Seyi Akiwowo – How to Stay Safe Online

Seyi Akiwowo is the Founder and CEO of Glitch, an award-winning charity working to prevent online abuse, gender-based violence and hate speech.

Seyi is also the author of How to Stay Safe Online (Penguin, 2022), a comprehensive guide to spotting red flags, responding to, and proactively defending yourself in online spaces, and how to use the internet as a force for good.

Seyi’s journey to making the world a safer place began with her election as a Councillor in East London at 23, where she became the youngest black woman to ever hold the position.

Galvanised by her own experiences with online abuse, Seyi established and grew Glitch into Europe’s leading not-for-profit tackling the issue of online safety for marginalised people.

Throughout the journey of growing Glitch from a social enterprise to a medium-sized charity, Seyi has been recognised for her trail-blazing leadership, values driven change-making and passion for the future of inclusive leadership.

Alongside being appointed to TikTok and Twitter’s European Trust and Safety Council, Seyi was voted Digital Leader of The Year in 2019, has featured as one of WIRED’s Global Changemakers and sits on the Board of Multitudes Foundation to support changemakers across Europe to reimagine who holds political power.

In Spring 2022 Seyi was offered an MBE as recognition of her work but made the decision not to accept.

Keynote Topics

High Compassion, High Impact: Values-Driven Leadership

This talk will share how Seyi has navigated through the ebbs and flows of creating, leading and sustaining a healthy, equitable, diverse, and impactful work culture at Glitch.

By dealing with challenges of overcoming burnout, negotiating the growing pains of leading a young organization and reimagining modern leadership, Seyi has developed a framework to energise leaders to embrace compassion and find true inclusivity both online and offline.

Lessons from a Recovering Politician

Author, award-winning Founder and CEO Seyi Akiwowo has always navigated the complexity of breaking new ground.

Whether that’s being the first person in her family to go to University, being elected London’s youngest Black female councillor in 2014, or in her current role as part of the 3% of UK Charity CEOs from a BAME background.

Throughout Seyi’s journey, she has found new understanding of the nuances of trailblazing, and for the last 15 years has learnt to navigate external accolades while dealing with institutional discrimination, internalised misogynoir, and a myriad of blockades.

In this keynote Seyi offers practical and inspirational insights for the next generation of leaders looking to develop their own agency and frameworks in the pursuit of truly values-aligned leadership.

How to Stay Safe Online

Increasingly we are told that more and more of modern life will be taking place online, from working remotely to living virtually on Web 3.0, yet navigating these spaces seems more overwhelming than ever.

This upbeat and hopeful masterclass brings together the threads of global technology, racism, gender, and personal well-being to ensure we are moving towards a humane and egalitarian internet of the future.

Delivering practical tips on digital self-care, spotting red flags for harmful trends, and lessons on how to create fair and inclusive online spaces, this talk is based on Seyi’s 2022 book of the same name.