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10 Great Speakers On The Trends That Are Shaping The Future of Business

Twenty years ago, most of us have never heard of the Internet nor could we have imagined how it would change our lives. We started hearing about Facebook just ten years ago, but it, along with the various other social media platforms, has impacted the way we communicate, work, and do business. Clients are constantly asking us for Speakers who can talk about the technological forces that are coming down the pipeline.

Below 10 of our best Futurists identify the key technological advances they believe will dramatically  change how we work and live:

Angela Oguntala | Global Authority on Foresight and Innovation

Named a Future Innovator by the United Nations, Angela Oguntala is a futurist and global authority on foresight and innovation.

She is a founding partner at Greyspace, a foresight consultancy. Across the globe, she helps organizations understand and innovate for a world in transition. Over the past decade, Angela has been asked to speak on a wide range of future-facing topics. She has delivered hundreds of keynotes worldwide on themes including: innovating through uncertainty, emerging technology impacts, purpose driven innovation, leadership & organizational foresight, creativity, sustainability, as well as on specific domains from the future of work to futures of healthcare.

Angela leaves audiences with insights, inspiration, and actionable tactics to engage with significant shifts ahead, and to critically question what needs to shift to meet future demands. She is a Salzburg Global Fellow for leaders challenged to shape a better worldand has been featured as an expert on futures thinking on outlets including Sky, TED, and NPR.

More about Angela: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/angela-oguntala/

Nancy Giordano | Futurist, Corporate Strategist & Speaker

Described as endlessly optimistic, Nancy Giordano is a strategic futurist and bestselling author with a drive to help enterprise organizations and visionary leaders transform to meet the escalating expectations ahead. Recognized as one of the world’s top female futurists, she has spent her career building, shaping and evolving a portfolio of $60+ billion worth of major global brands.  With growing conviction of what will (and needs to) shift, executives value her unique abilities to sense and synthesize the terrain ahead and guide those ready to build more relevant and sustainable solutions.

With a career at three of the top global advertising agencies and as founder of her own strategic inspiration company, Play Big Inc, Nancy has a rich history of advising and learning with some of the top companies in the world, including Nestle, Brinker International, The Coca Cola Company, Sprint and Acumen. In 2015 she took a leap to help shape a company of the future: artificial intelligence start-up, Lucid and later went on to build a leadership summit designed to encourage c-suite executives to explore seven of the most disruptive emergent technologies for business. Two years ago, Nancy joined Austin-based artificial intelligence services company, Kungfu.AI, to help visionary enterprise leaders better understand and harness the transformative effects of AI applications. She is also championing the work of Riane Eisler to create a movement around Partnerism, a socio-economic system that is built on partnership versus the domination models of Capitalism and Socialism.

More about Nancy: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/nancy-giordano/

Kian Gohar | Founder & CEO of Geolab, Keynote Speaker on Innovation, Disruptive Technologies, & The Future of Work

Kian Gohar is Founder & CEO of Geolab, an innovation research and leadership training firm. He is a master facilitator and has coached the CEO and leadership teams of over 50 companies in the Fortune 500 on innovation, disruptive technologies, moonshot thinking, leadership and the future of work.

He’s co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book Competing in the New World of Work, published by Harvard Business Review and with #1 NY Times bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi. This bestselling book explores the most important leadership behaviors and team skills necessary to succeed in the post-pandemic era, and outlines how to build a successful hybrid workplaces and workforces.

Previously, Kian was an executive director at the XPRIZE Foundation, where he founded the world’s leading corporate innovation ecosystem, and was also an executive director of Singularity University in Silicon Valley. His 20-year innovation career spans venture capital, academia and startups around the world. Early in his career, he was a Luce Scholar in China.

More about Kian: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/kian-gohar/

April Rinne | Global Authority on the New Economy, Future of Work

April Rinne – change navigator, speaker, investor, and adventurer – has been obsessed with these questions for more than 25 years. Her work and travels in more than 100 countries have given her a front-row seat to a world in flux, as well as a world of wisdom to navigate the unknown. Not only is she your guide to developing a “flux mindset,” she’s also ranked one of the 50 Leading Female Futurists in the world by Forbes and is a Harvard Law School graduate, a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, a member of the Silicon Guild and Thinkers50 Radar, a Fulbright Scholar, and the author of the international bestseller Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change.

April is a trusted advisor to well-known startups, companies, financial institutions, nonprofits, think tanks, and governments worldwide. For more than two decades, she’s been known for seeing emerging trends early, understanding their potential, and helping others do the same. April is a bridge-builder between stakeholders, priorities, business models, markets, and those excited about change and those resistant to it. Most recently, she’s been part of Finland’s inaugural “masterclass of happiness,” combining her Finnish heritage and “fluxiness” to reach audiences around the world.

More about April: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/april-rinne/

Tom Koulopoulos | Leading Futurist, Innovation, and Technology Expert

Tom Koulopoulos is Chairman and Founder of Delphi Group, a 30-year-old Boston-based think tank named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. Magazine, and the founding partner of Acrovantage Ventures, which invests in early-stage technology startups. He is also the author of 13 books, an Inc.com columnist, the past Executive Director of the Babson College Center for Business Innovation, the past director of the Dell Innovation Lab, and a professor at Boston University.

His insights have received wide praise from luminaries such as the late Peter Drucker, the father of modern management; Dee Hock, founder of Visa International, and Tom Peters, who called his writing, “a brilliant vision of where we must take our enterprises to survive and thrive.” His Inc. column is read by over one million people yearly.

Mr. Koulopoulos’ thirteen books include his most recent, Reimagining HealthcareThe Bottomless CloudRevealing the InvisibleThe Gen Z Effect, and Cloud Surfing. His upcoming book, Gigatrends, looks at the seven tech trends that are shaping the future of how we live, work, and play.

More about Tom: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/tom-koulopoulos/

Scott Steinberg | Business Strategist & Technology Futurist

Hailed as The Master of Innovation by Fortune magazine, and World’s Leading Business Strategist, award-winning strategic consultant, trends expert, and professional speaker Scott Steinberg is a bestselling expert on leadership, change + innovation. A go-to resource for C-level leaders, he has served as a source of thought leadership, insight, and consulting for over 1000 leading brands, and advised on household-name products found in 100+ million homes.

One of America’s top futurists (per the BBC); the author of Make Change Work For You and Millennial Marketing; and among today’s top business strategy + leadership training providers, the Fortune 500 calls him a “defining figure in business + technology” and “top trendsetter to follow.”

A strategic adviser to CEOs and four-star generals, firms like IBM, PwC, and the US Dept. of Defense regularly seek his insight. As the CEO of BIZDEV: The International Association for Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, and management consulting + market research firm FutureProof Strategies, he helps partners stay one step ahead of emerging trends – and drive growth around them.

More about Scott: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/scott-steinberg/

Nikolas Badminton | Futurist Speaker, Advisor, and Best Selling Author

Nikolas Badminton is a global futurist speaker and Chief Futurist that mentors top executives and the highest levels of government to explore desirable futures, anticipate unforeseen risks, and strengthen strategic planning.

He has spent 30+ years working with leadership at over 400 leading organizations at the frontline of foresight, strategy and disruption.

Facing Our Futures: How foresight, futures design and strategy creates prosperity and growth – is Nikolas’ number one best selling book and has been selected for the Next Big Idea Club and as JP Morgan Private bank’s ‘Next Gen Pick’ for their prestige 2023 Summer Reading List to guide new leaders to ignite curiosity and embrace futures thinking.

More about Nikolas: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/nikolas-badminton/

Erica Orange | Leading Futurist & Speaker on Global Trends

Erica Orange is Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of The Future Hunters, one of the world’s leading futurist consulting firms. She evaluates emerging social, technological, economic, political, demographic and environmental trends – and identifies the strategic implications (the “So what?”) of those trends for several of the most influential Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and public sector clients. Erica’s ability to think critically and translate that into actionable and tangible strategies is what has made her an invaluable asset to clients.

Erica speaks to a wide range of global audiences about the macro trends that are shaping and impacting today’s landscape. She has spoken at TEDx and keynoted over 250 conferences around the world, including across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. She has authored numerous articles and industry white papers, and has been featured in news outlets including Wired, NPR, Time, Bloomberg, and CBS This Morning. In 2020, she was named by Forbes as one of the world’s 50 Top Female Futurists.

More about Erica: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/erica-orange/

Mike Walsh – Futurist and Authority on Digital Trends

Mike Walsh is the CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy on designing companies for the 21st century. A global nomad, futurist and author of the best-selling book, The Algorithmic Leader, he advises some of the world’s biggest organizations on digital transformation and disruptive innovation in this new era of machine intelligence.

A prolific writer and commentator, Mike’s views have appeared in a wide range of international publications including Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Each week he interviews provocative thinkers, innovators and troublemakers on his podcast, ‘Between Worlds‘.

His latest book, The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart when machines are smarter than you, offers a hopeful and practical guide for reinventing leadership and organizations. By applying Walsh’s 10 core principles, readers will be able to design their own journey of personal transformation, harness the power of algorithms, and chart a clear path ahead–for their company, their team, and themselves.  Mike is also the author of  The Dictionary Of Dangerous Ideas, a collection of the most challenging concepts facing business leaders at the dawn of the 21st century. At the intersection of emerging technologies and new patterns of human behavior, the ideas in the Dictionary have been chosen for both their potential to transform the way companies operate, and inspire new forms of thinking.

More about Mike: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/mike-walsh/

Terence Mauri | Innovation & Disruptive Leadership Speaker

Leaders from Alibaba, HSBC and Facebook choose Terence to ignite Mindset 2.0 – a disruption mindset to break the rules and reimagine your business today.

Terence Mauri is the Founder of global think tank Hack Future Lab and is a Partner with MIT Solve, an initiative to address world challenges. He brings decades of experience and knowledge sharing cutting edge principles on the future of leadership beyond disruption. He is a Bestselling Author and his new book The 3D Leader: Take Your Leadership to the Next Dimension is an actionable and robust guide for ALL people to realize that a new dimension in personal leadership is at the core of creating opportunity. The 3D Leader is for  every person who wants to learn three winning mindsets – THINK BOLD, CHOOSE BRAVE, GO BEYOND – that will equip you with a practical set of actions for you to completely reimagine how you lead. 

Terence’s Inc. column Future Proof  has over 1M views per month, and his thinking on how to find your next cutting edge has been published in The Economist,  ForbesReutersHuffPost and Wired and he has delivered keynotes around the world for clients including Visa, Facebook, VMware, Capital One and HSBC, as well as fast-growing start-ups. Terence holds Entrepreneur Mentor in Residence roles at MIT and London Business School and has over 20 years experience of helping leaders bounce back from adversity and move beyond disruption. He has also been ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the top 30 management thinkers in the world. 

More about Terence: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/terence-mauri/

Lisa Bodell | Global Leader on Culture Change Focused on Simplification and Innovation

“Complexity is crippling our organizations. It’s stifling our people and keeping them from doing their most meaningful and impactful work.” Lisa Bodell, a global leader on simplification, collaboration, and innovation, has a solution. Lisa shows organizations how to eliminate complexity and leverage simplicity – unleashing creativity and sparking the energy so essential to innovate and compete in a rapidly changing world. FutureThink, which she founded in 2003, works with leading brands worldwide and has become the largest source of innovation research, tools, and training in the world. Lisa is the author of two groundbreaking books, Why Simple Wins: Escape the Complexity Trap and Get to Work That Matters and Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution. She ranks on the list of Top 50 Speakers Worldwide and captivates audiences with her energy and humor. Lisa’s keynotes leave audiences inspired to change and arms them with radically simple tools to get to the work that matters.

After earning her business degree from University of Michigan, Lisa launched her career at Leo Burnett in Chicago, where she discovered a gift for uniting strategically-driven ideas with forward-thinking themes. She went on to build two successful businesses before moving to New York and focusing on the simplification and innovation space with FutureThink.

More about Lisa: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/lisa-bodell/

Kaihan Krippendorff | Futurist, Strategy and Innovation Expert & Founder of Outthinker

Kaihan Krippendorff is the CEO of Outthinker Networks, a global think-tank of chief strategy and innovation executives shaping the future of business. A sought-after keynote speaker, Kaihan is recognized by Global Gurus and Thinkers50 as one of the top 30 global thinkers in strategy and innovation. His work helps organizations generate breakthrough ideas that drive transformation and growth in our accelerated world of change.

Leveraging skills and experience from McKinsey and Company with rigorous research of emerging trends, Kaihan designs practical business tools that he delivers through engaging and hands-on experiences. He is an innovation catalyst to business leaders and CXOs of some of the world’s most admired companies. To date, his work has generated over $2.5B in new annual revenue for clients that include Aetna-CVS, JP Morgan, Lockheed Martin, Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Yahoo.

A prolific writer, Kaihan has published five books including the bestsellers Outthink the Competition and Driving Innovation from Within. Amidst a dizzying schedule of keynotes, workshops, ongoing research, and writing, Kaihan still finds time to teach for Wharton Executive Education, Florida International University, and New York University; host the Outthinkers podcast; and play an active role on two corporate advisory boards.

More about Kaihan: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/kaihan-krippendorff/

Rohit Bhargava | Expert on Trends & Disruption, Innovation, Storytelling

Rohit Bhargava is an innovation and marketing expert, skilled facilitator, and keynote speaker. After a successful 15-year career as a brand and marketing strategist at two of the largest agencies in the world (Ogilvy and Leo Burnett) – Rohit became an entrepreneur and has since started three companies. He is the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of nine books on topics as wide-ranging as the future of business, building a brand with personality, and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world and has delivered sold out keynote presentations and workshops to business leaders in 32 countries.

As a keynote speaker, Rohit has been invited to share his insights at some of the most forward-looking organizations and stages in the world including Intel, NASA, Disney, JP Morgan Chase, LinkedIn, Microsoft, American Express, CES, SXSW, the World Bank, Coca-Cola and hundreds of others. At SXSW in particular, the long lines outside his popular Featured Session talks have wrapped around the entire Austin Convention Center and down the stairs to the lower level. After his packed session one year, an attendee tweeted after his talk that “he’s no Beyonce, but definitely worth standing in line for.” It’s one of Rohit’s favorite after-talk endorsements. He is indeed no Beyonce, but his sessions are still pretty darn entertaining.

More about Rohit: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/rohit-bhargava/


To Learn more about these speakers contact [email protected]

Derek Sweeney is the Director of Speaker Ideas at The Sweeney Agency. www.thesweeneyagency.com. For 15 years Derek has been helping clients find the right Speakers for their events. Derek can be reached at 1-866-727-7555 or [email protected]