Marco Tempest – Cyber Illusionist, Thought Leader & Creative Technologist.
Marco Tempest serves as the Extended Reality Lead consultant at Accenture, works as a Creative Technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is an alumnus of the MIT MediaLab Director’s Fellowship, and is the Founder and Director of MagicLab in New York City.
Known for his TED conference presentations, Marco Tempest specializes in using digital technologies to craft immersive and often surprising experiences. He is constantly exploring innovative methods to leverage technology for sharing information and capturing audience engagement.
Marco Tempest has a strong track record of employing digital technology to communicate with audiences in remarkable ways. He states, “We are competing for attention and those with the most captivating messages will win.”
Marco Tempest Lecture Topics
- Good or Evil? How AI is transforming Life, Work and Society
- Inventing the Impossible – The World of Technology & Creativity
- AI & ChatGPT – Extending the boundaries of conventional technology
- The Future is here: Science meets Science Fiction
- Virtual Production & the Metaverse: A future where everyone is invited to play
- Future of Storytelling: Better stories for a better future
- Business & Digital Media: The Power of Magic & Technology
- Learning from the Future: Technology, Innovation & Illusion of the Day After Tomorrow
Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Marco showed an early talent for technology and engineering. He merged this with his childhood passions for magic and storytelling to create a new form of illusion called technomagic, embodying Arthur C Clarke’s famous idea that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
In 1988, Marco wrote to Steve Jobs and secured sponsorship from NeXT Computers in exchange for assisting with the launch of their groundbreaking computer in Europe. The resulting show, NeXT Wave of Magic, combined technology and illusion in an innovative way, attracting global attention from technology companies and leading to ongoing collaborations.
Financial Times: “Marco Tempest is extending the boundaries of conventional technology.”
Marco Tempest began collaborating with leading companies to humanize and clarify complex technologies and systems. He worked with Silicon Graphics Computer Systems to launch their high-performance workstation series and the ‘Reality Engine’ at major events such as the ACM Siggraph Conference and Computer Graphics World. Additional partnerships included SONY Broadcast, Swiss Postal Service, Swiss Railroad System, Schindler, Phonak, and Eurotunnel.
Marco Tempest: Drive the pursuit of excellence.
After relocating to New York in 1997, Marco founded Newmagic Communications, Inc to assist Fortune 100 companies like IBM, Apple, SAP, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and Walmart in telling their brand stories and launching new products and customer experiences. The growing need for executives to appear publicly led Marco to provide coaching and training within organizations and at large industry events.
A pivotal moment occurred in 2006 with the rise of online video and Google’s acquisition of YouTube. Marco became a YouTube Partner and launched a series of innovative videos inviting viewers to question the reality of his illusions, resulting in over 30 million channel views. He also contributed his expertise to HBO and other US broadcasters as video became a key marketing tool for reaching internet audiences.
World Web Forum: “At NASA, this cyber illusionist tinkers with tomorrow’s technology, today.”
Marco’s engagement with online technology continued to expand. Within 30 minutes of the original iPhone launch in 2007, he released a video outside the NYC Apple Store predicting the future of technology, specifically the creation of an App Store ecosystem. The video quickly went viral worldwide, garnering over 5 million views within hours.
As an entrepreneur, Marco produced and distributed his own HD sci-fi reality TV series, ‘The Virtual Magician.’ The 8-episode series was broadcast in over 50 markets worldwide, reaching an estimated audience of more than 250 million viewers. This expanded his presence in Southeast Asia, where he co-produced technology entertainment specials with broadcasters in Japan, China, and South Korea (NHK, FUJI Television, SBS). He also provided tech and magic branded content for MSN Video Japan and created storytelling, advertising, and branding experiences for major companies including Lenovo, Panasonic, HP, Toyota, Toshiba, and Asus.
Global Shaper Marco Tempest is deeply embedded in the tech industry and regularly collaborates with product teams as an advisor, consultant, or developer of prototype consumer technologies.
He delivers lectures and keynote speeches for numerous international organizations such as TTI Vanguard (a leading group of top CTOs), the Milken Institute annual conference, EmTech MIT Technology Review Annual event, Innovators@Google, Airbus Innovation, Audi mobility, BMW electric vehicles, among others.
Collaborate: Work outside of your comfort zone.
Marco is an Instructor for MAS.S65: “Indistinguishable From… Magic as Interface, Technology, and Tradition,” a recurring course at the MIT Media Lab that explores magic as a catalyst for developing real-world solutions to real-world problems.
He has been invited to speak at TED seven times, served as a cultural leader at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and worked extensively with the Open Source Community to create and share technology for the common good. In 2011, he co-founded The Essential Magic Conference, the world’s first online conference for magic and illusion, and received a Fellowship from the Academy of Magical Arts in Los Angeles for his contributions.
Through his extensive network of C-level contacts, Cyber Illusionist Marco Tempest gains early access and insights into new products and technologies (including Google ATAP Project Soli Alpha developer, Google Project Glass, Microsoft HoloLens early invites). He collaborates with the Google ATAP Product Development team (under NDA) and Microsoft Analog as an outside collaborator (under NDA).
In recent years, futurist Marco Tempest has focused on using illusion to prototype future technologies by creating immersive user experiences that allow people to effectively experience tomorrow’s technology today. This approach provides valuable insights into how users interact with emerging technologies. Throughout his career, Marco’s constant aim has been to inspire, simplify complex topics, communicate messages effectively, and astonish audiences. He believes that with proper nurturing and support, good ideas and people can achieve anything.
Marco Tempest resides in Zurich, Switzerland with his wife, a hedgehog, and a robot named EDI.
