Simon Dingle: Technologist Broadcaster

Technology and mobile futurist who helps organisations convert emerging platform and mobility trends into product strategies and customer experiences.

Simon Dingle

Quick Facts:

Highlights:
  • Co-founded key startups in crypto, banking, and design; also a well-known voice in media on technology and culture.
  • Published works on money, future tech, and human-centered design.
  • Helps organizations navigate blockchain, AI, and the human impact of technology.
     

Formats: Keynote

Audience: Product, mobile and UX teams (20–150); Conferences (150–1,500)

Outcomes:
  1. Spot mobile and platform signals that affect product plans.
  2. Create a prioritized product roadmap for mobile-first design.
  3. Build quick experiments to prove user value.
Reviews: (0 reviews)
  • Travels from: Johannesburg

Talent Services

Keynote Topics:

A keynote presentation on the topic of Simon Dingle book In Math We Trust that looks at the origins and dynamics of cryptocurrency, debunks myths surrounding Bitcoin and blockchains, and outlines what the new era of money means for you and your business.

In it you’ll learn where money comes from, how trust has evolved and why we don’t need banks anymore. Yes, I am crazy. After an hour of this shit you will be too.

Simon’s oldest talk that keeps being updated and revised. Yes, this is about behavioural economics, but hopefully unlike the other talks you’ve seen on the topic.

It’s basically an excuse for Simon to show you a lot of optical illusions and talk about how crazy brains are.

Knowing this stuff will give your business super-powers. Who knew? A whole bunch of evil companies, actually. Don’t be one.

Talent Short Bio

Simon Dingle is a fintech entrepreneur, author and speaker who brings irreverent humour and rigorous thought to complex financial and behavioural topics. Best known for work in fintech product development and the book “In Math We Trust”, Simon uses storytelling, optical illusions and real product examples to make ideas about money, trust and design stick.

His background spans building products and companies in the payments and fintech space, writing and podcasting about tech, and advising startups. Audiences appreciate Simon’s blend of rigour and playful delivery; he exposes assumptions that lead to poor decision making and replaces them with practical frameworks for trust, product strategy and customer experience.

Sessions are ideal for leadership groups in finance, product or digital transformation roles who need a clearer understanding of where value is created, how behavioural biases shape choices and what to do next. Simon balances strategic insight with immediately usable tactics and a healthy dose of wit, ensuring takeaways are memorable and implementable.

Simon Dingle is a pack of mongoose stuffed into a tracksuit, pretending to be an adult human.

When they’re not running companies and talking to conference attendees about how to make stuff, “Simon” spends most of its time playing video games and wishing they were recording podcasts instead.

Simon Dingle has been linked to activities in the fintech industry, including making things called 22seven, Luno, Curve, Lettuce, and authoring a book called In Math We Trust. Simon are fine with that. Stupid humans are easily deceived. And delicious.

He has also spent time on radio, writing for magazines, and for a time compiled musical anthologies.

This may be hard to believe, especially since he has never entered any competitions, but Simon has also received some awards, including the Classic Business Journalist of the Year in 2011 for his columns on technology in Finweek, the Highway Africa New Media Personality of the Year for his hosting of the ZA Tech Show podcast, and a listing in the Mail & Guardians’ Top 200 Young South Africans edition of 2010.

Simon is passionate about open source technology and content, having been an active member of the iCommons network from 2005 until its resolution in 2008, and an administrator of the Mandriva Linux Users Board from 1999 to 2003 while he was still figuring out girls and how to wear clothes.

He believes that most of the world’s problems can be solved with design and critical thinking.

As Simon is fond of saying, “Smart is not something you are, it’s something you do.”

What can Your Business Learn from Pokèmon Go?

Pokémon Go has broken all records to become the most successful product launch in history.
 
In this talk Simon Dingle breaks down the success of Pokémon Go and provides actionable insights that will benefit your business.
 
In less than a month, Pokémon go has:
 
• 20 million daily active users
• $35 million in revenue
• Doubled the value of Nintendo stock
 
Simon Dingle – Technologist Broadcaster will unpack how this happened, including insights into artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality, rapid scaling and viral growth, plus much more.

Contact us at Speakers Inc and follow us on Facebook

Talent Videos

Simon Dingle: Technology, Perception & The Human Algorithm

Simon Dingle explores how human perception, behavioral science, and technology collide and why businesses must think beyond generalizations to design for the individual.

Simon Dingle opens with humor, inviting the audience to reflect on themselves before diving into the science of perception. He explains how left/right brain dominance, the complexity of the human eye, and cultural differences (like the Kalahari San vs. Westerners in optical illusions) shape how we process information.

He illustrates how technology systems, from Google search to AI-driven assistants, have evolved from static information sources into predictive, context-aware tools. With sensors, algorithms, and machine learning, these “global brains” are beginning to anticipate human needs sometimes even making decisions for us.

Dingle warns against businesses that rely on outdated digital strategies or attempt to “educate the market.” Instead, he argues that organizations must let the market educate them, designing for individuals (“a segment of one”) rather than averages.

His closing thought: technology is not about machines alone it’s about deeply understanding people, perception, and behavior, then creating systems that serve them uniquely.

Key Moments

00:00 – Opening humor & left/right brain experiment
02:30 – Human perception: eyes, cones, and the limits of color
05:40 – Dogs vs. mantis shrimp: seeing beyond human vision
07:30 – Optical illusions & how culture shapes perception
12:00 – The “Library of Babel” metaphor: information overload
14:30 – Google’s evolution: from static search to predictive AI
18:10 – Sensors, IoT, and the rise of global digital “brains”
21:45 – Predictive algorithms & the shift to machine decision-making
25:00 – Why businesses must abandon generalizations & embrace personalization
27:00 – Closing: focus on human behavior, not just technology

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A: Keynotes are strategic and accessible; workshops can be technical and hands-on.

A: Product managers, UX teams, and mobile strategists.

A: Standard AV for keynotes; breakout rooms for workshops.

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