Linda is a children's book author who likes software and sparkles.

Example talks

One Hundred Languages

Computers surround us in our daily lives, but the most powerful ideas of computing go beyond the sleek silver containers and glowing boxes. What are these ideas? And how do we prepare our kids for a world where more and more of the problems around us look like computers?

To find out, we'll travel back in time: from a jacquard loom maker with his punch cards, an inventor obsessed with cogs and steam, an electrical engineer who combined laws of electrical circuits with eccentric English mathematical logic and countless other philosophers, material scientists, artists, dreamers and tinkerers. Technology is about humans, and big their ideas.

Linda Liukas will talk about how we can move towards a more humane tech industry, and identifies what it means to approach technology from the unique perspective.

Through practical examples, this keynote explores modern interpretations of the intersection between humanities and technology.

Example talks

No maps, only compasses

How do we navigate the new frontiers of technology in an increasingly digitalised world? If every company is going to be a software company, what does this mean for your company? In this talk Linda will take us on a tour of the changing possibilities technology offers for individuals, business and entire countries. And what might we learn from children?

Example keynote speechees

Principles of Play

If code is the colouring pens and lego blocks of our times - the tools of creation - how do we teach the curiosity, joy and wonder to our kids? Linda has been looking at programming and play: how to create experiences that go deeper than just learning logic. This talk summarises Linda’s three principles of play and a few experiments she has learned with little Ruby and the journey she has had as a children's books author.

Example virtual talk

The Grammar of Computers

Does computer science belong in engineering, science or arts? Are computers a tool or a toy? Computing education, as much as it is about learning to code, is also about creating a language for the children to talk about the world. Computers keep changing the world. What we can learn from stars, glaciers and mushrooms when it comes to computing education? And why we need a Whole Earth Catalogue or a Montessori method for early childhood computing education? And why start with childhood and its intense world-building, secrets and silences? This talk is made of computer science, stories, pedagogy, wonder, interdependency between theory and practice and one children’s book author trying to braid them all together.

This talk is intended for educators.

Package includes:

• Pre-event checklist and consultancy call
• A highly produced, pre-record 20-minute keynote talk.
• Live QA session.
• Customised 45 minute workshop
• Virtual carekit: a workbook, journal and shopping list for inexpensive supplies for workshop (candy, pasta). Possibility to send also as a physical kit.
• Read more on Linda's online teaching

Example virtual talk

Food for thought: home-cooked software

A palate is a spot on your tongue where you remember. A library of textures, taste and language to describe the world around us. What if we learned about computers, code and technology with the tip of our tongue? How might home-cooked software look like in the future?

In this talk, children’s book author & illustrator Linda Liukas will stem, rind, pit and seed a piece of code. Through the process, she will develop a palate for code, and understanding of how we are entangled in our technology, natural world and human communities.

This talk is intended for software engineers, business people and policymakers.

Package includes:

• Pre-event checklist and consultancy call
• A highly produced, pre-record 20-minute keynote talk.
• Live QA session.
• Customised 45 minute workshop
• Virtual carekit: a workbook, journal and shopping list for inexpensive supplies for workshop (candy, pasta). Possibility to send also as a physical kit.
• Read more of the making.