Martha Lane Fox is a digital entrepreneur, public policy leader, and co-founder of lastminute.com, one of the UK’s first and most influential internet businesses. In this keynote, she reflects on what it was really like to help build the early internet—an era shaped by experimentation, optimism, and a powerful belief that technology could expand opportunity for everyone.

Drawing on her experience at the forefront of the digital revolution, Martha explores how that founding spirit still matters today, even as the context has shifted dramatically. We are now operating in an AI-first world, where scale, data, and global infrastructure define the frontier—and where trust, transparency, and responsibility can no longer be afterthoughts.

She examines how we arrived at this moment, what has been gained and lost along the way, and why the next phase of the internet will depend as much on our social contract as on our technical capabilities. Above all, this session focuses on opportunity: the skills, creativity, and courage the next generation will need to shape technology that truly serves people.