Sophie Hackford – Keynote Speaker

As a technologist, Sophie researches novel technologies and their impact on our lives. From quantum computing to robots in orbit, she takes audiences on a rollercoaster ride through the explosive innovations underpinning our future.

Sophie has given more than 300 speeches to boards and exec teams, regularly ranked in the top 3 speakers at conferences. Her familiarity with a wide range of technologies means no two talks are ever the same.

Sophie’s content is tailored for wildly different audiences: from Baidu’s tech conference in Shenzhen, to pension funds in Kuwait, or movie executives on the Warner Brothers Hollywood lot. She’s keynoted events for Adobe, Pepsico, Naspers, Dell, RBS, Google, BMW, Tata and many more, around the world. She has also run innovation workshops, moderated multi-day conferences, and conducted fireside interviews with experts.

Alongside speaking, Sophie is Strategic Advisor to John Deere & Co on the future of food, climate and agriculture – a fascinating convergence of accelerating technologies and existential risks – looking at how to grow more, with less (land, inputs, workers).

Sophie has featured on CNBC’s Squawk Box, across the BBC – including BBC News, World Service, BBC Tech Tent – and has been interviewed and quoted across mainstream media from the Financial Times to Vogue. She previously co-founded an AI company from Oxford University’s Astrophysics Department, labelling data to train algorithms. She has taught on Singularity University Executive Program’s Space track, and the University of Oxford Physics Department’s entrepreneurship course.

Sophie Hackford previously worked at WIRED Magazine, at Singularity University on the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, and the Oxford Martin School at Oxford University, where she raised $120m for frontier-bending research.