Future & Trends speakers

Adam’s keynote presentations are an illuminating conversation that not only inspire strategic innovation but also unleash personal and team creativity and improve organizational culture. He speaks with warmth and compassion on generational paradigms of work and leadership encouraging organisations to have different and better conversations, creating a simple approachable path to transforming business success.

Since winning prestigious comedy competition So You Think You’re Funny? in 2012, Aisling Bea has become one of the most in-demand performers in UK and Irish comedy, a status cemented when she won the British Comedy Award for Best Female TV Comic in 2014.

Alan Moore helps create and design unique and outstanding customer experiences that deliver high yield commercial returns. In essence Alan helps craft beautiful businesses. He is particularly valuable when working with organisations that are at a critical inflection point, when they are paying close attention to transformation, change, and disruption. Or need to communicate that to their stakeholders in a credible way.

Currently CEO of Digital Brand Services and works with over a dozen clients in the public and private sectors. Senior Consultant Digital Strategy for TEAM AG, UEFA’s exclusive commercial partner for the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup, the world’s most popular annual sporting event. Alex is also a member of the Digital Advisory Board the the UK Government Digital Service and on the Commission of English Heritage.

Alexander Bard s the author of the globally successful The Futurica Trilogy - co-written with media theorist Jan Söderqvist, and so far translated to over 20 languages - consisting of The Netocrats (originally published in 2002), The Global Empire (2004) and The Body Machines (2009). October 2014 sees the release of Bard’s fourth book with Söderqvist: Syntheism - Creating God in The Internet Age, in which the authors set out to construct a complete new metaphysical system for the digital age, covering everything from the inner existential truths of the new physics to the radical utopian potential of participatory culture.

Amber Case is an anthropologist who specialises in observing the symbiotic relationship between people and technology.

As the author of “Getting China and India Right” and “The Quest for Global Dominance”, as well as the recipient of numerous awards for excellence in research and teaching, Anil has been recognized by BusinessWeek as an outstanding faculty in its ‘Guide to the Best Business Schools’. He is ranked by Management International Review as one of the ‘Top 20 North American Superstars’ for research in strategy and organisation. He has written or contributed to over 70 academic papers, seeking to advance economic and strategic theory as well as practice. He is a regular contributor to the Wall St Journal, the Financial Times and numerous other newspapers and major management journals. A regular speaker at major conferences, Anil also serves as an adviser and director for corporations in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Anne Lise Kjaer specialises in future trends and their impact on tomorrowʼs consumer behaviour and needs. She manages a wide range of client briefs, from corporate presentations to customised trends research. Kjaer is renowned as a motivational speaker and her inspiring presentations communicate concepts in a stimulating and engaging format.

Aric Dromi is proud to explain that he built his career on things that he knew that he didn’t know, and always took an assignment that pushed him to explore new fields, tools and methods that would redefine his vantage point on any given challenge.

UK based Global Futurist and Exponential Thinker Azeem Azhar helps leaders break down the complexity of emerging technologies and understand their impact on economies and society. He is a corporate innovator, serial entrepreneur and technology investor; Founder, Exponential View; Host, “Exponentially” on Bloomberg TV; Visiting Fellow, Oxford Martin School, Oxford University; Co-Chair, Global Futures Council on Complex Risks, World Economic Forum; Award-Winning, Bestselling Author, “The Exponential Age” (2021); Named one of Vox’s 2023 Future Perfect 50 and to the Thinkers50 2022 Radar List.

Ben Hammersley is an Applied Futurist, who broadcasts, writes and lectures internationally to explain the effects of the post-digital post-internet age to people, corporations, governments, and international organisations, and is the author of many books and articles on modern technology.

With his down-to-earth, likeable enthusiasm, Professor Brian Cox is frequently labelled a 'rock star scientist'. Once the keyboard player for D:Ream, he has come a long way to his position as Professor of Particle Physics at Manchester University and a key part of the ATLAS and the CERN Large Hadron Collider projects.

Founder and CEO of Storkey Media, an integrated marketing agency, Caleb works internationally with a wide range of businesses, from multinationals through to highly disruptive and fast growth tech start-ups.

Cate’s experience of setting up two successful businesses in her twenties led to her being named a Future 100 and Startup 100 entrepreneur. She’s been quoted 4 times in Forbes magazine and is a RetailWire BrainTrust expert. LinkedIn named her one of the top 15 most listened to professionals in the UK. Vend ranked her as the world’s 26th most influential professional in retail.

Chris Turner is author of the book “The War on Science”, and the bestsellers, “The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need” and “The Great Leap: How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy” where he sheds light on the global sustainability movement. Turner is one of Canada’s leading writers and speakers on sustainability and the global clean-tech industry. His reporting on energy, climate and sustainability issues appears regularly in The Walrus, The Globe & Mail, Canadian Geographic and many other publications.

Christopher Thornberg is a founding partner of Beacon Economics and widely considered to be one of California’s leading economic forecasters. He is also Director of the UC Riverside School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting and Development. An expert in economic forecasting, regional development, real estate dynamics and labor markets, he was one of the earliest and most adamant predictors of the housing market crash and of the economic recession that has followed. In 2008, he was appointed as chief economist for California State Controller John Chiang as well as chair of the Controller’s Council of Economic Advisors. He also serves on the advisory board of Paulson & Co. Inc., one of Wall Street’s most successful hedge funds. Thornberg holds a doctorate in business economics from The Anderson School at UCLA, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Originally trained as a product & industrial designer, Cris spent over a decade as a successful entrepreneur & CEO building an award-winning design group. He is now recognised globally as a thought leader on innovation strategy, leadership and culture.

Dr. Daniel Hulme is the CEO of Satalia, an AI solution provider that also uses AI to operates as a decentralised organisation without traditional corporate structures. Daniel is also the Entrepreneur in Residence for UCL’s Computer Science department, which is one of the world’s leading AI research institutions. He has a Masters and Doctorate in AI from UCL and is a faculty member of the Singularity University. Daniel has Advisory and Executive positions across many companies and actively promotes purposeful entrepreneurship and technology innovation across the globe.

Dan Pink is the author of several provocative, bestselling books about the changing world of work. His books have been translated into over 33 different languages, including being published in the unorthodox style of Japanese Manga. His writing spans a multitude of topics, from the art and science of sales to a modern behavioural economical view on motivation. Dan is a prolific speaker, working in both public and private events, including many talks on TED. Dan held his last real job in the White House, where he served from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. He also worked as an aide to U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich and in other positions in politics and government.

Daniel Susskind is Fellow in Economics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he teaches and researches. He worked for the British Government in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and also as a Senior Policy Adviser at the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.

David Aaronovitch is one of the best-known journalists and current affairs broadcasters in the UK, winning awards for political journalism and being named 'Columnist of the Year' by What The Papers Say. David’s fascination with some of the more arcane aspects of public life and debate led to the Voodoo Histories book on the impact of conspiracy theories.

Although David Cadman is by discipline an urban land economist, he has a number of visiting professorial appointments and his recent writing and speaking is about the ways in which we need to change our ways of being to face up to climate change, resource depletion and a fragile financial system. This includes his work on Love.

David Smith is also chief leader-writer, an assistant editor and policy adviser. He also writes columns for The Times, Tax Journal and other publications. He speaks and broadcasts regularly to a wide variety of audiences. Prior to joining The Sunday Times, he worked for The Times, Financial Weekly, Now! Magazine, the Henley Centre for Forecasting and Lloyds Bank.

Bristol born Dean was a digger driver before he applied to appear on Masterchef in 2005. Dean was narrowly beaten in the final, causing thousands of loyal Dean-fans to bombard the BBC with complaints that he should have taken first prize. Since then, Dean has gone from success-to-success. Dean is now a resident chef for Lorraine Kelly's cooking team on the ITV show Daybreak, and has his first cooking book was released in February of last year.

DP combines the adaptability and professionalism of an experienced presenter with the lighthearted wit and humor of a curious worldly Irishman.

Edgar Perez is a business consultant for billion-dollar private equity and hedge funds and Council Member at the Gerson Lehrman Group, Guidepoint Global Advisors, Research International and Internal Consulting Group, with subject matter expertise in quantum computing, artificial intelligence and deep learning, cyber security and financial regulation.

Dame Frances Cairncross is an economist and former journalist with a strong interest in higher education, in the future of the press, and in the impacts of technological change on society and on the global economy.

George Magnus is an independent economist and commentator, an Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and an adviser to some asset management companies.

Gerard Lyons is currently economic adviser to the Mayor of London. He is a regular commentator for Bloomberg and Sky News.

Gerd is considered a leading voice on a wide range of topics including digital transformation and the discovery of digitally native business models.

Hayley Barnard is a prominent keynote speaker, consultant and trainer to top-level executives throughout the UK and Europe. She is a subject matter expert on Diversity and Inclusion, Inclusive Leadership and Unconscious Bias. She advises boards of corporations on how they can become more profitable and innovative through inclusion of diversity.

Ian Bremmer is an American political scientist specializing in US foreign policy, states in transition, and global political risk. He is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm.

Jacob Morgan is an author, speaker and futurist. His latest book, The Future of Work: Attract New Talent, Build Better Leaders, and Create a Competitive Organisation, explores how the workplace is changing and was endorsed by business leaders such as the Chairman of KPMG, CEO of Whirlpool, CEO of Intuit and many others. Morgan also co-founded the FOW Community, which is a network of the world’s most forward thinking organizations who come together to explore the future of work.

James Alexander is currently a Director of FutureAgenda.org, an open source think tank and advisory delivering foresight, strategy and innovation to some of the world’s leading organisations such as Apple, WWF, Mastercard.

With over 25 years experience in future analysis, James is a remarkable record as a writer, analyst, and presenter. James is also a leading futurologist and author of considerable reputation. James has a zealous interest in key trends and statistics facing current and future businesses. James' work challenges organisations to better anticipate change and adapt faster.

James Woudhuysen expertise spans IT, energy, construction, manufacturing and retailing. He has a knack for spotting trends before others, frequently offering counter-intuitive proposals on what action to take.

Jason Schenker is the Chairman of The Futurist Institute and the President of Prestige Economics. Bloomberg News has ranked Jason the #1 forecaster in the world in 25 different categories, which is why executives, corporate boards, industry groups, and central banks rely on his financial market research. Jason has also written 12 books, including seven about disruptive emerging technologies. He is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, an instructor for LinkedIn Learning, the Executive Director of the Texas Blockchain Association, and the Futurist for Hyperloop Massachusetts.

Jeffrey is the President and Co-Founder of Millennium Promise Alliance a non-profit organisation aimed at ending extreme global poverty, as well as being the Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, and other key roles in organisations involved with environment and sustainability. Jeffrey has spent much of his career wrestling with the issues of world poverty and health and environmental sustainability but he made his name in the mid 80's and 90's as an economist working with countries undergoing massive upheaval. His best-selling books include Common Wealth (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011) in which he turns his attentions homewards and calls for a kinder more responsible society in the wake of repeated economic crises. He has also written hundreds of learned articles and a text book on macroeconomics that is used worldwide

In 2016, after more than a decade working with businesses worldwide as a behaviour insight advisor shaping culture, leadership and legacy, Jez Rose moved from his suburban 3-bed semi to a dilapidated 1850's farmhouse with agricultural land to test his theories on the cognitive and emotional impact of nature on human psychology and become a bee farmer.In 2016, after more than a decade working with businesses worldwide as a behaviour insight advisor shaping culture, leadership and legacy, Jez Rose moved from his suburban 3-bed semi to a dilapidated 1850's farmhouse with agricultural land to test his theories on the cognitive and emotional impact of nature on human psychology and become a bee farmer.

Jim Harris is a one of North America’s foremost management consultants, authors and thinkers on disruptive innovation, leadership, innovation, organizational change, future trends and mitigating risk

John Petter is the head of BT’s Consumer division and specialises in consumer proposition development, marketing and commercial strategy and call centre management.

Jonathan Margolis is a journalist for The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Sunday Times (UK). He has been a contributor to Time as well as several other online magazines.

Kate is a futurist with a technology, consumer, retail and brand specialization, making complex societal shifts and emerging technologies relatable for any audience.

From the stage of TED to the catwalks of New York, London and Milan, Kelly Lundberg styles and inspires people and their business to be the best they can be.

Ken Livingstone was the first Mayor of London, a role he held from 8 years, only recently being narrowly edged out of the position by current Mayor, Borris Johnson. His time in office saw important moments, including the introduction of the congestion charge and advocation of public transport in an attempt to tackle London's traffic problems, the expansion of social housing in London, and successfully winning the bid for London to host the Olympic Games in 2012. Ken has also written three successful books, including "If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Abolish It".

To turn this passion into a reality, Maayke Damen co-founded ‘Excess Materials Exchange’ (EME) which aims to reinstate waste to the valuable resource that it is by developing a circular economy and turning their waste to wealth. EME has created a secured marketplace, where companies can exchange any type of excess materials, business to business. Functioning as a dating site, EME uses data to match supply and demand and help identify the highest reuse potential for any given material. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Sustainability and Innovation Fund Port of Amsterdam, Project Manager at INSID, and Member of the Young Club of Rome. She was also the winner of the Dutch Singularity University innovation contest with the idea of a “Google for Materials” which she developed into the ‘Resource Passport’ that has now been made into Dutch and European policy.

Magnus Lindkvist is a renowned trendspotter and futurologist. He challenges audiences to pose new questions, shake things up and change their thinking.

Matthew d'Ancona writes a weekly column for the Guardian. He was previously editor of the Spectator and also writes for the Evening Standard and GQ. He was the Sunday Telegraph's political columnist for 19 years. He is a visiting research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, author of several books including In It Together: The Inside Story of the Coalition, and chairman of the thinktank Bright Blue.

Melanie Windridge works as a consultant with science and technology start-up businesses – including Tokamak Energy in nuclear fusion – and in education. An expert in the aurora and in fusion energy, she likes to combine her scientific knowledge and experience with her love of adventure to promote a better understanding of science through writing, public lectures, science festivals, videos and television.

Michael Finkel is the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit,” about a highly intelligent man who lived alone in the forest of Maine for 27 years, as well as the book “True Story,” about Finkel’s bizarre and unhealthy friendship with a murderer, which was adapted into a 2015 major motion picture produced by Brad Pitt and starring James Franco and Jonah Hill.

Michael acts as an economic advisor to governments worldwide including Greece, Iceland, Latvia and China on finance and taxation.

'The Game Changer' Mike Forde is former Director of Football Operations at Chelsea Football Club, responsible for all areas of Chelsea FC's performance and team operations. Mike is widely recognised as a World authority in the British Premier League and European soccer and elite US professional sport for driving innovation and cutting edge methods.

Minter Dial is the President and founder of the boutique agency, The Myndset Company.

As Chief Business Officer for Google [X], the search giant’s very much-envied R&D division, Mo led some of the tech world’s most innovative projects at a time that was becoming the climax of a successful career in technology. Whilst on paper he was doing well, he often felt unfulfilled. He applied his engineering skills to the problem and after almost a decade developed a model which placed happiness in overall context of the experiences and expectations of life. His work became the international bestseller, Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy.

Trend forecaster, academic, product developer, writer and broadcaster, Morgaine lives and breathes ideas and future trends. She asks the question 'why' so that she can deliver the 'what'. Identifying why people aspire to new things, she discovers what will be desirable and aspirational in the future. She endeavors to make food fun, informative and a social commentary on culture, class, behaviours and belief. She is the founder and director of Bellwether: Food Trends, a fashion/design/food/social trend (digital and print) compendium for global markets.

Hack has turned adversaries into allies throughout the world. Her pioneering work on engagement leadership and her unique framework Strategic Relational Engagement (SRE™) is based on decades of real-life success in bringing together diverse stakeholders to find common ground and achieve great goals. Named one of Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior, Hack works with executives of Fortune 500 companies, heads of state, and leaders of global organizations.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has devoted his life to immersing himself in problems of luck, randomness, human error, probability, and the philosophy of knowledge.

Nick Holzherr is the CEO of Whisk.com, a smart grocery shopping list application that allows users to send their lists into online grocery supermarket baskets with a few clicks. Since launching in June 2012, the company has won many of the UK’s biggest retailers, FMCG brands and digital food publishers as clients.

Nick Robinson joined the flagship Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme as a presenter in November 2015, after a decade as the BBC’s Political Editor covering Prime Ministers Blair, Brown and Cameron. Nick’s Twitter feed is followed by 750,000 people. His ‘Election Notebook’ was a Sunday Times bestseller.

Nicklas focuses mostly on investments and business development in emerging markets, web services, nanotechnology, computing, new materials, and new media art. Nicklas is currently close to 15 direct and indirect technology investments.

Parag Khanna is a leading global strategist, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also the Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a boutique geostrategic advisory firm, and Co-Founder & CEO of Factotum, a leading content branding agency.

Dr. Patrick Dixon is a futurist keynote speaker, Chairman of Global Change Ltd and author of 16 books including The Future of Almost Everything, Futurewise and Building a Better Business. He is ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today.

Paul is the founder of Intelligencr, an innovation scouting firm he started in Tokyo in 2008. He has recently been at the helm of the road-to-market strategy for the Ubuntu phone OS, in Europe and China.

Pippa Malmgren is an American policy analyst. She served as Special Assistant to the President of the United States for Economic Policy on the National Economic Council and former member of the U.S. President's Working Group on Financial Markets.

For over 35 years Ray Hammond has researched, written, spoken and broadcast about how major trends will affect society and business in the future.

Richard Branson is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies. His first business venture was a magazine called Student at the age of 16. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Richard's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic and expanded the Virgin Records music label. Richard is now the 6th richest person in the UK, according to the Forbes 2013 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of £2.8 billion.

Professor Richard Susskind OBE FRSE is an author, speaker, and independent adviser to international professional firms and national governments. He has advised on numerous government inquiries and, since 1998, has been IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England. His main area of expertise is the future of professional service and, in particular, the way in which the IT and the Internet are changing the work of lawyers. He has worked on legal technology for over 30 years. He has written and edited numerous books, including Expert Systems in Law, Tomorrow’s Lawyers, and has written around 150 columns for The Times. His work has been translated into 10 languages and the latest book The Future of the Professions is co-authored with his son Daniel Susskind.

Roberta Lucca is the founder of Bossa Studios, a London-based games developer and publisher renowned for their iconic, viral and category defining games.

Rohit Talwar is a global futurist, strategist and award-winning speaker noted for his humour, inspirational style and provocative content.

He is the internationally bestselling author of two major books on strategy and enterprise innovation, which have been published to date in over 20 languages. Rowan is co-founder of www.innovationexcellence.com – the online home of the global innovation community. The portal, which builds on an international group of around 5,000 members from over 150 countries, offers an arsenal of resources from today's innovation thought leaders and practitioners that is aimed at helping every company achieve innovation excellence.

Ruby De Waele assists companies and entrepreneurs to improve their business using Socratic Design. His unparalleled experience, knowledge and insight, propels leaders to stay ahead of the technology game whatever their sector; by providing his clients with targeted advice and strategies to transform their business.

For the past decade Seth has shared his insights with thousands of business leaders around the world and has received accolades from many of the world's best brands.

Sir Christopher Meyer, KCMG is a former British Ambassador to the United States, former Ambassador to Germany and the former chairman of the Press Complaints Commission.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, also known as TimBL, is an English engineer and computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web.

Spencer Kelly is a respected broadcaster and journalist with more than fifteen years experience in radio and television. Spencer is the current presenter of Click, the consumer technology show for BBC World and the BBC News Channel. Prior to this, he worked on Five's The Gadget Show. Spencer's previous experience presented the breakfast radio show for Ocean FM, part of the Capital Radio Group, for six years before joining the BBC. In this capacity, Spencer has interviewed a wide cross-section of celebrities from Sir David Attenborough to Phil Collins

A consultant to FTSE 100 and multi-national companies in the UK, USA and beyond at CEO level, Stephen is well placed to provide commentary on business, economic and business trends and offer insightful perspectives on the changing nature of the world economy and corporate world. Stephen talks both in the capacity of an advisor to businesses and from the perspective of a business owner and someone who has set up and sold businesses in the past – he provides an impartial, diverse and highly experienced voice.

Steve Wells advises global corporations on the transformative potential of disruptive technologies and how brands can leverage them to create distinctive identities in a fast changing world and drive exponential growth and improvement. He has a particular focus on the new models of leadership, collaboration, and innovation required to sustain and differentiate brands in a rapidly changing reality. Steve delivers fully researched and customised client presentations for each keynote.

Timo Kiuru is a true global citizen having worked in cities as diverse as Seoul, Istanbul, San Diego, New York, Miami, Barcelona, Paris, Seattle, Tokyo, Helsinki, Abu Dhabi, London, Kazan, Stockholm, Porto, Toronto, Las Vegas, Tallinn, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Tom is the co-author of ‘In Search of Excellence’, the book that changed the way the world does business and is often cited as one of the best business books around. Sixteen books and almost thirty years later, Tom is still at the forefront of the management guru industry. Whilst some ‘gurus’ keep on repeating the same mantras year-in, year-out, CNN stated that Tom is one man that is constantly re-inventing himself and finding the newest ways to help business.