Speaker line up for Thinking Digital

Press Release from the Organisers of Thinking Digital

Thinking Digital Announces Speaker Line up for 2013 (Monday 18th March)

21st -23rd May 2013 sees the 6th annual staging of the Thinking Digital Conference at the Sage Gateshead Music Centre. Over the years Thinking Digital has built a reputation for attracting the best thinkers and speakers from the around the world to Tyneside.

For the 2013 Conference, our first speaker announcement includes..

• Aza Raskin – the co-founder of the Massive Health startup that was recently acquired by Jawbone. Aza was formerly the design lead for Mozilla. His father, Jef, started the Macintosh project at Apple in 1979.
• Mike Bracken – formerly the Digital Director of Guardian News & Media, Mike was named the Director of Digital for the Cabinet Office in 2011. He leads the Government Digital Service (GDS) which aims to make the government’s digital presence much easier to find and use. His team has led the launch of the GOV.UK portal.
• Jack Andraka – is a 16 year old scientist who won the 2012 Intel Science and Engineering Fair for creating a pancreatic cancer test that is estimated to be 168 times faster, 26,000 times less expensive and potentially almost 100% accurate. He’s spoken most recently at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California.
• Maggie Philbin – the former presenter of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World and current presenter on BBC One’s Bang Goes the Theory, Maggie is a very well known face for UK science and technology enthusiasts. What’s less well known is that Maggie’s a Director of TeenTech which she co-founded with IOD Chairman, Chris Robson. TeenTech is busy inspiring Tomorrow’s Generation of young scientists, engineers and techies.
• Horace Dediu – was declared “the new king of Apple analysts” in 2010 by Fortune Magazine. While most of his competition come from richly resourced firms such as Morgan Stanley or Credit Suisse, Horace’s analysis is completely independent and self-financed. Horace’s Asymco blogs and charts on the smartphone and personal technology market  have built him a huge readership.
• Karen Dillon – was until recently the Editor of the Harvard Business Review. She left to co-author How to Measure Your Life alongside management guru Clayton Christensen.
• Ed Parsons – was the very first CTO of the Ordnance Survey in its 200 year history. He is now helping define the future for Google Maps as their Geospatial Technologist.
• Dr. Sue Black­ – rose to fame helping spread the word to save successfully Bletchley Park, home of the world’s first programmable computer and the epicentre of the UK’s WWII codebreaking efforts. Currently, she is very active in helping encourage more women into technology.
• Aral Balkan – a well known and liked experience designer who was recognised by Microsoft and .Net Magazine as one of the top speakers of 2012.
• Alexa Meade – an American artist who has innovated visually stunning technique for painting directly onto live models in 3D space to make them look like 2D paintings.
• Graham Hughes – this British filmmaker recently completed a four year journey to every country in the world without ever once resorting to an airplane. His exploits have earned him a show on the National Geographic channel and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The full roster of 25 announced speakers is available here.

Tickets will remain priced at ￡225+vat until Thursday, 28th March.   More information.

The Founder & Director of Thinking Digital 2013, Herb Kim, said, “Thinking Digital has built a reputation for attracting the world’s best thinkers and speakers. We are genuinely blessed  to have such a roster of rock stars make the journey from around the globe to Tyneside in May for Thinking Digital 2013. We look forward to creating a fabulous experience for the entire Thinking Digital community.”