Greg Lindsay
Greg Lindsay is a futurist, urbanist, author and journalist. He is literally the man on the street and reports from the interface between global trends and local knowledge. Greg Lindsay is an expert on the future of travel, technology and transportation, the design and resilience of cities and the creation of innovative working environments. It offers fascinating insights and visions into our closely networked future, the associated challenges and the opportunities for those who are prepared to adapt to them. He is Chief Communications Officer at Climate Alpha, a location analytics platform that motivates governments and investments to create climate resilient regions. He is also a Senior Fellow for Applied Research and Forecasting at NewCities, a Senior Fellow of MIT’s Future Urban Collectives Lab, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Strategy Initiative. He is also a partner at FutureMap, a geostrategic climate consultancy based in Singapore.
Gerhard Mangott
Gerhard Mangott is Professor of Political Science with a special focus on international relations and security in the post-Soviet space. He teaches at the Institute for Political Science in Innsbruck and is a lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna. Gerhard Mangott’s research focuses on the regime theory of Russia and Ukraine as well as energy security in the oil and gas sector. Topics that are highly topical, making the Eastern Europe expert a much sought-after and popular commentator in the media. Mangott competently and vividly conveys his enormous knowledge of this important world region and paints a multi-layered picture of the former great power and its significance today. Gerhard Mangott is Scientific Adviser on Post-Soviet Affairs at the Austrian Institute for International Politics. He is also a reviewer for the British Economic and Social Research Council (ERSC), the Volkswagen Foundation, the Jubilee Fund of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), the Swiss National Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research and various scientific journals.
Frederik G. Pferdt
Frederik G. Pferdt was Google’s very first Chief Innovation Evangelist and he is an associate professor at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (also known as d.school) at Stanford University. Frederik, who is known in the international media as the “creative pope” and “Dr. Innovation”, has made it his mission to awaken an innovative mentality in everyone, as he believes that creativity is in all of us. At Google, he initiated a highly diverse community of over 500 Innovation Evangelists, trained thousands of Googlers, co-founded Google’s The Garage and created the first innovation lab. Frederik G. Pferdt helped leaders and teams at Alphabet/Google and other companies identify and solve problems in new, unconventional ways, shaping one of the world’s most famous cultures of innovation. At Stanford University, he teaches graduate courses such as “Hacking your Innovation Mindset” and empowers students through design to invent cool things that matter to the world.
Michelle King
Michelle King is a leading global expert on organizational culture and gender equality in the workplace. She was Director of Inclusion at Netflix, Head of the UN Women’s Global Innovation Coalition for Change and has many years of international experience in the private sector. Based on around a decade of research, Michelle is convinced that we need to change the culture in the workplace so that it works for everyone and inequality is no longer given a chance. With her in-depth knowledge, she tirelessly promotes gender equality and improves opportunities and possibilities for women around the world. As a thought leader, Michelle King hosts a weekly podcast, The Fix, which explores practical ways that men and women can promote equality in the workplace. Michelle King is a speaker, researcher, advocate and author of “THE FIX: Overcome the Invisible Barriers that are Holding Women Back at Work”. She is a regular speaker at numerous private sector conferences and events, including Amazon, EY, Nasdaq and SXSW.
John-Dylan Haynes
As a neuroscientist, John-Dylan Haynes is on the trail of thoughts. He is a professor at the Bernstein Center of Charité Berlin and director of the Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging. His research deals with a wide range of questions about the connection between thinking and the brain, such as how thoughts can be read from brain activity, how our brain makes decisions and whether we have free will. He is therefore scientifically concerned with one of the core questions of humanity: how does the world enter our consciousness? Or in short: can you read minds? Prof. Haynes’ research is regularly reported on in international media such as CNN and the BBC. In his book “Fenster ins Gehirn” (Window into the Brain), published in 2021, he and Matthias Eckoldt provide an insight into the possibilities and limitations of brain research. In his lectures, John-Dylan Haynes uses illuminating examples to convey an exciting picture of his field of research, but also addresses the limits of feasibility and ethics.
Beau Lotto
Beau Lotto is a neuroscientist and world-renowned expert on perception. He explores the way we experience the world based on our own versions of reality, lifting the curtain to reveal why we see what we see. Beau is a professor at the University of London and a visiting scholar at New York University. He is also the founder and CEO of the world’s first neurodesign studio, Lab of Misfits, which works with brands such as Cirque du Soleil and Microsoft to combine science, art and performance to explore key principles of contemporary culture. Beau Lotto helps us to understand how perception works so that we see the world with different eyes and engage with it differently. He shows why we need to let go of assumptions and beliefs that have prevented us from
Jamie Bartlett
Jamie Bartlett is one of the most renowned British journalists, authors and tech bloggers. He observes how the internet is changing politics and society and regularly writes about it for newspapers such as The Spectator, Guardian and Daily Telegraph. Over the past few years, he has researched everything from online subcultures and hackers to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, from the threat to democracy posed by social media to the digital underground known as the darknet. He is the author of several bestselling books, presented the BBC2 documentary “The Secrets of Silicon Valley” in 2017 and is the author and presenter of the highly successful BBC podcast “The Missing Cryptoqueen”. Jamie Bartlett looks into the abyss of the internet. His groundbreaking research into the online underworld and the rise of political extremism has earned him much praise and attention. His lectures offer valuable insights into the dangers and opportunities of the digital world and encourage critical reflection on the impact of technology on our society. Pelle Sjoden
Sharon Gai
Sharon Gai has more than ten years of experience in the fields of e-commerce, digital transformation and AI. She was Head of Global Key Accounts at Alibaba and Managing Director of a billion-dollar e-commerce unicorn. During her time at Alibaba, she advised brands and heads of state on their digital strategy using programmatic marketing and AI. Sharon is also Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum. Sharon Gai is the founder of Culture Fluid, a company that teaches individuals, businesses and academic institutions how to develop a cross-cultural mindset that enables them to move more easily between different cultures and develop more empathy for people from different backgrounds – a skill that is becoming increasingly important in an interconnected world. Sharon is not only a sought-after speaker, but also the author of the book “Ecommerce Reimagined: what we can learn in retail and ecommerce from China”.
Ramón Méndez Galain
Ramón Méndez Galain is a visionary and thought leader in the field of renewable energy. As National Energy Director of his home country Uruguay, he initiated an unprecedented energy transition between 2008 and 2015, which resulted in Uruguay now obtaining 98% of the energy it needs from renewable sources – with a share of up to 40% wind energy. Ramón Méndez Galain thus proved that supplying an entire nation with clean energy is more than just a pipe dream. He was then Uruguay’s Climate Change Secretary, chief negotiator for the Paris Climate Agreement and Director General of Planning for the government of Montevideo. At an international level, he was President of the Council of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) for two terms and Deputy Governor for Uruguay at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Ramón Méndez Galain heads the Latin American non-profit organization “Asociación Ivy”, which works with governments, multilateral organizations and the private sector to promote sustainable change in the region.
John Strelecky
In his search for the meaning of life, US author John Strelecky landed a global bestseller with his first book “The Café at the Edge of the World”, which has been followed by six more to date. After several years as a strategy consultant for companies, he wrote the story of the “Café on the Edge of the World” after a trip around the world – as a completely inexperienced author until then. Initially self-published, the book began its triumphal march around the world and has now been translated into 43 languages. The success of his first book inspired him to continue writing, including numerous café sequels, Safari of Life, the Big Five for Life series and many more. With his Big Five for Life seminar concept, John Strelecky aims to help people develop their life or business goals. A central idea here is recognizing one’s own purpose of existence (PDE) and reconciling this with work.
