Keynote Speaker · Concept Artist · Social Entrepreneur · Ethical Tech & AI Advocate

Where technology
meets humanity.

Sanaz Hanke turns human stories into living artworks, fusing action painting, movement, storytelling and emerging technology to spark connection and social change.

Invite Sanaz to your stage → See keynote topics
Founder, UnitedWeDance TEDx Al Wasl 2026 Educator · Wings of Change
Portrait of Sanaz Hanke against a concrete wall

“The future does not need less technology. It needs more humanity woven into it.”

TEDx Al Wasl · 2026

TEDx Al Wasl 2026 UnitedWeDance IUCN Congress 2025 SanazGroup Wings of Change LSE · AI Ethics UN SDGs

A career built where creativity meets impact.

01 / About
Sanaz Hanke seated, hands clasped Sanaz Hanke

Born in Iran and raised in Germany, now building from Dubai, Sanaz Hanke has spent her life living between worlds, turning that in-between into a creative force. Fluent in five languages, she works at the intersection of art, movement and technology.

Her path runs from agency-side digital design in Cologne and creative leadership in Milan, through a decade leading digital transformation for Axel Springer, Merck and Novartis, to founding her own ventures, UnitedWeDance and SanazGroup. Today her curiosity has shifted from what technology can do toward what it should do.

Origin
Iran → Germany → Dubai
Languages
Fluent in five
Education
First-class hons, Bradford · AI Ethics, LSE
Focus
Art & technology as catalysts for change
Keynotes & Conversations

Four ideas she brings to the stage.

02 / Speaking
01

Technology & Humanity

Why the future does not need less technology but more humanity woven into it. Building ethical, human-centred innovation that restores connection.

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02

Art as a Catalyst for Social Change

How action painting, movement and cross-media storytelling become tools for advocacy, fundraising and purpose-driven engagement.

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03

Belonging, Identity & Movement

Born between worlds: how movement became a language and a family, and why belonging begins long before leadership becomes a title.

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04

Conscious Entrepreneurship

Building ventures that blend technology, design and conscious consumerism, turning progress into presence and innovation into something deeply human.

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03 / The Idea
TEDx Al Wasl eMagazine · 2026
The future does not need less technology. It needs more humanity woven into it.

The Leaders of the Future Will Not Choose Between Technology and Humanity. An essay on belonging, movement and the quiet leadership the world overlooks.

Cover of the TEDx WASL eMagazine, 2026 Edition TEDx WASL eMagazine · 2026 Edition Featuring Sanaz’s essay · p. 46

Where the work lives.

04 / Ventures
The UnitedWeDance action-painting concept: a dancer with paint-dipped feet creating an artwork in a film studio
01

UnitedWeDance

Founder · Social Enterprise

A cross-media concept-art project fusing action painting, movement, storytelling and technology, co-creating impact with NGOs and communities, aligned to the UN SDGs.

Visit unitedwe.dance ↗
The smarterbrain.ai homepage: Your own AI assistant. Almost a no-brainer.
02

Smarterbrain.ai

Co-Founder · AI Assistant Platform

A privacy-first AI venture: your own assistant running on a small server that's yours. Set up in minutes with no technical skills, while passwords and conversations never leave your machine.

Visit smarterbrain.ai ↗
The SanazGroup homepage hero: Hi, we are Sanaz Group, your crew of digital experts and designers
03

SanazGroup

Advisor · UIXA Agency

An advisory role under SanazGroup: mentoring UIXA, the young UI/UX studio that carried her client work forward, and guiding its craft, strategy and growth.

Visit sanazgroup.com ↗
Wings of Change students in Madagascar working through workbooks in an outdoor class 04 · Volunteer
Volunteer Spotlight · Wings of Change

Teaching the first click.

Volunteer · Computer Science Teacher · Madagascar

For the past five years, Sanaz has volunteered as a computer science teacher with Wings of Change, guiding underprivileged young people from their very first contact with a computer toward real digital literacy. Her classes bridge a stubborn knowledge gap, carrying students from zero digital touchpoints to coding, a grounded sense of technology ethics, and a careful first introduction to AI. The goal is never the tool itself, but the confidence to imagine a different future with it.

See her instructor profile ↗

UnitedWeDance · Stories

We tell the stories of the untold.

Movement turned into visual storytelling: each artwork carries an impact story, and its sale supports the people and communities connected to its creation.

A smiling girl from House of Hope in Bali Bali

Traces of Bali

An artwork asking what traces we leave behind, telling the story of children at House of Hope who transform hardship into resilience through art.

IUCN Congress 2025

One of only 11 artists chosen worldwide to exhibit at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, where a Māori family performed for UnitedWeDance, collective expression becoming a legacy of cultural pride.

Wings of Change

In Madagascar, students meet computer science not as a technical exercise, but as an invitation to imagine new possibilities for their own futures.

Let's create connection

Invite Sanaz to your stage.

For keynotes, performances, workshops and collaborations that turn progress into presence, and innovation into something deeply human.

[email protected] → LinkedIn ↗
Email
[email protected]
LinkedIn
/in/sanazhanke
Based in
Dubai · Speaking worldwide