Ray Hammond

For more than 30 years, Ray Hammond has been exploring how major trends will affect society and business in the future through research, writing, speaking and broadcasting. He is a successful business leader and serial entrepreneur with hands-on experience in creating, building and leading successful businesses. In 2010 Mikhail Gorbachev awarded him the United Nations Gold Medal for his contribution to the cause of futurology. In the accompanying citation, President Gorbachev said that we are pleased to award the prize to Ray Hammond because of his constant commitment to research and his amazing speculating about the future based on scientific knowledge and sincere concern for humanity. Since 1980, Hammond has published 17 books on the future, a testament to the long-term accuracy and reliability of his predictions. Today, the future he described three decades ago is within sight. The Online Handbook, 1984 was the first to make clear the importance of the Internet and to state that search is the driving force behind online advertising and e-commerce. His seminal book, The Modern Frankenstein, 1986, was the first to predict the importance of DNA analysis, genetic engineering, cloning, and the birth of super-intelligent machines, and suggested that these technologies could become competitors to humans in the 21st century. In 1996, his international bestseller Digital Business laid out the blueprint for e-commerce and provided business plans for online retail businesses. He is the author of four futuristic novels, which are bestsellers in the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Poland, Japan and China. In addition, Intel commissioned Ray to create a short story based on Intel's research on The Morrow Project. He has given many academic lectures around the world and is a member of the Human Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation, a charity with 3,000 members, 91 of whom are Nobel Prize winning scientists. Ray Hammond is currently working on a book called Smart bodies: How digital technology will transform your health. He is currently a member of the Science Fiction Advisory Board of XPRIZE SFAC, a charitable organization founded by prominent technology figures to encourage and promote innovation in all areas of technology. On behalf of the 650 delegates, I would like to thank Ray. His speech was keen to the point, deeply humorous and inspiring, and was well received by the audience. - EuRA 2015, Porto, Portugal We promised delegates a different conference experience and Ray Hammond delivered. Power Of Three Investors Conference, Stockholm The Future of work is a challenging topic, but Ray Hammond describes the possible future of work in his inspiring talk. ——Employers#39; Network, London