Dave looks forward. Towards The Future of the World of Work. Positive, encouraging, engaging, challenging and upbeat on topics including AI, big data, digitalization, emerging technologies and much more, he looks at how to combine “humans plus machines” to achieve the best results. His view is not nihilistic. It’s not Armageddon. It’s about being open, engaging and engaged, people-facing, achievable and relevant.

Dave’s thorough approach to tailoring his presentations is reflected in excellent feedback. Invited to speak worldwide for companies (including in law, finance, banks, engineering, construction, schools and universities, food and drink, tech, and more) his tell-it-as-he-sees-it honesty, and a light-hearted approach always inspire, enthuse, and entertain. He helps audiences to think differently and creatively. His mission is to help people see how technology can help them work smarter. Not harder.

Dave’s work as a published thought leader allows him to begin new conversations with audiences to resonate at all levels about the changing nature of work, which requires greater flexibility, collaboration, creativity and innovation.

His clients include Google, Facebook, Vodafone, Dropbox, Connect Plus M25, UBM, New Civil Engineer, CIPD, Communisis, The Law Society, London Business Forum, Richmond Housing Partnership, MCA Insight, Pancreatic Cancer UK, Baillie Gifford, Richmond Events, Gladstone Software, PHD Dubai, The Economist, Mizuho International Bank, Business Centre Association, Mind The Product, Association of Relocation Professionals, Public Service Manager’s Association, Lucy Cavendish College (University of Cambridge) and Nickelodeon.

In December 2017, Dave was invited to open, and to close, the Children’s Global Media Summit over three days in Manchester UK. HRH Prince William was the keynote speaker on Day Two of this important, global event.

Following his success headlining at the Cheltenham Science Festival in 2019 (speaking on the future of the world of work and education) Dave was invited back for multiple sessions in 2020/2021.

Technology geekdom is in Dave’s DNA. A life-long Star Trek fan, he is a former Crystal Maze winner: these attributes all combine to create this friendly, approachable, optimistic, beardy, pony-tailed alchemist.  With over 25 years in the technology industry (and via his former “day job” as “Chief Envisioning Officer” at Microsoft) Dave is at the forefront of conversations on how individuals and organisations could benefit from the transformational potential of technology, rather than simply using it to do the same things… but only slightly better.

At Destination Star Trek, he went onstage to speak about a subject close to his heart – how technology, and even innovations referenced in Star Trek, are being brought to life now, changing the way we live and work forever.  One of the most influential people in the digital industry, he was nominated as one of the Drum’s Digerati (2013, 2014) BIMA’s Hot 100 (2013) and the Digital Marketing Show’s “Class of 2014”.

Bringing new and exciting thinking to the world of work, Dave’s books Business Reimagined and The Rise of the Humans discuss the need to rethink how we use technology to make it work for us, not against us. The books sold over 12,500 copies. Dave is working on his next book.

The Rise of the Humans (2014) shines a light on the deluge of digital information which surrounds us in work and in life, threatening to overwhelm us. Dave argues that the sheer volume of information often prevents us from ever going deep into subjects and it constrains us from getting the much-needed headspace to think. He claims this deluge often leads us to “snack” on data in a way that’s unhealthy for our minds, working styles and, most importantly, our lives.

With a loyal audience on social media, Dave is a prominent and regular voice at leading industry events and platforms including the RSA, WorkTech, and Cloud World Forum. He was a guest on Sunday Brunch (C4) 31 Dec 2017. His RSA Animate video on the need to re-imagine work has generated over 800,000 YouTube hits to date.  His point of view resonates widely.

Addressing the intersection of modern society technology through his public speaking and published work, Dave is spearheading the development of the UK’s IT and digital industries by helping people to understand and aspire to greater outcomes from our use of technology.

Dave is an authority in the industry, on a broad range of topics and a regular contributor in UK and Pan-EMEA media including the BBC, The Telegraph and The Guardian on topics from the future of education, privacy and on-line safety, right through to the Big Data rock stars and the impact of Machine Learning.

“We need strategies and tools that help us better to cope with information – and focus on what matters.

But how do we sift through what’s important and what’s not?

How do we decide when to tune in, and when to tune out?”

The Rise of the Humans, Dave Coplin, 2014

“I believe that within every individual inside an organisation lies an “intrapreneur” – an innate desire to make things better either directly for themselves, or indirectly by making their organisation better.

Our main cultural challenge is how organisations not only create an environment that supports this, but equally how they learn to live with the occasional chaos that can come with it.”

The Rise of the Humans, Dave Coplin, 2014

Invited as principal keynote speaker at Children’s Global Media Summit (hosted by the BBC: December 2017), he wrote: 

“We continue to raise our children with a mindset that was forged in the fires of the 19th century. As a result, we are preparing our children for a world that no longer exists.  Unless we fundamentally change the way in which we think about, engage with and educate our children, we risk being derelict in our duty as the guardians of their future, as we send them out into a world for which they are simply not prepared.  The Rise of the Humans seeks to re-dress this balance by helping the next generation to embrace the incredible opportunity technology offers us and, in so doing, enables them to live up to the potential of evolving technology, rather than to be constrained by it”.