Keynote Speakers

Prof. Dr. Maja Göpel is a political economist and an infl uential voice for the sustainable transformation of society, working at the intersection of economy, politics, and society.
The policy advisor, bestselling author (“Rethinking Our World”, “We can do better”, Scribe Publishers, translated into 10 languages), and sought-after speaker is a professor for sustainability transformation at Leuphana University Lüneburg and founder of “Mission Wertvoll“.
She was Director of Research at The New Institute and Secretary-General of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). Before that, she headed the Berlin office of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy, after having helped set up the World Future Council for six years as Director Future Justice at the Brussels office and as Campaign Manager Climate Energy in Hamburg.
Maja Göpel is a member of the Club of Rome, the World Future Council, the Balaton Group, and a co-initiator of the “Scientists for Future” network. She was a member of the Bioeconomy Council of the German Federal Government.
Her work has been recognized with multiple awards in Germany, the most recent ones being the Theodor Heuss Prize and the Science Communication Medal of the Max Planck Institute Göttingen.

Dr. Andrew Maynard is Director of the Arizona State University Future of Being Human initiative and a professor in the Arizona State University School for the Future of Innovation in Society. His research focuses on successfully navigating transitions at the nexus of emerging technologies, society, and the future, including the intersection of technologies such as AI with education and learning. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Research Council of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and currently serves on the selection committee for the World Economic Forum annual list of top ten emerging technologies. As well as publishing in the academic press, Andrew writes for a number of platforms, including the Substack The Future of Being Human. He is also the author of the books Future Rising: A Journey from the Past to the Edge of Tomorrow, and Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies, and co-host of the podcast Modem Futura. Andrew originally trained and worked for many years as a physicist, and received his PhD in physics from Cambridge University, UK.

Neil Selwyn is a professor in the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne – having previously worked in the Institute of Education, London and the Cardiff School of Social Sciences. He has spent the past 30 years researching the integration of digital technology into schools, universities and adult learning.

Neil is recognised as a leading international researcher in the area of digital education – with particular expertise in the ‘real-life’ constraints and problems faced when technology-based education is implemented. He is currently working on nationally-funded projects examining the roll-out of educational data and learning analytics, AI technologies, and the changing nature of teachers’ digital work.

Neil has carried out funded research on digital technology, society and education for national research agencies and funders in the UK, Australia, US, Sweden and Uruguay, alongside projects for the BBC, Gates Foundation, Microsoft Partners in Learning, Save The Children,  National Assembly of Wales and UNESCO.

Neil is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and he also produces the ‘Meet The Education Researcher‘ and ‘Education Technology Society‘ podcasts.