Ghislaine Boddington
Boards are being asked to make decisions about biometric data, immersive interfaces and human-machine integration before most leadership teams have a working vocabulary for any of it. The technology is moving into products, workplaces and customer experiences faster than governance can keep up. Organisations need a credible human-side view of where this is going, and what to commit to now.
Ghislaine Boddington is a creative director, BBC World Service presenter and Reader in Digital Immersion at the University of Greenwich who helps organisations think clearly about biometric data, immersive technology and the human body as the next interface.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Ghislaine Boddington
- She coined the Internet of Bodies, a named research concept now cited in academic and policy work on biometric data and human enhancement. Few speakers in this space own a defined intellectual territory of their own.
- Three decades of hands-on practice in body-responsive technology, telepresence, motion capture and immersive design. She speaks from inside the discipline, not from a desk review of it.
- A long-running co-presenter slot on BBC Digital Planet (BBC World Service) gives her a working week of structured exposure to global technology stories and the ethics around them.
- Sits inside formal advisory infrastructure: UK Government College of Experts via DCMS, advisory board of the Springer journal AI & Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
- Brings the inclusion dimension to technology conversations without losing the technical thread. Founder of Women Shift Digital, trustee at Stemettes Futures, former lead mentor on Deutsche Bank’s Women Entrepreneurs in Social Tech accelerator.
Biography highlights
- Reader in Digital Immersion, University of Greenwich, School of Design and Creative Industries.
- Co-founder and Creative Director, body>data>space, an internationally exhibited interactive design collective.
- Co-presenter, BBC Digital Planet, BBC World Service.
- Author of “The Internet of Bodies, alive, connected and collective” in AI & Society (Springer, 2021).
- Adviser, UK Government College of Experts (DCMS); Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
- Recipient of the IX Immersion Experience Visionary Pioneer Award (2017), Society for Arts and Technology, Montreal.
Biography
Biometric data, immersive interfaces and human enhancement are moving from research labs into mainstream products, and most leadership teams are catching up in real time. Boddington has spent thirty years working inside that shift, first as a practitioner in body-responsive design, then as a research voice on what it means for identity, intimacy and consent.
Her concept, the Internet of Bodies, sets out how physical and digital selves are merging through telepresence, biometric sensing, wearables and AI-enabled enhancement. The work appears as a peer-reviewed paper in the Springer journal AI & Society and runs through her keynote programme. The argument is not speculative. It is built from three decades of practice at body>data>space, the design collective she co-founded and still directs.
The institutional footprint sits alongside the practice. Reader in Digital Immersion at the University of Greenwich, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, adviser to the UK Government’s College of Experts through DCMS, advisory board member at AI & Society. On BBC World Service she co-presents Digital Planet, which keeps her working through global technology stories week by week.
Inclusion runs through the work as a technical condition, not a tone. She founded Women Shift Digital, mentors with Stemettes Futures and led Deutsche Bank’s Women Entrepreneurs in Social Tech accelerator. Her case is that immersive and biometric systems built without diverse human input encode the bias from the day they ship.
Key speaking topics
- The Internet of Bodies
- Biometric data and digital identity
- Immersive technology and virtual presence
- Human enhancement and the body as interface
- AI ethics and embodied technology
- Inclusion and diversity in emerging tech
- Future human studies
Ideal for
- Boards and executive teams setting policy on biometric data, AI ethics and immersive customer experience.
- Technology, product and R&D leaders building wearable, sensor-based or immersive products.
- Innovation, foresight and strategy functions inside regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, telecoms, media).
- Conferences and corporate events on the future of work, future human and responsible technology.
Audience outcomes
- A working definition of the Internet of Bodies and what it means for organisations handling biometric, behavioural or sensor data.
- A sharper view of the ethical and consent issues that sit underneath immersive, wearable and AI-enabled products.
- A picture of where body-responsive technology is heading over the next five to ten years and which sectors are moving first.
- A specific argument for why inclusive design is a technical requirement in immersive and biometric systems, not a values statement.
Talks
A keynote on how the human body is becoming the primary interface for digital interaction through biometric data, wearables and immersive technology.
Key takeaways:
- How body-responsive technology is moving from research into mainstream products.
- The consent, identity and data ethics issues that sit beneath biometric and immersive systems.
- What organisations need to decide now about how they collect and use bodily data.
A keynote arguing that diverse human input is a technical requirement for building immersive and AI-enabled products, not a values overlay.
Key takeaways:
- Why bias in immersive and biometric systems originates at the design stage.
- Practical models for inclusive collaboration drawn from body>data>space and Women Shift Digital.
- How inclusion changes the product, not just the team.
A keynote on co-creation, immersive experience and the interdisciplinary teams behind the next wave of customer and employee experiences.
Key takeaways:
- How immersive technology is reshaping the boundary between customer, employee and collaborator.
- The team structures that produce credible experience design at scale.
- Where the next decade of experience economy investment is heading.