Raya Bidshahri
Entrepreneur. Futurist. Author.
Educator. Keynote Speaker.
Raya Bidshahri is a serial entrepreneur, author, futurist and keynote speaker. As the Founder & CEO of Awecademy, Raya is one of the world’s leading experts alternative models in education, the future of work and exponential innovation.
She has been featured by the BBC as one of the 100 most influential and inspirational women globally and is a member of the Bett Global Education Council. Raya has been described as a techno-optimist, a communicator of popular science, and an advocate of curiosity, critical thinking, wonder, and awe.
Raya Bidshahri has been named in BBC’s list of 100 most influential and inspiring women from around the world for 2019 – alongside Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, American Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, and other trailblazing women.
The BBC 100 Women team is an award-winning brand within BBC News which started in 2013 with a pledge to represent women better in international news. 100 Women showcases the stories of inspirational women to a global audience of 426 million people a week. It is shown on TV, digital and radio platforms across the English speaking world and in 42 other languages.
Experience
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Empowering a generation of cosmic citizens to bring about civilization-level change.
A platform to promote creativity, critical thinking, innovation, and STEAM education.
A meet up group to talk about science, technology, and astronomy, in an informal setting.
Optimism about the future based on data, reason and empirical evidence.
Keynotes
Exponential Education. Radical Innovation. Moonshot Thinking. The Future of Work.
Raya has had over 40 speaking engagements in 8 countries on a wide range of topics. She has been keynoting at conferences for the last 9 years – since the age of 16 – and brings a much-needed youth perspective to discussions about the future of our species.
Raya speaks about the implications of exponential technologies on the future of work, education and humanity at large. She infuses into her talks a sense of cosmic perspectives, moonshot thinking, existential awareness and intelligent optimism.
Raya is notable for her ability to take audiences through an inspiring vision for a radical model of education that can contribute to positive civilization-level change.
Videos
Videos
DFA Cohort 7, Knowledge and Human Development Authority - Awecademy Startup
Testimonials
“Raya was part of the BBC 100 Women season in 2019 as one of the outstanding futurists that joined us for
a day-long global Future Conference to think about what the future will look like in 2030. She brought us her thought-provoking, engaging views on how we will learn and interact in the ‘schools of the future’. She owned the stage and was a pleasure to listen to and work with throughout the production stage. We were hugely pleased to proudly name her one of our BBC 100 women of the year."
- Valeria Perasso, Senior journalist, BBC 100 Women, BBC World Service Language
Written Works
As a contributing journalist to the Singularity Hub, Raya Bidshahri explores how exponential technologies can be used to tackle global and existential challenges facing our species.
Exploring themes that involve the radical overhaul of traditional education, such as the importance of existential intelligence, preparing youth to become multi-planetary species and much more.
In The Press
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