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Cennydd Bowles        

Designer, Futurist & Technology Ethicist; Author of "Future Ethics"

Cennydd Bowles is a designer, ethicist, and futurist with two decades of experience advising companies including Twitter, Google, Accenture, and the BBC. He is the author of "Future Ethics" – ‘a must read for anyone who is inventing the future’ – and heads up responsible design and innovation studio NowNext.

Bowles has lectured at Facebook, Stanford University, and Google, and is both a keynote speaker at global design and innovation events and a sought-after commentator on responsible technology, quoted by The Guardian, Sky News, The Wall Street Journal, and WIRED. Bowles holds a Masters in IT from the University of Nottingham, is reading practical ethics at the University of Oxford, and is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.

Speech Topics

Designing the 21st Century

We can’t go on like this. The industrial growth era is, after many centuries, running out of oxygen. Neither our infrastructures nor our imaginations are ready for the profound changes ahead.

A reimagined world needs radical new approaches. For design, this means abandoning many beliefs and practices we’ve held dear since the industrial revolution. What does postindustrial design look like? We’ll discuss six profound shifts that will help us survive and flourish in the 21st century.

Where Next for Ethical Tech?

Tech companies moved fast, but they broke far too many things. Public, press, and governments alike now treat the industry’s promises with suspicion. In response, an ethics movement has erupted within the sector, but it too faces a difficult future. Questions of impact dog the field and vocal figures often face resistance inside their own companies.

Will the tech industry regain the trust its new products demand? What causes ethical initiatives to succeed or stumble? Can workers genuinely shift the cultures of tech firms? And what emerging themes, from regulation to radical inclusion, will shape the moral future of technology?

The Ethical Engineer

An ethical uprising has taken hold within the technology industry, as a generation turns its back on exploitative work in search of meaning and social impact. But not everything has gone smoothly. Tech employees aren’t sure how to turn best intentions into everyday practice, and some leaders still eye ethics with suspicion.

Software engineers’ unique skills give them tremendous influence on the industry’s future. No other role holds such power over what gets built. As the sector wrestles with its new responsibilities, how can engineers use this advantage to forge a more responsible, ethical path?

The Ethical Designer

An ethical uprising has taken hold within the technology industry, as a generation turns its back on exploitative work in search of meaning and social impact. But not everything has gone smoothly. Tech employees aren’t sure how to turn best intentions into everyday practice, and some leaders still eye ethics with suspicion.

Empathetic and creative by nature, designers are ideally placed to speak up for overlooked stakeholders and explain the impacts of technology to a concerned public. As the sector wrestles with its new responsibilities, how can designers use this advantage to to forge a more responsible, ethical path?

The Ethical Product Manager

An ethical uprising has taken hold within the technology industry, as a generation turns its back on exploitative work in search of meaning and social impact. But not everything has gone smoothly. Tech employees aren’t sure how to turn best intentions into everyday practice, and some leaders still eye ethics with suspicion.

Product managers can steer the trajectory of tech firms, pushing for new forms of value beyond profit and making the case for trust and respect as drivers of customer loyalty. As the sector wrestles with its new responsibilities, how can product managers use this advantage to to forge a more responsible, ethical path?

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