David Rowan

Keynote Speaker

David Rowan's Biography

In general I'm translating what's happening at tech's cutting edge — constantly visiting research labs and startup clusters — in order to help business leaders prepare for tomorrow. Running WIRED in the UK let me build close connections with the key people shaping tech; and running climate-tech and health-tech communities and investment funds now lets me keep up with the ever-accelerating pace of AI, quantum computing, metaverses, decentralised networks, materials science, and so much more. I'm also regularly moderating events (everything from World Economic Forum sessions to an entire four-day event recently for a financial-services company) and love nothing more than taking on a challenging brief.

David works with technology founders and regularly travels to the research labs, and what he's seeing now is a Cambrian explosion of creative uses of AI colliding with ever increasing processing power. Today the buzz is around Large Language Models that enable compelling conversations with a machine; and around neural networks that can take still images and animate them as video (look at the latest Google Maps releases to see how a neural network lets you explore a fly-through of a restaurant, coded simply from a few photos). But tomorrow? We're getting closer to Artificial General Intelligence, when the machine can solve any challenge as well as a human. In the meantime, journalists are competing with automated story writers; lawyers with automated discover

SELECTED TESTIMONIALS FOR DAVID ROWAN KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS:

“I wanted to thank you for your time to moderate the G8 Innovation Conference. You set the tone for the day perfectly, engaging the audience and steering the presenters through a very full agenda. The feedback from the day has been overwhelmingly positive, which is largely due to your dynamism, good humour and professionalism.”
—UK Prime Minister David Cameron, G8 Innovation Conference

“A stellar moderator – insightful and challenging to the speakers, witty and engaging for the audience, and very positive to work with.”
-World Economic Forum

“Your contribution at the event was terrific. The content was highly relevant & extremely interesting. We also appreciated that you took on board the detail discussed on the briefing call ahead of the event. Your talk received the highest audience review on the feedback application. The level of your professionalism is unrivalled.”
-Mercer, Hong Kong

“Your opening talk was just fabulous and perfectly set the stage for the next few days. I am forever in your debt for playing such an important role and being so giving of your time throughout the week. The feedback on your talk has been extremely positive.”
-PopTech

“A HUUUUGE thank you as always for being the one we trust to make any conversation bright, enlightening, energetic, thoughtful and insightful- always so, so grateful. Many people said how much they enjoyed the fireside chat.”
-Founders Forum NY

“The team was blown away and they are a hard group to impress.”
-Google

“I can’t thank you enough for your truly inspirational talk. We’ve had wonderful feedback and it set the day up perfectly.”
-Warner Bros

“David was fantastic. The content was perfect. The talk was fast paced, interesting, relevant and accessible. It set up the innovation session of our agenda really well and I was delighted with the result.”
-Sky

“David Rowan was awesome, lots of amazing feedback.”
-Salesforce

“David was incredible and we’ve had some great feedback already from our analysts and leadership team that were there. We were engaged, inspired and enjoyed every minute of his keynote.”
-Accenture

“David did an amazing job with his presentations and panel discussions. He was very professional, spoke/presented brilliantly and was well received by the audience. He was also punctual and easy to communicate with. Comments I have received from organizers and attendees included:
• ‘a very well researched and fact-based presentation’
• ‘Provided really useful information I have not heard of before’ • ‘Perfect choice in speakers to end the two day forum: maintained everyone's attention and excitement’
• ‘David was brilliant. What a great speaker!’”
-APEC

“Your insights and perspective into the companies and entrepreneurs who are changing the world created a buzz around those assembled.”
-Samsung

“We had nothing but praise for his forward thinking piece, it was both informative and entertaining. I didn’t see a single attendee checking their smartphone during David’s talk, which is a testament to his skill as a speaker. I will definitely recommend him to our other offices around the world.”
-Terrapinn

“He enthralled the audience… He is great to work with, has a fantastic presentation and was an asset to the panel session. The feedback from clients and Mercer folk has been excellent.”
-Mercer

“David was very well received. His presentation aligned very well with the themes running through the conference.”
-KPMG, Shanghai

“Absolutely excellent. Excellent moderation, excellent presentation.”
-Pictet

“Very good facilitator, understood the brief, researched thoroughly and it showed.”
-Lloyds of London

“A big hit with the team, some really great feedback…content, delivery and messaging was spot on.”
-Eversheds

“You have exceeded our expectations at our event in Barcelona, and we would like to bring you back once again. I heard so many positive things about your keynote. You delivered an outstanding session.”
-Accucore Group

“David – thanks so much for what was an incredibly popular speech – just perfect for what we wanted!”
-Temasek, Singapore

“Thank you so much for an excellent session. You left the team in no doubt about the risks of disruptive factors and how they can impact any industry. Ours more than any is wide open here. Totally the right way to end the conference.”
-JP Morgan

“It was a fascinating presentation and we all enjoyed it.”
-Goldman Sachs