Keep Talking

We live in interesting times. The global lockdown of 2020 triggered a revolution in how people use digital communication technology. In April 2020, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the firm had seen “two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months” – but the astonishing changes we’ve all been part of are just the latest thread in a rich tapestry of communication revolutions stretching back throughout human history.

As we all adapted to new ways of working, conferences and meetups become completely online events, often with hundreds of developers from around the world connecting digitally to be part of something remarkable. Join Dylan Beattie for a look at the technology that has made this possible – from the origins of language and writing, to the psychology of storytelling, to Starlink, WhatsApp and virtual pub nights. We’ll look at the innovations that got us here and their impact on society, and we’ll see how we as developers can use our voices and skills to make things better. We’ll talk about how our teams and companies have adapted in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll talk about the future of our tech communities, and how technology can make them bigger, better and more inclusive. Finally, we’ll look into the deep future, to a time when humans have colonised the Solar System and are on our way to the stars – and find out why talking to your friends on Mars will never be as easy as it looks in the movies.

Other talks by Dylan Beattie