Matt Webb
Matt Webb is CEO and Principal at BERG, and co-founded the studio in 2005. He is responsible for its growth and direction, balancing client partnerships that set strategy and define categories, with internal research and new product development. He brings a broad literacy in business, design, technology, and future trends.
Matt also guides and supports BERG's own product development including "Schooloscope" (funded by Channel 4's investment fund 4iP), a friendly face on data-mined government data; "Availabot," a USB toy that strengthens close social ties; and the design and sale of "Here & There," a new map of New York.
-->
Matt’s goal is that the output of the studio is beautiful, inventive and mainstream, and that its products are aspirational – designing not for the world as it is now, but for the world as it should be.
Matt holds an MPhys in Physics from Oxford University, and has been writing and creating for the Web since 1998 (including blogs, web toys and collaborative short fiction). Previously he has been an engineer at UpMyStreet, and worked in R&D at the BBC.
He is co-author of the book Mind Hacks (O’Reilly, 2004), a popular collection of explorations into the workings of the brain. It has since been translated into 7 languages, and was reviewed by the Guardian and New Scientist. In 2012 he was named by Wired as one of Britain’s top 100 digital power-brokers. Also in 2012, BERG was included in Fast Company’s annual list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies.
He is a regular speaker on the inspirational role of design and technology in culture, and has keynoted conferences in California, Copenhagen, Istanbul and Sydney. He lives in east London.
Selected talks by Matt Webb
- Escalante, Web Directions South (opening keynote), October 2009.
- Scope, reboot11 (opening keynote), June 2009.
- Movement, Web Directions North (closing keynote), February 2008.
- The Experience Stack, d.construct, September 2007.
- Products Are People Too, reboot 9.0 (closing keynote), June 2007.
- Thoughts on 3C Products, XTech (closing keynote), May 2007.
- From Pixels to Plastic, O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, March 2007.
- The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Interaction Design, Yahoo!, other Bay Area companies, and an Adaptive Path-hosted public event, January 2007.
- App After App, or, A zoology of next year’s web applications, Barcamp London and Eurofoo 06, September 2006.
- Iterative architecture (built on an internet of things), Futuresonic Social Technologies Summit, July 2006.
- Engaging Technology, We Love Technology, July 2006.
- Making Senses, reboot8, June 2006.
- Assumptions, Attention and Affordances (based on Mind Hacks), BBC Digital Futures, February 2006.
- Sci-fi I Like, Goldsmiths, February 2006.
- The 3 Steps: The History of Physics and the Future of Computing, reboot7, June 2005.
- Glancing: I’m OK, You’re OK, O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, February 2004.