Andy Hadfield Speaker Biography
Social Media Expert and Entrepreneur
Andy Hadfield is a digital native – a marketer, product guy and proud corporate disruptor. He is fascinated with the impact it is having on our lives and businesses. An entertaining and compelling personality, Andy speaks with authority and insight about the new shape of life, work and play in the digital world.
Social Media Expert
Andy has played in every corner of the digital industry, launching his first startup at age 19 – getALife (gAL) was a social network before the word was even invented (he likes to say). A political and community mouthpiece for South African students between 1997 and 2005, the site was covered on every major media platform, including Time Magazine. It also had the dubious honour of being sued by Robert Mugabe.
Entrepreneur
Over the next 15 years of his career, he honed his strategic skills across a range of industries, including finance, professional services, construction and media. With The Virtual Works, this included building the digital platform that underpinned “The Deloitte Way”, and SA’s first monetised niche social network, DesignMind, which drives collaboration across the construction industry.
Digital Marketing
At FNB, Andy helped develop a team to manage digital strategy across the consumer banking segment. Projects included corporate crowdsourcing, the bank’s first official FaceBook presence, a major overhaul of the consumer website and a world-class “Amazon-style” eCommerce system – so you can get FNB products in under 10 minutes, from the comfort of your couch.
Real Time Wine and MyBeer
After FNB, Andy took up some management consulting contracts with a few big and digitally brave South African corporates. 2012 then saw the launch of Real Time Wine & MyBEER (investment led by Michael Jordaan & Mike Ratcliffe), a retail discovery platform and consumer review community for the wine and beer industry. The startups closed in 2014 after a great 2 year run, pulling off a number of firsts in the mobile app world.
Speaker
Andy is a regular speaker on the African circuit, has flown the flag at SXSW (with a talk called You Don’t Need Bandwidth To Be Awesome).
Andy Hadfield Speaking Topics
The Real Time Wine Story (so far)
Real Time Wine was launched in South Africa in July 2012 to critical acclaim. This is the story so far... growing users, testing revenue streams and iterating the product. It's a journey through angel investment, product development, game layers, PR launches, lean startups and everything else a South African startup experiences. And it's about wine. And we all love wine!
You Don't Need Bandwidth To Be Awesome
Africa has a certain flair for innovation - this keynote explores how Africa has managed to continue to innovate despite disadvantages. It covers Alternative Energy, Mobile Payments, Crowdsourcing, Scratch Card distribution channels and Alternative Power. This is more than thinking outside our box, these are stories of a continent solving real problems for real people. Is Africa the next continent for continue global growth? Will we build for the bottom of the pyramid or will we remain obsessed with #FirstWorldProblems?
Future Kids. Future Customers
Humanity is changing, and the challenges that the kids of tomorrow will face are vast, and sometimes scary. And let's not forget, this generational wave are your next set of customers. Going into the Net Generation and far beyond, this 60 minute keynote is a humorous and very real look at the changing landscape of digital culture - from the eyes of the kids that will shape it.
Real Time Everything
A humourous examination of what happens to the world when experience and information becomes "real time". From Obama's assassination to the power of memes and real time effects on customer service, this is a 45 minute keynote that will inspire urgent management meetings. Like a good keynote should!
The Social Imperative
This is an advanced half-day or full day workshop that delves deeper into the "connected world" we live in, with content specifically tailored to help business understand the effect social channels will have on them, now and into the future. From time to time, Andy Hadfield will stage a social media week, flying in international speakers to attend workshops at your company. Read more about the MasterClass here. The slide deck below is merely the introduction to this theme. The Social Imperative includes content on the following topics: The Future of Social Media, The Net Generation, Real Time Culture, Location Based Services, Customer Service in the New World, Social Media Team Outputs, Trend Hunting and more!
10 Lessons from the Future
When you look back, it's staggering to see how far business and society has come. This 60 minute keynote is based on the original book by Wolfgang Grulke and is a rollicking journey from the 1950's through to the 2020's - picking out lessons for business and illustrating the mantra that it's better to shape your future than let it shape you. A mind-blowing content romp through technology, culture and business examples from around the globe. Read more about this talk here.
