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Photographer: Sanna Lehto

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

Linda is the author and illustrator of Hello Ruby, a children’s picture book about the whimsical world of computers, as well as the founder of Rails Girls, a global movement to teach young women programming in over 260 cities. She loves Muji, Zelda Fitzgerald, software and sparkly things.

Topics & booking

Linda's speaking topics range from education to AI. Depending on the client, the format can range from workshops to keynotes. She has also experience in running live or pre-recorded virtual events with some signature sense of whimsy. To book Linda, send an e-mail to speaking@helloruby.com

Speaker reel
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.

Example clients

Linda works with technology and media companies, educational institutions, governments and museums.

Nokia Networks (FIN), Schibsted (NO), Gemalto (FR), CIO City (NE), Fujitsu (FI), Comptel (FI). Talks for R & D departments and engineering as part of leadership training.

Rakuten (JP), Nordic Business Forum (FI). Education for the 21st century, big yearly conferences.

Wired (UK), National Gallery in Victoria with Telstra (AU). More experimental content - around technology & creativity.

MIT (US), Google (US), Mozilla (US). Lunch workshops where I've given talks. I've also done a ton of programming conferences.

New York Department of Education (US), City of Stockholm (SWE), DIDDATTICHE (IT). Teacher training ranging from one days to three days.

Selected talks

TED: A Delightful Way to Teach Kids about Computers
National Gallery of Victoria: The Fusion of Art and Technology
TED: Crawling into a computer

Selected Press

BBC

Hello Ruby and the magic of coding

read more
Atlantic

In Finland, Kids Learn Computer Science Without Computers

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Telegraph

Why women make gifted coders

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Fastcompany

Can This Children’s Book Help Make The Internet A Better Place?

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The Guardian

Hello Ruby kids' coding book raises $185k (and counting) on Kickstarter

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Wired

Book that teaches kids to code raises $250k on kickstarter

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Awards, accolades & presskit

UNESCO High Level Reflection Group 2019

Technology Playmaker of the Year 2019

Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech Europe 2018

Dubai 2020 Global Expo finalist

DIA Gold 2017, China's biggest Design Award

TED Resident 2017

Thinkers 20: The Brightest Business Minds of Northern Europe 2016

50 most inspiring women in technology in Europe 2015, 2018, 2019

The Young Speaker of the Year in Finland 2015

Finland State Award for Children’s Culture 2014

30 under 30 in Northern Europe 2014

Ruby Hero 2013

For a full presskit with bio & photos, visit here.

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