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Rahaf Harfoush

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Rahaf Harfoush is a Strategist, Digital Anthropologist, and Best-Selling Author who focuses on the intersections between emerging technology, innovation, and digital culture.

Rahaf Harfoush is the Executive Director of the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture and teaches “Innovation & Emerging Business Models” at Sciences Politiques school of Management and Innovation in Paris.

Rahaf Harfoush is a member of France’s National Digital Council. In 2021 she joined The Oxford Internet Institute as a Visiting Policy Fellow. Formerly, Rahaf was the Associate Director of the Technology Pioneer Program at the World Economic Forum in Geneva where she helped identify disruptive-startups that were improving the state of the world.

Rahaf Harfoush’s first book, “Yes We Did: An Insider’s Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand,”chronicled her experiences as a member of Barack Obama’s digital media team during the 2008 Presidential elections and explored how social networking revolutionized political campaign strategy. Rahaf is the co-author of “The Decoded Company: Know Your Talent Better Than You Know your Customers”. It was published in early 2014 and was listed on both the New York Times and USA Today best seller lists. It won a 2015 Gold Axiom Award for Best Business Technology Book. Her third book, entitled “Hustle & Float: Reclaim Your Creativity and Thrive in a World Obsessed with Work,” was released in 2019. She has been featured by Bloomberg, The CBC, CTV, and Forbes for her work on workplace culture.

In 2019, the prestigious “Les Napoleons” named Rahaf Harfoush as one of the most innovative women in France. She was listed as one of the top future thinkers to shape the world by the Hay Literary Festival in 2017. Rahaf was named as a Young Global Changer by the G20 Global Think Tank Summit. She has also been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Shaper, and by the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society as a Rising Talent for her thought leadership in the fields of digital culture and technology. In 2014, Rahaf was also named as a “Canadian Arab to Watch,” by the Canadian Arab Institute. She is a member of the German Marshall Network of Transatlantic Leaders.

Rahaf Harfoush’s writing has been featured in HBR, Wired, The Globe and Mail, Fast Company, Monocle, The Financial Times, Techonomy, The Next Web and many more. She is a frequent commentator on France24 and the CBC. She has been speaking about Digital Culture and Technology since 2006.

Speaking Topics

Creative Centric Cultures: High performance. Knowledge Work. Future of Work. Remote Work. Productivity. Creativity. Innovation Strategy. Leadership.

Backed with extensive research and case studies, Rahaf pushes past common solutions to these problems to tackle the deeper cultural questions. From the dark side of the American Dream to the idolization of entrepreneurship culture in the media, audiences will uncover the hidden forces influencing our beliefs about work and learn practical tips to making impactful and long lasting changes to their organizational culture and how to manage their own Hustle and Float.

Constantly Connected: Digital Behaviors. Social Norms. Psychology. Decision Making. Leadership. Relationships.

Rahaf reveals how our educational system predisposes us to information overload, how the algorithms that control our social networks can impact our world views, and how the rise of first global digital culture is creating new alliances that threaten the status quo of business, politics, and our own daily lives. Packed with fascinating case studies, Rahaf will show you how new technologies are shaping our behaviors and creating a new cultural paradigm.

AI, Algorithms & Automation: Predictive Analytics. Privacy. Facial Recognition. Future of Work.

In this talk, Rahaf explores what it means to be human in a world where the features that differentiated us are now being replicated by machines. Google created an AI that started creating original works of art mere hours after it was programmed. A Japanese AI was a finalist in a prestigious literary competition. Financial companies are investing in algorithms that can do the work of teams of analysts in mere seconds.

Digital Culture: Emerging Digital Markets. Online Communities. Fandoms. Misinformation. Social Media.

Rahaf Harfoush explores how we might map intimacy and engagement across diverse digital communities. Moving from transparency and disruption in healthcare to digital leaks, cyber security, and social media activism in the world of politics, or from real-world risks and rewards of having an ‘e-identity’ to the potential for digital culture to revolutionize education, Harfoush is our plugged-in guide to how emerging technology is rewriting the rules of culture, and power.

Books