/ Speaking

I’m an experienced keynote speaker and panellist. I’ve presented at major public festivals like the Sydney Writers Festival and the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, industry events like Purpose, Dreamforce and the Atlassian World Tour, given plenary lectures at academic conferences, run boardroom briefings and just about everything in between.

I don’t give off-the-shelf talks. I customise my presentations – in both tone and content – for the challenges, questions and context of my audience. I like to push my clients and audiences with a playful and innovative style. Expect me to ask what your ‘weirdness appetite’ is when we chat!

I’m represented by Speaking Out

// People I’ve worked with

// Testimonials

“Matt is a brilliant speaker and panellist. He takes a fresh and accessible approach to complicated and difficult topics. He brings together the rigour of philosophical enquiry with a contemporary understanding of what people really want to know – an unusual and valuable combination.”

Ann Mossop, Director, Centre for Ideas, UNSW Sydney

“We asked Matt to be a part of our Secrets & Lies live event called ‘Humanity and the Machine’ in 2020. The Secrets & Lies series comprises one of our biggest thought leadership pieces every year. Matt was a terrific edition to our panel. Thought-provoking, concise, funny and charming. Exactly what you want from an expert on a panel. Matt’s comments on the role ethics plays in technology were as incisive as they were human. We received a great deal of feedback on Matt’s contribution and many of our WPP clients were incredibly impressed with Matt’s take on the role ethics can (and should) play as we live through some of the greatest technological developments the world has seen. Matt adds a substantive contribution to any panel in need of a point of view in dissecting the very real ethical questions raised by tech in the 21st century.”

– Rose Herceg, WPP President, Australia & New Zealand

“We engage a huge number of speakers on the programs of various knowledge events each year and Matthew Beard was a standout speaker. He was fantastic to work with as he prepared meticulously and worked very closely to our brief. Our audience loved him and learned so much from his presentation. Matthew’s work is relevant to almost any audience as it examines deep ethical questions about who we are and where we are going in an accessible way. I can’t speak highly enough of Matt as a speaker and collaborator.”

– Sally Hill, Founder – PURPOSE

“Matt’s insights were outstanding and stimulated much debate and discussion throughout the week. His ability to simplify and communicate the complexities of autonomous systems and the ethical and moral challenges of legality and technology in warfighting was particularly noteworthy. The course members and staff greatly benefitted from your presentations and importantly, your interactions with them during syndicate discussions and after hours was extremely well-received.”

– Air Commodore Matt Hegarty, Commandant Australian Command Staff College – ADF

“Our experience with Matt was exemplary: from when we first made the approach inviting him to our annual brand conference in Las Vegas, through development of an entertaining and inspiring presentation on ethics in tech, to him continuing the discussion with audience members well after landing his talk.”

– John Ville, Editorial Director, Atlassian

“Matt brought a unique combination of academia and broad media and social media experience to the sessions he did with the ABC TOP 5 scholars. He made talking about ethics compelling, enabling participants to get a better grasp of the opportunities and pitfalls of putting your head above the parapet and being a leader in conversations in the digital environment”

– Simon Nicholas, ABC TOP 5 Project Co-ordinator