Tech To The Future

In this episode, Francis is joined by Adipat Virdi, immersive storyteller and former global creative product lead, VR at Facebook. Over the last two decades, Adipat has combined his career as an architect with his love for writing and production to apply the strategic power of narrative to immersive production. Whilst at Facebook, he led the ‘Emerging Platforms’ team’s exploration of XR and immersive experiences, and has more recently worked for brands such as Charlotte Tilbury and the BBC. In this in-depth conversation, Adipat discusses Facebook, his role in the commercial impact of VR and his opinions on the platform’s recent changes; shares his passion for using immersive storytelling to create real social change, with a particular focus on eradicating forced marriages and honour crimes; and reflects on how the metaverse can be used to build on physical storytelling by “breaking the barriers between content and consumers.” 

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In this episode, Francis is joined by Jon Radoff, chief executive of Beamable. Founded in 2020, the company aims to eliminate all barriers that exist to building and running a successful game, allowing game developers to focus on creativity. Before starting Beamable, Jon’s accomplishments in the industry include; building one of the first commercial games on the internet, taking a web content management company public, growing a game advertising network, and launching mobile games played by millions of people including ‘Game of Thrones Ascent’ and ‘Star Trek Timelines.’ In this in-depth conversation, Jon discusses his focus on the metaverse, and why he’s so passionate about helping people become better educated in the space; explores how gaming can do better as an industry; and shares what more we can do to leverage technology and “move faster.”

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In this episode, Francis is joined by Shara Evans, technological futurist, and founder and chief executive of Market Clarity. Founded in 2006, the award-winning technology analytics firm provides insight, intelligence and advice on all aspects of the telecom and emerging technologies markets. Named by Forbes as one of the ‘World’s Top 50 Female Futurists’ in March 2020, she was one of the few technology futurists featured in this list - and is a regular speaker and media commentator on technology issues. In this conversation, Shara reviews the latest technology trends making an impact, and considers how this can be harnessed in business;  shares her advice on what organisations should be doing to “think outside the box” and imagine the world to come; and discusses her future tech research which covers everything from smart cities and robots - to jobs of the future and space travel.

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Nathan Phillips is the co-founder and director of concept design at ‘Technology, Humans And Taste,’ also known as THAT. He has led the development of a specific form of methodology, in proprietary collaboration - proprietary collaborative methodology, which invites diverse and unfamiliar collaborators to co-create innovative concepts for any medium - leveraging AI to supercharge any idea. Beginning his career as an interactive artist, he has previously created interactive experiences for Broadway legends in Vegas, and shown interactive films at Sundance and the Tribeca Film Festival. He has spent the last decade using his experience as an artist to collaborate with brands such as MGM, Google, Sotheby’s and Condè Nast. In this conversation, Nathan shares his work redefining the concert experience with artists such as Madison Beer, and why he believes we all have to become “performers in the metaverse;” discusses the journey and inspiration behind ‘THAT’ - to help us “think about the way we see the world;” and delves into how creativity and collaboration will exist in the metaverse, and what this means to him.

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In this episode, Francis is joined by Susan Cox-Smith, a highly experienced futurist and partner at Changeist. Founded in 2007, Changeist is a team of strategists who collaborate with companies and governments alike, to “envision preferable futures for all.” During her time with the company, Susan has consulted on some sizeable projects, including with Comcast, the National Lottery Fund UK, the International Federation of Red Cross, and a number of Silicon Valley companies. Born in the US but now doing most of her futurist work in the Netherlands, Susan’s previous role was also as a partner - for Anaglyph. Susan discusses the impact of Covid-19 on society, how futurism is changing, and what determines whether someone is optimistic or pessimistic about the future.

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In this episode, Francis is joined by Joel Dietz, artist, entrepreneur, investor and founder of ArtWallet. Founded in 2021, the company provides the ultimate solution for storing and owning NFTs whilst also providing the playback of unique audio and visual content.  Before this, Joel was a founding member of Ethereum, and is also an author, with his book ‘Principles of Holonic System Design,’ which looks into our outdated understanding of the world. In this conversation, Joel reflects on how he started out in the tech industry and his journey to establishing the popular Ethereum project; discusses how ArtWallet works - to try and “unlock the next generation of value around NFTs;” and delves into the concept of ‘cryptoeconomics,’ discussing how he became the most cited author on this topic. 

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In this episode, Francis is joined by Theo Priestly, leading tech futurist, bestselling author and speaker. Founder of Metapunk, a consultancy that focuses on business, technology and culture impacting organisations - they help businesses navigate their futures. As an author, he has written articles for publications such as Forbes and WIRED; and recently co-authored, ‘The Future Starts Now.’ In this conversation, Theo discusses his work for his agency, and how they look at technological and cultural impacts that will “arise out of the metaverse;” delves into his recent book ‘The Future Starts Now’ which looks towards the various innovations and technologies that may shape our future; and gives the latest from the startup community. 

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Amy Zalman is a renowned global futurist, professor, and chief executive of Prescient. Founded in 2017, Prescient offers services to public, private and non-profit organisations to help accelerate change through strategic retreats and executive education. Aalso a part-time professor of Strategic Foresight at Georgetown University, Amy  has held an array of positions including; the first chair of Information Integration at the United States National War College, and chief executive and president of the World Future Society. She was named one of the top seven futurists in the world by Huffington Post and has published over 50 articles, book chapters, essays, and monographs. In this conversation, Amy delves into why it’s so crucial to educate the next generation on futurism; explores what the future holds for governance and distributions of power - and why we should be working towards collaborative influence  between governments and corporations; and discusses why we need to reframe the way that we look at information. 

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In this episode, Francis is joined by Edan Yago, co-founder of Sovryn. Founded in 2020, the decentralized Bitcoin trading and lending platform allows members to trade with leverage and earn yield by lending. Its mission is to build a full suite of decentralized tools to bridge Bitcoin with other aspects of the traditional economy and DeFi. Before this, Yago founded several other companies in the crypto space; including CementDAO, and Epiphyte. He is a passionate advocate for the mass adoption of open finance, and is keen to continue pioneering innovative financial products, as part of a borderless economy, and is active in the current advancements in El Salvador. In this conversation, Yago explains how Sovryn is “bringing the second leg of sovereignty to Bitcoin” giving people the ability to not only hold and control the currency, but also engage with it without intermediaries; explores the recent growth of the coin community and why it’s crucial it remains open and innovative; and discusses the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador, and how this has forced the local financial system to adapt.

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Madeline Ashby is a futurist, writer, speaker and teacher. She is best known for her successful series of science-fiction novels, including the bestseller ‘Company Town,’ the ‘Machine Dynasty’ series, and a number of short stories. In 2020, Madeline co-authored her first non-fiction book, ‘How To Future: Leading and Sense-Making in an Age of Hyperchange’ - and has worked in the futurism space for the World Health Organisation, the Ontario government and Intel Labs. In this conversation, Madeline recalls what attracted her to the world of futurism, including what the term means to her; discusses the impact the Covid-19 pandemic will have on business and technology; and explores the different possible landscapes of the future, explaining why it was so important to make understanding the possibilities, accessible to all. 

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