Unlike conventional media conferences with key-note speeches and PPTX; the format of Stream is interactive, and focused on provocative debate.
Tim O’Reilly, Founder of O’Reilly Media, one of the pioneers of the format, describes it as “the wiki of conferences”. It’s democratic, at times anarchic and everything your standard “speeches followed by drinks and networking” conference is not.
Over the last 10 years we have hosted over 10,000 media, technology and brand leaders, including Anderson Cooper, Sheryl Sandberg, Ana Ivanovic, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joe Tsai, Gabourey Sidibe, Matthew Weiner, Jack Dorsey, Daniel Ek, Lachlan Murdoch, Marissa Meyer, Shekhar Kapur, Jeff Weiner, Shane Smith and Nassim Taleb, alongside leaders from AT&T, Apple, Avon, BAC, Colgate, E&Y, Equinox, GSK, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Nestlé, Nike, Paramount, PepsiCo, Revlon, Samsung, Unilever, and Under Armour as well as VCs, founders, artists, filmmakers, academics, economists, engineers and more.
Highlights from previous Stream’s, include Discussions on:
“Can blockchain save the media?”;
"Why should we have a universal living wage - NOW!”
“How do you advertise to robots?”
“What next for coffee shops?”
“Corporate venturing… labs, accelerators, incubators. Why does none of it work for me?”
“Tax Breaks for data?”; “Should we teach robots how to lie?”
“Stop the rot, how to attract better and brighter people into Public Service”
“How to work with social influencers, and not get sued!”
“Chatbots, is it just lipstick, or a transformative operation?”
“Will there be advertising when machines make purchasing decisions?”
Alongside, the Discussions, we see an extraordinary array of demonstrations, talent and workshops, from dancing robots; live music from Justin Beiber’s songwriter; slam poetry; drone races; a space launch; VR, AR and virtual haircuts; cooking with IBM Watson; bike rides with Olympians; debate on the future of AI with Sophia the robot; Mpesa exchanges; cryptocurrency trading; private films screenings from academy award filmmakers; a home-made jet propulsion bike; psychology games with WIRED; an AI automated chess board; live drawing from the Dove ad FBI sketch artist; and workshops to build computers and hack banks (theoretically).
Founded in 2007, Stream has grown from an annual event to an international programme with events in India, Indonesia, Brazil, Kenya, South Africa and regional events in Europe and the US.
This year will be... who knows?... it hasn't happened yet. But by the end, we hope you will have painlessly acquired a new network of friends and allies, and most importantly, new ideas on creativity, business and life. Apply to attend here.
