Speaker Profile: Andy Hobsbawm

Senior digital advisor, Omnicom Group (OMC)
Digital consultant and non-executive director
Co-founder, Green Thing (Dothegreenthing.com)
Co-founder, Everythng.net

A pioneer of the UK internet industry, Andy still remember the buzz of watching users from around the world interact with his earliest Web site, the world’s first commercial eZine PowerPC News, following the release of Mosaic in 1993.

Andy established the first international Internet agency in 1994 and was a founding director of leading British new media company Online Magic that merged with Agency.com in 1997. As European MD and later Chairman of Agency.com between 2003-2009, he helped to guide and was a spokesperson for the firm with his unique insight into the continual evolution of the interactive medium. He currently advises the boards of Omnicom companies on digital strategies and is a non-executive director and advisor to Internet companies such as Trendwatching.com, iAnnounce and Rapha.cc.

He co-founded award-winning environmental movement Green Thing in 2007 which inspires people to lead a greener life (people from 205 countries have saved over one million tonnes of CO2). In 2009 he co-founded Web 3.0 software company Everything which provides a platform for exchanging information about real objects in realtime.

In 2010 Andy was named in Wired magazine’s list of the UK’s “Top 100 Digital Power Brokers” and was previously recognised by industry professionals as one of the 100 individuals who have most contributed to the development and growth of the Internet in the UK over the last decade. He received a Special Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 and in Campaign Magazine was voted New Media Innovator of the Year and named by industry peers as one of the most admired digital pioneers.

Andy has spoken at numerous conferences, including TED, PICNIC, Global Marketing Forum, Jupiter ClickZ Advertising Conference, Forrester Consumer Marketing Forum and the opening keynote at ad:tech, London, and has also helped to judge many industry awards such as the Webbys, London’s Revolution Awards and New York’s One Show Interactive.

He has been a weekly columnist about the new economy for the Financial Times, a member of GartnerG2's first advisory board on online advertising and published a widely acclaimed report on the global impact of communications technologies: “10 Years On: The State of the Internet a decade after Mosaic”. He writes for titles like Business Week, The Guardian and The Independent and recently contributed a chapter on the future of brands in a digital world for The Economist book on Brands and Branding, published in May 2009. Andy is currently writing “Small is the Next Big Thing” which attempts to make sense of accelerating change in an interactive age for Atlantic Books Ltd.

Andy was born and raised in London, and educated in London and Montreal. He lives in Highgate with his wife, two children and Gibson 330 ES, and has yet to receive any royalties from obscure pop songs released by a minor independent record label in Europe.