Talks

I am available for select speaking engagements, having given well over 200 talks in more than 40 countries across 6 continents. Click here for videos of 20+ select talks I’ve given over the years.

This has included talks at the United Nations, World Bank, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, Obama White House, National Geographic, multiple TEDx’s, and major technology, industry & policy events including the Skoll World Forum, Mobile World Congress, Club de Madrid, PopTech and TTI/Vanguard.

Note: As the titles for some of my talks below were originally long and/or technical, I have included the specific topics of said talks instead.

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Climate Robotics Summit 2024
Speaker & Organizer

TEDxMombasa 2023
Speaker: Climate Robotics in Action

Climatebase Fellowship 2023
Speaker: Climate Robotics in Action

Skoll World Forum (Ecosystem Event)
Panelist: Organizational Transformation through Localization

ITU Innovation Serie
Panelist: Drones, Robotics and Localization

United National High Level Panel
Panelist: Organizational Transformation through Localization

UBS Zurich, Geneva, Dusseldorf, London, and US
Speaker: Drones and Robotics in Action 

International Committee of the Red Cross
Speaker: Drone Technologies and Decentralization

Partos Festival
Panelist: Shifting the Power for Organizational Change

Redbull Basement Festival
Keynote: Drones, Robotics and Shifting the Power

Alliance for Peacebuilding
Speaker: Drones, Robotics and Localization

United National Environmental Program (UNEP)
Speaker: Emerging Technologies and Organizational Transformation

LEF Study Tour
Speaker: Decentralization, Localization and Emerging Technologies

AI for Good Global Summit
Speaker: Innovative Localization Models for Social Good

Interagency Supply Chain Group (ISG)
Speaker: Cargo Drones and Innovative Localization Models

ICDD
Speaker: Drones, Robotics and Localization Models

Wellesley College
Speaker: Innovative Localization Models for Social Good

INSARAG
Speaker: Drone Technologies and Localization Models

World Food Program – HQ (WFP)
Speaker: Drone Technologies and Localization Models

Rockefeller Foundation 
Speaker: Emerging Technologies and Localization Models

NetHope
Speaker: Localization and Robotics

DRIVER+
Speaker: Localization and Drone Technologies  

South Pacific Robotics Conference
Speaker: Decolonizing Robotics

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World Health Organization (WHO)
Speaker: Localizing Cargo Drones for Public Health

Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Speaker: Localizing Cargo Drones for Medical Delivery

World Food Program – Bhutan (WFP)
Speaker: Emerging Technologies and Localization Models

Frontier Health
Speaker: Localizing Cargo Drones for Medical Delivery

DRACHMA
Speaker: Localizing Cargo Drones for Medical Delivery

World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)
Speaker: Automating Aerial Imagery Analysis in Humanitarian Efforts

University of Geneva
Keynote: Drones in Humanitarian Action: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

UBS Global Philanthropy
Talk: Using Robotics to Hack the Industrial Revolution

Drone Federation of India Summit
Talk: Localizing Robotics for Social Good

HCOMP / Collective Intelligence
Keynote: From Digital Humanitarians to Humanitarian Robotics

MIT Solve
Speake: Localization and Drones in Humanitarian Action

Swissnex: Aerial Futures – The Drone Frontier 
Keynote: Localizing Drones in Humanitarian Action

NetHope: Discover AI for Aid and Development 
Speaker: Localizing Humanitarian Drones, AI and Big Data

Dubai Robotics Conference
Keynote: Democratizing Humanitarian Robotics

Stanley Knowles Lecture in Humanitarianism
Keynote: Humanitarian Robotics and Localization Models

National Geographic Explorers Symposium
Speaker: Democratizing Exploration Using Robotics

AI for Good Summit*
Speaker: Decentralization & Humanitarian Robotics in Action

Humanitarian Drones Symposium 
Speaker: The Latest Learnings on Humanitarian use of Drones

Humanitarian Advisory Group – Off the Record
Speaker: Humanitarians Robotics: Separating Truth from Fiction

Australian Red Cross 
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: The Latest on UAVs in Disaster Response

International Federation of the Red Cross, Malaysia 
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: The Latest on UAVs in Disaster Response

Humanitarian ICT Forum 
Keynote: Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies

Information & Geospatial Tech Forum (IGTF) 
Keynote: Crisis Mapping with Aerial and Space Robotics

LibTech Conference 
Keynote: Crisis Mapping with Aerial and Space Robotics

Swiss Humanitarian Aid Conference 
Keynote: Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies

Responsible Robotics 
Speaker: Humanitarian Robotics: Policy Gaps & Priorities

Assessing Technology in Humanitarian Action 
Speaker: Assessing Robotics in Humanitarian Action

WFP UAV Coordination Conference 
Speaker: Localizing Rapid UAV Response to Disasters

PopTech 
Speaker: Humanitarian Robotics in the Land of Buddha

TEDxBerlin 
Speaker: Humanitarian Robotics Powered by Artificial Intelligence

DAI Global Conference
Speaker: Using Robotics for Environmental Protection

ICRC Data Protection Workshop 
Speaker: Humanitarian Robotics, Data and Protection Standards

Digital Frontiers Summit 
Keynote Speaker: Humanitarian Robotics in Action

AIDF Global Disaster Relief Summit 
Keynote Speaker: Applications of AI and Robotics to Aid and Development

CIGIDEN Chile
Speaker: UAVs for Disaster Management

EO Open Science – European Space Agency
Speaker: Aerial and Space Robotics for Humanitarian Action

Facebook Building Impact Conference
Speaker: Using Social Media for Crisis Mapping

Amazon Drones for Good
Speaker: Using Aerial Robotics for Humanitarian Cargo Delivery

Drones for Development – Tech Salon
Speaker: The WeRobotics Model

Border Festival 
Speaker: Humanitarian Robotics in Action

National Geographic Symposium
Speaker: Aerial Robotics in the Land of Buddha

DevEx World Conference
Speaker: Humanitarian Robotics in Action

MIT Humanitarian Technology Conference
Speaker: Humanitarian Robotics in Action

Robotics Applications Group
Speaker: Drones & Robots for Disaster Relief  and Development

Drone Masters Summit
Speaker: Aerial Robotics in Humanitarian Action

Drones for Humanitarian Action
Speaker: From UAVs to Humanitarian Robotics

Robotics and Automation Lab – GRASP at UPenn
Speaker: New Opportunities for Humanitarian Robotics

Transforming Emergency Management with Data Analytics
Speaker: Big Data Solutions for Disaster Response

Ceasefire Monitoring Using Tech & Crowdsourcing 
Speaker: Trends in Technology use for Disaster Response

UAE Drones & Robotics for Good Challenge
Keynote Speaker: Aerial Robotics for Humanitarian Efforts

IQPC Drones
Speaker: Aerial Robotics for Disaster Management

EC/ECHO UAVs for Protection Experts
Speaker: Rapid Response UAV Mechanism for Disaster Response

ESIP Earth Science 
Speaker: Aerial Robotics, Big Data and Disaster Response

Planet Labs
Speaker: Digital Humanitarian Action: Lessons Learned

Geo DC
Speaker: Aerial Robotics for Disaster Response and Recovery

USAID UAV Incubator
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky

UK Drone Show 
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky

LIG Keynote
Keynote: Digital Humanitarians

USGS Presentation
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky

Drone World Expo
Speaker (3 talks): Humanitarians in the Sky

Web Summit
Speaker (Center Stage): UAVs for Disaster Recovery

GIS Forum
Keynote: Digital Humanitarians

Commercial UAV Show
Keynote: Humanitarians in the Sky

International Security Speakers Series
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Humanitarian UAV Experts Meeting
Organizer: Humanitarians in the Sky

Commercial UAV Expo
Keynote: Humanitarians in the Sky

Talloires Conference
Speaker: Digital Humanitarian Leadership

NYU Abu Dhabi Speakers Series
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Humanitarian UAV Mission to Nepal
Organizer: Humanitarians in the Sky

PHAP Webinar 
Speaker: Towards Humanitarian UAV Guidelines

Drone Apps Conference 
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky

USAID
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: UAVs for Disaster Response

New America Foundation
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: UAVs for Disaster Response

Humanitarian UAV Policy Forum
Convener/Speaker: Humanitarian UAVs – Policy Gaps & Opportunities

Creative DC
Speaker: Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies

NetHope Webinar Series
Speaker: Humanitarian UAV Missions: Towards Best Practices

Center for Emergency and Disaster Management Forum
Keynote: Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies

Pivotal
Keynote: Crowdsourcing, UAVs and Disaster Resilience

GUIRR
Keynote: Humanitarians in the Sky: UAVs for Disaster Response

Explorama 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

National Geographic 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Big Boulder 
Speaker: Social Media and Artificial Intelligence for Social Good

Queens Mary University of London
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Department for International Development (DfID)
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Royal Holloway, University of London 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

British Red Cross
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Center for Global Development 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

University of Sheffield 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Thinking Digital 2015 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

World Bank 
Speaker: Humanitarian UAVs: Lessons Learned & Best Practices

MIT Humanitarian Technology
Keynote: Humanitarians UAVs: Lessons Learned & Best Practices

Building Peace
Keynote: From Humanitarian UAVs to Peacebuilding UAVs

SwitchPoint
Speaker: The Rise of Digital Humanitarians

CSW Global
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

The Fletcher School
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

MIT Lincoln Labs
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Georgetown University
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

University of Canterbury
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Hugo Group 
Speaker: Humanitarian Technologies

SXSW 
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: UAVs for Disaster Response

Kairos Society
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

UC Berkeley
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Skoll Foundation 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Stanford Liberation Technology 
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians vs Dictators

New America Foundation
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

NYC Drones Fest 
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky

Drones for Good 
Keynote: Humanitarians in the Sky

American Red Cross (ARC) 
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: Using UAVs in Emergency Management

Closer Look at National Geographic
Speaker: How to Become a Digital Humanitarian and Save the World

TTI/Vanguard: Next 
Speaker: Next Generation Humanitarian Technology

Annual Research Conference (ARC)
Speaker/Moderator: Advanced Computing for Social Good

CrisisMappers Conference (ICCM)
Speaker: The Humanitarian UAV Network

Experts Meeting on Humanitarian UAVs
Speaker: Humanitarian UAVs: From Big Data to Operations via Policy

World Food Program Keynote Talk
Keynote: Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies

Big Data from Space
Keynote: Digital Humanitarians in the Sky

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Speaker: Humanitarian in the Sky: Using UAVs in Emergency Management

Planet Labs
Speaker: Digital Humanitarianism

Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC): Vision 2020
Speaker: Next Generation Humanitarian Technology

Involving Citizens in Emergency Preparedness/Response
Speaker: Democratizing Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies

Technology & Innovation in Peace Operations
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: The Role of UAVs in Disaster Response

Engineering for Change Webinar Series
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: The Role of UAVs in Disaster Response

NetHope Webinar Series
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky: The Role of UAVs in Disaster Response

UAV Triple Zero Summit
Keynote: Humanitarian UAVs – Between Innovation and Regulation

Int’l Conference on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems
Speaker: Humanitarians in the Sky – Humanitarian Applications of UAVs

General Assembly of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Speaker: Social Media in Humanitarian Emergencies

NYC Emergency Management Conference
Keynote: Using Crowd Computing for Emergency Management

Commercial African Open Source Information Sharing
Keynote: Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies

Big Data and Increasing Resilience to Catastrophic Events
Speaker: Big Data, Communities and Ethical Resilience

Int’l Conf on Info Systems for Crisis Response (ISCRAM)
Keynote: Combining Human & Machine Computing to Improve Crisis Response

Humanitarian Technology: Science, Systems & Impact
Keynote: Next Generation Humanitarian Technology

Societal Verification Workshop
Panelist: Crowdsourced Societal Verification in Crises

Red Cross Disaster Management Camp
Speaker: Advanced Computing for Disaster Management

Emergency Preparedness Symposium
Speaker: Leveraging Social Media & Crowdsourcing for Disaster Response

GeoTech
Keynote: Digital Humanitarians

Computer Supported Work & Social Computing (CSCW)
Keynote: Next Generation Humanitarian Computing

The Future of Humanitarian Response (UN)
Speaker: The Humanitarian System in 2025

Next Generation Humanitarian Technology (ICL) 
Speaker: Innovations in Humanitarian Technology

CrisisMappers: Humanitarian Technology (ICCM)
Speaker: The Past, Present and Future of CrisisMappers

Next Generation Humanitarian Technology (UN)
Speaker: The UN Shift Towards Humanitarian Technology

Human Rights Fact Finding in the 21st Century (NYU)
Speaker: Big Data and Humanitarian Response

Council on Foreign Relations
Speaker: Humanitarian Innovation and Technology

UNICEF Humanitarian Innovation
Speaker: Innovation in Humanitarian Computing

Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Keynote Speaker: Big Data and Disaster Response

Social Good Summit – Philippines 
Speaker: Next Generation Humanitarian Technology

Digital Societies and Social Technologies
Keynote Speaker: Crowdsourcing Verification and Disaster Response

Int’l Conference on Weblogs & Social Media (ICWSM)
Tutorial: Crisis Mapping, Citizen Sensing and Social Media Analytics

New York City Office for Emergency Management
Speaker: Machine & Human Computing for Emergency Management

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians and Next Generation Humanitarian Technology

NDU Center for Tech & National Security Policy
Speaker: Next Generation Crisis Mapping

Social Sensing Workshop
Speaker: Sensing Disasters and Shaping Response

UN Peacekeeping Workshop
Speaker: Next-Generation Humanitarian Technology

TEDxTraverseCity
Speaker: Digital Humanitarians

Social Web for Disaster Management (WWW)
Co-Organizer: Next Generation Humanitarian Tech

Sage Bionetwork Congress
Keynote Speaker: The Rise of Digital Humanitarianism

Int’l Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Speaker: Data Protection for Crowdsourced Crisis Info

Qatar Computing Research Institute
Speaker: Next Generation Humanitarian Tech

Georgetown University (Doha) 
Speaker: Next Generation Humanitarian Tech

Radical Media Forum
Speaker: Pulse of the Planet?

Georgetown University (DC) 
Speaker: The State of Crisis Mapping & Humanitarian Tech

SXSW 
Speaker: New Technologies for Conflict Prevention

George Washington University (GWU)
Speaker: Real-Time Analytics for Big (Crisis) Data

New York University (NYU)
Speaker: Next Generation Humanitarian Networks

SMARMIE 2013 
Keynote Speaker: Next Generation Humanitarian Technology

Mobile World Congress
Speaker: Towards SMS Code of Conduct for Disaster Response

Dimensions of Resilience (Rockefeller/PopTech)
Speaker: How to Create Resilience Through Big Data

Monitoring Crises in the Digital Age (Harvard)
Speaker: Digital Humanitarian Response

Social Media & Conflict Prevention (CFR)
Speaker: Next-Generation Humanitarian Technology

Open DataJam (White House)
Speaker: Crisis Computing

Preventing Violent Conflict (USIP)*
Speaker & Moderator: The Use of New Tech for Prevention

International Achievement Summit
Speaker: From Crisis Mapping to Humanitarian Technology

Sensing and Shaping Emerging Conflicts (NAE/USIP)
Speaker: Big Data Analytics for Conflict Monitoring

CrisisMappers
Speaker: Challenges and Opportunities in Crisis Mapping

TEDxSendai
Speaker: Next-Generation Humanitarian Technology

UN Conference on Humanitarian Action
Speaker: Next-Generation Humanitarian Technology

PICNIC*
Speaker: Crowdsourcing & Big Data Verification

Turing Festival
Speaker: Citizen Science for Humanitarian Response

UN/ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Conference
Speaker: Next-Generation Humanitarian Technology

MIT Innovation Lab on Big Data
Speaker: Big Data and Self-Organization

ICTs in Areas of Limited Statehood
Speaker: Crowdsourcing Crisis Mapping

Frontiers for Development (USAID)
Speaker: The Rise of Digital Volunteers

Explorers Symposium (National Geographic)
Speaker: Changing the World, One Map at a Time

The Future of Liberal Internationalism (Princeton)
Speaker: Networked Governance

Revolution: People, Politics & Change (NYU)
Speaker: Crisis Mapping and Political Change

Where 2.0
Speaker: Micro-Tasking Satellite Imagery Analysis

Skoll World Forum 
Speaker: Innovation in Flux

SXSW 
Speaker: Beyond Cyber Optimism and Skepticism

Crisis in the Horn of Africa (NDU) 
Speaker: Humanitarian technology in the Horn 

How To Curate and Verify Online Info
Speaker: Tips and tricks from Information Forensics 

Truthiness in Digital Media (Harvard) 
Participant

Data-Based Conflicts (UBC)
Speaker: Introduction to Crisis Mapping

Mobile World Congress 
Speaker: Leveraging Mobile Technologies for Crisis Mapping

Mobile Active
Speaker: Using Mobile Technology for Digital Activism

Digital Media in Repressive Regimes 
Speaker: Digital Activism and Networked Protests

Social Web: Towards Networked Political Protests
Speaker: Networked ICTs and Protests

Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict 
Keynote: The Future of Conflict Early Warning