Biz Stone keynote speaker

Christopher "Biz" Stone is an American entrepreneur who is best known as the co-founder of social media platform Twitter, blog-publishing platform Medium, and search engine Jelly. A progenitor of social media, Biz has been developing large-scale systems that facilitate the open exchange of information for nearly two decades.

Biz is also an active angel investor, board director, public speaker, and a prominent philanthropist. Most recently, Biz sold Jelly to Pinterest and returned to Twitter, full time.

Biz has been honored with the International Center for Journalism Innovation Award, Inc. Magazine named him “Entrepreneur of the Decade,” TIME listed him as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and GQ named him “Nerd of the Year.” In 2014, The Economist recognized Biz with their annual Innovation Award. In 2015, Biz's Twitter won an Emmy and Biz received CIPR’s most prestigious accolade for his leadership at the forefront of developing new forms of media.

Biz's philanthropic efforts are focused in the areas of animal rights, environmentalism, and education. He is an advisor and contributor to DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that helps classrooms in need. He and his wife also founded and operate the Biz and Livia Stone Foundation, which supports education and conservation in California.

In addition to being a technologist, Biz is a Visiting Fellow at The University of Oxford, an Executive fellow at UC Berkeley, a filmmaker, and an author. Stone’s book is titled, "Things A Little Bird Told Me," a sometimes humorous memoir in the business category. Having started out as an artist, Biz stresses creativity, learning from mistakes, and celebrating the triumph of humanity with a little help from technology.