Spencer Kelly
Pro-Chancellor, distinguished friends, colleagues, graduands and guests.
Spencer Kelly is the presenter of the BBC’s flagship technology programme Click, broadcast on the BBC World News and on the BBC News in the United Kingdom. This innovative and influential programme highlights in form and content the latest developments in technology and new media communication.
Born Spencer Bignall, he grew up in Bishopstoke, near Eastleigh in Hampshire and attended Wyvern Secondary School in Fair Oak and then Barton Peveril College in Eastleigh. He confesses that his lifelong love of computers started when his primary school acquired its first BBC Micro B. He wrote all kinds of programmes for it including pattern generators and adventure games. No surprise then when he went on to graduate with a double first in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.
It was as a student that Spencer first became involved in broadcasting. He started at Radio Glen at Southampton University when he was seventeen, but went on to run Cambridge University Radio for a couple of years. After graduating he and a few friends also set up a charity radio station for the city.
He returned to Hampshire working for British Gas in their IT department. Through several contacts he got to hear of a job at Power FM, a local radio station on the South Coast. He sent in a tape of his work, got the job, and spent the next two years as a travel presenter, reporting as a ‘flying eye’ on traffic problems from a small light aircraft. Eventually he moved on up to became the breakfast show host on Ocean FM, a post he held for six years, where amongst other things he starred in the local pantomime and broke the record for the world’s tallest inflatable tower.
He joined the BBC in 2003 as one of five interactive presenters. The team pioneered new forms of interactive broadcasting, using the web, digital television and digital radio. This included many activities that we now take for granted across communication and broadcast media, such as interactive live online chats with celebrities, in which the audience were able to ask live questions of the guests. This project was ahead of its time in terms of its form and content, but unfortunately also in terms of the technology of the time. The lack of national broadband coverage meant that it struggled to reach the audience it most certainly would do now. The project unfortunately folded. But it was around this time that Spencer began reporting for BBC World’s Click Online show as well as making appearances on Channel Five’s The Gadget Show, so that it was no surprise when in 2006 he became the presenter of the re-named Click series, taking over from Stephen Cole.
Since starting with Click he has travelled the world to investigate the latest technology developments, and has reported on innovations from around the world – from South Africa to Japan and from India to Korea. He has been lucky enough to interview some of the biggest names in entertainment and technology such as James Cameron and Bill Gates.
He is not afraid of pushing the boundaries, famously demonstrating security flaws in services such as Facebook and demonstrating how hackers can take control of a series of computers through the use of botnets. He admits to finding endless fascination in his job; Click is a small team of BBC staff, and as result, as well as presenting, he sometimes also helps to produce the programme, even making some of the on-screen graphics when time allows.
When he is not working or travelling, Spencer enjoys spending time with his wife Lisa and their young son Sami.
In recognition of his outstanding communication of IT and games innovations to a wide audience, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Degree of Doctor of Technology, honoris causa, on Spencer Kelly.