About
Click here to receive your Customized List of the Best Speakers on Sales
Our Sales Speakers have used their knowledge to adapt and create actionable and engaging presentations on how organizations can pivot to embrace the opportunities presented by the pandemic.
Ranging from Virtual Keynotes to Fireside chats, all with interactive elements, let our Sales Speakers help your 2021 Sales Conference.
We work with some of the best Sales Speakers in the speaking world and asked them all the same question:
What is your number 1 sales tip?
Here’s how they answered:
Saying “yes” implies a course of positive action. The predictable expletive, “No!” can fill up our time and energy because saying “no” is
frequently a commitment to an unproductive struggle that reinforces helplessness and inertia.
Responding positively to problems is the prerequisite to overcoming bad things that occur so we can break down our challenges and move forward.
People thrive on challenges, and are the winners who get things done.
Scott McKain is a Dynamic Speaker on Innovation, Sales & Customer Service.
2. The 80/20 Rule – Tim Sanders
Some great advice we received from Tim Sanders, VP of Customer Insights for Upwork just after starting The Sweeney Agency:
“Don’t think about sales or closing deals, just position yourself so that whenever you can help someone you help them, without any expectations. 20% of the people you help you’ll never hear from again, but that won’t matter because you will certainly hear back from the other 80%. They will remember you and your incredible help and that will create such great relationships
that you will build both a great business and a great life.”
Tim Sanders is a renowned Communication and Leadership Speaker.
3. A Vision of the Future – Ryan Estis
Communicating compassionately, consistently, confidently and courageously is precisely what is required during a crisis. Our research has found that two of the biggest drivers of engagement and commitment from employees are confidence in their senior leadership and confidence in the future of the
organization.
Now is the time to model scenarios to create a long-term plan and vision for your business, fully aware that you will be agile enough to adapt when new information is available or the landscape suddenly changes.
Ryan Estis speaks on Business Performance, Leadership and Sales.
4. Be Indiana Jones – Sterling Hawkins
At the climax of Indiana Jones & The Holy Grail, the Nazis are turned to dust after selected a gem studded chalice they believe to be the Holy Grail. Indy chooses a simple wooden cup that is in fact the true Holy Grail.
In the context of business, most of us scramble to have the “right” message on social media or want to make things look a certain way. The same optics that make the false grail so beautiful.
This is a powerful lesson: the substance of something, is ultimately infinitely more important than what it looks like. Optics may present a short term gain but will always lose in the long run and at a macro level.
5. Ask Open-Ended Questions – Diana Kander
Your customers’ natural inclination is to be nice, not honest. Open-ended questions give your potential customers the option to respond very honestly and to fully explain the problems they’re
facing (that your product may or may not solve).
Ask leading questions that broadcast the answer you want to hear, such as:
- “Are you…”
- “Will you…”
- “Won’t you…”
- “Didn’t you…”
- “Can’t you…”
Diana Kander is an Entrepreneur, Author, and Speaker on Innovation.
Get in touch to book your next great sales speaker.
Simon J. Anderson
Founder of Venture Foresight, Futurist, Award-winning Author and Global Speaker on Trends & Technology.
About
Simon talks about the near future and how to recognize important trends and technologies that are reshaping industries like AI, Robots, and Automation.
Audiences learn specific actions and next steps that they can take right away to make their organizations more future-resilient.
Simon is the Founder of Venture Foresight, a firm dedicated to helping leaders recognize opportunities in emerging technologies and trends.
Past clients include: AT&T, American Heart Association, Michigan Bankers Association, Telekom Austria Group, TMW
About Simon J. Anderson - Founder of Venture Foresight, Futurist, Award-winning Author and Global Speaker on Trends & Technology:
Simon J. Anderson is an Applied Foresight speaker and consultant. He helps leaders and organizations be more future resilient - and has shared his compelling message with thousands of senior executives and other leaders in a variety of industries from coast to coast in the United States, as well as internationally. In 2013, he founded Venture Foresight, a company dedicated to helping leaders recognize opportunities in emerging technologies and trends. The world is changing faster than ever, and every industry is being transformed. Find out how Simon can help you spot the opportunities created by all this change before they become challenges.
Simon co-authored the 2014 Bellwether Award winning book Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow with fellow global futurist Jack Uldrich. With two new chapters and hundreds of updates, the 2015 “Updated & Expanded” edition broadens the focus to include new industries, insights, and advancements. Watch for Simon's upcoming book to be released Fall, 2019 - in progress with the working title Outrunning Automation: How to Create Value in a Fast-Changing World. This too will be a must-read!
As a key member of the international organization Communities of the Future, Simon works to promote and facilitate “future’s thinking’ in communities around the world. His work as a futurist also informed his roles as an advisor to several technology startups and a multinational educational non-profit organization.
Having traveled to more than 25 countries, Simon brings a global perspective to his work, which has been featured in numerous publications including the World Future Society’s monthly newsletter, “The Futurist” and the Austrian management magazine the “Hernsteiner.”
Simon and his wife Helena Cruz Sanchez live in Minneapolis, MN.
Rohit Bhargava
Expert on Marketing, Branding, Trends & Disruption, Innovation, Storytelling
About
Rohit talks about what it takes to bring more innovative thinking into your organization, and how leaders can harness the power of innovation to drive performance.
Audience participants will learn the five essential principles of leading transformation and building a team that sees the world differently.
Guest lecturer at Stanford and Wharton, Bestselling author of 6 books including, Non Obvious.
Past clients include: AT&T, Coca-Cola, Disney, Ford Motor Company, Prudential Financial, PwC, Under Armour
Click Here to Watch Rohit's Virtual Presentation
About Rohit Bhargava - Keynote Speaker on Trends, Innovation, Marketing, Storytelling and Diversity:
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.
The Non-Obvious Trends series that he first started as an online trend report and then turned into a book in 2015 became his signature publication, with annual editions for the next five years, and culminating in the international bestseller Non-Obvious Megatrends, which hit #1 on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and also the USA Today bestseller list. To date, the series has been read or shared by more than 1 million readers and won more than twenty international book awards including recognition by the Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Business Book of the Year and a Gold Medal in the Axiom Awards. His latest book, The Future Normal, co-authored with Henry Coutinho-Mason was released in March, 2023.
Outside of his consulting work, Rohit also teaches his popular signature course on storytelling and marketing at Georgetown University in Washington DC and has been invited to deliver guest lectures at many other prestigious schools including Stanford and Wharton. For the past 17 years, Rohit has also been writing his personal “Influential Marketing Blog” which has been featured in global media and named one of the top 25 marketing blogs in the world by AdAge magazine. He is regularly interviewed and featured as an expert commentator in global media including Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, and NPR. Rohit also writes a monthly column for GQ magazine in Brazil on technology and trends.
Thanks to his many years of sharing insights, Rohit has been recognized alongside visionary business leaders like Sir Richard Branson and Tom Peters as a “Top 100 Thought Leader in Trustworthy Business Behavior” and was named by global recruiting firm Korn Ferry as one of the “Most Influential South Asians In Media and Entertainment.”
On a personal level, Rohit is married and lives with his wife and two boys in the Washington DC area. He is a lifelong fan of anything having to do with the Olympics (he’s been to five so far and is really looking forward to Paris 2024!) and actively avoids anything having to do with cauliflower (yuck!). Outside of work, Rohit believes that the most entertaining and impactful job he will ever have is being a great dad and teaching his sons to be kind when no one expects it, curious about the things others take for granted, and confident enough to change the world.
Book Your Next Great Speaker in 5 Easy Steps
5 Tips to Book your Next Great Speaker
About
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.
Here's a quick guide to help you get started:
Find A Theme
Decide on a theme or topic for your event.
Going through a period of transition? Looking to shake up your creative? Building trust within your teams? We have great speakers on all of those topics.
Having trouble? Check out our IDEA GENERATOR for inspiration.
Get in Touch
Get in touch with your Event Date & Theme.
We will ask you some key questions to find the perfect speaker for your live or virtual event.
We pride ourselves on our personal touch. We are small team of dedicated professionals with over 20 years experience. When you call us, you speak to us directly... and quickly.
Shortlist
By now, we have a great idea of what you are looking for and will send you a shortlist of exceptional speakers.
Each speaker will be vetted with YOUR event in mind, along with our personal thoughts on how that speaker can inspire your attendees.
Let's talk
From the shortlist, you've narrowed it down to two great speakers. Let's discuss your needs to help make the final decision.
With over 20 years experience, you can trust us to provide all of the information you need to choose the right speaker.
We work with you to find the best format for your presentation, including live streams, Q&A sessions and even follow up programs to ensure maximum engagement for your key stakeholders.
The Details
We will facilitate a call with your leadership team & our speaker to do a deep dive into your business to make sure their presentation really hits home.
As trusted experts, you can rest easy knowing our experience will guide you every step of the way.
get in touch
Jim Carroll
Global Futurist, Keynote Speaker and Expert on Trends & Innovation
About
Jim Carroll is recognized as the world’s leading futurist, trends and innovation experts, with a massive global blue-chip client list. Over the last 30 years, more than 2 million people have shared his insight at his events. Jim’s global client list gives him a front-row seat to the high-velocity change that is occurring as disruption comes to take hold of every industry and every organization.
With that insight, and the customized research that he undertakes for every engagement, he helps to transform growth-oriented organizations into high-velocity innovation heroes!
Jim provides high-energy keynotes for audiences of 50 to 5,000, as well as intimate, customized strategic planning sessions for CEO/CxO, board, and senior management meetings. He has researched key innovation success factors for dozens of organizations and industries including life sciences, health care, insurance, automotive, manufacturing, agriculture, technology, education, government, consumer products, retail, banking, and countless others.
He has been invited in by NASA (twice) to share his insight on the future of the space industry; by Disney, to advise on new strategies for creativity and innovation; by the PGA of America for his thoughts on how to accelerate the golf industry; by Pfizer for insight on the future of medical science; by the World Bank for his thoughts on opportunities for economic development; and by the Wall Street Journal for his perspective on disruptive trends. Among countless others…
Jim Carroll is an author, with numerous books including Now What?, Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast;, Surviving the Information Age, The Future Belongs To Those Who Are Fast, Ready, Set, Done: and What I Learned From Frogs in Texas.
Geoff Colvin
Senior Editor-at-Large, Fortune and Best-selling Author Helping Leaders Confront Trends Driving Disruption
About
In this keynote, Geoff leverages nearly 40 years at Fortune to arm audiences with valuable perspectives on the trends driving business disruption, revealing how top leaders are confronting them right now.
Audiences leave with unparalleled insights in terms on how to win in business today through extraordinary leadership acting on the best intelligence it can find.
Geoff Colvin is one of business journalism’s sharpest and most respected commentators on leadership, management, globalization, government regulation, corporate governance, competition, the economy, the infotech revolution, human performance, and related issues. International bestselling author of Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
Past clients include: Boston Consulting Group, Certent, Coca-Cola, McRock Capital, Microsoft, Putnam Investments, and SEI
Click Here to Watch Geoff's Virtual Presentation
Experience counts in serious times. For four decades at Fortune, Geoff Colvin has covered the economic, political, technological, and competitive forces disrupting business and how top leaders and companies adapt and transform to win in spite of them. The big takeaway, Geoff says, is that winning companies and leaders summon the courage to act –they stop protecting the past and start inventing the future –and they confront this reality faster than the competition. As business leaders face their biggest challenge ever, Geoff Colvin is the voice of experience who shines a light –revealing a clearer path for an uncertain future. His columns and cover stories for Fortune have earned him millions of loyal fans. Many of them also hear him dispense critical business insights on the CBS Radio Network, where he reaches seven million listeners each week. Geoff’s bestselling books include The Upside of the Downturn, Talent is Overrated, and Humans are Underrated. A keynote speaker with compelling content, Geoff Colvin is also a brilliant panel moderator and interviewer.
As Fortune‘s senior editor-at-large, Geoff Colvin is now in his fourth decade at Fortune. He is one of business journalism’s sharpest and most respected commentators on leadership, management, globalization, government regulation, corporate governance, competition, the economy, the infotech revolution, human performance, and related issues.
In addition to his daily CBS Radio Network segments (he’s done over 15,000 since 1995), Geoff has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, Squawk Box, CBS This Morning, ABC's World News Tonight, CNN, PBS's Nightly Business Report, and dozens of other programs. He also served as anchor of Wall $treet Week with Fortune on PBS.
In addition to speaking, Geoff is also a brilliant panel moderator, emcee, and interviewer whose subjects have included Madeleine Albright, Ben Bernanke, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Bill Gates, Timothy Geithner, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Henry M. Paulson, Colin Powell, Robert Reich, Condoleezza Rice, Desmond Tutu, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Jack Welch, Janet Yellen and many others.
Geoff is a respected author whose groundbreaking international bestseller, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, has been published in a dozen languages. The Upside of the Downturn: Management Strategies for Difficult Times was named “Best Management Book of the Year” by Strategy + Business magazine. Geoff’s latest book is Humans are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will. It’s based on the idea in his wildly popular Fortune article “In the Future Will There Be Any Work Left for People to Do?” It looks at the trend of advancing technology performing ever more tasks better than people perform them, and the ways humans will create value for their organizations and their careers in the changing economy. The ideas he shares have profound implications for every business and industry.
A native of Vermillion, South Dakota, Geoff Colvin is an honors graduate of Harvard with a degree in economics and has an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
About
Click Here to Receive Your Customized List of Speaker Ideas
Virtual Events can:
- Reach a wider audience
- Offer a great experience at a much lower cost
- Create long term impact with recorded elements that allow for content to be watched over a period of time
- 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
A 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.
About
Get Your Customized List of Speaker Ideas
Simply fill out the form below and we will be in touch with a customized list of ideas for your event.
It's that simple.
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.
About
Talks about: Finding the Future – Tomorrow’s Emerging Trends, and How to Anticipate and Act on Them for Success
Garry works with municipal and investor owned utilities seeking to embrace the integration of new solutions ranging from new customer experiences to distributed energy resources.
Author of Designing Your Future, and The Age of Adaptive Experiences
Past clients include: Alliant Energy, Chartwell, Sunoco, Eversource, Haliburton, Xcel Energy, Reliant Energy, Duke University EDGE, Direct Energy Business, The Energy Authority (TEA), ElectriCities of North Carolina, American Public Power Association (APPA)
Garry Golden is a professionally trained futurist who writes, speaks, and consults about issues that will shape society and business in the 21st century. His uncanny sense of what will hit—and what won’t—can be seen in futurethink’s research and heard in his international keynotes and corporate leadership seminars. His insights on how to align talent development to coming industry and market transitions have been shared with and implemented by such organizations as the McGraw-Hill Companies, Goodyear, S&P, and Reliant Energy.
Garry serves as Adjunct Lecturer on the Future of Energy and Environment for the University of Houston. He has consulted on projects as diverse as the future of utilities; transportation and supply chains; food safety and health; financial services; and sustainable retail packaging. He is the co-author of the inspiring book Designing Your Future, and author of the upcoming book titled The Age of Adaptive Experiences.
Garry attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received his Futures Studies degree from the University of Houston. He is a past board member of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF) as well as an aspiring collector of street art (which will likely be huge in the year 2040.) If left to his own devices at a museum gift shop, odds are a micro-machine or geological piece will be finding itself a future home.
Ron Insana
CNBC Senior Analyst & Contributor, Trailblazing Financial Journalist, Best-Selling Author and Financial Industry Expert
About
Ron Insana leans on more than three decades of covering business and economic news to connect the dots to paint a picture of the economic future for business
Audiences leave powerful insights into the U.S. and global economies and the political, social, technological, and market forces that are driving them.
Ron Insana is a financial journalist, CEO of Insana Capital Partners, best-selling author, and highly-regarded speaker on domestic and global economics, financial markets, and economic policy issues
Past clients include: Adecco. Deltek, Xerox Corporation, Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Cobank.
Click Here to Watch Ron's Virtual Presentation
Business leaders and financial professionals look to Ron Insana for his analysis of the most pressing economic and financial markets issues of the day. Ron is a pioneer in television financial news reporting. He is currently senior analyst and commentator at CNBC and also hosts The Market Score Board Report, a daily nationally syndicated radio program. Ron is cofounder and CEO of Contrast Capital Partners, a firm catering to the needs of the investment advisor community. He is also founder and CEO of The Insana Entertainment Group, a film and TV production company. Ron is author of four books on investing and reading the financial markets. In his speeches, Ron offers valuable insights on the intersection of Wall Street, Main Street, and Washington. He translates market signals and political maneuvers into actionable information his audience can use to navigate change, protect what they have, and spot fresh opportunities.
Ron’s career in financial reporting was a total accident. He had graduated from college with a degree in film production when a producer friend at the Financial News Network hired him on as a freelance producer in 1984. FNN was the first television network devoted exclusively to financial news. One day in 1985 the network’s only two anchors got sick on the same day and Ron found himself on the air for a full eight-hour shift. With that, Ron’s financial broadcasting career was born. When the
Financial News Network merged with CNBC in 1991, Ron became a regular anchor there and a frequent presence on other NBC News shows.
Ron was named one of the “Top 100 Business News Journalists of the 20th Century” and was nominated for a news and documentary Emmy for his role in NBC’s coverage of 9/11.
His four books on Wall Street, include: TrendWatching: Don't Be Fooled by the Next Investment Fad, Mania, or Bubble; The Message of the Markets: How Financial Markets Foretell the Future--and How You Can Profit from Their Guidance; Traders' Tales: A Chronicle of Wall Street Myths, Legends, and Outright Lies; and How to Make a Fortune from the Biggest Bailout in U.S. History: A Guide to the 7 Greatest Bargains from Main Street to Wall Street.
Ron is a highly regarded lecturer on domestic and global economics, financial markets, and economic policy issues. Ron graduated with honors from California State University at Northridge.
About
Daniel Levine is an international social trends expert with an uncanny ability to help consumer-oriented brands and businesses be more relevant, innovative and profitable.
Audiences leave inspired by an understanding of the trends that are shaping the way consumers shop and live in real time, and looking at the world in which you live and work in a smart new way.
Daniel is an award-winning speaker and presenter, and the Executive Director of the Avant-Guide Institute (AGI) where he is the hands-on leader of a huge international team of trend-hunters.
Past clients include: Deutsche Telekom AG, Satchi & Satchi, NBC, HBO, Mastercard and South African Tourism.
Daniel Levine is an international social trends expert with an uncanny ability to help consumer-oriented brands and businesses be more relevant, innovative and profitable.
A well-known expert on both travel marketing and global cultural trends, Daniel Levine is the author of over a dozen best-selling travel-related books, he is regularly featured in newspapers and magazines worldwide, and he is often on television and radio as trends expert. For over a decade Daniel has been the Executive Director of the Avant-Guide Institute (AGI) where he is the hands-on leader of a huge international team of trend-hunters
- over 10,000 spotters who track the latest ideas and experiences from around the globe.
A wide variety of businesses seek out Daniel when looking to understand the impact of forthcoming social and cultural trends and to hip
up their image. MasterCard selected Daniel to be the spokesperson of a major television campaign to reach stylish spenders. South African Tourism chose Daniel to be the face of a major campaign to attract business tourism. Deutsche Telekom AG asked Daniel to help them understand what's happening in the world of tourism, restaurants, nightlife and retail. Samsonite teamed with Daniel when launching their style-driven Black Label line. Saatchi & Saatchi tapped Daniel to be the judge of their first ever Lovemarks holiday contest to help give it credible cool. Both HBO and NBC turned to Daniel when they needed an exceptionally well-connected expert to produce international segments for primetime lifestyle shows.
Daniel is an award-winning speaker and presenter who is known for delivering highly praised keynotes for select major businesses and conferences worldwide, including World Travel Market (England), Mandarin Oriental Hotels (Worldwide), BrandMarker (Europe), International Luxury Market (France), Jumeirah (Dubai), EIBTM and others.
While Daniel's presentations are inspirational and packed with captivating visuals, the focus is on the practical. Using inspirational and enlightening examples of where culture is headed, he utilizes the full resources of the Avant-Guide Institute to demonstrate how creative businesses from around the world are reaping major benefits by responding to real-world trends in innovative new ways. Then he demonstrates how you too can immediately take advantage of these same trends to transcend market challenges, win customers and dramatically increase sales.
Karl Lillrud
Best-selling author and entrepreneur – an ecommerce expert who has helped over 1000 ecommerce stores to increase their conversion and marketgrowth
About
Karl Lillrud is known as one of the world's TOP 30 Professional Speakers by Global gurus, Ecommerce and Online Business experts, generating 300% increased sales. Enabling companies to transform into the world of Digital Commerce.
The world's top speaker on future innovation and leadership for business growth online, Karl Lillrud educates your audience on subjects related to business growth, online, e-commerce, consumer behavior, internet-based business, and online strategies.
With extensive experience from Unicorn Start-ups to Fortune 500 companies in multiple industries i.e. from Internet-based, E-Commerce, Retail, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, Government, Telecom, Bank and finance, Media and more.
As a speaker, Karl empowers his audience by sharing his passion and experience. He makes sure that the audience leaves the event with new knowledge, methods, and tools that they can apply in their environment that make their companies grow faster.
Karl Lillrud is a best-selling author of 6 books, two times TEDx speaker. Has been honored as one of the world’s top 50 ecommerce experts and world's top 30 ecommerce influencers.
He is also named as one of the world's top 50 speakers on online growth and ecommerce, and on the Top 30 list of the best Business coaches.
With a burning interest in Digital Commerce, the growth of global e-commerce and retail, Karl started to study customer behavior and customer psychology to understand the reasoning between a paying customer and a window shopper. But also, to understand why e-commerce conversion is around 3% as compared to retail conversion of around 57%.
He started his first business at age 16, today 25 years later he helps organizations like Volvo, H&M, Spotify business, AstraZeneca, 3, Tele2, TUI and many more to scale their business, convert bottlenecks to opportunities and build both internal and external success factors.
Karl helped over 1000 e-commerce stores increase their conversion and market growth worldwide and to operate more efficiently, where he generates over 300% in increased conversion.
Greg Lindsay
Speaker and Author on the Future of Travel, Technology, and Urban Development
About
Greg talks about how cities‐as‐a‐service are changing how we live, work, move, and more – and the new real estate, services, and business model opportunities this creates.
Audiences leave with an understanding of how to recognize the changes technology and innovation have brought to urban environments and how to leverage the opportunities these disruptions have created.
Greg Lindsay is a journalist, urbanist, futurist, and speaker, director of applied research at NewCities and director of strategy at its mobility offshoot CoMotion. He is also a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Foresight, Strategy, and Risks Initiative, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, and co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next.
Past clients include: Intel, Samsung, Starbucks, Audi, Chrysler, Hyundai, Tishman Speyer, British Land, André Balazs Properties, Emaar, and Expo 2020.
Greg Lindsay is a journalist, urbanist, futurist, and speaker. He is the director of applied research at NewCities and director of strategy at its mobility offshoot CoMotion. He is also a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Foresight, Strategy, and Risks Initiative, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, and co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next.
His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review, The Financial Times, McKinsey Quarterly, Inc., The Atlantic, Quartz, The New Republic, Politico, The Economist Group, The World Economic Forum, The Nikkei Asian Review, European Management Journal, World Policy Journal, Next City, Time, Wired, New York, Slate, Marie Claire Italia, Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, and Departures. He was previously a contributing writer for Fortune and Fast Company, and an editor-at-large for Advertising Age.
Greg speaks frequently about globalization, innovation, and the future of cities - most recently at Sandia National Laboratories, the U.K. Treasury, the OECD, Harvard Business School, the MIT Media Lab, Deloitte, and McKinsey. His work with Studio Gang Architects on the future of suburbia was displayed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2012. His work has also been displayed at the 15th and 16th Venice Architecture Biennales, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, and Habitat III. He sits on the board of Aerial Futures, and is guest curator of the 2018 and 2019 editions of reSITE.
He’s been cited as an expert on the future of travel, technology and urbanism by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, USA Today, CNN, NPR, and the BBC. He’s a partner at FutureMap, a geo-strategic advisory firm based in Singapore, and has advised Intel, Samsung, Starbucks, Audi, Chrysler, Hyundai, Tishman Speyer, British Land, André Balazs Properties, Emaar, and Expo 2020, among many other organizations. He was the inaugural urbanist-in-residence at URBAN-X — BMW MINI’s urban tech accelerator.
Greg is a two-time Jeopardy! champion (and the only human to go undefeated against IBM’s Watson). He lives in Montréal with his wife Sophie Donelson and their two children.
Viktor Mayer-Schonberger
Oxford Professor & Speaker on Governance of Information and Cyber Security
About
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute of Oxford University and co-author of the international best-sellers Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data, and Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. He is among our leading thinkers on trends, and the current and future ways that Big Data, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence are changing the face of everything from product development and scientific discovery, to human learning and health care, transportation, retail, finance and marketing.
An internationally acclaimed and sought-after keynote speaker, Mayer-Schönberger has addressed a wide spectrum of audiences, from high-level corporate board retreats to large audience conventions, including such companies as IBM, SAP, Microsoft, Roche, Oracle, Haier and Huawei, professional organizations such as the ITU, the IAPP, and the AACC.
With a media presence that straddles the international print media, such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Guardian, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, El Pais, or Le Monde, international broadcast media such as CNN, BCC, PBS or CCTV, and online media such as Ars Technica, Daily Kos, and Wired, Mayer-Schönberger brings special recognition to events where he speaks.
Jacob Morgan
4x Best-selling Author, Keynote Speaker, Futurist, and Co-founder of The Future of Work University
About
Jacob talks about why employee experience is the next big area of investment, what the top companies are doing – and how you can go about creating an Experiential Organization.
Audiences leave understanding what some of the world’s most forward thinking organizations are doing and how leaders can create strategies to design and create employee experiences based around three environments: culture, technology, and the physical workspace.
Jacob Morgan is a trained futurist and one of the world’s leading authorities on the leadership, employee experience - and the future of work. He is a best selling author of 4 books on leadership.
Past clients include: Unilever, Cisco, MasterCard, Nestle, Best Buy, SAP, KPMG, T-Mobile, and Schneider Electric.
Jacob Morgan is a trained futurist and one of the world’s leading authorities on the leadership, employee experience - and the future of work. He speaks in front of tens of thousands of people each year and his content is seen over a million times a year.
After graduating with honours in business management economics and psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz, Jacob was excited to join the corporate world. At his first job he was told that he’d be travelling the country, meeting with executives and entrepreneurs - and doing all sorts of exciting work. A few months in, he was stuck doing data entry, cold calling - and PowerPoint presentations. One day the CEO came out of his nice corner office, handed Jacob a $10 bill and said “I’m late for a meeting, go grab me a cup of coffee - and get something for yourself as well.” That was the last corporate job he ever had.
Jacob is the best-selling author of four books: The Future Leader (2020), The Employee Experience Advantage (2017), The Future of Work (2014), and The Collaborative Organization (2012). He speaks at over 50 conferences a year including TED Academy - which is one of the largest TED events in the world. In addition, Jacob provides advisory and thought leadership services to various organizations around the world.
Jacob created “The Future If” a global community of business leaders, authors and futurists - who explore what our future can look like IF certain technologies, ideas, approaches and trends actually happen. The community looks at everything from AI and automation to leadership and management practices to augmented reality and virtual reality, the 4th industrial revolution - and everything in between.
His work has been endorsed by the CEOs of: Unilever, Cisco, MasterCard, Nestle, Best Buy, SAP, KPMG, T-Mobile, Schneider Electric - and many others.
In addition, Jacob hosts The Future of Work Podcast - a weekly show where he speaks with senior executives, authors, and business leaders about how the world of work is changing. His Youtube channel explores the latest concepts and ideas around the future of work - with inspiring and educational 2-3 minute videos.
He has also contributed to - and been cited in publications such as Cosmopolitan, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, Glamour, the MIT Sloan Management Review, USA Today - and The Harvard Business Review.
About
Erica talks about new and emerging trends in the global economy and what these mean for your business.
Audiences leave understanding the trends affecting their organization and how to leverage those changes for growth.
Erica is the Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of The Future Hunters, one of the world’s leading futurist consulting firms and TEDx Speaker.
Past clients include: Human x Design Conference, L’Oreal, Mastercard, Razor Technologies, BNP Paribas
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.
About
Peter Ricchiuti (Ri-Chooty) is clear, compelling, relevant, and entertaining (you know, exactly what you don’t expect from an economic speaker). He is the business professor you wish you had back in college. He teaches at Tulane University and has received numerous awards. In a competition, Peter’s teaching delivery skills placed him atop of entries from more than 400 universities representing 43 countries. He has been featured in/on The Wall Street Journal, BARRON’s, The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC and The Nightly Business Report.
Peter has addressed more than 1,200 organizations in 47 states and numerous countries. This includes a wide range of audiences including: nuns, corporate executives, financial planners, RV dealers, insurance associations, tin can manufacturers, waterpark owners and NFL players. He is often booked for repeat engagements and his speeches focus on what trends are ahead for the economy - and what the financial markets are telling us about the outlook for your particular industry or profession.
Peter began his career at the investment firm of Kidder Peabody & Co in Boston - and later managed more than $3 billion as the Chief Investment Officer for the State of Louisiana. He is the host of a popular weekly business show on NPR in New Orleans. Peter is a husband, father, author, media personality (and a darn good public speaker) who has attended baseball games in all 30 current major league ballparks.
Chris Riddell
Award winning & Industry recognised human futurist, forensic optimist and energising catalyst..
About
Click Here to Watch Chris's Virtual Presentation
Chris Riddell is an award-winning and industry recognised human futurist, forensic optimist and energising catalyst.
In the chaotic state of our world today, there’s never been a more critical time for optimism with rigour. The uncertainty, unpredictability and sheer pace of our hyper-connected world is Chris’ passion—and life’s work. His obsession with making sense of the discomfort and challenges of this rapidly changing landscape has powered his thinking for over 15 years.
Equally potent across myriad industries, Chris’ insight and expertise has benefitted trail-blazing start-ups, government bodies, and Fortune 500 companies. As a renowned strategist and senior business advisor, Chris has worked globally with some of the biggest and most influential brands and businesses on the planet including Jaguar Land Rover, Facebook, Australia Federal Police, Ebay, Vodafone and Macquarie Bank. His intuitive and instinctive approach to tracking global patterns and unlocking opportunities has had significant impact on how businesses—and humans—can take purposeful steps towards creating real and lasting positive impact. And making an impact is what Chris is arguably most famous for…because being in a room with Chris Riddell is an immersive and transformational experience. A combination of rigorously detailed insights delivered with unparalleled enthusiasm, and dynamic screen content… all wrapped up in sensational showmanship—any amount of time spent with Chris is a wildly entertaining and deeply revolutionary experience.
His unique skill of taking what we know—and fear—about our world and encouraging changes in attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and mindsets—is critical to business and social transformation. No sector, subject or stone is left unturned in his quest to make sense of the challenging and disrupted world of ‘the future’.
This is the power of the Chris Riddell experience. It’s real… relatable… relevant… and revelatory.
Jeremy Rifkin
Futurist, Best-selling Author and Speaker on Economic Changes & Trends, Renewable Energy Transition & Green Economy
About
Jeremy Rifkin is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political and geopolitical advisor and activist. Rifkin is the author of 20 best-selling books about the impact of scientific and technological changes and trends on the economy, the workforce, society and the environment. The books have been translated into more than 35 languages. His most recent books include the international best-sellers, The Zero Marginal Cost Society (2014), The Third Industrial Revolution (2011), The Empathic Civilization (2010), The European Dream (2004), The Hydrogen Economy (2002), The Age of Access (2000), The Biotech Century (1998), and The End of Work (1995). His latest book was released in the U.S. on 10-September-2019: The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth (St. Martin's Press). The German, French, Italian and Spanish translations are expected in October - followed by Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other translations into the new year.
Jeremy Rifkin has been an advisor to the leadership of the European Union since 2000. He has advised three presidents of the European Commission: Romano Prodi, Jose Manuel Barroso and the current President, Jean-Claude Juncker - as well as the European Parliament, and numerous EU heads of state, including Germany's Angela Merkel, on the ushering in of a smart green Third Industrial Revolution economy.
Mr. Rifkin’s New York Times bestselling book, The Third Industrial Revolution, provided the blueprint for the economic transition to a post-carbon ecological society across the EU. According to The European Energy Review, "perhaps no other author or thinker has had more influence on the EU's ambitious climate and energy policy than the famous American 'visionary' Jeremy Rifkin." In the words of Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, Jeremy Rifkin "is the economic and ecological worldwide ambassador of the energy transition… Rifkin presents a grand scenario for the future: a visionary approach unlike anyone has dared to put forward in the last fifty years that will boost our thinking and help with our orientation.”
Mr. Rifkin is also advising the leadership of the Peoples Republic of China on the build out and scale up of the Internet Plus Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure - to usher in a sustainable low-carbon economy. The Huffington Post reported from Beijing on October 29th 2015 that "Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has not only read Jeremy Rifkin's book, The Third Industrial Revolution, and taken it to heart - he and his colleagues have also made it the core of the country's thirteenth Five-Year Plan..." The Huffington Post goes on to say that "this blueprint for China's future signals the most momentous shift in direction since the death of Mao and the advent of Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up in 1978."
Mr. Rifkin is President of the TIR Consulting Group, LLC - comprising many of the leading renewable energy companies, electricity transmission companies, engineering companies, construction companies, architectural firms, ICT and electronics companies, transport and logistics companies, advanced manufacturing companies, and economic modelers.
Mr. Rifkin is ranked 123 in the WorldPost/HuffingtonPost 2015 global survey of "The World's Most Influential Voices." Mr. Rifkin is also listed among the top 10 most influential economic thinkers in the survey. The survey was prepared at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - and used collective intelligence to correlate the rankings.
Since 1995, Rifkin has lectured at the Wharton School’s Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania - where he instructs CEOs and senior management on transitioning their business operations into sustainable economies.
Michael Rogers
Author, journalist and futurist on future trends and the economy.
About
Michael talks about new efficiencies and surprising new intelligent services that will change the very nature of work and challenge us to think differently about technology & innovation.
Audiences leave with inspired with ideas on how technology and innovation can help leaders identify potential new products, new customers and new challenges.
Michael Rogers is a best-selling author, technology pioneer and futurist, who most recently served as futurist-in-residence for The New York Times.
Past clients include: Coca Cola, Chanel, Discover, Pfizer, Oracle, Prudential and Shell.
Michael Rogers is a best-selling author, technology pioneer and futurist, who most recently served as futurist-in-residence for The New York Times. He has worked with companies ranging from FedEx, Boeing and NBC Universal to Microsoft, Pfizer and Siemens, focusing on how companies can think about the future in useful ways. He speaks to audiences worldwide and is a regular guest on radio and television.
Rogers began his career as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. He co-founded Outside magazine and then launched Newsweek’s technology column, winning numerous journalism awards. For ten years he was vice president of The Washington Post Company's new media division, leading both the newspaper and Newsweek into the new century and earning patents for multimedia technology. He is also a best-selling novelist whose books have been published worldwide, chosen for the Book-of-the-Month club and optioned for film.
Rogers studied physics and creative writing at Stanford University, with additional studies in finance and management at the Stanford Business School Executive Program. He lives in New York City and is currently working on book and television projects.
John Sanei
Best-selling Author, Futurist & Keynote Speaker with a passion for psychology & technology
About
John Sanei is a world-renowned keynote speaker, futures strategist, lecturer, best-selling author, and your guide to future trends and visionary leadership.
With a knack for sharing knowledge and creating connections, John’s path lies at the intersection of human science, neuroscience, quantum technology, futurism, and business strategy. He decodes future trends, ignites ideas, connects with crowds and leaves a empowering perspective that lasts long after he’s left the stage.
John’s keynote talks and masterclasses have taken him around the world and earned global recognition. He is Africa’s first Singularity University Faculty Member, a lecturer
at Duke Corporate Education, and an Associate Partner at the Copenhagen Institute or Futures Studies.
John stays on top of future trends by publishing a new book every year and his fifth book, Who Do We Become? was published in July 2022. When he’s not inspiring audiences, John’s convincing his friends, family and fans to adopt abandoned dogs. You can find John on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or tune in to his critically acclaimed podcast - The Expansive Podcast.
Ross Shafer
Emmy Award-Winning Network Talk Show Host, Best-selling Author, and Hilarious Change Expert
About
Ross talks about how professional and personal success follows from one's commitment to being accountable--when we are the architect of our own life, we will have more time, money and happiness.
Audiences learn that they can no longer blame “government regulation,” “the economy” or “the competition” – or “changes in management" -- for their discontent. Focus on what you can control. Personal growth and opportunity always emerge from realizing that nobody cares more about your career and success than YOU do. Be accountable – and you won’t have to wait for anybody to elevate your position in work and life.
6-time Emmy Award Winning TV host, comedian, and writer; Author of 9 Business Books & Entrepreneur
Past clients include: ACE Hardware, Aflac, Hilton Hotels, Hyundai, iPipeline
Click Here to Watch Ross' Virtual Presentation
Six-Time Emmy Award-Winning Comedian, Network TV Host and Best-Selling Business Author of 10 Books on Reinvention and Resilience.
With more than 35 years of experience in show business and media, the six-time Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer, and former network TV host Ross Shafer is also a man who simultaneously began his business career at the age of 21. He subsequently rescued 23 different companies from bankruptcy and resold them.
Ross’s peculiar combination of experience led to his writing (10) popular business books (Nobody Moved Your Cheese, The Customer Shouts Back, Grab More Market Share, Customer Empathy, Are You Relevant? Absolutely Necessary, Behave Like a Startup, Success: It’s on You, No More Customer Friction, and his latest (2021) book on resilience, titled RATTLED).
Ross has spoken and consulted for 3,000+ clients including Apple, Microsoft, Chrysler, Adobe, MetLife, Hyundai, Hilton Worldwide, AT&T, Marriott, FedEx, and Toyota to name a few. His unique insights on raising customer scores became a game changer when he dismissed the notion of “WOW-ing the Customer.” Instead, he blamed low scores on the devastating impact of the POW moments (customer gut-punches by your failures). According to Ross’s research and client case studies, POWs can erase the WOW effect and cause customers to abandon a business forever. Ross believes, “The pandemic taught us we don’t have to over-delight everyone. We just need to make fewer blunders. Don’t disappoint customers and your customer scores will soar.” Ross Shafer offers entertaining and eye-opening perspectives for individuals and organizations to achieve resilience by paying attention to the evolving influences around them.
Peter Sheahan
About Peter Sheahan – Bestselling Author on Innovation & Accelerating Growth
About
Talks about accelerating growth through transformation that outpaces the external changes that are constant in the business environment.
Audiences learn how to increase operational and organizational agility by compressing the time between becoming aware of necessary changes to be competitive, and implementing them.
Founder of the global business growth consultancy, Karrikins Group, with employees in 23 cities across 7 countries
Past clients include: AT&T, Apple, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo
Click Here to Watch Peter's Virtual Video
About Peter Sheahan - Bestselling Author on Innovation & Accelerating Growth:
Having grown his own companies by accelerating the growth and transformation for clients that include: Apple; Chick-fil-A; DeBeers; and AT&T — Peter will provoke you to get bigger, by getting better! When leaders are true to their purpose, they gravitate towards doing work that matters and solving higher-order problems. The journey to get there requires that they have the courage to tell themselves the truth, take intelligent risks, and assume ownership for driving the alignment necessary to build an organization which behaves in ways worthy of its leadership position.
In being true to his own ambitions and relentless pursuit of growth, Peter has published seven books, built three global companies and delivered more than 2,500 presentations in 40+ countries. Today he and his team at Karrikins Group are focused exclusively on inspiring leaders to do the hard work required to accelerate growth and transformation.
About
Meet Jay Shetty the British-born, former monk & award-winning digital strategist turned captivating host, storyteller and viral trend content creator. Since launching his video channel in 2016, Jay’s viral wisdom videos have garnered over 4 billion views and he has gained over 25 million social media followers globally.
Jay was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2017 for being a game-changer and influencer in the world of Media. Jay aims to deliver educational and insightful content in an entertaining, uplifting format -- with the mission of making wisdom go viral. His inspirational video reach is known to skyrocket upwards of 100 million views within days of launch. He has created content for and partnered with the likes of Snapchat & Facebook and serves on the National Geographic Chasing Genius Council.
After meeting a monk at the age of 18, Jay sought to redefine personal success. He was inspired by a life of service, impact and passion as opposed to money, fame and power. After graduating with a first-class BSc (Hons) Degree in Behavioral Science from Cass Business School, he turned down lucrative job offers from prestigious companies, moved to India and lived as a monk. He traded his suits for robes, shaved his head, slept on the floor and lived out of a gym locker. Jay meditated for 4-8 hours a day and studied ancient philosophy. Half the day was spent on personal growth and the other on helping others. This included everything from personal and collective meditation, study and reflection to teaching and philanthropy. For three years, Jay helped build sustainable villages, food programs distributing over one million meals per day and coached Millennials throughout India and Europe.
Jay received a proposal from his guru who believed he could share what he had learnt if he left the path. Jay moved back to London with his parents, in massive debt with no recognizable skills on his resume. Fortunately, his friends, now working for the largest organizations in the world yet experiencing tremendous stress and pressure, invited Jay to coach them on well-being, purpose and mindfulness. Jay began sharing his experiences as a monk in the world's largest corporations including EY and Nasdaq.
Driven by a desire to share his learnings with as many people as possible, he re-engaged with the world and dove head first into learning about the tools and techniques that might allow knowledge to spread as fast as entertainment. He joined Accenture, helping them build their digital division while learning about the forces shaping the new digital landscape. He quickly became their #1 social media influencer, having advised over 150 executives on their personal brands, which provided a very broad base with which to test theories. He leveraged his findings to launch his own Facebook page in 2016.
Jay’s videos were spotted by Arianna Huffington, who asked him to create a series for HuffPost. His first four videos hit over 50 million views -- the highest HuffPost had ever received. Arianna invited Jay to New York to be a Senior Host & Producer for HuffPost Live where he created #FollowTheReader. The Facebook Live Daily Talk Show, featuring authors and life changing ideas, became #1 for audience engagement -- with themes that include passion, purpose, mindfulness, resilience, failure and communication.
These days, Jay continues to expand his brand through his viral video agency, group coaching & workshops. He's also been diligently working on his forthcoming book Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day (Simon & Schuster) to be released on 14-April-2020. Mark your calendars for this highly anticipated work.
Anders Sorman-Nilsson
Author of Thinque Funky, Speaks on Future Thinking, Innovation, and Generational Trends
About
Anders talks about what the world will look like post-COVID-19, and how organizations can prepare themselves for a world facing new technologies, disruptive innovation and new customer demands.
Audiences leave inspired by fascinating case studies and best practices from smart brands that understand how intelligent technologies can amplify customer service, create compelling customer experiences, remove friction and transform our lives.
Anders Sörman-Nilsson (LLB / EMBA) is a global futurist and innovation strategist who helps leaders decode trends, decipher what’s next and turn provocative questions into proactive strategies.
Past clients include: Apple, Cisco, Mercedes Benz, Hilton, SAP, Gartner and Macquarie Bank.
Click Here to Watch Anders' Virtual Presentation
Anders Sörman-Nilsson (LLB / EMBA) is a global futurist and innovation strategist who helps leaders decode trends, decipher what’s next and turn provocative questions into proactive strategies. With an average of 240 international travel days a year, Anders’ view is that the future and the now are converging in a city or start-up near you, giving the curious, the creative and the courageous a competitive and sustainable edge. At the same time, that same future contains fearsome forecasts for futurephobes.
This Swedish-Australian futurist has shared stage with Hillary Clinton, Nobel Laureates, and European and Australian heads of state. He is an active member of TEDGlobal, has keynoted at TEDx in the United States and Australia, was nominated to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders in 2015, and was the keynote speaker at the G20’s Y20 Summit in Australia.
His presentations are meticulously researched, highly energetic and always fascinating with content tailored to the audience, which is why clients like Apple, Cisco, Mercedes Benz, Hilton, SAP, Gartner and Macquarie Bank have turned to Anders over the years to help them turn research into foresight and business impact.
Anders' thought leadership has been featured in international media like Monocle, Business Insider, Sky News Business, Financial Review, CIO Magazine and Boss. He is the author of the books Seamless: a hero's journey of digital disruption, adaptation and human transformation (Wiley, 2017), Digilogue: how to win the digital minds and analogue hearts of tomorrow's customers (Wiley, 2013) and Thinque Funky: Upgrade Your Thinking (Thinque, 2009).
Jack Uldrich
Global futurist, sought-after business speaker on technology and trends.
About
No one can predict the future, but Jack Uldrich can help you prepare for it. Jack is a global futurist, speaker, and author of 13 books, including award-winning best sellers, who helps organizations gain the crucial foresight they need to create a successful future. His talks land at the intersection of advancements in technology, change management and leadership and are styled to educate, inspire and entertain.
Jack speaks over 50 times a year especially on the transformation of finance, health care, agriculture, education, energy, retail and manufacturing. He argues that creativity and action are more powerful and versatile than knowledge. He professes the transformational principles of unlearning, or freeing yourself from obsolete knowledge and assumptions, as a strategy to survive and thrive in an era of unparalleled change.
Jack is a former naval intelligence officer, Defense Department strategic planning official and served as the director of the Office of Strategic and Long-Range Planning under Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.
Jack is inspired by the role he is meant to play to help businesses pivot toward a new future. The publishing arm of Fast Company (Greenleaf Book Group) secured him to write two books in 2020 about the impact of the pandemic: Business as Unusual and The Rise of Generation RE. Jack’s remarks are always customized for your industry and speak to your audience’s particular issues and concerns.
About
Jared is Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer of The Future Hunters, one of the world’s leading futurist consulting firms. He looks at emerging global trends – and helps identify the strategic implications (the “So what?”) of those trends for several of the most influential Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and public sector clients. His work is industry-agnostic, and covers trend activity in the realms of science & technology, economics, politics, demographics and environmental issues.
Jared’s programs draw upon his extensive experience to:
- Distinguish long-term trends from fads
- Contextualize the future for audiences
- Help people identify profit opportunities that lie ahead
- Get people thinking in entirely new ways
Jared is past Chairman of the Board of the World Future Society, the world’s preeminent futurist industry group. He has also served on American Express OPEN’s Digital Advisory Board and the Young Luxury Marketers’ Council. He frequently speaks about future trends to corporate audiences, and has keynoted many prominent industry conferences. Jared has delivered international presentations in Australia, Hong Kong, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Morocco, The Netherlands, Turkey, Poland and Canada. His remarks have been excerpted in online media including Forbes and PR Week.
Jared holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester, and an M.B.A. from the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester.
About
Edith Yeung is a venture capitalist, technology executive, and a China Internet expert. She is also the author and creator of the China Internet Report, an annual report on China technology trends that is widely popular among investors and corporate executives.
Selected by Inc Magazine as one of the Silicon Valley investors you must know, Yeung is a partner at 500 Startups - the world’s most active early seed investor. She has invested in over 40 mobile, AI and blockchain startups including Silk Labs (acquired by Apple), Fleksy (acquired by Pinterest), Human (acquired by Mapbox), AISense , DayDayCook, AppOnBoard, Hooked, Oasis, Stellar, Solana, CoCos-BCX, and many more.
Before 500, Edith was previously a GM at Dolphin Browser, a Sequoia-backed mobile browser with over 150 million installs worldwide. Yeung also worked with many Fortune 500 companies such as Siebel, AMS, AT&T Wireless and Autodesk.
Yeung has been featured on CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, SCMP, the BBC, Bloomberg, CBS, NPR, TechCrunch, Asia Society, the Economist, and many more.