Alex Edmans
Professor of Finance, London Business School | Bestselling Author of Grow the Pie & May Contain Lies | Thinkers50 Radar | TED Speaker on Purposeful Business
Ben Hammersley
Futurist & Strategic Foresight Expert | Inventor of the Word "Podcast" | Founder, Hammersley Futures & Agathonic.AI | WIRED Editor-at-Large | BBC Presenter
Ben Hammersley coined the word "podcast," reported from Afghan combat zones, and advised governments on national security before becoming one of the world's most sought-after futurists. His frameworks on Adaptive Futurism and Cognitive Risk give senior leaders tools to think clearly about a future arriving faster than their mental models can handle.
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Ben Hammersley biography
Ben Hammersley is one of the most unusual figures on the global keynote circuit. He coined the word “podcast” in a 2004 article for The Guardian, a term later named Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. He was an embedded war correspondent in Afghanistan and Beirut before most technology commentators had left their desks. He has advised the UK Foreign Office, the European Commission, and the US government on national security and digital strategy, presented a BBC series on cybercrime that now streams on Netflix, and even built his own satellite. When he talks about the future, he is not extrapolating from trend reports. He has been living in it for three decades.
Futurist speaker Ben Hammersley is the Principal of Hammersley Futures, an international strategic forecasting consultancy that helps corporations and governments think clearly about the future, and the founder of Agathonic.AI, which develops cognitive technology for synthesizing emerging knowledge. He is Innovator-in-Residence at the Centre for Creative and Social Technologies at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Geographical Society. His client list spans Pfizer, HSBC, Deloitte, ICANN, NATO, and heads-of-state summits. He was appointed the UK Prime Minister’s Ambassador to Tech City and has served on the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Media Freedom.
His career has always run along three interconnected tracks, journalism, technology, and strategic foresight, and it is precisely that multidisciplinary combination that makes his frameworks work. As the first internet reporter for The Times, he grasped early that understanding digital transformation required being a practitioner of it, not merely an observer. He went on to become Editor-at-Large at WIRED UK, which he joined at launch, while developing technical expertise in the data standards that would become the semantic foundations of modern AI. He has authored five books, including 64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then and Now For Then: How to Face the Digital Future Without Fear.
Adaptive Futurism and Cognitive Risk
Hammersley’s current work centres on two concepts that define his intellectual contribution: Adaptive Futurism, the mental models and practical methods needed to navigate a future that changes faster than conventional forecasting can track, and Cognitive Risk, the overlooked danger that the mental tools leaders use to make decisions are themselves obsolete. As AI rewires entire industries, these frameworks offer executives something most futurist presentations do not: a way to upgrade their own thinking, not just receive new predictions.
As a speaker, Ben Hammersley is consistently ranked among the highest by event organisers. He has addressed audiences ranging from 10,000 hackers to closed heads-of-state summits, from global marketing agencies to investment bank boards. His keynotes are individually crafted to the client, backed by decades of stagecraft, and designed to leave senior audiences with sharper questions, better cognitive tools, and a clearer, if occasionally unsettling, view of the world they are actually operating in.
Ben Hammersley Speaking Videos
Ben Hammersley - Training To Fight The Robots
Ben Hammersley - How to predict the future
Ben Hammersley Keynote Topics
Most futurist presentations rely on buzzwords, misunderstood technologies, and trend-hopping dressed up in concept art and FOMO. They are entertaining but rarely useful. Hammersley takes the opposite approach: a rigorous, evidence-based assessment of which technologies and shifts are genuinely significant, which are overhyped, and which are outright fraud. Drawing on his work advising governments and global corporations on digital disruption, he shows why the heart of strategy is knowing what to ignore, and gives audiences a practical filter for distinguishing signal from noise.
The cognitive tools that made leaders successful in the last decade are becoming liabilities in this one. Hammersley's signature framework, Adaptive Futurism, addresses not just what the future holds but how to upgrade the mental models needed to navigate it. Drawing on crew resource management, extreme-environment psychology, and strategic foresight, he gives executives practical thinking tools: how to plan when forecasting is unreliable, how to build resilience without sacrificing speed, and how to decide well when the information environment itself is compromised.
Organizations have become sophisticated at managing financial, operational, and reputational risk. Almost none of them systematically manage Cognitive Risk: the threat that the mental frameworks their leaders use to interpret the world are outdated, biased, or simply wrong for the environment they now operate in. Drawing on his work across national security, AI development, and organizational strategy, Hammersley makes the case that Cognitive Risk is now one of the most consequential exposures any enterprise carries, and outlines what boards and executive teams can do about it.
Innovation is the most misunderstood concept in modern business. The word is misused, the benchmarks are wrong, the role models are misleading, and the metrics organizations use to track it measure the wrong things entirely. Hammersley, who has studied innovation across cultures, industries, and centuries, from Silicon Valley to wartime logistics to the spread of printing, cuts through the mythology to reveal what genuinely drives it: not technology adoption or startup culture, but specific, learnable cognitive and organizational practices any enterprise can develop.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Ben Hammersley
Why Ben Hammersley?
Booking Ben Hammersley means putting on your stage one of the rare futurists whose credentials are entirely self-earned: a war correspondent who reported from Afghanistan and Beirut, the journalist who coined the word "podcast," a government adviser who briefed the UK Foreign Office and European Commission on national security, and a BBC presenter whose cybercrime series now streams on Netflix. He does not repeat trend reports. He brings original frameworks, Adaptive Futurism and Cognitive Risk, that give senior audiences practical cognitive upgrades rather than just new predictions. Event organisers consistently rate him the highest speaker of the day. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to bring Ben Hammersley to your stage.
Did Ben Hammersley really invent the word "podcast"?
Yes. Hammersley coined the term in a February 2004 article published in The Guardian, where he was discussing the emerging phenomenon of downloadable audio content. The word was a portmanteau of "iPod" and "broadcast." The New Oxford American Dictionary later declared it Word of the Year. Hammersley had already written two books on RSS, the data standard that underpins podcast distribution, which meant he understood the technology as both a journalist and a practitioner. The word now appears in every major dictionary and describes an industry generating billions of dollars annually.
What is Adaptive Futurism?
Adaptive Futurism is the strategic framework Hammersley developed through Hammersley Futures, built around a core insight: in rapidly changing environments, the primary risk is not failing to predict the future correctly but failing to maintain the cognitive flexibility needed to respond to it. Rather than offering a fixed roadmap, it equips leaders with mental models and decision-making tools that remain effective as the landscape shifts. It draws on scenario planning, systems thinking, and extreme-environment psychology, and underpins his advisory work with governments, NATO, financial institutions, and global corporations.
What topics does futurist speaker Ben Hammersley cover?
Hammersley speaks across interconnected topics: strategic foresight and future planning, Adaptive Futurism and Cognitive Risk, AI's societal and organizational impact, the future of work, cybersecurity and emerging attack surfaces, innovation strategy, and digital disruption across industries. His talks are tailored to each client and audience, from intimate board sessions to conferences of thousands, and are praised for being analytically rigorous, surprising, and immediately actionable. To explore availability and bring him to your event, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
How to book Ben Hammersley as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Ben Hammersley as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Ben Hammersley's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Ben Hammersley or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Ben Hammersley speaking fee?
Ben Hammersley speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Ben Hammersley to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Ben Hammersley.
How can I contact Ben Hammersley?
We only work with Ben Hammersley on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Ben Hammersley and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Ben Hammersley speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Ben Hammersley for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Ben Hammersley for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Ben Hammersley is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Ben Hammersley for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
