General Magic was a secretive Silicon Valley startup that in the 1990s built the world’s first Smartphone.
Welcome to a unique opportunity to watch the documentary about how a great vision and an epic failure changed the lives of billions, and to hear from legendary innovator and technologist Megan Smith - General Magic team member and former CTO of the United States, and award-winning filmmaker Sarah Kerruish.
“Failure isn’t the end. Failure is actually the beginning.”
General Magic was a secretive Silicon Valley startup that in the 1990s built the world’s first Smartphone.
Before the advance of the internet or mobile devices, General Magic developed brand new technologies that we take for granted today, such as touchscreen computing, USB, the cloud and even emojis.
By 1994, General Magic had formed an alliance of the top global telecommunications and consumer electronics companies to ship the world’s first smartphone, yet ultimately, they failed.
Join KTH Innovation for a unique chance to see the multi-award-winning documentary about General Magic, the untold tale of how a great vision, grave betrayal and epic failure changed the world.
A unique opportunity to watch a documentary about a pioneering startup team, and to hear from someone who lived through the events.
Agenda:
16.00: Doors open
16.30: Movie screening
18.00: Deconstructing failure, iteration, and inclusive solution making - a discussion with Megan Smith & Sarah Kerruish, moderated by Hannes Eder Öhrström.
After the movie, Megan Smith and Sarah Kerruish will share their thoughts on deconstructing failure, iteration, and inclusive solution-making, in a discussion with KTH Innovation's Hannes Eder Öhrström.
Megan Smith joined General Magic as employee number 7, working in the mechanical engineering and hardware departments. Megan Smith is an engineer and humanitarian. She is a former U.S. Chief Technology Officer within the Obama Administration, former Vice President at Google, and co-founder of The Malala Fund and shift7.
Sarah Kerruish is a Peabody Award winner and Emmy nominee. She was part of the original documentary crew at General Magic. She currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Kheiron Medical, dedicated to the detection and treatment of breast cancer using AI.
