Adah Parris Keynote Speaker

Adah Parris is a tech futurist, polymath, anti-disciplinary artist, activist and highly versatile speaker on several topics including innovation, transformation and sustainability. With the aim of challenging the ‘status quo’, Adah’s empathetic and subversive perspective bridges the gap between our external stories and internal behaviours.

Her work involves diving deep into transformation and innovation, with a focus on changing how we experience the world by asking the question “What type of Ancestor do you want to be?”.  Her cutting edge philosophy Cyborg Shamanism transforms cultures to nurture decentralised humanity-centred innovative environments.  It combines the digital and spiritual worlds: bringing together ancient wisdom, living systems and indigenous community practices with the design of new and emerging technologies.

In all of Adah’s work, she inspires and encourages community, kinship and living ecosystems.  She draws on her unique blend of expertise to encourage innovative solutions to global challenges.  Adah encourages businesses and individuals to be good ancestors by prioritising long-term thinking, inclusivity and sustainability.  She believes this holistic approach is essential for companies wishing to foster deeper connections with their employees and customers, drive innovation, and leave a positive legacy.

Adah has worked with world-leading businesses and institutions, transforming cultures and creating decentralised innovative environments, for over 20 years.  Clients include NatWest Bank, Sainsbury’s, Google, Unilever, Oath, Ogilvy Labs, The British Council, The EU Council, The Tate Modern, the British Film Institute (BFI), The Union Chapel, Burning Man Camp: Playground, ArabNet Dubai, Innovate Finance, among others.

Adah is Chair of Mental Health First Aid England.  She is part of the advisory group for the Centre for Cultural Value, and is a member of the Outvertising Council who campaign for LGBTQ+ inclusive advertising and marketing.

She has received numerous awards and accolades for her work.  She was recognised as a TED Talks Global Emerging Innovator, and in 2022 was nominated for the Positive Leadership and Non-Executive Director Awards.  She was named Employer of the Year for her work at Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and for two consecutive years (2020 and 2021), was longlisted in Computer Weekly’s Top 50 Women in UK Tech.  She was named one of the UK’s Top 100 Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Leaders in Technology 2018.

Her speaking topics question whether people are looking for a new religion through the use of technology, finding a balance in the digital world, the impact of the commoditisation of technology on the individual and whether one can achieve flow in a technological hyperconnected world, in the hopes that one may explore whether technology is a global phenomenon or if it has become rapidly commodified.

According to ChatGPT, Adah is “the tech shaman who channels ancient wisdom and makes immersive and wearable art on the side”.