Taryn Southern keynote speaker

Taryn Southern is an award-winning storyteller and creative technologist exploring the intersection of emerging tech and human potential. Her groundbreaking creative experiments blend technological innovation with the human experience, offering unique insights into how we can engage technology to lead more creative, joyful, healthy, and productive lives.

A true digital media pioneer, Taryn’s career began at the forefront of the online content revolution. In 2007, she hosted and produced a TV series documenting her travels to meet MySpace friends and uploaded her first viral video to YouTube. Over the next decade, she created over 1500 videos garnering more than 1 billion views.

In 2017, Taryn began experimenting with emerging technologies to push the boundaries of her creative work. She composed the world’s first AI album, which landed on the Top 100 US Radio Charts and received widespread media attention. She then combined VR, blockchain, AI, and spatial computing to create an award-winning Google VR series, earning her the AT&T Film Award. Her directorial debut, “I AM HUMAN,” a documentary on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, won numerous awards, and is now available on Apple and Amazon.

Since 2021, Taryn has served as Chief Storyteller at a leading implantable neurotechnology company, where she launched the world’s first BCI museum and oversaw communications strategy for two successful funding rounds totaling over $250M+. An advocate of women in science and tech, she has also angel invested in future-forward companies such as Oura, Etched, Extend Fertility, Vessel Health, and Forever Labs.

Taryn’s creative expertise spans both traditional and new media. She has guest-starred on primetime network TV shows, sold a musical comedy pilot to MTV, co-hosted Discovery Channel’s #1 late-night show, and created digital series for Conde Naste, AirBnB, The Today Show, Snapchat, and Maker Studios. She was an early advisor to YouTube, Google VR, and Snapchat product teams, and consulted for companies like Conde Nast and Marriott on their digital content strategy and narrative design.

A three-time Streamy Awards nominee, Taryn received the Geena Davis Award in 2018 for her work as an innovative female filmmaker. Her contributions have been featured in Vanity Fair, Billboard, Fast Company, Wired, Forbes, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review, shaping the discourse on technology’s role in our lives.