Andy Hadfield – Keynote Speaker

Andy Hadfield is a digital native and is fascinated with the impact it is having on our lives and businesses. An entertaining and compelling personality, Andy speaks with authority and insight about the new shape of life, work and play in the digital world.

He has played in every corner of the digital industry, launching his first startup at age 19 – getALife (gAL) was a social network before the word was even invented. A political and community mouthpiece for South African students between 1997 and 2005, the site was covered on every major media platform, including Time Magazine.

He then spent the next 7 years honing his strategic skills across a range of industries, including finance, professional services, construction and media. With The Virtual Works, this included building the digital platform that underpins “The Deloitte Way”, a real time strategic assessment, staff engagement and reward programme. He was also involved in creating South Africa’s first monetised niche social network, DesignMind, which drives communication and collaboration across the construction industry.

At FNB, Andy helped develop a team to manage digital strategy across the consumer banking segment. This included projects such as corporate crowdsourcing, the bank’s first official Facebook presence, a major overhaul of the consumer website and a world-class “Amazon-style” online sales system – so you can get FNB products in under 10 minutes.

Out of corporate and back into the entrepreneurial space, Andy spends some time with a few (highly innovative, highly awesome) corporate clients, but his passion really lies in his startup. Real Time Wine is a retail discovery engine and consumer review community for the wine industry. It’s the mobile application and social community for everyone who enjoys wine, not just those who understand it.

Andy Hadfield is a regular speaker on the African circuit, has flown the South African flag at SXSW (with a talk called You Don’t Need Bandwidth To Be Awesome) and often works with the internationally renowned FutureWorld Group.