Keynote SpeakerMichael Bociurkiw

Michael Bociurkiw is a New York Times–published opinion writer and founder of the World Briefing newsletter on Substack. Drawing on a lifetime of frontline reporting from some of the world’s most dangerous and complex regions, he brings rare insight from the intersection of geopolitics, humanitarian crises, and media. His mission is to connect the geopolitical dots—helping audiences make sense of an ever more complex and unpredictable world through incisive commentary on television, radio, print, and global panel discussions.

His impactful writing spans geopolitics, the humanitarian sector, technology, and global health—including early and widely cited commentary on the coronavirus pandemic. A regular voice on CNN, BBC World Television, Times Radio, Sky News, BBC World Service, NPR, Bloomberg TV, and Al Jazeera, his analysis reaches millions across continents. In addition to The New York Times, his opinion pieces have appeared in CNN Opinion, The Globe and Mail, and The Los Angeles Times.

As far back as January 2020, Bociurkiw was one of the first commentators to focus attention on the outbreak of a mysterious virus in China’s Wuhan province – which quickly spread to most of the countries and territories of the world, triggering a global public health emergency and causing massive economic dislocation. He wrote one of the first real time accounts of the outbreak and the response in a book entitled Digital Pandemic – Covid 19: How Tech Went From Bad to Good. Bociurkiw brings insider knowledge to his writing and speaking, having worked on the frontlines of man made and natural emergencies.

Bociurkiw’s professional life can be divided into two pillars: journalism and humanitarian aid/public affairs. Working with UNICEF and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, he worked the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the crash of MH17, the South Asia earthquake in 2005, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008 and the Afghanistan emergency in 2002. For UNICEF, Michael served in the capacity of consultant and staff member in several duties stations – including in Geneva as global spokesperson and for more than two years in East Jerusalem.

As a journalist and opinion writer, his work has been published by some of the finest media outlets in the world – including Forbes, Newsweek, MSNBC, Asia Times, the South China Morning Post and The Globe and Mail. In his years as a correspondent, Michael was one of the few journalists to have been granted several interviews with the founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. Over the years, he has secured highly-profile interviews with leaders from Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Ukraine, Lithuania and Canada. He has covered many major world events of consequence, including: the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, the explosion of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, the Tahrir Square uprising in Egypt, the World Cup in South Africa, and the anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019/2020.

Since before the start of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, Bociurkiw has been based in Ukraine providing commentary and opinion to global media, becoming one of the most recognizable and authoritative faces of the conflict. He has participated in several talks and panels globally, providing perspective on a conflict which has caused the fastest and largest displacement of people in Europe since World War II.

Bociurkiw has spoken and moderated at several high-profile international fora, including at the British House of Commons, the Oxford University Alumni Conference in Vienna, the Frontline Club in London, Harvard University, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong, the Halifax International Security Forum, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, the Atlantic Council, and the SXSW Festival.

He is a two-time TEDx speaker (Canada and Poland), shedding light on migration and the impact of technology on the future of work.

Michael Bociurkiw studied television news and mass communication at Carleton University and Columbia University.