Speaking

I've been speaking publicly since 2004 — from intimate workshops to 70,000-person festivals, from startup founders to the Federal Reserve. I've done two TEDx talks, keynoted Google I/O and SXSW, and most recently spoke at the AI Native Dev Conference in November 2025.

My talks tend to sit at the intersection of technology and human behavior: what it means to build things that outlast you, how open systems shape culture, and what the invention of the hashtag can teach about thriving in an age of abundance. I'm not a hype speaker. I give people a new way to see something they thought they already understood.

I'm available for keynotes, panels, and workshops on topics including product strategy and launch, the open social web and AI, the history and future of the internet, and what it means to build tools that change how people communicate.

Selected Talks

Code as Commodity

Nov 2025 • AI Native Dev Conference 

Code as Commodity

What can salt teach about thriving in abundance?

Chris MessinaChris Messina

The Technology of Better Humans

Mar 2019 • TEDxBend

The Unlikely Lesson from Inventing the Hashtag

Nov 2018 • TEDxIzhevsk

Why Invent the Hashtag?

Sep 2019 • Draper University

Lessons from the Death of the PC

September 2017 • Web Directions