2019 Speakers and Workshops

Emad Tahtouh

Co-Founder / Managing Director
Nakatomi
Sydney

Emad Tahtouh is the Co-Founder of Nakatomi and former Director of Technology at FINCH. Emad provides technology solutions to many different problems and works to execute Nakatomi’s ethos of ‘Constant Evolution.’ Emad has crafted a culture that nurtures growth while valuing creativity and innovation. He and his team are relentless perfectionists who strive to create socially conscious and humanising technology that can be of valuable service to our community.
 
After working as a consultant in Network Engineering, and spending seven years as a professional poker player, Emad transferred his skills in tech and reading human behaviour over to FINCH in 2011. As Director of Technology at FINCH, Emad brought to life the D&AD Black Pencil award winning humanitarian campaign, The Most Powerful Arm, and the globally patented campaign, 37 Degrees. His outstanding work for FINCH’s technology department saw it expand into the innovation and adventure-driven company, Nakatomi.
 
As Co-Founder of Nakatomi, Emad continues to drive innovation in applied and interactive tech; developing experiences, products and services that exist at the cutting edge of technology. In 2018, Emad partnered with BWM Dentsu Sydney to create Project Rejoice, a campaign for ALS (motor neurone disease) that won a D&AD Black Pencil, Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity before garnering a Grand Prix for Good. Emad has also led his team to deliver a robot orchestra to play alongside recording artist Flume, created an immersive VR recruitment experience for the Australian Defence Force and collaborated with renowned Indigenous artist Dr Christian Thompson AO to craft an intensive and contemplative VR experience that celebrates Aboriginal culture.
 
In addition to his globally recognised achievements, Emad has judged and served as Jury President at Cannes, LIA, Spikes and AWARD, and has presented at Cannes, Spikes, SXSW, LIA, Semi Permanent, CommsCon and SAWA. Emad has consistently created game changing technology with the firm belief that anything that Nakatomi puts out must be better than anything that has come before it.