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Hello. I am a writer and technologist
In 2000, I founded a UK top 100 creative agency – winning awards as a digital designer, creative director and copywriter working with global brands. In 2008, I co-founded Semetric, a machine-learning big data analytics company (later acquired by Apple), and Tweetminster, an ML-powered news & sentiment analysis company. As a journalist and commentator, I’ve covered technology stories for BBC Radio 4, and written for The Guardian, The Independent, Huffington Post and the BBC. I have also enjoyed many appearances on Sky News, CNN, Bloomberg and BBC Radio. I was also a founding partner of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and worked extensively in online child safety.
I was the first person to interview a world leader live with a Twitter Q&A audience and pioneered the use of social media with newspapers, the BBC and ITV. I’ve spent the last few years hosting and producing finance and tech podcasts for various blue-chip clients, hosting conferences, and researching generative AI technology (which I wrote a book about here). I am also currently working on AI-enhanced psychological therapy services.
What do I write about?
Technology has changed our daily experience of life and human behaviour along with it. Everyone knows likes used to be emotions, not clicks. Chat used to be something we did with voices, not thumbs. Shopping was as much a place as an activity. You paid in person or by post. The TV would only let you see what the networks wanted, when they wanted. Music came in sizes and speeds, never streams. A video was either a player or a cassette. The news was paper. People wanted mobile phones to make phone calls, not take pictures. Everybody knows that stuff. The old habits. The fiddling about. The waiting. However, do you ever wonder what we take for granted now that will sound as weird as that old nostalgia shtick in ten or twenty years? Laptops? Social media? Google?
Where tech meets people, things change. It’s always big and fast. We rarely see it coming. I write about that. And cinema, especially the history of the horror genre and the stories that underpin it - our shared cultural heritage of myths and monsters. Check out my zombie cinema history here…
Fiction and non-fiction.
Most of my work is freelance, non-fiction journalism, features and editorial. Some of my work is blogging for brands about their latest products or producing white papers about new technologies and research. I have written books about complex topics like The Family Courts, and I have also written a business book about start-up life and cognitive bias. Yes. Psychology. Fun huh?
You might also have read some of my fiction, online. I have written two novels and I’ve joined the vibrant throng of unpublished debut novelists in social media, working on fiction projects and trying to get published. Some of my scifi work has been commissioned and will be coming soon… watch this space.
Podcaster.
I have done a lot of TV and radio over the last 15 years. I was a regular tech commentator on Sky News, CNN and BBC radio between 2009 - 2012 talking about the impact of digital channels and social media on politics. I have hosted a lot of livestream interview channels for conferences, given keynote speeches around the world at various tech and finance events, and also written and presented TV features on digital business and economics for TV shows between 2012-2018. Using my experience as a presenter and journalist, I host podcasts for myself and clients, including the no.1 Apple Business News podcast in Luxembourg - The Regis-TR RoundUp and the top 10 investment show The GFF Podcast. Take a listen below…
Producer.
In addition to hosting shows, I also produce shows for brands and organisations that want to develop a podcast presence. I do this with my own podcast collective WePodcastYou.com - a group of experienced creatives who develop high quality original content. We’re currently in development with a number of new titles for 2024/5… watch his space, plus our top-ranked news and finance shows.
Performer.
I’ve also developed a number of performance coaching classes for people who want to overcome their nerves and communicate better, especially when public speaking and presenting to large audiences. I began my career as a stand-up comic and so I always start by reminding people that if the audience aren’t throwing bottles and screaming for blood, you are doing okay. I have run courses for executives at large organisations like Channel 4, Vodafone and local organisations like Menta (the East of England business development agency).
And stuff…
And I also do stuff.
You might have seen me at a conference somewhere, giving a talk about future tech and how it’s going to change your life. I’ve given a lot of talks around the world to different industries from start-up tech to banking, real estate, public services and telecoms. Maybe you met me in the bar or at the buffet. I do like a buffet and giving talks is thirsty work. I like to travel and meet new people because writers love stories and storytelling, and the best stories come from listening and talking to people. I host events related to my podcasts, and appear talking about the topics in my books as a keynote speaker at various conferences around the world.
Tech stuff?
I still get involved in exciting tech projects. I’m lucky that I get to work with interesting people and new tech, from teams that design AI voice assistants to consulting firms who help executives use digital tools to engage with diversity and inclusion initiatives more effectively. At the heart of everything I do, there is a story to be told, and a new angle on the way we do things in the digital world.
Other Stuff?
I have also been a ghost writer for a wide range of clients and senior executives who are too busy to write for publications like the Harvard Business Review, corporate blogs and industry publications. This is a chance to dust off my journalist skills and do some interviewing, then draw out their tone of voice and point of view. Shhh, don’t let on… but one time, a friend of mine at a major search engine company sent me an article by a big name tech guru and I’d actually ghost-written it for the big name dude. She didn’t guess. I didn’t say. Which felt weirdly cool. It’s like being 007 (if he was a freelance journalist).
