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David Allison Speaker

David Allison

Human Values Expert, Bestselling Author, and Founder of The Valuegraphics Project

 About

After decades of helping big brands engage people, David Allison recognized that demographics weren’t working like before. Gender roles were blurred, age has nothing to do with how we behave, and our income doesn’t change what’s in our hearts. Instead, our values drive our behavior and our shared values that engage people and influence outcomes. So he launched the Valuegraphics Project to turn human values into data and create a revolutionary new approach to inspiring action – with the enormous power of shared human values.

Today, after a million surveys in 152 languages, David is the world’s foremost human values expert, and the CEO of a global research firm, with two best-selling books and an international speaking career. Innovative organizations like PayPal, Lululemon, and the United Nations Foundation use David’s data to connect with people in new, more profound ways - by honoring what they value. He coined the term valuegraphics to describe his unique approach to understanding people, which now appears next to demographics in textbooks used on campuses worldwide. Valuegraphics have been featured in Forbes, INC Magazine, and the Harvard Business Review, and his latest book, The Death of Demographics, was hailed by critics as "Convincing, insightful, and ... revolutionary."

He’s developed an entirely new and powerful way to address any issue, and seize any opportunity by leaning deep into a fundamental human truth: we are what we value. His highly engaging and passionate keynote delivery, combined with game-changing insights, make his keynote presentations entirely unique can’t-miss events.

Scott Amyx Speaker

Scott Amyx

Out-of-the-Box Thinker, Forbes Columnist, Innovation Keynote Speaker, Experiential, Interactive & Engaging

 About

  • Experiential, Interactive & Engaging Innovation Keynote Speaker
  • Talks about exponential technologies, Fourth Industrial Revolution & success in a rapidly changing, digital world
  • Tribeca Disruptor Foundation Fellow, a disruptive innovation awards program of Tribeca Film Festival, Singularity University/ Smart City Accelerator Mentor and Startup Board Member, Winner of the Cloud & DevOps World Award for Most Innovative Vendor
  •  Past clients include: Amazon, American Express, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Fiserv, IBM, the United Nations

Scott Amyx is the Chair & Managing Partner at Astor Perkins. Astor Perkins is a deep tech and sustainability VC that backs mavericks solving some of the hardest problems facing humanity on Earth and in space.

From climate change mitigation and adaptation, longevity, and human survival on Earth and in deep space, to the space economy itself, Astor Perkins is tackling some of the most difficult scientific, engineering, and technical problems that have global market potential.

Scott is also a Forbes New York Business Council Member, Singularity University/ Smart City Accelerator mentor and startup board member and SXSW Pitch (formerly SXSW Accelerator) judge. Scott is a Tribeca Disruptor Foundation Fellow, a disruptive innovation awards program of Tribeca Film Festival. Scott is a national Sloan Fellow/ Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He has spoken at TEDx on exponential technologies, Fourth Industrial Revolution & success. Scott is a global thought leader on breakthrough innovation, voted top global innovation keynote speaker, and author on smart cities, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and winner of the Cloud & DevOps World Award for Most Innovative and was voted Top Global Exponential Technologies Expert by Inc. Magazine, HP Enterprise, and Postscapes & Top 10 Global Innovation Keynote Speaker by Speaking.com. Scott has been nominated to the World Economic Forum as a committee member for the Future of the Internet. The Republic of Korea nominated Scott to present at the ITU Telecom World, United Nations. Sovereignties, governments, multinationals, and international consulting & research firms look to Scott for unrivaled insights and pulse on the changing landscape.

Scott was voted the Most Influential Leader in Smart Cities and awarded the 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by Inc. Magazine, Internet of Things Institute, HP Enterprise, World CSR Congress, and numerous institutions. Scott is enabling the realization of a global network of smart, sustainable cities through his partnerships with the United Nations, United Smart Cities, United for Smart Sustainable Cities, Smart Cities Council, and ASEAN Smart Cities Network, family offices, and institutional investors.

Scott has been featured on New York Times, TIME, Forbes, The Washington Post, WIRED, TechCrunch, Inc., Pew Research, Chicago Tribune, InformationWeek, Forrester, Gigaom, ReadWrite, Shots Magazine, Business News Daily, IBM Big Data & Analytics, Intel, Geektime, Examiner, TechBeacon, EE Times, IEEE, El País, Costco Magazine, and television and radio programs. He has spoken at TEDx, European Commission, World Economic Forum, ITU Telecom World (United Nations), International CES, SXSW, IBM Insight, IBM Amplify, IBM Watson IoT, IBM InterConnect, PTC LiveWorx, AMEX, SAP, CRM Evolution, THINK!, NED, Cloud Expo Europe, Cloud & DevOps World, KAIST, Samsung SDS, ArabNet Dubai & Riyadh, Internet Summit, JCK Las Vegas, Customer Service Experience, Razorfish Tech Summit, Location & Context World, Internet of Things World, K-Global Startup, and more. Scott is the co-author of Internet of Things and Data Analytics Handbook, an academic publication by John Wiley and Sons and The Advances in Information Security, Privacy, & Ethics (AISPE) Book Series: Managing Security Issues and the Hidden Dangers of Wearable Technologies, an academic publication by IGI Global.

Scott is the author of Strive: How Doing the Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success, about unlikely individuals who persevered through change to become outrageously successful. His second book, The Human Race: How Humans Can Survive in the Robotic Age, is scheduled for release next year and will cover how artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution will lead to a net job loss that will increase income inequality and stoke further populism and nationalism that are already sweeping across the globe.

Scott has a master’s degree in applied microeconomics and public policy from the University of Chicago. Scott was a national Sloan Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University.

Scott Anthony Speaker

Scott Anthony

Author and speaker on growth and innovation, creativity and entrepreneurialism.

 About

  • Scott Anthony talks about companies can outperform the competition by focusing on innovation.
  • Audiences leave with a new appreciation for how innovation can shape their ability to grow their business and build their future.
  • Scott Anthony a senior partner at Innosight, a contributor to Harvard Business Review, author and distinguished keynote speaker.
  • Past clients include: Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Singtel, Kraft, General Electric, LG and Cisco Systems.

Scott Anthony is a senior partner at Innosight, a strategy and consulting firm. He has led Innosight's expansion into the Asia-Pacific region as well as its venture capital activities (Innosight Ventures). In his more than a decade with Innosight, Scott has advised senior leaders in companies such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Singtel, Kraft, General Electric, LG, the Ayala Group, and Cisco Systems on topics of growth and innovation. He has extensive experience in emerging markets, particularly in India, China, and the Philippines. In 2017, Scott was awarded the Thinkers50 Innovation Award, which recognizes the world’s leading thinker on innovation.

Scott is one of Harvard Business Review’s most prolific contributors and is the coauthor of the new book Dual Transformation: How to Reposition Today’s Business While Creating the Future, a blueprint for how successful companies can leverage disruptive change to fortify today’s business and create tomorrow’s growth engine. He was the co-author of the HBR article “Build an Innovation Engine in 90 Days” as well as dozens of digital articles for the magazine.

Scott’s previous books are The First Mile: A Launch Manual for Getting Great Ideas Into the Market. Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change (with Innosight co-founder and Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen); The Innovator’s Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work; The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times; The Little Black Book of Innovation: How It Works, How to Do It; and Building a Growth Factory. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles on innovation and strategy for a variety of publications.

Scott is a featured speaker on topics of innovation and growth. He has delivered keynote addresses on five continents, and has appeared on Good Morning America, Channel News Asia, CNBC, and FOX Business.

Scott received a BA in economics summa cum laude from Dartmouth College and an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Lior Arussy Speaker

Lior Arussy

Leading Global Expert on Customer Experience & Customer-Centric Transformation

 About

  • Lior talks about How organizations can create and execute a profitable customer strategy.
  • Audiences will explore the success (and some failures) of leading brands in their pursuit of profitable, lasting customer relationships.
  • Lior Arussy is hailed as one of the leading global authorities in the fields of Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, and Strategy Execution. He is a best selling author & regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, CNBC, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.
  • Past clients include: IBM, Accuity, Mercedes Benz, Cognizant, Cisco, KIA and Great Wolf Lodge.

Lior Arussy is hailed as one of the leading global authorities in the fields of Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, and Strategy Execution. He is a Corporate Culture expert, a ‘success accelerator’ - and a proven, passionate change agent. Called a “triple threat of transformation” by William Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company magazine - Lior has helped many of the world’s top brands achieve unprecedented goals in customer satisfaction, growth - and profitability. Among these are Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Thomson Reuters, HSBC, E.ON, FedEx, SAP, and the University of Pennsylvania - to name a few.

His insights and methods have been successfully put into practice in over 200 corporate transformations worldwide, making Lior not only a forerunner in the field - but a proven practitioner. And that’s what truly sets him apart - where other speakers simply talk of change, Lior makes it happen time and time again. As inspiring as he is passionate, Lior’s unique and critical voice continues to drive people across the globe to achieve their ultimate success.

Lior spent the first part of his career in various executive positions at world-leading firms, such as Hewlett-Packard. It was at this stage that he recognized the old, traditional methods of change management were flawed - and simply didn’t work for most companies. Lior took it upon himself to create a different methodology - one which recognizes the key to truly driving a company’s change for success, is in putting its most important resource at the center of its transformational efforts: its employees. The idea being that, in order for customers to choose your product and get the most out of it, you not only have to have an exceptional product - but a great, dedicated, happy team that stands behind that product’s success.

Lior’s methodology enabled Mercedes-Benz to reach the much-coveted #1 position in customer satisfaction. Another client, a European logistics corporation - leapt from 3% annual organic growth to 44% annual organic growth in just two years!

In 2003, Lior founded the Strativity Group - a strategy firm specializing in customer experience consulting, employee engagement programs, journey mapping, and business growth. In addition, he has written seven books on business strategy, customer experience optimization, and achieving the ultimate success. Lior's latest book Next is Now: 5 Steps for Embracing Change - Building a Business that Thrives into the Future (May 2018, Simon & Schuster), and his self-published Exceptionalize it! (2015) - which has sold over 30,000 copies to date. He has also written over 300 articles for publications around the world, including the Harvard Business Review, and Chief Executive media - for which he is a regular contributing author. As well, a multitude of magazines and media outlets have cited his work including MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, CRM Magazine, Smart CEO Magazine, Inc. magazine, Financial Times, The Times of London, and  ABC.

Lior currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and five children. He completed his undergraduate degree at Case Western Reserve University - and received his MBA from Weatherhead School of Management.

He is a self-professed chocoholic.

Lisa Bodell Speaker

Lisa Bodell

Global Leader on Simplification & Banishing Complexity, Innovation, Leadership, Change, Collaboration, and Transforming Culture

 About

  • Futurist and Founder of Futurethink – The World’s Largest Source of Simplification + Innovation Tools and Training.
  • Author of Two Bestselling Books: Why Simple Wins and Kill the Company.
  • Expert on Replacing Mind-Numbing Complexity With Simplicity So People Can Focus On Work That Matters.
  • Monthly Contributor, Forbes; Frequent Appearances Fast Company, Wired, the New York Times, Inc., Harvard Business Review, CNN, and More.

“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.

Lisa brings a compelling perspective to the sought-after topics of simplification and innovation to over 100,000 people each year. A thought leader and serial entrepreneur, her transformational message has inspired executives at top-ranked organizations such as Google, SAP, Citigroup, and the Department of National Intelligence.

Lisa has contributed her expertise to a wide variety of media. She is a monthly contributor to Forbes and has frequently appeared in other media including: Fast Company, WIRED, The New York Times, Inc., Harvard Business Review, and CNN. She has also been featured in many major books such as Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question, Adam Grant’s Originals, and AfterShock, the 50-year celebration based on futurist Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock.

Lisa has taught innovation at both American University and Fordham University and has a TED talk on the topic. She has served on the board of advisors of several organizations, including the Global Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum, the United States National Security Agency, the Association of Professional Futurists, and the Novartis board of Diversity & Inclusion.

Book Your Next Great Speaker in 5 Easy Steps Speaker

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Did last year's speaker knock your socks off? Not sure where to go next? Let our team of experienced professionals help you find your next great speaker. 

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From the shortlist, you've narrowed it down to two great speakers. Let's discuss your needs to help make the final decision.

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Roger Bootle Speaker

Roger Bootle

British Economist and Weekly Columnist for the Daily Telegraph

 About

Roger Bootle is one of Britain's best-known economists and Chairman of Capital Economics, one of the world’s largest independent macroeconomics consultancies, which he founded in 1999. Roger is also an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. He was formerly Group Chief Economist of HSBC and a Visiting Professor at Manchester Business School. Under Chancellor Kenneth Clarke he was appointed to the Government’s panel of Independent Economic Advisers, the so-called “Wise Men”. From 1997 to 2017, he was a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Committee. In 2012, Roger was named Economics Commentator of the Year and, together with a team from Capital Economics, he won the Wolfson Prize, the second biggest prize in Economics after the Nobel.

Roger Bootle studied at Oxford University and then became a Lecturer in Economics at St Anne’s College, Oxford. Most of his subsequent career has been spent in the City of London.

Roger has written many articles and several books on economics. His latest book, Making a Success of Brexit and Reforming the EU, is the 4th edition of The Trouble with Europe. This book follows The Trouble with Markets and Money for Nothing, which were widely acclaimed. His earlier book, The Death of Inflation, published in 1996, became a best-seller and was subsequently translated into nine languages. Initially dismissed as extreme, The Death of Inflation is now widely recognized as prophetic. Roger is also joint author of the book Theory of Money, and author of Index-Linked Gilts. Mark your calendars for Sep 5, 2019, the anticipated release date of Roger's upcoming book The AI Economy: Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age - in which he examines the economic implications of Artificial Intelligence and addresses the concerns of both businesses and ordinary people about how the future will look as robots and AI proliferate. In contrast to much of the literature on robots and AI, this book is profoundly optimistic about what they imply for the human condition.

Roger appears frequently on television and radio and is also a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph.

Dr. Gary Bradt Speaker

Dr. Gary Bradt

World-Class Speaker, Author, Change and Leadership Expert

 About

  • Expert on Emotional Intelligence, Change & Leadership
  • Clinical Psychologist and Author of the bestselling book, The Ring in the Rubble
  • Leadership Consultant & Strategist to numerous Fortune 500 companies
  • Past clients include: American Express, Blue Cross Blue Shield, eBay, IBM, Marriott, Merrill Lynch, NASA, Visa, Xerox

Click Here to Watch Gary's Virtual Presentation

More than ever before, change and unrelenting disruption are causing employees to feel emotional fatigue, burnout, stress, anxiety and myriad emotions that strip them of creativity, productivity and overall joy. Providing employees with more strategies to adapt to change with a growth mindset and resilient spirit are critical competencies that Dr. Gary Bradt has been teaching C-Suite leaders in Fortune 500s for 25+ years. 

Today, he is being called upon by leading corporations to share his practical and actionable tools for change with employees at every level, so they can embrace change and create a positive path forward both professionally and personally. 

Dr. Bradt's unique background and perspective make him a one-of-a-kind speaker on emotional intelligence, change and leadership. As a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Bradt shares relevant research from neuroscience and positive psychology to help leaders and people at every level approach change with a positive perspective. 

As a business owner with 25+ years of experience coaching C-level executives, Dr. Bradt passes on practical strategies and tactics that businesspeople quickly comprehend and apply. As a thought leader on change and leadership, he is a contributing writer to Forbes.com and the author of three books on change. 

Most importantly, however, Dr. Bradt is a father, who speaks from the heart about the tragedies, triumphs, and lessons he's learned from raising a child with a chronic life-threatening heart condition. 

It is no wonder, then, that the late Spencer Johnson asked Dr. Bradt to be the leading speaker worldwide for one of the bestselling business books of all time, Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese? More than 300 keynotes and twenty-years later,  Dr. Bradt is as passionate as ever about helping people find the opportunity that change always creates. He will inspire and empower your audience to change and win today

Todd Buchholz Speaker

Todd Buchholz

Leading Economist, Business Strategist and Trend Forecaster – Former White House Senior Economic Advisor

 About

Todd Buchholz, Economist and keynote speaker, lights up economics with a wickedly sparkling wit, says the Associated Press. The former White House senior economic advisor, Tiger hedge fund managing director and best-selling author has jousted with such personalities as James Carville and Ben Stein. His lively and informative speaking engagements have earned him a place in Successful Meetings Magazine's 21 Top Speakers for the 21st Century, and his best-selling books on economics and financial markets have been widely translated and are taught in universities worldwide.

As a keynote speaker and commentator, Todd brings his experience as a former White House director of economic policy, a managing director of the $15 billion Tiger hedge fund, and a Harvard economics teacher to the cutting edge of economics, fiscal politics, finance, and business strategy. He is a frequent commentator on ABC News, PBS, and CBS - and recently hosted his own special on CNBC. Todd has debated such luminaries in the field of economics as Lester Thurow and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz. He is CEO and co-founder of educational software company Sproglit, LLC and was a fellow at Cambridge University in 2009.

Before joining Tiger in 1996, Todd was President of the G7 Group, Inc, an international consulting firm whose clientele included many of the top securities firms, investment banks and money managers in New York, London, and Tokyo, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. His commentaries were closely read by officials at the Federal Reserve, Bundesbank and Bank of England. From 1989 to 1992 he served at the White House as a Director for Economic Policy. Todd won the Allyn Young Teaching Prize at Harvard - and holds advanced degrees in economics and law from Cambridge and Harvard. He also holds several engineering and design patents - and is a co-producer of the Broadway smash Jersey Boys.

Todd has authored numerous critically acclaimed and best-selling books - many of which he has developed into successful lectures and speaking events. His books have been translated into a dozen languages and are used in universities worldwide - including at Harvard, Duke, and Princeton. As an author - Todd is praised for his examination of economics, business and entrepreneurship in the context of global society.

Market Shock: 9 Economic and Social Upheavals that Will Shake Our Financial Future was released to rave reviews and dubbed outstanding by the Wall Street Journal. Todd has also published the best-selling New Ideas from Dead Economists, New Ideas from Dead CEOs, From Here to Economy and Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office - which garnered high praise from The New York Times and Financial Times. Named by Publishers Weekly as a top ten book for 2011 - his book Rush: Why You Need and Love the Rat Race has been praised by the Financial Times, Toronto Globe & Mail, Los Angeles Times and the BBC, among many others. Todd's most recent book The Price of Prosperity: Why Rich Nations Fail and How to Renew Them is about economics - sort of. But that’s just a starting-point for this compelling journey through sociology, anthropology, politics and above all history. A lively, well-documented and fundamental book - it's loaded with witty and provocative insight into the vexing question of our era: where do the prosperous nations go from here? Todd has also penned articles for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, and Reader's Digest.

Todd is a widely sought keynote speaker for his depth of experience, sharp wit and honest, entertaining delivery. He puts global politics and financial markets into perspective - and offers a positive understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing today's markets.

An experienced speaker and media personality, Todd gave a lecture at the White House entitled Clarity, Honesty and Modesty in Economics, and has delivered keynote speeches before such influential corporate and financial institutions as Microsoft, IBM, Goldman Sachs and the United States Chamber of Commerce. He has served as a consulting advisor to the White House, Microsoft, Allstate, Goldman Sachs, IBM, SAP and Toyota - and is routinely asked to provide perspective in newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Dr. James Canton Speaker

Dr. James Canton

Renowned Global Futurist, Social Scientist, Keynote Speaker on Business Trends

 About

Dr. James Canton is a leading global futurist, social scientist, keynote presenter, author, and visionary business advisor. For over 30 years, he has been insightfully predicting the key trends that have shaped our world. He is a leading authority on future trends with an emphasis on harnessing innovation. Dr. Canton has advised three White House Administrations and global business leaders.

He is the author of Future Smart: Managing the Game-Changing Trends that will Transform your World, The Extreme Future: The Top Trends that will Reshape the World in the 21st Century and TechnoFutures: How Leading-Edge Innovations will Transform Business in the 21st Century.

Dr. Canton is CEO and Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures, a leading think tank he founded in 1990 that advises business and government on future trends. He advises the Global Fortune 1000 on trends in technology, innovation, financial services, health care, population, life sciences, energy, security, workforce, climate change and globalization. From a broad range of industries, clients include: IBM, BP, Intel, Philips, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Boeing, FedEx, and Proctor & Gamble.

Dr. Canton has served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Research in Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, the MIT Media Lab Advisory Board in Europe, Motorola’s Visionary Advisory Board and the International Advisory Council, Economic Development Board, State of Singapore. He has been an advisor to the National Science Foundation.

Recognized as “one of the top presenters in the 21st century” by Successful Meetings Magazine, Dr. Canton is a highly sought-after keynote presenter. He has spoken to thousands of organizations on five continents. He is noted for his fascinating, informative, dynamic and entertaining keynotes.

A frequent guest of the media, Dr. Canton is a commentator on CNN. He was named "the Digital Guru” by CNN and “Dr. Future” by Yahoo. Dr. Canton’s media coverage has included CNBC, Fox, PBS, ABC, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Report, The New York Times, US News and World Report, CEO, CIO and CFO Magazines. His Huffington Post blog and Twitter feed is followed by a global audience.

Ram Charan Speaker

Ram Charan

Highly Acclaimed Business and Leadership Speaker and Advisor

 About

  • Ram talks about execution as a function that links people, strategy and operations led by deeply and passionately engaged leaders.
  • Audiences are fascinated by breakthrough ideas on the tools to develop the discipline of execution based on thinking about business in an integrated way.
  • Ram Charan is a world-renowned business advisor, author and speaker who has spent the past 40 years working with many top companies, CEOs, and boards of our time.
  • Past clients include: Toyota, Bank of America, Key Bank, ICICI Bank, Aditya Birla Group, Novartis, Max Group, Yildiz Holdings, UST Global, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo), Humana, Matrix, and Longfor.

Ram Charan is a world-renowned business advisor, author and speaker who has spent the past 40 years working with many top companies, CEOs, and boards of our time. In his work with companies including Toyota, Bank of America, Key Bank, ICICI Bank, Aditya Birla Group, Novartis, Max Group, Yildiz Holdings, UST Global, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo), Humana, Matrix, Longfor and two of the four largest digital companies in China, he is known for cutting through the complexity of running a business in today’s fast changing environment to uncover the core business problem. His real-world solutions, shared with millions through his books and articles in top business publications, have been praised for being practical, relevant and highly actionable — the kind of advice you can use Monday morning.

Ram’s introduction to business came early while working in the family shoe shop in a small town in northern India, where he was raised. He earned an engineering degree in India and soon after took a job in Australia. When his talent for business was discovered, Ram was encouraged to develop it. He earned MBA and doctorate degrees from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with high distinction and was a Baker Scholar, then served on the faculties of Harvard Business School and Northwestern University before pursuing consulting full-time.

Ram’s work takes him around the globe non-stop and gives him an unparalleled, up-to-date insider view of how economies and leading companies operate. Through keen observation and analysis, he forms powerful insights that help business leaders face their toughest challenges in the areas of growth, talent development, corporate governance, and profitability.

His timely concrete advice is a powerful tool in navigating today’s uncertain business climate.

Former Chairman of GE Jack Welch says Ram “has the rare ability to distill meaningful from meaningless and transfer it in a quiet, effective way without destroying confidences,” while Ivan Seidenberg, the former CEO of Verizon, calls Ram his “secret weapon.”

Ram has coached more than a dozen leaders who went on to become CEOs. He reaches many more up-and-coming business leaders through in-house executive education programs. His energetic, interactive teaching style has won him several awards, including the Bell Ringer award at GE’s famous Crotonville Institute and best teacher award at Northwestern. He was among BusinessWeek‘s top ten resources for in-house executive development programs.

Ram has authored over 30 books since 1998 that have sold over 4 million copies in more than a dozen languages. Three of his books were Wall Street Journal bestsellers, including Execution, which he coauthored with former Honeywell CEO Larry Bossidy in 2002, which spent more than 150 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. He also has written for publications including Harvard Business Review, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Time, Chief Executive and USA TODAY.

Ram was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and has served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Corporate Governance. He has served on the boards of Hindalco in India, Emaar, Austin Industries, Tyco Electronics, and Fischer and Porter. His upcoming book, Rethinking Competitive Advantage (Currency, April 2021), is a guide for companies on how to gain competitive advantage in the digital age.

Dorie Clark Speaker

Dorie Clark

Leadership, Strategy & Entrepreneurship Keynote Speaker

 About

Dorie Clark has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, and was recognized as the #1 Communication Coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. Clark, a consultant and keynote speaker, teaches executive education at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School.

Recognized as a “branding expert” by the Associated Press, Fortune, and Inc. magazine, she is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Long GameEntrepreneurial YouReinventing You, and Stand Outwhich was named the #1 Leadership Book of the Year by Inc. magazine and one of the Top 10 Business Books of the Year by Forbes. It was also a Washington Post bestseller. Her books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, Polish, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, and Thai.

Clark, whom the New York Times described as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives,” is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review. She consults and speaks for a diverse range of clients, including Google, the World Bank, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, the Ford Foundation, and Yale University.

A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Clark has also taught for Spain’s IE Business School, HEC-Paris, Babson College, Smith College Executive Education, UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, and more.

She has guest lectured at universities including Harvard Business School, the Harvard Kennedy School, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Georgetown, NYU, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the University of Michigan.

Her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review Guide to Getting the Right Job and the Harvard Business Review Guide to Networking, and she is quoted frequently in the worldwide media, including NPR, the BBC, and MSNBC. She has been a regular commentator on Canada’s CTV and was named one of Inc. magazine’s “100 Great Leadership Speakers for Your Next Conference.”

A former New England Press Association award-winning journalist, Clark directed the environmental documentary film The Work of 1000, and was a producer for a multiple-Grammy-winning jazz album. She is a Broadway investor, as well as a member of BMI’s Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop, widely considered the premier training ground for musical theater lyricists and composers.

Conference Plans Changed? Speaker

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Virtual Events can:

  1. Reach a wider audience
  2. Offer a great experience at a much lower cost
  3. Create long term impact with recorded elements that allow for content to be watched over a period of time
  4. Have an increased impact over time, as viewers re-watch, discuss and connect over social media and other channels

And, most importantly: offer the ability for inspiring and impactful presentations to connect in a one-on-one way, directly to the attendee.

WHO is your audience?

Who are your virtual event attendees? Are they across a specific group within your organization, or are you serving clients across a wide range of levels? Determining who you are speaking to will help you determine a format for your event that will captivate your audience.

WHAT is your key message?

Are you focusing on change? Innovation? Leadership?

Creating a single focus or mission will allow you to hone in on the type of speaker(s) you need to engage your audience and help event producers to format the event into a dynamic program that balances inspiration with information and audience interaction.

WHAT type of event suits your audience?

  • Virtual Conference
  • Webinar
  • Hybrid Event

Virtual event technology has come a long way over the last few months, offering a huge range of different options from pre-recorded webinars, to multi-day virtual conferences, to hybrid events with some attendees in the audience while the event is live streamed.

OUR ADVICE

COMBINATION of live and pre-recorded elements will allow your virtual event to run smoothly and stay on time.

Many of our clients are also opting for multi-day virtual conferences with shorter segments spaced over a few days.

This allows some flexibility for attendees in different time zones and accommodates different teleworking situations for attendees, allowing them to tune in when it is convenient.

WHERE? It’s all about Tech.

Virtual meeting technology has exploded over the last few months as teleworking became the norm.

Consider your needs:

  • Interactive elements like breakout rooms, polls & Q&A
  • Seamless blend of live & pre-recorded elements
  • Ability to replay segments
  • Live tech support

If you plan for rain, it’s likely the sun will shine…

Tech isn’t perfect so don’t forget to test, rehearse and have a back up plan ready to go for your virtual event.

Pro Tip: Think of a virtual presentation like a podcast. Viewers can view the content multiple times and refer back to it.

  WHEN? A Date… or Dates?

As we have all noticed, our attention spans for meeting in real life versus meeting online are a lot longer.

When deciding on a date, consider spreading your virtual event out over a few days, with a variety of speakers, interactive elements and information.

The benefits of a multi-day format:

  • Viewers watch content fresh for a short period every day
  • Allows attendees in different time zones to stay on top of the content
  • Attendees can review & re-engage with content

Virtual Event Checklist:

Is your event?

  • Interactive?
  • Informative?
  • Able to be rewatched?

WHY? Pandemic 2020

Just because you are online instead of in person, it doesn’t mean you are missing out on connection.

Using the technology that we have become so accustomed to over the last few months, our keynote speakers have the ability to connect to your viewers one-on-one, in a way that was impossible in live events.

FIND YOUR WHY…

What do you want the audience to leave thinking at the end of the presentation?

Apply this question to all the presentations and segments in your event to create a cohesive, impactful virtual event.

  HOW? Virtual Event Checklist

To wrap it all up

  • TECH: Find the right tech platform & don’t forget to test drive before your event
  • AGENDA: Use a mix of live and pre-recorded segments, mixed with interactive elements, to ensure a smooth flow of events & audience engagement
  • ANTICIPATION: Build up your event with emails, teasers and sneak peeks into what content will be offered
  • NETWORKING: Create and encourage online chat functions, an event specific hashtag or even a dedicated event page to allow attendees to network virtually. Maximize the networking opportunities offered by your tech platform.
  • EXTEND YOUR IMPACT: A dedicated social media page is a great place for attendees to connect after an event to discuss ideas and implement some of the learnings from the event.

Offer a password protected, limited time recording of keynote presentations to continue the conversation long after the virtual event has ended.

Continue the conversation with post-event touch points like emails or questions based on the key presentations.

To find a GREAT Speaker for your Virtual event, get in touch.

Daryl Conner Speaker

Daryl Conner

Author of Leading at the Edge of Chaos and Managing At the Speed of Change . Internationally Recognized Change Management Expert.

 About

Daryl Conner is chairman of Conner Partners, an advisory firm that specializes in strategy execution. Daryl and the firm have a steadfast focus: they help clients deliver the promised benefits for the most difficult type of strategic change - change that transforms the business. As an internationally recognized leader in organizational change, Daryl serves as an advisor and mentor to senior executives around the globe.

Over his extensive career, Daryl has worked with many of the most successful organizations in the world, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and nonprofit institutions, to help them achieve the full intent of their most urgent and critically important initiatives. A dynamic and engaging public speaker, he has addressed thousands of executives in corporate settings, national conferences, and public programs.

Daryl grounds his work on a strong foundation of research and extensive consulting. He has authored two books Managing at the Speed of Change (Random House, 1993) and Leading at the Edge of Chaos (John Wiley & Sons, 1998) and more than 250 publications, including journal and magazine articles, monographs, book chapters, and videos. Daryl's blog, Change Thinking, is written for change management professionals who want to raise the level of their game and that of the field of change execution.

Throughout his career, Daryl has documented the actions leaders take that lead to successful and unsuccessful implementation of strategic change. The patterns of successful execution are known, reliable, and replicable. Daryl provides candid guidance and focus around these patterns of success to executives responsible for strategic initiatives and to the teams that support them.

One common thread connects all of Daryl's work: helping businesses operate more effectively in a turbulent world by applying fundamental principles about change.

Dan Coughlin Speaker

Dan Coughlin

Expert consultant on leadership, management and business acceleration.

 About

Dan Coughlin is a leading authority on managing for long-term business success. He teaches The Any Person Mindset, a practical management approach for improving individual, group, and organizational performance in a sustainable way. It is based on his core belief that any person can make a significant difference in an organization, but no one is born with the traits necessary to make a significant difference. These are learned thinking traits.

His client list includes McDonald's, Toyota, Marriott, BJC HealthCare, Coca-Cola, GE, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Shell Oil, RE/MAX, Subway, Abbott, Prudential, Boeing, Cisco Systems, American Cancer Society, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Since 1998 he has worked with more than 200 organizations. 

As a management consultant, keynote speaker, executive coach, and seminar leader, he works with executives and managers to improve their impact as business leaders. His focus is on helping these individuals in the areas of leadership, innovation, and branding in order to generate better sustainable, profitable growth for their organizations. 

Dan has invested over 3,000 hours on-site as a management consultant observing and advising executives and managers in a wide variety of business functions and in more than fifty industries. As an Executive Coach, he has provided more than 2,500 coaching sessions for presidents, vice-presidents, and senior directors in Fortune 500 companies, major privately-owned firms, and small businesses. As a keynote speaker and seminar leader, he has made more than 500 presentations to corporate audiences. He does in-depth research on every audience before customizing his presentation to meet their needs.

Quoted in USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, The Journal of the American Management Association, and dozens of other publications, Dan Coughlin's articles have been published in more than 100 trade association publications. He is the author of the book, The Management 500: A High-Octane Formula for Business Success. 

Tony Dwyer Speaker

Tony Dwyer

Canaccord Genuity Macroeconomist and Chief Market Strategist

 About

Tony Dwyer is a globally recognized macroeconomist and market strategist, highly sought-after among executives and associations for his sound insights on what drives the global economy - and the role human nature plays in economic activity and investing. Frequently featured on CNBC and Bloomberg, Tony’s entertaining and practical approach on current and future economic trends, along with his thought-provoking presentation style - draws from a long career advising some of the country’s biggest companies and professional investors. His unique ability to take complicated jargon down to an understandable and digestible level - accentuated with humour - will have an audience thinking and speaking well after the talk is over. As a speaker, Tony has presented for companies across the country, as well as various hedge funds and associations.

Tony serves as the Chief Market Strategist for Canaccord Genuity which he joined in 2012 following the acquisition of Collins Stewart - where he was the Chief Equity Strategist. Prior to Collins Stewart, Tony spent many years at FTN Financial’s equity arm as the Chief Equity Market Strategist, Co-Director of Research, Chairman of the Investment Committee and sat on the firm’s Operating Committee.

Tony lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons and is on the Board of Trustees for LeMoyne College, his alma mater. He enjoys being a private pilot, scuba diving, sky diving and all outdoor sports.

Dr. Ken Dychtwald Speaker

Dr. Ken Dychtwald

Futurist, Best-Selling Author, Entrepreneur, Psychologist, Gerontologist and Recognized Speaker on the Aging Population.

 About

Over the past 40+ years, Dr. Ken Dychtwald has emerged as North America’s foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing, health care, economic and workforce implications of the age wave.

Ken is a psychologist, gerontologist, and best-selling author of 18 books on aging-related issues, including Bodymind, Age Wave: The Challenges and Opportunities of an Aging Society, Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old, Healthy Aging, Gideon’s Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings, A New Purpose: Redefining Money, Family, Work, Retirement, and Success and What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age (an Amazon #1 bestseller in both the retirement and business marketing categories). He also released a memoir in April 2021: Radical Curiosity: One Man’s Search for Cosmic Magic and a Purposeful Life (an Amazon #1 New Release in the psychologist biographies category). He was the executive producer and host of the highly rated/acclaimed PBS documentary, The Boomer Century: 1946–2046 which aired over 2,000 times on PBS stations nationwide and his new Public Television special is titled Life’s Third Age. Ken also conceived and hosted the innovative new American Society on Aging series “The Legacy Interviews,” featuring interviews with the legendary pathfinders of the field of aging.

Since 1986, Ken has been the Founder and CEO of Age Wave, an acclaimed think tank and consultancy focused on the social and business implications and opportunities of global aging and rising longevity. His client list has included over half the Fortune 500. He has served as a fellow of the World Economic Forum and was a featured speaker at two White House Conferences on Aging. Ken has twice received the distinguished American Society on Aging Award for outstanding national leadership, and American Demographics honored him as the single most influential marketer to baby boomers over the past quarter century. His article in the Harvard Business Review, “It’s Time to Retire Retirement,” was awarded the prestigious McKinsey Award, tying for first place with the legendary Peter Drucker. He was honored by Investment Advisor as one of the 35 most influential thought leaders in the financial services industry over the past 35 years. Ken and his wife, Maddy, recently received the Esalen Prize for their outstanding contributions to advancing the human potential of aging men and women worldwide. In 2018 he was awarded the Inspire Award from in the International Council on Active Aging for his exceptional and lasting contributions to the active-aging industry and for his efforts to make a difference in the lives of older adults globally. In 2020, he was the first recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Retirement Coaches Association.

During his career, Ken has addressed more than two million people worldwide in his speeches to corporate, association, social service, and government groups. His strikingly accurate predictions and innovative ideas are regularly featured in leading print and electronic media worldwide and have garnered nearly fifteen billion media impressions.

Maddy Dychtwald Speaker

Maddy Dychtwald

Speaker on Generational Marketing Trends, Co-founder and Senior VP of Age Wave

 About

Recently recognized by Forbes as one of the top fifty female futurists globally, Maddy Dychtwald has been deeply involved in exploring all aspects of the age wave and how it’s transforming the marketplace, the workplace, our world, and our lives for more than 30 years. Along the way, she has become an internationally acclaimed author, public speaker, Wall Street Journal blogger, and thought leader on longevity, aging, the new retirement, and the ascent of women.

A successful entrepreneur, Maddy co-founded Age Wave, the world’s leader in understanding and addressing the far-reaching impacts of our aging population. The Age Wave team has worked with more than half of the Fortune 500 in industries ranging from healthcare and medical technology to financial services and consumer products.

With women at the forefront of the longevity revolution, Maddy has deeply explored their specific longevity-related wants, needs, and challenges. She has led numerous acclaimed studies on women and money, including the landmark Women, Money and Power sponsored by Allianz and, most recently, Women and Financial Wellness: Beyond the Bottom Line for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In addition, she has been involved in more than 25 thought leadership research studies worldwide on aging, longevity, retirement, health, family, caregiving, housing, and leisure, which have cumulatively garnered more than twelve billion media impressions.

She is the author of three books, Cycles: How We Will Live, Work, and Buy (voted Book of the Year by the National Community Colleges Association), Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, and the children’s/young readers’ book Gideon’s Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings. Currently she is working on a new book, Women’s Longevity Bonus, that combines her professional and personal passions.

As a member of The Wall Street Journal’s Expert Panel on Retirement, Maddy’s posts on leadership, wealth management, and financial planning have topped the most-read lists for their categories in 2017 and 2018. Currently, she serves as the national co-spokesperson for an in-depth investigation on The Four Pillars of the New Retirement: What a Difference a Year Makes sponsored by Edward Jones. Her insights and research have been featured in prominent media outlets, including Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Newsweek, Time, Fox Business News, CNBC, and NPR.

Having watched both her mother and mother-in-law battle dementia, Maddy is committed to eradicating this horrific disease. She is a co-founder of the non-profit Women Against Alzheimer’s and serves as a board member of the non-profit BrightFocus Foundation, which funds cutting-edge research to cure diseases of the brain and eye.

A working mom for much of her adult life, Maddy is now an empty nester. She is passionate about her family as well as about longevity as both a demographic phenomenon and her personal journey. She and her husband Ken were recently awarded the prestigious Esalen Prize for their outstanding contributions to advancing the human potential of aging men and women worldwide.

Dr. Elliot Eisenberg Speaker

 About

Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D. is a nationally acclaimed economist and public speaker specializing in making economics fun, relevant - and educational. Dr. Eisenberg earned a B.A. in economics with first class honors from McGill University in Montreal, as well as a Master's and Ph.D. in public administration from Syracuse University. Eisenberg is the Chief Economist for GraphsandLaughs, LLC, an economic consultancy that serves a variety of clients across the U.S. He writes a syndicated column and authors a daily 70-word commentary on the economy.

Dr. Eisenberg has spoken to hundreds of business groups and associations, often as keynote speaker on topics including: economic forecasts, economic impact of industries such as home-building and tourism, consequences of government regulation, strategic business development - and other current economic issues. Dr. Eisenberg has been invited to testify before lawmakers - and is often asked to comment on proposed legislation. His research and opinions have been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Bureau of National Affairs, Forbes, Fortune, and many other publications. He is a regularly featured guest on cable news programs, talk and public radio.

Dr. Eisenberg was formerly a Senior Economist with the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C. He is the creator of the multifamily stock index (the first nationally recognized index to track the total return of public firms principally involved in the ownership and management of apartments), the author of more than eighty-five articles, serves on the Expert Advisory Board of Mortgage Market Guide - and is a regular consultant to several large real estate professional associations, hedge funds and investment advisory groups.

Meridith Elliott Powell Speaker

Meridith Elliott Powell

Award-winning Author, Keynote Speaker and Business Growth, Sales & Leadership Expert

 About

Click Here to Watch Meridith's Virtual Presentation

Meridith Elliott Powell is a business growth expert who was voted One of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair. Meridith is an award-winning author, keynote speaker and business strategist. With a background in corporate sales and leadership - her career spans over several industries including banking, healthcare and finance. Meridith worked her way up from an entry-level position to earn her seat at the C-Suite table. She is Certified Speaking Professional, a designation held by less than twelve percent of professional speakers, and a member of the prestigious Forbes Coaching Council.

She has a cutting-edge message, rooted in real-life examples and real-world knowledge. She is the author of four books, including The Best Sales Book Ever/The Best Sales Leadership Book Ever - Cut Through the Obstacles and Send Sales Through the Roof  (co-authored with Connie Podesta) is two powerful books in one! Whether you work in Sales or Sales Leadership this book is hands-down the best resource you need right now. Comprehensive strategies. Straight talk. Brilliant insights that can transform your career, Own It: Redefining Responsibility - Stories of Power, Freedom & Purpose - about how to build cultures that inspire ownership at every level to create profits at every turn - and Winning in the Trust and Value Economy (a finalist in the USA Best Book Awards). Meridith writes, speaks and is passionate about helping her clients understand everything they need to know about how to make this economy start working for them.

Today’s economy is not down - it is different. Therefore, to understand this economy you have to understand today’s customers. With the ability to stay at home and order anything you want online, what you sell is no longer important. It is how you sell that is your competitive advantage! With the customer experience being so important - every member of your team has to been engaged. How do you ignite employee engagement - create a quality customer experience and see business growth like you’ve never seen before?

In her remarkably engaging sessions, Meridith shows her audiences how to attract more business, retain top talent - and leap into position to win in this new economy. High energy and highly interactive - Meridith’s keynotes will help leaders and business owners learn the new rules of success today. Including how today’s economy has changed, how that has changed today’s customers and employees - and specifically how that impacts your business. No walking on coals, no breaking boards - just real-life strategies you can put into place first thing Monday morning.

Keith Ferrazzi Speaker

Keith Ferrazzi

Best-Selling Author of Never Eat Alone and Speaker on Business Relationship Development

 About

Organizational Change:

Keith Ferrazzi is a charismatic and inspiring speaker, and also a renowned thought leader on change management and behavior engineering, and is in constant demand as a coach to C-Suite executives at some of the world’s largest organizations. Keith works toward inspiring teams to jump start organizational change.

By helping global organizations recognize and transform behaviours that block strategic goals, Keith Ferrazzi helps create new organizational habits which translate into increased value for both shareholders and the corporate bottom line.

This passion to understand human behavior and find actions and practices to effect positive change led to the founding of the Greenlight Institute, a think tank dedicated to finding the keys to sustainable human behavior change. Keith is also the founder and chairman of Ferrazzi Greenlight and the author of the NY Times best-sellers Who’s Got Your Back and Never Eat Alone and is regularly published in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Inc., and Fast Company.

Keith’s keynotes go beyond the ordinary by tapping into the hearts and minds of attendees and challenging them to open up to one another. By connecting everyone in the room, Keith Ferrazzi facilitates the risk-taking and candor that pave the way to insight and actionable, sustained organizational change.

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 About

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James H. Gilmore Speaker

James H. Gilmore

Co-Author of The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater and Every Business A Stage, Speaker on Strategy and Customer Service

 About

James H. Gilmore specializes in provoking executives to think more richly and constructively about growth and innovation. Combining imaginative business thinking with practical analytical tools - Jim excels at helping businesses conceive new ways of understanding customer needs and adding value in the marketplace. To direct new strategic thinking and foster greater corporate ingenuity, Jim leverages insightful frameworks drawn from his world-renowned expertise in three innovation disciplines:

First, Jim challenges organizations to think beyond goods and services as a means to overcome commoditization - and engage customers with truly new forms of output. His highly influential work, The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre & Every Business a Stage, now published in fifteen languages - literally wrote the book that spawned worldwide attention in experience design, experiential marketing, and customer experience management. Gilmore's thinking on the subject is unparalleled in terms of challenging businesses to explicitly create value in two customer currencies: the importance of their time and the desire to achieve personal transformations.

The second innovation area in which Jim assists businesses is in mass customizing products and processes. He is co-editor of Markets of One: Creating Customer-unique Value through Mass Customization, which addresses how to best pursue customized offerings in the face of increasingly fragmented markets. Jim challenges businesses to go beyond mere customer satisfaction (the gap between what customers expect and what they perceive they get) - to focus on the new innovation metric of customer sacrifice (the gap between what customers settle for and what they want exactly) in uncovering new innovation opportunities. Not limited in any way to consumer businesses, Gilmore argues this metric in particular holds the key to creating value in B2B relationships.

The third arena of innovation directs businesses to consider a whole new consumer sensibility in today's marketplace - namely the desire for authenticity. Jim's most recent book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, outlines how authenticity must be managed as a distinct business discipline if any innovation is to find a receptive buyer. Here Jim addresses ways for businesses to innovate that go beyond appeals to availability, cost, and quality - outlining the deliberate steps needed to gain the perception of authenticity and a reputation as real.

Jim has worked across a wide array of industries. His work in experience innovation has included helping a number of hospitality clients, technology firms, equipment manufacturers, restaurant chains, and medical care businesses. He has helped both goods manufacturers and service providers incorporate principles of mass customization into their operations. Jim's work in helping organizations render authenticity has primarily focused on travel and tourism, real estate development, and urban renewal.

Jim is co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP and a Batten Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. He is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an alumnus of Procter & Gamble, and before co-founding Strategic Horizons LLP was head of CSC Consulting's Process Innovation practice.

Nancy Giordano Speaker

Nancy Giordano

Futurist, Corporate Strategist & Speaker

 About

  • Talks about exponential technologies that are changing “everything,” and how business can thrive by adapting to them
  • Audiences learn to sense and synthesize future trends. Nancy provides a roadmap to those ready to build more relevant and sustainable solutions.
  • Singularity University guest lecturer, SXSW Panelist, Founder/CEO of Play Big Inc.
  • Past clients include: Nestle, Brinker International, The Coca Cola Company, Sprint, Acumen

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.

A 10-year TEDx curator (and world’s first licensee), Nancy is a Singularity University guest lecturer, frequent panelist at South by Southwest (SXSW), creator of the first Career Fair For the Future event for college + high school students, recent co-founder of the Femme Futurists Society (a growing collection of interviews with leading futurists around the world) and she remains an active strategist. She has served on the board of retail trade association GMDC, on the advisory council for both Retail Tomorrow and Future Frontiers, co-designed + produced a fintech conference to strengthen community banking and is helping move forward two brands poised to weave a more human, distributed internet: Holochain + Holo hosting.

Ranked #1 on Amazon for both Business Ethics and Organization Strategy, her first book, titled Leadering: The Ways Visionary Leaders Play Bigger, defines and makes visible the dynamic, inclusive and audacious mindset leaders must cultivate in order to stay relevant and help build a better next. A techno-optimist, Nancy is committed to advancing societal structures and the new mindsets necessary to effectively harness the significant technology innovations heading our way and ensure a safe and thriving future for us all.

Kian Gohar Speaker

Kian Gohar

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

 About

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.

A sought-after public speaker, Kian has been featured in global media like CNBC, Fortune, Fast Company, HBR, Axios, and NPR, and headlined marquee events like SXSW and the World Economic Forum. He speaks 5 languages, is a graduate of Harvard Business School, the London School of Economics, and Northwestern.

Vijay Govindarajan Speaker

Vijay Govindarajan

Speaker on strategy execution and global leadership, author of Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators.

 About

Vijay Govindarajan has been recently named the first Coxe Distinguished Professorship of Management at the Tuck School and founding director of Tuck's Center for Global Leadership. He is also the faculty co-director for Global Leadership 2020, Tuck's executive education program that focuses on global management and is taught on three continents.

For 25 years, Govindarajan has been advancing the field of strategy execution and advising senior executives in all industries on how to modify their organizations to achieve their strategic ambitions. Govindarajan focuses on teaching corporations to build breakthrough businesses while simultaneously sustaining excellence in their core business -- the subject of his new book, Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators.

Govindarajan currently writes a column for FastCompany.com. His articles have also appeared in journals such as Harvard Business Review, strategy+ business, California Management Review, and MIT Sloan Management Review. One of his papers was recognized as one of the ten most-often cited articles in the entire 40-year history of Academy of Management Journal. Govindarajan has published six books, including The Quest for Global Dominance.

As a popular keynote speaker, Vijan has been featured at many conferences such as the Business Week CEO Forum and the Economist Conference. Recognized as one of today's leading business strategists, Govindarajan has been named to a series of lists by influential publications, including: Outstanding Faculty in BusinessWeek's annual Guide to Best B-Schools; Top Five Most Respected Executive Coaches on Strategy by Forbes; and Eight Leading Executive Advisors by the Wall Street Journal Online.

Some of companies Vijay has advised include: AT&T, Boeing, British Telecom, Corning, Ford, The Gap, Hewlett-Packard, The Home Depot, IBM, J.P. Morgan Chase, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Sony, and Wal-Mart.

Anil Gupta Speaker

Anil Gupta

World-renowned expert on strategy, globalization, innovation and entrepreneurship.

 About

Dr. Anil K. Gupta is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on strategy, globalization and entrepreneurship. Ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s “most influential management thinkers,” he has been named by The Economist as one of the world's "superstars" for research on emerging markets. He is also the recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Educator Award from the Academy of Management for worldwide contribution to research, practice, and teaching on the topic of globalization.

Anil is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Expert Network, the Bretton Woods Committee set up by the World Bank and IMF to advise them on solutions to global challenges, and the CNBC Disruptor 50 Advisory Council. He is a frequent participant at the World Economic Forum’s annual summits in Davos as well as regional summits in China, India, and the Middle East.

A 2020 analysis conducted by Dutch researchers listed Anil among the top 1% of all scientists in the world across all fields of natural and social sciences. One of his papers is ranked #1 world-wide among the 20 most cited academic papers on “Managing the Multinational Subsidiary.” Another of his papers is ranked #4. Anil is one of only 3 professors in the world to have been elected by his peers as a Lifetime Fellow of the three most prestigious bodies in the field – Academy of Management, Strategic Management Society, and Academy of International Business, with a combined membership of over 25,000 scholars worldwide.

Anil is the coauthor of several highly acclaimed books including The Silk Road Rediscovered, Getting China and India Right, Global Strategies for Emerging Asia, The Quest for Global Dominance, Smart Globalization, and Global Strategy and Organization as well as over 70 papers in leading academic journals. Getting China and India Right received the 2009 Axiom Book Awards’ Silver Prize as one of the world’s two best books on globalization and was short-listed for the Asia Society’s Annual Bernard Schwartz Book Award.

Anil’s opinion pieces have been published in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Chief Executive Magazine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Daily Telegraph, China Daily, Economic Times, and other outlets. He has been interviewed by Harvard Business Review, Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes, BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Reuters TV, as well as other top-tier media.

Anil serves regularly as a speaker at major conferences and corporate forums in the US, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa – including the World Economic Forum, Economist conferences, Chief Executive magazine’s CEO2CEO Summits, and the Yale CEO Summit. He has also served as a consultant, keynote speaker and/or executive education faculty with some of the largest corporations in the world including GE, Wal-Mart, IBM, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, H-P, SAP, Microsoft, Schneider Electric, PPG Industries, Accenture, Marriott, First Data, Jacobs, ABB, Lockheed Martin, Indian Oil, Huawei, TeliaSonera, Metso, UPM-Kymmene, Cemex, and others.

Anil has served as an elected board member for several companies including Origene Technologies (a gene cloning company), Omega (NASDAQ), Vitalink (NYSE), NeoMagic (NASDAQ). He also serves on the advisory boards of the E-Ship Centre at IIT Bombay, and Asia Silicon Valley Connection. He has earlier served as an advisor to the US-India Business Council and is a Charter Member of TiE-DC.

Anil is the Michael Dingman Chair in Strategy, Globalization and Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of Business, The University of Maryland. He also serves as chairman, The China India Institute, a Washington DC-based research and consulting organization. He has earlier served as a Chaired Professor in Strategy at INSEAD and a visiting professor at Stanford University, Dartmouth College, and Tsinghua University, China. He received a doctorate from the Harvard Business School, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of
Management at Ahmedabad, and a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur.

Scott Halford Speaker

Scott Halford

Expert in the Areas of Achievement Psychology, which includes Brain-based Behavioral Science, Emotional Intelligence and Critical Thinking.

 About

  • Scott takes the complex topic of neuroscience and distills it into bite-sized morsels that anyone can digest. He makes neuroscience feel intuitive, and his enthusiasm for the topic is downright contagious.
  • Talks about: Activate Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Success & Emotional Intelligence: Success in Business and Beyond
  • Internationally renowned keynote speaker and the bestselling author of Activate Your Brain
  • Past clients include: General Electric, American Airlines, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, First Data, Medtronic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Centura Health, MillerCoors, Western Union

Scott Halford is an Emmy Award winning writer and producer, an engaging communicator and presenter and a long-time consultant to Fortune 500 executive teams. Scott’s expansive knowledge in the areas of achievement psychology, including brain-based behavioral science, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and influence, add richness and depth to his programs.

You will appreciate Scott’s wise and timely insights into the human experience. His captivating ability to tell stories with humor, wit, and depth transports his audiences to destinations they may have never been; physically, mentally or emotionally. Participants laugh and learn, and consistently praise the rich and rewarding learning experience.

Scott is an accredited and certified Emotional Intelligence Provider as well as an Advanced Certified Associate in Emergenetics®. He holds an Executive Master’s degree from the NeuroLeadership Institute.

As an author, Scott has two best-selling books: Be a Shortcut, based on emotional intelligence and influence; and Activate Your Brain, a Wall Street Journal best-selling book and winner of the Bronze Axiom award for best business book.

Scott is on faculty at General Electric’s John Welch Center of Leadership in Crotonville, NY; is a guest lecturer for the MBA program at the Daniels School of Business at the University of Denver; and is a Trustee for the Iliff School of Theology. Scott is Founder and Principal of Complete Intelligence, LLC.

Corporate clients span many industries and include General Electric, American Airlines, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, First Data, Medtronic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Centura Health, MillerCoors, Western Union and many more. Scott’s books are available on Amazon.com.

Gary Hamel Speaker

Gary Hamel

World-Renowned Speaker on Strategy and Innovation, Author of Leading the Revolution.

 About

  • One of the world’s most influential and iconoclastic business thinkers, Hamel has been on the faculty of the London Business School for more than 30 years and is the director of the Management Lab.
  • Talks about: Innovation from Everyone, Every day & Building an Evolutionary Advantage
  • Harvard Business Review author--the most reprinted in the its history
  • Ranked by The Wall Street Journal as the world’s most influential business thinker and is a fellow of the Strategic Management Society and of the World Economic Forum

Gary Hamel is one of the world’s most influential and iconoclastic business thinkers. He is a sought-after management speaker on the topics of strategy, leadership, innovation and change, who has worked with leading companies across the globe. Hamel has been on the faculty of the London Business School for more than 30 years and is the director of the Management Innovation eXchange.

Hamel has written 17 articles for the Harvard Business Review and is the most reprinted author in the Review’s history. His landmark books have been translated into more than 25 languages. His most recent best-sellers are The Future of Management and What Matters Now. In these volumes, Hamel presents an impassioned plea for reinventing management and lays out a practical blueprint for building organizations that are “fit for the future.”  Keep an eye for his upcoming book Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them (HBR Press) with an anticipated release date of early 2020.

Fortune magazine describes Hamel as “the world’s leading expert on business strategy,” and the Financial Times calls him a “management innovator without peer.” Hamel has been ranked by The Wall Street Journal as the world’s most influential business thinker and is a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society and of the World Economic Forum.

Hamel’s groundbreaking concepts such as “strategic intent,” “core competence,” “industry revolution,” and “management Innovation,” have changed the language and practice of management in organizations.

Sterling Hawkins Speaker

Sterling Hawkins

Keynote Speaker on Growth, Performance, Overcoming Adversity and Transformational Leadership

 About

Click Here to Watch Sterling's Virtual Presentation

  • Leading Speaker on Growth, Performance, Overcoming Adversity and Transformational Leadership
  • Talks about 5 Practices to Unlock Unstoppable Growth and Hunting Discomfort
  • Featured contributor in Forbes, Fast Company, The New York Times and Inc. Magazine
  • Past clients include: Energizer, Intel, Kraft Novartis, Samsung, United Airlines, XPrize

Sterling Hawkins is out to break the status quo on how we view discomfort in our professional and personal lives. As we continue to face unrelenting uncertainty and change, he is creating bold action and inspired energy by teaching leaders and their people how to use discomfort to their advantage. The essence lies in building the mental fortitude to break through the paralysis of fear and the unknown, and seize discomfort in order to transform it into a competitive advantage within ourselves and our organizations.

As an innovator, investor, author, and foremost expert on growth and transformation, he has worked with some of the largest companies in the world sharing his powerful #NoMatterWhat framework that is helping leaders and their people forge a path of unwavering determination and unstoppable progress. More than a framework for growth, #NoMatterWhat is quickly becoming a movement that is energizing workplace cultures, opening new opportunities and creating community and deeper collaboration among colleagues and leaders.

Sterling’s work has been featured in publications like Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, The New York Times and Forbes. The hundreds of thousands who have joined Sterling, find that all the unpredictability in the world is no match for their creativity, determination and inspiration to achieve even the most audacious goals, #NoMatterWhat is standing in their way.