Speaker

• 
  Kai-Uwe Bergmann
  

  Kai-Uwe Bergmann

  Kai-Uwe Bergmann is a Partner at BIG who brings his expertise to proposals around the globe, including work in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the United States. Kai-Uwe heads up BIG’s business development which currently has the office working in over 15 different countries. In addition to these duties, Kai-Uwe is also Head of Communications. Registered as an architect in the USA, UK and Denmark, Kai-Uwe is also a LEED AP certified architect who was Project Manager upon Central Asia’s first Carbon Neutral

  Master Plan - Zira Island in Baku, Azerbaijan. He also compliments his professional work through teaching assignments at IE University in Madrid and at the New School of Architecture in San Diego. Kai-Uwe also sits on numerous international juries and lectures on the works of BIG worldwide.

  Twitter: @kaiuwebergmann | Website: www.big.dk

• 
  Marc Elsberg
  

  Marc Elsberg

  Marc Elsberg was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1967. For many years he worked as a creative in advertising. From 1995 to 2003 he lived in Hamburg, Germany.

  His novel "Blackout – Morgen ist es zu spät" („Blackout – Tomorrow it will be too late“), published in 2012, hit bestseller lists and made Elsberg (to his own surprise) a sought-after dialog partner for industry and politics.

  His thriller illustrates modern society’s interdependencies and vulnerability, dramatizing the consequences of a week-long blackout caused by a hacker attack against European and US power grids.

  „Blackout“ has been translated into several languages and is a big success in Japan too. The book was awarded „Science Book of the Year 2012“ in the category „Entertainment“ by a prestigious jury of German science journalists for German science magazine „Bild der Wissenschaft“.

  Marc Elsberg lives and works in Vienna. He currently works on his next novel.

  Twitter: @Marc_Elsberg

• 
  Priya Prakash
  

  Priya Prakash

  Priya is founder of Design for Social Change, a social impact business marrying realtime citizen data with grassroots action to affect change in neighbourhoods through Changify its mobile crowdfunding platform. Changify brings together brands, neighbours and councils in a win/win way informing brand reputation, customer loyalty and boosting local economies in communities.

  She has 12 years hands-on strategic digital product design and leadership experience responsible in creating market leading products with unique IP for household brands e.g. BBC iPlayer – No.1 brand in UK and Nokia Asha Smart Phones commanding 35% market share in Asia. Her designs have boosted share value by 18%, created valuable online properties and paved way for successful start up exits worth over millions. She is an invited speaker at SXSW, O'Reilly ETech, MEX, TEDx and Apple Computers Inc, Design tutor at Mobile Academy - UCL and 2013 D&AD judge. Priya is a RSA fellow with a MA in Interaction Design from Royal College of Art and holds patents for iPlayer & Nokia Asha phones.

  Twitter: @priyascape | Website: www.d4sc.io

• 
  Michael Schindhelm
  

  Michael Schindhelm

  Michael Schindhelm is a writer, filmmaker, performing arts expert and cultural advisor for international organizations.

  Publications:
  In English:Dubai High (English, Arabian Publishing, London, 2011);

  In German: Roberts Reise (Munich, 2000), Zauber des Westens (Munich, 2001), Das Kamel auf der Startbahn (Basel 2004), Die Herausforderung (Munich 2006), Mein Abenteuer Schweiz (Zurich, 2007), Dubai Speed, www.dubai-speed.de(Munich 2009)
  
  He worked also as screenwriter (librettist), TV presenter (Der Salon, Swiss TV) and translator.
  
  Schindhelm is author of internationally produced documentaries: “Chants of the Steppes” (2004, arte, Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris) about music of nomads in the desert Gobi (Mongolia) and „Bird’s Nest” (2008, arte/Swiss TV, Berne, Paris) on the making of Beijing’s Olympic Games Stadium (designed by the Swiss architectural office Herzog&deMeuron).

  In 1979 he studied at the International University of Voronezh (USSR)and graduated 1984 with a Master of Science in Quantum Chemistry (cum laude). From 1984 to 1986 he was Research Assistant at the Academy of Science in East Berlin. Between 1987 and 1989 he worked as translator and writer.

  Twitter: @mischindy | Website: www.michaelschindhelm.com

• 
  Jens-Martin Skibstedt
  

  Jens-Martin Skibstedt

  Jens Martin Skibsted is a design philosopher and serial entrepreneur. For more than a decade, he has helped Fortune 1000 companies build products that redefine marketplaces through iconic products. He pioneered the designer bicycle when founding Biomega, and he’s a founding partner KiBiSi, the leading Scandinavian product design group. His bicycle designs live in the permanent collections at the MoMA, Le CNAP and SFMOMA amongst others. A Young Global Leader who spoke at DLD, Design Indaba, Davos and numerous other World Economic Forum meetings, he is an advisory board member of the INDEX Award, vice-chair of World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Design and Innovation, and board member of the Danish Design Council. He is a published author and an ad hoc expert commentator for Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Washington Post and more. Jens Martin graduated from ESEC in Paris, UC Berkeley and Copenhagen University.

  Twitter: @jmskibsted | Website: www.skibstedid.com

• 
  James Patten
  

  James Patten

  James Patten, director of the design firm Patten Studio, is an interaction designer, inventor, and visual artist working at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. James is a TED fellow and has exhibited or performed in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Transmediale festival in Berlin, and the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria. James’ work has been recognized in several international design competitions including the International Design Magazine's Annual Design Review and the Industrial Design Excellence Awards.

  Patten Studio clients have included Björk, Barneys New York, General Electric, Steelcase, and Autodesk.

  James earned his doctorate at the MIT Media Lab, where he studied in the Tangible Media Group under Hiroshi Ishii. During his time at the Media Lab, he developed a series of interactive tables for a diverse set of applications. Prior to the Media Lab, he studied virtual environments with Randy Pausch at the University of Virginia, and developed new interfaces for visualizing time-varying volumetric data at NASA Langley Research Center.

  Twitter: @james_patten | Website: www.boldstudios.com.au

• 
  Fabian Hemmert
  

  Fabian Hemmert

  Fabian Hemmert is a design researcher, born and raised in Germany. During his studies towards an M.A. degree in Interface Design, he worked for Nintendo Europe and Marvel Comics.

  He is currently finishing his PhD at the the Design Research Lab at the Berlin University of the Arts. His thesis focuses on new ways of interacting with technology.

  Fabian is considered one of the leading experts for new ways of mobile telecommunication, having presented his work at multiple visionary events, including TED Global, CeBIT, TEDxBerlin, TEDxSalzburg, Lift Conference, the EuroVision TV Summit and the Chaos Communication Congress.

  Fabian's TED talk on mobile phones of the future has been viewed more than 500.000 times and translated into 29 languages. It can be watched here.

  Twitter: @fabianhemmert 

• 
  Mitchell Joachim
  

  Mitchell Joachim

  Mitchell Joachim, PhD, Assoc. AIA, is a leader in ecological design, architecture and urbanism.  He is the founding Co-President of Terreform ONE.  Mitchell is an Associate Professor at NYU and EGS in Switzerland.  Previously he was the Frank Gehry Chair at University of Toronto and faculty at Pratt, Columbia, Syracuse, Washington, and Parsons.  He was formerly an architect at Gehry Partners, and Pei Cobb Freed. He is a 2011 TED Senior Fellow and has been awarded fellowships with Moshe Safdie and Martin Society for Sustainability, MIT. He won the Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability and Humanity, History Channel and Infiniti Award for City of the Future, and Time Magazine Best Invention of 2007 with MIT Smart Cities Car. His project, Fab Tree Hab, has been exhibited at MoMA and widely published.  Mitchell is also a Partner at Planetary ONE.  He was chosen by Wired magazine for "The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To".  Rolling Stone magazine honored Mitchell in "The 100 People Who Are Changing America".  In 2009 he was interviewed on the Colbert Report. Popular Science magazine has featured his work as a visionary for "The Future of the Environment" in 2010. Mitchell was the Winner of the Victor Papanek Social Design Award sponsored by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the Austrian Cultural Forum, and the Museum of Arts and Design in 2011.  Dwell magazine featured Mitchell as one of "The NOW 99" in 2012.  He earned a Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD Harvard University, M.Arch. Columbia University, and BPS SUNY at Buffalo with Honors.

  Twitter: @MitchellJoachim | Website: www.archinode.com

• 
  David Owen
  

  David Owen

  David Owen has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1991. Before joining The New Yorker, he was a contributing editor at The Atlantic and, prior to that, a senior writer at Harper’s Magazine. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Green Metropolis, about the environmental value of urban density, and The Conundrum: How Scientific Innovation, Increased Efficiency, and Good Intentions Can Make Our Energy and Climate Problems Worse.

   

• 
  Tomás Saraceno
  

  Tomás Saraceno

  Argentina-born artist Tomás Saraceno is known for his fantastic sculptures and installations that merge art, architecture, and science. Saraceno's work draws on his training as an architect, exploring man-made materials, natural structures, and the potential for a space. His spectacular works are dreamy and experimental, compelling viewers to re-imagine the world and its possibilities. Saraceno was artist in residence at the International Space Studies Program of NASA in the summer of 2009. He has also completed a residency at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) in 2012.

  He has participated in numerous international solo and group exhibitions, including shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, as well as the Venice Biennale and currently at K21 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

  Tomás Saraceno has also worked together with teams of scientists on scientific papers, examining such topics as three-dimensional spider webs. He also holds different design patents on his “lighter than air” techniques.

  Amongst various teaching activities, Saraceno was visiting artist for the Paris Atelier program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture.

  Twitter: @tomassaraceno

• 
  Kristien Ring
  

  Kristien Ring

  Is the founder of AA PROJECTS Active Architecture_Cultural Projects(2011), engaged in the production of space in contemporary society. The studio conceives and realizes interdisciplinary projects on future oriented themes in the realm of architecture and urban planning for private as well as public institutions and initiatives. Kristien Ring is currently commissioned by the German Federal Foundation for Baukultur (Building Culture) for the development of their program. She is the author and editor of the publication “SELF MADE CITY. Berlin, Self-initiated Urban Living and Architectural Interventions“, published in 2013 by JovisVerlag and in cooperation with the State Department for Urban Development in Berlin. She has taught Architectural Design at the Technical University of Braunschweig and the Brandenburg Technical University-Cottbus

  From 2005 to 2011, Kristien Ring was the founding Director of the DAZ German Center for Architecture in Berlin, and from 2001 to 2005 the co-founder and curator of the Gallery SuitcaseArchitecture in Berlin. Kristien Ring worked for many years in well-known architectural offices and has been a registered architect in Germany since 1998.  

  Kristien Ring comes from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (*1969) and has been living in Berlin since 1991. She studied architecture at North Carolina State University as well as at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee.

  Twitter: @KristienRing | Website: www.aa-projects.eu

• 
  Mark Turrell
  

  Mark Turrell

  Mark Turrell is the founder and CEO of Orcasci, a strategy and marketing agency specializing in designing programs that ‘spread’ products, services, ideas and behaviors. Orcasci’s toolset for the Science of Spread^TM leverages scientific concepts and social networking technology to help you get people engaged and deliver change. Its unique approach rapidly achieves impressive results, drawing on insights from neuroscience, behavioral science, network science, collective intelligence and innovation.

  Mark is passionate about helping people change the world for better and is keen on finding ways to spread and scale good things faster. With Orcasci he has worked on projects as diverse as elections, smoking cessation, and motion picture marketing.

  Mark is the co-founder of Imaginatik, a firm that pioneered the use of collective intelligence and crowdsourcing techniques for corporations, with a special focus on innovation. During his sixteen years at Imaginatik, Mark worked with hundreds of companies around the world. His clients included Merck, Pfizer, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Nokia, IBM, Whirlpool, Weyerhaeuser and Xerox. As well as consulting with clients – and managing the business – he lead the firm’s research activities, publishing many research reports, articles and speaking at conferences around the world.

  Mark was nominated as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2008, and a Young Global Leader in 2010. He has been a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, through his work at Imaginatik.

  Twitter: @mark_turrell | Website: www.markturrell.wordpress.com

• 
  Sebastian Schlüter
  

  Sebastian Schlüter

  Sebastian Schlüter is a geographer and urban researcher. His work focuses on the future of public spaces and the opportunities of increasing diversity in cities. Having formerly worked in west-african countries, Sebastian is now employed at the Humboldt-University of Berlin and is currently writing his PhD on the role of religions in urban development.

  He is the co-founder and CEO of Stadtaspekte – Die dritte Seite der Stadt(INSERT: http://www.stadtaspekte.de/), a new magazine on contemporary urban phenomena.

  Website: www.stadtaspekte.de

• 
  Zhang Yue
  

  Zhang Yue

  Zhang Yue, Chairman and President of BROAD Group, was born in Changsha in 1960 and graduated in 1980 with a college degree in fine arts, working as a teacher and librarian. He founded BROAD with 3,000 USD in 1988. Ever since its inception, he has had an innate passion for creative thinking into technology. He has obtained over 200 patents for his inventions, for example, in 1989 the pressure-free hot water boiler, in 1992 the non-electric air conditioning, in 1999 the cooling, heating and power (CHP) system, in 2005 the air purification technology with electrostatic cleaner, in 2007 heat recovery fresh air unit technology, in 2009 the factory-made sustainable building (BSB), each of his inventions has revolutionized its industry, making BROAD a globally recognized technological leader. Facing the imminent situation of climate change, Zhang Yue dreamed of his non-electric air conditioning to completely replace its electric one, saving energy by 2 times more. However, Zhang’s greater dream is to popularize BROAD sustainable buildings worldwide, for its energy efficiency is 5 times more than that of conventional buildings. In 2011, Zhang Yue was awarded as the Champions of the Earth by the United Nations.

• 
  Line Hadsbjerg
  

  Line Hadsbjerg

  Line Hadsbjerg is a writer, a journalist and a storyteller. Born in Denmark, but grew up in Kenya and South Africa. She believes in the power of storytelling and the importance of giving a voice to those who have been silenced by injustice in its many forms.

  Her current work continues to be centered around documenting human rights issues; promoting women’s empowerment through education and overcoming cultural barriers through story telling.

  Most recently she has produced an award winning multimedia and documentary film called “Into the Shadows” which documents the lives of refugees who cross the border to South Africa, and enter the underworld of the inner city of Johannesburg. “Into the Shadows” won 1st prize at the 2013 World Press Photo Awards, multimedia online short category.

  Line’s work in South Africa is deep rooted. She is author of the book “Remarkable South Africans”, which shares inspiring individual stories from across the spectrum of society; a pursuit to capture the best of the human spirit.

  At a grassroots level, she is co-founder of Seed Community, working with girls in South Africa to reach their full potential by giving them access to higher education and mentoring.

  She forms part of the founding team of betterplace.org, and understands how the digital world can be used as a tool to change the world.

  Twitter: @LineHadsbjerg | Website: www.remarkableworld.org

• 
  Allison Dring
  

  Allison Dring

  Allison Dring is an architect and co-founder of elegant embellishments, formed in 2008 as an architectural start-up, with the stratetgy of self-initiating projects for condition-specific spaces. Along with Daniel Schwaag, she initiated and produced proSolve370e, a decorative, three dimensional module that reduces air pollution in cities. The modules were recently installed on the facade of hospital Torre de Especialidades in Mexico City. prosolve370e has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and in 2010, was acquired by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum as part of the museum’s permanent collection. Allison has an interdisciplinary background ranging from large-scaled architectural projects to design research and production. At the Bartlett School of Architecture, she taught a diploma unit with Francois Roche (Roche, DSV&CIE) on Mutations and Science Fiction. She has taught, been a juror, and guest critic at the Bartlett School of Architecture, the Architecture Association, the Royal College of Art, Cardiff University, London Metropolitan University, and Istituto Marangoni London.

• 
  Bastian Lange
  

  Bastian Lange

  Bastian Lange, Dr. phil., is an urban and economic geographer and specialised within the creative industries, questions of governance and regional development. He spearheads the research and strategic consultancy office Multiplicities-Berlin and has since been Guest Professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin between 2011 and 2012. He is particularly interested in socioeconomic transformation processes within the creative knowledge age, refining them into a useable form for the fields of politics, business and creative scenes.

  Bastian Lange studied geography, ethnology and urban development in Marburg and Edmonton and obtained his doctorate at the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, at the Institute for Geography in 2006. He is a Fellow of the Georg Simmel Centre for Metropolitan Research at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

  Website: www.bastianlange.de

• 
  Mazda Adli
  

  Mazda Adli

  Mazda Adli was born in 1969 into an Iranian diplomatic family in Germany and grew up in Cologne, Bonn and Teheran. He attended Medical Schools in Bonn, Vienna and Paris. After completing his doctoral thesis at the Departmtent of Neurology at the University of Vienna he started his residency at the Department of Psychiatry at the Freie Universität Berlin. In 2004 he was appointed senior physician by the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He became Director of the Mood Disorders Research Group in 2006 and received his venia legendi in 2010. Mazda Adli has dedicated his clinical and scientific work to the pathogenesis and treatment of mood disorders, i.e. stress-associated symptoms, depressive and bipolar disorders. He has worked extensively on strategies to optimize the treatment of depression and to overcome treatment-resistant depression. His fields of expertise are the treatment and prevention of stress-associated mental disorders and the treatment of refractory depression. He has led numerous studies on ways to optimize the treatment of depression with particular focus on the neurobiology of lithium treatment. In 2009 he initiated the World Health Summit as Executive Director which annually gathers leaders from health research, health politics and health economy and NGOs at the Charité under the patronage of German Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande. With the Alfred Herrhausen Society he has recently initiated the forum “Stress and the City” which aims at better understanding both risks and protective factors for mental health in urban environments.

  Twitter: @MazdaAdli | Website: www.mazda-adli.de

• 
  Alessandro Grassani
  

  Alessandro Grassani

  Alessandro Grassani -Italy,1977- graduates in photography at the Riccardo Bauer Institute of Milano. He has been covering international events and stories about social themes in more than 30 countries in the world. He works among others with The New York Times and NGOs such as Doctors of the World. In 2004 with the funeral of Yasser Arafat he started to cover the ongoing conflicts in Israel and Palestine. He is in the Gaza Strip before and during the clearing out of the Colonies and again returns after the Hamas election victory and the military operation by the Israelis called “Summer Rain”. He also works in Iran, where he goes for the first time at the end of 2003 to record the effects of the Bam earthquake. He returns many times after the election victory of the conservative president Ahmadinejad: he investigates the situation of the Hebrew-Iranian Jews and he works on a photographic project about the complex Iranian society In 2011 he begins a new long-term project called, “Environmental migrants: the last illusion” documenting around the world the life of the people forced to migrate because of climate changes and with no alternative to the illusion of a better life in the city. He has exhibited his work in Italy, London, Madrid, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and in photo festival such as Les Rencontres d’ Arles. He was awarded at Premio Internacional de Fotografia Humanitaria Luis Valtueña, Sony World Photography Awards, Days Japan International Awards, PX3 International Awards, Premio Lucchetta-Hrovatin International Award, IPA International Photography Awards.

  Twitter: @AGrassani | Website: www.alessandrograssani.com

• 
  Ariane Conrad
  

  Ariane Conrad

  Ariane Conrad is an editorial consultant and ghostwriter known as The Book Doula. She partners with thoughtleaders and superheroes across the globe to produce non-fiction books for mainstream audiences about worldchanging ideas and solutions. She worked with American environmental advocate and civil rights activist Van Jones on two New York Times bestsellers: The Green Collar Economy (Harper One, 2008) and Rebuild the Dream (Nation Books, 2012), and with the economic reformer and waste activist Annie Leonard on The Story of Stuff (Free Press, 2010). She's currently working with human rights defender Ai-jen Poo on The Care Shift, a forthcoming book about the ethical and economic aspects of caregiving work. In 2009, Ariane discovered the sharing economy, first as a viable solution for waste reduction and conservation of natural resources; and later, during research for Rebuild the Dream, as an engine for alternative employment and economic opportunities. In 2013 she became an advisor to OuiShare, the European-based global network for the collaborative economy. She's also served as a Community Board Member for the Story of Stuff Project since 2010.

  Twitter: @arianesconrad | Website: www.arianeconrad.com

• 
  Carlo Ratti
  

  Carlo Ratti

  An architect and engineer by training, Carlo Ratti practices in Italy and teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directs the Senseable City Lab. He graduated from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, and later earned his MPhil and PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK. Carlo holds several patents and has co-authored over 200 publications. As well as being a regular contributor to the architecture magazine Domus and the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, he has written for the BBC, La Stampa, Scientific American and The New York Times. His work has been exhibited worldwide at venues such as the Venice Biennale, the Design Museum Barcelona, the Science Museum in London, GAFTA in San Francisco and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. His Digital Water Pavilion at the 2008 World Expo was hailed by Time Magazine as one of the ‘Best Inventions of the Year’. In June 2007 the Italian Minister of Culture named Carlo as a member of the Italian Design Council - an advisory board to the Italian Government that includes 25 leaders of design in Italy. He was also named 2009 Inaugural Innovator in Residence by the Queensland Government, included in Esquire Magazine’s ‘2008 Best & Brightest’ list and in Thames&Hudson’s selection of ‘60 innovators’ shaping our creative future. In 2010 Blueprint Magazine selected him as one of the ‘25 People Who Will Change the World of Design’, Forbes listed him as one of the ‘Names You Need To Know’ in 2011 and Fast Company named him as one of the ’50 Most Influential Designers in America’. Carlo was recently a presenter at TED 2011 and is serving as a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council for Urban Management. He is also a program director at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow and a curator of the 2012 BMW Guggenheim Pavilion in Berlin.

  Website: www.carloratti.com