Are the robots going to take our jobs? How is technology going to change our lives? Just because we can, does it mean we should? Join us on Wednesday 1st August from 6:30pm as we discuss Technology: Dystopia vs Optimism - are we f***ed?

On the night

Lawrence Weber, Innovation Director at Creative Futures, and Managing Partner of Karmarama will be welcoming you to an evening of talks and discussion about the ever evolving technology and innovation landscape.

With technological advances already changing lives, and the pace of developments only accelerating, Nigel Gwilliam, Jim Bowes and Robert Belgrave will be discussing both the positive and negative impact this could have on society, and in turn, what they believe this means for our future. With Lydia Gregory joining the panel as the voice of reason between the two sides. Expect pace, irreverence and the opportunity to ponder what 10 years-time might just look like.

We’ll leave the pessimism to Nigel, as we aim to keep those glasses more than half full with drinks (and snacks) to fuel our debate.

Talks

Dystopia, Everybody knows Ss Fed

Nigel Gwilliam

https://youtu.be/ABGiqizwCso

The Best is Yet to Come, Digital Renaissance

Robert Belgrave and Jim Bowes

We've all heard the dystopian stories of AI destroying the world as we know it, but what if the best is yet to come? We believe there is an equally viable outcome for the future where humans are no longer burdened with menial tasks and are free to live life to the full and get creative, as was exhibited during the Renaissance in the 14th-17th century.

Using this positive outlook as a lens, we will provide an analysis of the most important developments in technology over the last year.

Speakers & Panellist

Nigel Gwilliam

By day Nigel is charged with understanding the implications of emerging technologies to advertising and agencies. As such he makes regular fact finding trips including those to SXSW Interactive & CES, to Silicon Valley and to the Far East. He runs the IPA Brand Tech Group, consisting of innovation leaders from member agencies and is currently central to the delivery of IPA President Sarah Golding’s “Magic and the Machines” agenda.

By night, Nigel is a latter day Cassandra cursed to utter prophecies of doom which no one believes (until it’s too late)

Robert Belgrave

Rob founded Wirehive in 2012 with a vision to create the sort of business they wanted to be part of. A place where people love to work and are empowered to make a difference.

Since then Wirehive have been on a mission to produce the highest quality experience – uninterrupted. Wirehive work in partnership with the world’s leading cloud providers – Amazon, Google and Microsoft – to help businesses solve the technology challenges that come from operating in a digital age.

Rob cares passionately about the digital community. As well as his cloud consultancy, Wirehive, Rob’s roles include chair of BIMA South, co-creator of Alexa Stop! with Jim, and founder of Omnitude.

Jim Bowes

Jim Bowes is the CEO and co-founder of Manifesto - the award winning digital agency specialising in digital transformation, technology, content and strategic experience design.

Jim set up the London based business in 2011, designing digital services and products around the needs of users, working with health, housing, travel, charities and third sector organisations. Jim co-hosts a monthly technology podcast called AlexaSTOP! with Rob, and presents a weekly tech show, de:code, on Hoxton Radio.

In 2018 Jim is part of the team launching a new innovation and technology group called The Panoply taking up the role of Chief Innovation Officer.

Lydia Gregory

Lydia is co-founder of FeedForward, the AI consultancy that brings businesses together with the leading edge of research. Her experience and interest spans understanding the problems and use cases for AI within the creative industries, and how AI can augment & enable the human creative process. They recently launched FIGARO.AI, a recommendation engine which uses deep learning to make media search & curation more intuitive.

She is committed to communicating the concepts and practical applications of A.I. in a way that everyone can engage with. She has a particular interest in using technology to enable human creativity and the effect of bias in machine learning systems. She is a fellow of the RSA and a member of the BIMA AI Think Tank.

On the night

Talks

Dystopia, Everybody knows S***s F***ed

The Best is Yet to Come, Digital Renaissance

Speakers & Panellist

Nigel Gwilliam

Robert Belgrave

Jim Bowes

Lydia Gregory

Dystopia, Everybody knows Ss Fed