Robert Tercek
Award-Winning Author, Media Futurist, Business Strategist, Keynote Speaker
Robert Tercek is an award-winning author and the world’s leading authority on dematerialization and the virtual economy. He has supervised the launch of new digital services that are used by hundreds of millions of people every day
Full Profile
About Robert Tercek
Robert Tercek is an internationally acclaimed author, futurist, and digital transformation strategist, renowned as a leading authority on dematerialization and the virtual economy. Over the past three decades, Tercek has pioneered breakthrough innovations in digital media, designing solutions and launching services now used by hundreds of millions globally, including the first streaming video on mobile phones, the world’s largest live online educational program, and formative multiplayer games for PC and mobile platforms. Organisations across industries, including AT&T, Microsoft, IBM, Google, NBC Universal, and many more, rely on his insight to navigate the complexities of digital disruption and seize emerging opportunities within the rapidly evolving landscape of technology.
Business Challenges Addressed
Tercek empowers business leaders to address urgent challenges in digital transformation, including:
- Designing, launching, and scaling digital services to unlock new value in traditional processes and physical goods
- Navigating industry disruption, leveraging advanced technologies (5G, IoT, real-time 3D, big data, game engines) to build digital twins and optimise performance across sectors such as transportation, manufacturing, energy, and environment management
- Overcoming barriers to innovation and change, fostering future-ready thinking and structured strategic planning to break free from legacy models and groupthink
- Managing ethical considerations and risks associated with emerging tech, including AI, automation, spatial computing, and the Metaverse
Tercek’s book, Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World, is regarded as the definitive guide to thriving in today’s digital-first economy; his ideas and frameworks have shaped strategic decisions for leading Fortune 500 companies and innovative start-ups alike.
Robert Tercek’s work is rooted in a deep understanding of digital disruption and innovation, drawing on decades of experience navigating large-scale transformation in both established companies and start-ups. He regularly collaborates with senior leaders, supporting their efforts to interpret complex technology trends and adapt business models for the future. His approach is attentive to the ethical and social dimensions of emerging technologies, aiming to help organisations address these considerations thoughtfully.
Talks
The confluence of several now-mature technologies, including private 5G networks, real-time 3D tools, the Internet of Things, sensor networks, big data, and game engines, means that we can now build high-fidelity models of the real world. Around the world, cities and industrial concerns are launching digital twins of real-world infrastructure. Unlike the consumer Metaverse, which is designed as a platform for communication and entertainment, the Industrial Metaverse is a tool for obtaining greater efficiency and optimal performance from real-world operations in many fields: transportation, air travel, public safety, environment resource management, traffic planning, real estate development and construction, precision manufacturing, defense, energy and much more. Robert Tercek has been designing and building digital twin solutions for a decade. In this session, he will acquaint the audience with the state of the art.
Tercek’s closing keynote was called “amazing” by the host of the USC Entertainment Technology Center summit. In the race to the Metaverse, Tercek explains, today’s Internet giants seem to be hellbent on repeating the worst of the colonial era. This talk exposes the striking parallels between colonial conquest and today’s information empires of the mind.
Rob Tercek’s opening keynote speech at the 10th anniversary edition of DIG South provides the audience with a look back as well as sharp perspectives of the future. Tercek surveys the tech trends that spurred historic levels of growth during the past decade and provides four compelling scenarios that project into the next ten years. As implausible as it may seem today, the big Internet giants are determined to continue growing beyond the current valuations in the $1 to $3 trillion range. This talk reveals where that growth might come from. And it also provides a vivid explanation of the competing forces behind the drive towards decentralization and Web3 that seek to undo the domination of the planetary-scale tech giants.
Hundreds of companies have announced plans to invest, collectively, billions of dollars to construct virtual worlds known as the Metaverse. Who are these worlds for? Under what terms? What role will be assigned to the people who populate and contribute to these privately-owned worlds? This presentation, from a futurist and expert in dematerialization, applies concepts from decolonial theory to frame a critical perspective of the emerging Metaverse and to raise urgent questions about the rights and roles of those who participate.
Robert Tercek talks about the evolution of communication, the rollout of 5G and the state of digital transformation at the AT&T Business Summit.