About

Peter Bihr
Photo by Nina Zimmermann.

Peter Bihr investigates how emerging technologies can benefit society. As an independent advisor, Peter Bihr works with philanthropies, non-profits & public sector at the intersection of tech, governance, policy and social impact. He serves as a special advisor to Stiftung Mercator’s Center for Digital Society. 

He investigates how emerging technologies, such as smart cities, the Internet of Things (#iot), and artificial intelligence (#AI), can have a positive social impact, and he assists organizations in carrying out their missions in this space. He has conducted research, provided strategic advice, and made policy recommendations to governments, foundations, and global technology firms.

Peter served as Interim Director for the European AI Fund. He co-founded ThingsCon e.V., a non-profit that advocates for responsible Internet of Things (IoT) practices. Peter was a Mozilla Fellow (2018-19) investigating trustable technology (IoT), and an Edgeryders Fellow (2019) studying smart cities from a civil rights standpoint. He was Managing Director of the independent research firm The Waving Cat GmbH from 2015 to 2021. He wrote View Source: Shenzhen (2017) and Understanding the Connected Home (with Michelle Thorne, 2015). Postscapes named him a Top 20 IoT Influencer (2019). On and off, Peter co-hosts the Getting Tech Right podcast.

Along the way, Peter has co-founded several acclaimed emerging technology conferences including ThingsCon, UIKonf, and Cognitive Cities Conference, and curated leading conferences such as Interaction16, NEXT, and TEDxKreuzberg.

His projects, ideas and antics have been featured in Forbes, the New York Times, SPIEGEL, The Guardian, ZDF, ZEIT and many other publications. His work has been shown at London Design Festival, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Fuori Salone. He blogs at thewavingcat.com.

Learn more about past and current clients and personal affiliations. A probably outdated version of this bio is available in German, too. Clients and conference organizers can find high-res headshots here.)

You can find me on Twitter @peterbihr.

Want to learn more?

  • Let’s chat. If you’re working on something exciting and would like to work with me, please get in touch.
  • Get a better understanding of my work. An overview of recent experience and projects. For an even more curated list, my portfolio.
  • Media. I try to keep an up-to-date list of media mentions and publications. If you want to get in touch for an interview, please come this way.
  • Talks. Fairly frequently I speak at conferences. Among many others that has included NEXT Berlin, Picnic, O’Reilly Solid, SXSW and the OpenIOT Assembly.
  • Conferences. Programming conferences is one of the most engaging ways to learn everything there is about a topic, and I enjoy it a tremendously. Over the years I’ve chaired or curated (and in some cases, co-founded) conferences including ThingsCon, Atoms&Bits, Cognitive Cities, Ignite Berlin, Interaction16, NEXT, TEDxKreuzberg, and UIKonf.
  • What I did before. By way of explaining where I’m coming from, the shortest of resumés: Before doing what I do now, I co-founded a company that was part think tank, part digital strategy consultancy, where we worked for clients like MTV Europe, Postbank and ZEIT Online. Before that, I worked as an independent digital strategist, often on social media and election campaigning. Along the way, I had some editorial roles, too.