2 November which include..
Graeme Park - the legendary Hacienda DJ will be leading his workshop on “Being a DJ in the 21stCentury”.
Christian Payne – aka @documentally, is one of the UK’s best known figures in social media famous for his ability to create high-quality mixed media content on the fly. He’ll be sharing his knowledge in “Vlogging 101”.
Ken Swain – of Manchester’s EON Reality will be helping Thinkers get a handle on virtual worlds via his “Introduction to Virtual Reality” workshop.
Ian Forrester & Marie Burns - will be teaming up to lead “Increasing Your Personal Impact”. Ian is a well-known member of the BBC R&D team at MediaCity and Marie is a world-class facilitator leading executive and team development all over the world.
Northern Stars Pitching Competition – help us identify the best startups of the North in this Tech North pitching competition. An expert panel including Martin Bryant of the Next Web and Paul Smith of the Ignite Accelerator will help choose one winner. The other winner will be chosen by a live audience vote.
We hope you can join us this November.