Byron Reeves Speaking Fee: $20,000 to $30,000

Byron Reeves is the Paul C. Edwards Professor of Communication at Stanford University and a recognized leader in media psychology. His research focuses on how people psychologically process media and technology, particularly in areas like attention, emotion, and memory. He has applied this work to interactive systems including video games, social robots, and autonomous vehicles. Reeves is also a co-founder of the Human Screenome Project, which captures second-by-second data on digital device use to better understand how fragmented media consumption affects behavior and well-being. Before joining Stanford in 1985, Reeves taught at the University of Wisconsin, where he served as director of graduate studies and associate chair of the Mass Communication Research Center. He earned his B.F.A. in graphic design from Southern Methodist University, followed by an M.A. and Ph.D. in communication from Michigan State University. At Stanford, Reeves has held several leadership roles, including Director of the Center for the Study of Language and Information, Co-Director of the H-STAR Institute, and founding Director of mediaX, a university-industry collaboration focused on human-technology interaction. His work extends beyond academia; he has consulted for companies like Microsoft and IBM and has contributed to media policy discussions at the FTC, FCC, U.S. Congress, and the White House. Reeves is perhaps best known for co-authoring The Media Equation with Clifford Nass, a foundational text demonstrating that people respond to media as if it were human. This insight has influenced fields ranging from human-computer interaction to education and healthcare. He is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and continues to shape conversations about how technology affects human behavior.