Michael Peter Edson

Portrait of a person standing with their arms crossed and smiling.

Michael Peter Edson is a strategist and consultant working at the intersection of technology, culture, and global social change. Michael was the Director of Web and New Media Strategy for the Smithsonian Institution and co-founder of the Museum of the United Nations – UN Live, a start-up NGO designed to catalyse civic effort toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Michael is a Salzburg Global Fellow, a Fellow at the Getty Leadership Institute, a Distinguished Presidential Fellow Emeritus at CLIR, the Council on Library and Information Services, and Michael was named a “Tech Titan” person to watch by Washingtonian Magazine.

At NEMO’s European Museum Conference 2022, Michael Peter Edson will deliver a keynote speech on Monday 10 October.

Dangerous creations: The inspiring new reality of museum practice

Presentation abstract

Museums are used to operating within well-established boundaries of authority and trust. But the realities of 2022 — including the climate emergency, armed conflict, and rapid technological and social change reveal gaps and flaws in the traditional notions of our work.

In this provocative keynote, cultural strategist and digital pioneer Michael Peter Edson will draw from 30 years of work in the museum sector to argue that museum professionals at all levels need to dramatically expand our concept of what the museum sector is and does if we are to create a meaningful response to today’s most important questions about culture, society, and change.