Neil Stevenson Biography

Neil Stevenson is on a mission to understand creativity and find new ways to enable and encourage it in others. He is particularly interested in how the slowly-evolving human brain interacts with the rapidly-changing tech environment we live in, and the strange and wonderful new behaviors that emerge as a result. At IDEO, he applies what he's learned to leading client relationships, exploring new creative methods and connecting IDEO to other thought leaders around creativity.

Neil Stevenson is the Executive Portfolio Director of IDEO Chicago, where he has led projects on everything from video game interfaces to digitally enabled education to cutting-edge food and beverage work. He gives regular talks on emerging trends and future scenarios, with an emphasis on the tension between new tech-enabled experiences and our relatively un-evolved brains. Before IDEO, Stevenson studied the human brain and behavior at Oxford University, graduating with Master’s degrees in psychology and social anthropology.

Neil Stevenson’s fascination with emerging technology and culture started at the age of eight when he began programming his first computer, a Commodore Pet. Now he carries a cellphone which has four million times as much memory, and cannot shake his sense of amazement at how fast the world is changing.

Based in IDEO’s Chicago location, Neil studied the human brain and behavior at Oxford University, coming away with masters degrees in Psychology and Social Anthropology. From here he was drawn to London, where digital technology had given birth to a new musical genre: house music. He began writing about club culture, and within a few years was editor of Mixmag, the world’s biggest club magazine. He edited other magazines devoted to emerging cultural movements, most notably The Face. He also launched successful online titles such as B3ta and Popbitch that employed web communities to generate content.

At IDEO, Neil has led projects on everything from video game interfaces to digitally- enabled education. He has also taken his accumulated experience in psychology, technology and cultural trends, and woven it into a futurology offering. He gives regular talks on emerging trends and future scenarios, with an emphasis on the tension between new tech-enabled experiences and our relatively unevolved brains. Neil’s greatest wish is to travel back in time to meet his eight-year-old former self, and show him the mind-blowing capabilities of a 2012 cellphone.

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