TNW Conference

Premiere of 2019 Startup Genome’s Global Report, including a world’s first: the rankings of deep tech startup ecosystems along the subsectors of life sciences, AI and blockchain. Learn the latest insights that crack the code of scaleups. With the mission of multiplying startup success in every city worldwide, Startup Genome conducts the only global research on startups and their ecosystems. Startup Genome is the leading innovation policy advisor, working with more than 35 governments across 25 countries.

Nike's keynote will give an overview of the Nike Direct strategy and how Nike is innovating to completely transform digital/physical retail and create unbreakable relationships with its customers. Nike will also showcase a new example of how they're doing this via breakthrough technology and capabilities that will solve for a 100-year-old problem in the footwear industry. Ultimately this development will have far reaching impacts for consumers, the industry and for Nike itself.

We are all passengers on a spaceship with limited resources: our planet. An astronaut’s journey into space bolsters this realization through ‘the overview effect’ — yet unfortunately we cannot all experience this transformative moment. SpaceBuzz, a brand new concept from ESA astronaut André Kuipers, uses this as a premise to educate the world’s children, creating a generation of earth ambassadors in the process.

Big Spam, if you don’t know, is a sassy love/hate letter to technology that Georgina started in 2018 and handwrites daily. Besides delivering the most important tech news of the day, Big Spam has polls, disgusting GIFs, puzzles, puns, and, artist takeovers. Basically, it's an experiment on how far we can twist what a newsletter is supposed to be, and in this talk Georgina will discuss all the horrific things we learned along the way. And also how you, our readers, are our cute, furry, and, probably diseased guinea pigs.

As a product leader at Google, Facebook, Strava, and more, Stephanie has dedicated her career to creating products and advancing technologies that drive social impact forward. She’ll share her lessons learned from building tools to aid in natural disaster response, expanding Google Maps across 80 cities, and launching over 100 voter engagement tools as CTO for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

Our universe is bizarre. Why is most of the cosmos composed of mysterious dark matter? Why is the Higgs boson so strange? Why do atoms exist? The hottest-and-latest in physics suggests that the biggest puzzles of science could be elegantly solved if our universe were one of a possibly infinite number of universes. But is this a testable scientific idea, or eternally speculative? How do we talk about what's outside our universe? Join Dr. James Beacham, of CERN's Large Hadron Collider, as he explores the edges of knowledge -- including CERN's plans for a colossal Future Circular Collider -- and how the future of science, technology, and innovation will be much wilder than we can imagine.

Instead of a utopian future in which technological advancement casts a dazzling, emancipatory light on the world, we seem to be entering a new dark age characterised by ever more bizarre and unforeseen events. The Enlightenment ideal of distributing more information ever more widely has not led us to greater understanding and growing peace, but instead seems to be fostering social divisions, distrust, conspiracy theories and post-factual politics. How have we come to this point – and has utopia gone forever?

Tech companies based in Europe are faced with challenges. With a heavy emphasis on regulation and lack of funding, the EU should place higher priority on incentivizing talent and startup growth. In order for Europe to gain notoriety as an innovative ecosystem, the tech industry should improve recruitment and tackle diversity issues.

Kicking off the TNW2019 Conference in Amsterdam, tech evangelist Guy Kawasaki shared a number of unforgettable pieces of wisdom from his life in the industry over the past few decades.

If you are creating a work of art in any area of your life, you are not going from a known point A to a known point B but you will invent point B along the way. Whether your “art project” is a business strategy, a crisis response, or a new technology, this all starts with asking the right questions. Drawing on her book Art Thinking, Amy will leave us with better tools to explore all questions on how to integrate the practical and creative parts of ourselves.

BuzzFeed publishes content across the largest digital media network in the world, fueled by world-class tech stack, and a number of innovative applications of machine learning and AI. With that, the advent of data has brought up important questions around ethics, manipulation, and potential harm. In this session, Gilad will highlight the multi-faceted nature of working on data science in an age of information warfare, manipulation, and mass propaganda.

NY Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur Dave Kerpen shares key lessons learned on how to build successful relationships with other people that will get you far in social media, in business, and in life. Technology is changing fast - but people skills are more valuable than ever before. Don't miss this session - you will walk away with tips that will impact your life right away.

Des launched Intercom in 2011 as the first to bring messaging for sales, marketing, and customer service to one platform – helping companies of all sizes build personal relationships with customers. Before Intercom, Des was co-founder of Exceptional (now a part of Rackspace), the first error tracking company. Before Exceptional, he was a UX designer for web apps. He’s based in Dublin.

Raj is Chief Scientist and McAfee Fellow for cybersecurity firm, McAfee. He has assisted multiple law enforcement agencies in cybercrime cases, and is a Special Advisor to the European Cybercrime Centre.

In a world of gigs, frequent job changes and geographical moves, it's more imperative than ever to build your network for life. Having a personal "brain trust" to call on is key to your work future. Karen Wickre has spent 30 years in fast-moving Silicon Valley, where your network is your currency. She will talk about how to make authentic contacts and stay in touch with them online — without crowding your diary.

This session will take you through the Bumble story - from fighting misogyny to launching disruptive creative campaigns whilst highlighting how Bumble successfully launched in multiple markets with one core message - women go first. Bumble took a problem in society and utilised tech function and creative innovative marketing to spread this message like wildfire. Troen has been critical to the expansion and consistency of this and will walk us through her thinking behind this. This keynote aims to showcase marketeers that focusing on mission first as a brand, whilst leading with kindness as a business, is key to building a thriving company in today’s modern world.

Students learn a lot in school - but are they learning the skills they need to be productive people at work, in their community, and their own lives? Are they learning how to effectively learn and follow their passions and curiosity to achieve greatness - or simply happiness? What if schools gave students more ownership over their learning the way an entrepreneur owns her own business success? This talk will be a panel session with students from a unique school in the Netherlands which does just that. A School with no classes, no teachers (ok, they have "coaches") where students own their own learning.

At TNW2018, Jack Constantine, CDO of Lush Cosmetics, took the stage with a rallying cry for other organizations to get their hands dirty and produce their own fresh, handmade technology. This year, Jack returns with a reflective view on the ethical tech that Lush Digital have produced that is changing the game for the tech x retail experience. From AI and ML technologies that are reducing the necessity for single use plastic packaging, to the open source till system boosting company profits, to opening the world’s first signage-free store, Jack will show you the future of retail technology, today.

Ever get the feeling you’re bombarded with too many pings, dings, and rings? You’re not alone. In an age of ever-increasing distraction, technological and otherwise, how can knowledge workers do their best work? Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, wrote the book on the secret psychology of technology. However, in this talk, Nir provides the antidote to the current distraction crisis. Nir shares the findings of his five years of research into how to master what he calls, "the skill of the century," the power to be "Indistractable." Nir's entertaining, research-backed talk provides practical advice and memorable strategies for managing distraction in business and life. Full video: https://youtu.be/WsxSxMzJeJ8 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

5 years of salary transparency, what it's like to take salaries public and what we've learned since then. This talk is about how Buffer took our salaries public almost 5 years ago and how we’ve since pushed for transparency across all areas of the company. We will also talk about how transparency encourage constant change and how we keep learning about ourselves to set a better example for the industry. Full video: https://youtu.be/9n6ZLV_SHUI All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Making a career out of a niche sport is hard – even when you’re the best kitesurfer in the world. As social media began to skyrocket, Kevin Langeree saw an opportunity to bring his passions to the world. He shares how technology enabled him to support himself in his athletic pursuits, so that he can do what he loves every day. Full video: https://youtu.be/WuJ6hWOtNMA About TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Reddit has 330 million monthly visitors, ranking as the #4 most-visited website in U.S., and growing fast. It has tripled in size to keep up with such tremendous traffic. Hypergrowth is no easy feat and can put a startup at risk of losing control of culture, team cohesion, and organization trust. Join Reddit CTO, Chris Slowe, and VP of Engineering, Nick Caldwell, as they discuss Reddit’s growth journey from 40 to 300 employees, and explore the communication tactics and must-have cultural elements that work at every point of scale. Full video: https://youtu.be/Fv6ncah1xCQ All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Join the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative in designing our Sci-Fi Space Future! Learn about our latest research and how we are working to make Space accessible and engaging for millions—and someday billions—of people. Space will be hackable. Space will be playful. Our goal is to invent, create, and deploy ideas that seem exotic and impossible today, but could be commonplace in 10 years. Humanity stands at the cusp of interplanetary civilization and space is our next, grand frontier—this opportunity to design our interplanetary lives beckons to us all. Full video: https://youtu.be/u2XBFQnMY0E All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

What would it be like if we could see our voice? How can we paint with code? Zach Lieberman writes software to make art and in this talk, he'll discuss his practice, which includes daily sketching, as well as recent explorations with AR. He will also talk about the School for Poetic Computation, a school he helped found in New York City that explores how we can make poetry with code and electronics. Full video: https://youtu.be/7qGqd19fz24 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Voice interfaces like Alexa and Google Home are limited by their own technology. We can choose to be frustrated with AI, or we can work with their constraints to create something new and exciting. Nicky Birch explains how pushing the envelope and creating prototypes is what will enable us to improve voice interfaces in the future. Full video: https://youtu.be/fABIHIZ-yU4 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

As digital product creators, we are problem solvers. As a part of the product development process, we ever more focus on metrics. This talk covers the interplay between vision, research and metrics, and how to make sure that the numbers you seek to improve are meaningfully aligned with mission of your team, and the goals of your customers. Full video: https://youtu.be/tO4A-F0R1CA All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

We’re moving into brave new world where conversation is the new interface. Designed correctly, chatbots and voice apps can engage and delight customers. Poor user experiences on the other hand can alienate customers in droves. What are the secrets to creating effective conversational experiences? Attend this research-based session to find out. Full video: https://youtu.be/nCH8b1pUyG4 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

At Happn we are convinced that AI is the opportunity that can radically augment and enhance people interactions, and doing so could improve life experience, opening up the field of real life possibilities for each and every one of our users. Full video: https://youtu.be/KbawCmgRo4M All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

A good idea can carry a company through one cycle of tech innovation, but building a company that lasts and thrives in a fast-growth environment is another thing entirely. In this talk, Des will outline how innovators should be thinking about building a product when scaling a company, and the importance of connecting the teams who make products with the teams who make revenue. Full video: https://youtu.be/msKFWXKVfQI All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Why are we now in what Doc Searls calls the largest boycott in human history with 1.7 billion people blocking ads? Tricia Wang reveals how marketing sold its soul to ad tech by believing that it would be the magical big data solution to understanding customers. She shows us how we can get our souls back and get the full ROI out of big data by integrating what she calls, “thick data”-- precious data that captures people’s emotions and stories. Full video: https://youtu.be/tuUISDoGxWI All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Designing Uber’s global app is one thing. Tailoring it for Amsterdam is quite another. As one of the first employees at Uber, Jelle Prins explains his journey to creating the first design for the company. Starting off as a student who stumbled into a meeting with Uber’s founder, Prins describes his initial skepticism and how he left the company after a year. Returning to Amsterdam, his company was acquired by Uber and he hasn’t looked back since. He explores how he continues to develop local designs for Uber’s global product. Full video: https://youtu.be/p5sddE9A0y0 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Wearable cameras and AI are causing radical shifts in how we sense, see, and work. It’s changing transportation with self-driving, disrupting retail with self-checkout, automating agriculture, and remaking how we design future cities. But the change in seeing becomes more profound when these vision technologies jump into glasses to bring new layers of real time information via augmented reality. Beyond playing Pokemon and recalling names, your new eyes enable remote collaboration, contextual learning, and new tools for creativity. Full video: https://youtu.be/g3JSGOsSViQ All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Designing a smart and sustainable mobility: economy autonomous vehicles, multi-modal transportation, and the ever-changing technology that fuels mobility. Expect to hear how cutting edge technology, 5G Biometrics and ultralight materials have the ability to transform the mobility system by enabling new business models and mobility services for new and changing customers. Full video: https://youtu.be/YaVnsll0tFo All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Great innovation and design starts with core human needs and wants. In this fast-paced session TrendWatching's Global Head of Trends and Insights, David Mattin explores that truth with reference to one of 2018's most powerful, and most radical, emerging consumer trends. AI-fueled virtual entities – think chatbots, smart devices and more – are making the leap from transactional assistants to true companions that serve deep human needs for wellness, happiness, and even companionship. Learn why the Virtual Companions trend offers huge opportunities for any brand, innovator, or designer in 2018. And along the way hear about TrendWatching's simple but powerful trend spotting methodology, and how it aligns with design thinking principles you already use. Leave ready to start spotting and using powerful trends of your own! Full video: https://youtu.be/hP3zWXIRCMI All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

The traditional design workflow is getting a turbo boost from algorithms (don’t worry. The robots aren’t taking over…yet). With new types of generative design processes like genetic algorithms, the designer’s role is changing from the traditional, top down approach of drawing ideas on paper, into a systems approach. Designers traditionally sketch and develop ideas intuitively. With a genetic algorithm, instead of imagining a design solution, the designer develops a fitness criteria and coaxes the algorithm towards a final design. Full video: https://youtu.be/rj4uIW7uUNo All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

With the rise of competition around the globe, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for startups to differentiate from competitors. As tempting as it is to dive into a potentially exciting new market, it’s important to research its local demographic, language, and culture beforehand. A sure way of keeping ahead of competition is by offering localized user experiences – tailored to each market a company serves. Learn how personalization leads to better customer relationships, an increase in customer acquisitions, and the potential for exponential growth across international markets. Full video: https://youtu.be/tIH-Fy3Vm80 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

In a world in which we speak 7,000 different languages and we have 44 billion connected devices creating a constant flood of data, we need help to understand each other and our ever-changing world. A new field of translators has emerged that promises to help us solve some of the biggest problems of our time: data scientists. We need a new literacy around data and facts. And we need to commit to lifelong learning. When we discover our shared reality, we can build trust and find more common ground. Full video: https://youtu.be/L2I4_sdUEr8 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

The 21st century is calling us to move beyond the era of the monomath. Automation, economic uncertainty, rising complexity & a growing desire for greater professional fulfillment will see more and more of us taking a plural approach to our working lives. In this session, Ella will explore the power of being plural and show how we can all learn from the craft of the polymath. Full video: https://youtu.be/avrppZFy4-4 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

The world's most valuable business, such as Apple, Google and Amazon, have created powerfully Connected Brands. And they win with a disruptive, new playbook. Join Mike Rigby VP, ECD at R/GA New York as he unpacks this playbook, and shares R/GAs unique approach to building Connected Brands. Mike will explain how by combining branding, storytelling, and technology together, brands can create incredible network effects that shape culture. He will share how R/GA has helped brands like Nike, Pepsi, the Ad council, and a whole bunch of start-ups, create meaningful, Connected Brands that move the world forward. Full video: https://youtu.be/X_KOIt3TbPs All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Machine learning is often associated with Silicon Valley and expensive, cutting-edge technology. Samasource provides the poorest communities with jobs in the industry to enable local growth in their countries. Leila Janah takes us on a visual journey to Kenya and North Uganda to explain this pressing need to create opportunities. As a non-profit, they aim to lower the global poverty rate while understanding the potential for AI. Full video: https://youtu.be/Re-myC3Iv0M All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Slack, Dropbox, Pluralsight. Ever wonder how these companies achieve high-growth rates? Pluralsight CMO Heather Zynczak reveals her secrets on how to create a marketing model that optimizes digital and direct sales, a customer experience that maximizes ROI and a defensible moat to protect — and help you gain — market share. Full video: https://youtu.be/lHr7BC1Ht_M All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

The first time HubSpot’s CMO, Kipp Bodnar, was fooled by AI hype he was in the 6th grade on an awe inspiring field trip to a local science museum, but it wouldn’t be the last time. In this session, Kipp will walk through a simple framework for separating AI hype from reality, share the lessons he learned the hard way about spotting AI hype, and make a few predictions about where the biggest AI opportunity is right now and what business leaders should be looking for next. Full video: https://youtu.be/RjRFp3c7oYM All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Drawing on over 20 years of work in the consumer market, both through brand marketing and hands-on product design – and using case studies including robotics, AI, medical devices and health and retail – you’ll gain a new set of tools and techniques to help create connected experiences for understanding the functional, experiential, and emotional aspects of user needs. Full video: https://youtu.be/k3_nEshBmmY All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Acquiring users for your platform is a never ending challenge. Lupina Iturriaga explains how her company Fintonic has leveraged marketing to achieve their goals. She explains how pushing sales and profit can be balanced with customer support and empathy, and how the future of handling money lies in understanding the data and providing the best solutions to end users. Full video: https://youtu.be/EeefltocdAk All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

With an ROI of $38 of return for every $1 of investment email is unmatched in its ability to not only connect companies to customers, but also to deliver meaningful results. However, email is not without it's challenges—from technical, to creative to legal, email can be more complex than you realize. Learn how to scale your email program and achieve unparalleled growth and connection with your customers. Full video: https://youtu.be/Lnfuy7PQfWw All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Building smarter spaces requires more than just technology. It means focusing on sustainable solutions to make your experience better. Coen van Oostrom describes how we can make energy-efficient and fun buildings, for smarter future cities. Through exploring the affordances of sustainable technology, companies like EDGE are radically changing the way we interact, explore, and work in the buildings of the future. Full video: https://youtu.be/QC3VtvBq_48 All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

John is going to do a keynote on empowering small businesses. This is a follow-up on his keynote as well as a more intimate interview on his vision for tech in general. Full video: https://youtu.be/FclmX4Z0xKg All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

What are the characteristics of a successful entrepreneurial tech team? This is the leading question of Eva’s talk. Eva collected data of 800+ entrepreneurs to find out why some entrepreneurial teams are more successful than others. Questioning entrepreneurs from the USA and the Netherlands yielded surprising results. For example, did you know that smarter teams do not perform better? That too much passion in teams can lead to bad performance? Or that entrepreneurs who are obsessively passionate are more likely to burnout? Next to elaborating on her research, Eva will also shed light on some of the practical tools that entrepreneurs and investors can use to improve team performance. Full video: https://youtu.be/jXRx3r4hO6M All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

Conversational AI should entail more than a rigid structure – it needs to allow for the flow of human interaction. The best way to do that is to involve storytellers and game designers in the process. Khandaker discusses how her background in gaming has taught her how to immerse the player into a world of fiction. Similarly, we should immerse humans into a conversation with AI. Full video: https://youtu.be/cIdNDcunXeo All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

In this session, Axel Bard Bringéus, International Expansion Partner at EQT Ventures, will discuss how to decide if international expansion is worth it - and is it worth it now? Full video: https://youtu.be/zyk0wujQypc All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference

What is it like to take over the role of CEO from the company’s founder? When start-ups grow into scale-ups, most founders step down as CEO at some point in time. That has its ups and downs, for the founder, for the one taking over, and for the company as a whole. What is it like letting go and what is it like stepping in? Gordon Willoughby became WeTransfer's CEO in 2016, taking over from Bas Beerens. How did the transition phase go? Hear what it’s like to move from a corporate to a scale-up, and what the growing pains are from scaling the company internationally. We’ll explore the balance after his first year at WeTransfer and discuss what lies ahead. Full video: https://youtu.be/zJi2uCPWB2A All about TNW Conference: https://tnw.to/conference