Dirk Ahlborn is an entrepreneur keynote speaker and the founder and CEO of JumpStarter Inc. JumpStarter is a web portal that creates smarter and more successful companies by using crowdsourcing to fund ideas from initial conception to final product. Dirk is also CEO and Co-Founder of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies. It is JumpStartFund’s well-known undertaking to make the Hyperloop become reality, by using its crowd collaboration concept.

Dirk started his career in 1993 as an investment specialist in Berlin, Germany. After moving to Italy in 1997, he founded several companies in the alternative energy and interior design space. In 2006, he successfully sold one of these companies to a global alternative energy conglomerate.

He is a serial entrepreneur with experience in almost every element of business. His careers have taken him through management, product design, development, manufacturing, production facility design and set up, production cost control, marketing, product distribution, customer service, and sales.

Before co-founding Jumpstarter, he was at the Girvan Institute of Technology, an incubator-accelerator for early-stage high-tech companies. At Girvan, beginning in 2009, he was instrumental in the development of several startup companies, most notably Advanced Turbine Designs, a developer of natural-gas-fueled gas turbine generators for combined heat and power. In the course of his multi-faceted activities at Girvan he also managed mobile and web application developments as well as search engine optimization and online marketing.

Prior to 2009, his activities were centered in Germany and Italy. Dirk is fluent in German and Italian and proficient in conversational Spanish. He holds the credential in banking and insurance from the Organization of German Industry and Commerce.

Scott Anthony: Innovation and Disruption Expert | Dartmouth Tuck Professor | Author of Epic Disruptions

Turn Disruption into a Path Forward

Scott Anthony helps organizations work through both. A clinical professor of strategy at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a longtime advisor at Innosight, he brings research, business examples, and practical tools to the challenges of innovation, transformation, and growth. Tuck School of Business

Why Book Scott Anthony?

Scott gives leaders a way to act when the future is uncertain. He shows how to test assumptions, explore new opportunities, and make progress before every answer is known.

His keynotes are particularly useful for teams facing shifts in customer needs, technology, or competition. Scott connects innovation to strategic choices, leadership behaviour, and the systems needed to move ideas forward.

What Makes Scott Different?

• Experience spanning academic research and practical strategy work
• A clear view of how disruption unfolds
• Frameworks for strengthening today’s business while creating future growth
• Practical approaches to experimentation and innovation culture
• Insight relevant to executives making decisions under uncertainty

Why Is Scott Right for Your Audience?

Scott is a strong fit for executive conferences, board and leadership meetings, innovation events, and organizations planning a major transformation. He is especially valuable when leaders agree change is necessary but need a shared language and a more concrete path forward.

Book Scott when your audience needs to:

• Understand the forces reshaping its industry
• Make strategic decisions with incomplete information
• Strengthen the core business while exploring new growth
• Move promising ideas from discussion to testing
• Address the leadership and cultural side of transformation
• Build a more consistent approach to innovation

Audience Takeaways

Attendees will leave:

• Better able to recognize patterns of disruptive change
• Clearer on the assumptions behind their current strategy
• Equipped to discuss future opportunities without waiting for certainty
• Ready to use experimentation to learn what works
• More confident leading teams through ambiguity and change

Keynote Programs

Decoding the Epic Disruptions That Shaped Our Modern World

Drawing on Epic Disruptions, Scott uses stories from past innovations to show how major change unfolds and what those patterns can teach leaders facing disruption today. Ideal for strategy, innovation, and future-focused events.

Lead Through the Fog of Uncertainty with Optimism

Scott gives leaders practical ways to work through ambiguity, question old assumptions, and identify opportunity amid competing demands. Ideal for executive teams and organizations navigating transformation.

The Myths and Realities of Building a Culture of Innovation

Scott examines the systems and leadership habits that help innovation happen consistently. Audiences consider how to remove obstacles, support experimentation, and connect new ideas to results. Ideal for leadership and companywide innovation events. The Sweeney Agency

Why Contact The Sweeney Agency Now?

Tell us where growth is slowing, what is changing in your market, and what you want your audience to do differently. We’ll help you assess which of Scott’s topics fits your event, discuss customization, and check his availability and current fee.

Is Scott Right for Your Event?

Tell us about your audience, its biggest strategic challenge, and the decisions the event should help move forward. We’ll help you assess Scott’s fit and plan the next step.

To check availability and fee of this speaker, call 1-866-727-7555 or email [email protected].

Chris Barton: Keynote Speaker on Innovation, AI & Disruptive Thinking | Founder & First CEO of Shazam | Inventor | Tech Entrepreneur

Bring Impossible Ideas to Life. What if the idea everyone says is impossible is actually your biggest opportunity?

When Chris conceived the idea for Shazam, experts told him it couldn't be done. He refused to accept the assumptions defining what was possible. The result became one of the world's most recognizable technology platforms, with more than 2 billion downloads before being acquired by Apple.

Today, Chris shows organizations how to challenge conventional thinking, break through barriers and turn seemingly impossible ideas into reality.

Why Book Chris Barton?

Chris doesn't simply talk about innovation. He built something the experts said couldn't be built.

Shazam was conceived before smartphones and app stores existed. Creating it required Chris and his team to solve enormous technological, commercial and operational challenges while repeatedly finding ways around obstacles that could have ended the company.

Those experiences shaped Chris's “Start from Zero” approach to innovation—a way of challenging assumptions and returning to basic truths instead of automatically accepting how things have always been done.

His keynote combines a remarkable entrepreneurial story with practical thinking audiences can use to challenge the status quo and create breakthrough ideas of their own.

What Makes Chris Barton Different?

• Founder & first CEO of Shazam — created one of the world's most recognizable technology platforms
• AI pioneer — Shazam was an early mass-consumer application of artificial intelligence
• 2+ billion downloads — transformed an impossible-sounding idea into a global product
• Apple acquisition — Shazam was acquired by Apple in 2018
• 12 patents — inventor across Shazam, Google and Dropbox
• Google experience — was Google's first employee focused on mobile partnerships
• Dropbox experience — joined when it was still a rapidly growing startup
• Start from Zero thinking — gives audiences a practical framework for challenging assumptions
• Creative Persistence — demonstrates how imagination and tenacity combine to overcome barriers

Why Is Chris Right for Your Audience?

Chris is an outstanding choice when you want your audience to challenge conventional thinking, become more innovative and stop allowing assumptions to determine what's possible.

He is particularly effective for leadership conferences, AI and technology events, innovation summits, sales kickoffs and organizations navigating disruption.

Book Chris when your audience needs to:

• Challenge assumptions and conventional thinking
• Generate more innovative ideas
• Understand the possibilities created by AI and technology
• Turn ambitious ideas into action
• Overcome barriers without compromising the original vision
• Develop greater creative persistence
• Eliminate friction for customers and employees
• Become more comfortable pursuing ideas others don't immediately understand

Audience Takeaways

Attendees will leave:

• Thinking differently about what is possible
• Better equipped to challenge assumptions
• Understanding how first-principles thinking can unlock innovation
• More willing to pursue unconventional ideas
• Better prepared to creatively overcome obstacles
• Recognizing how unnecessary friction limits growth
• Inspired to combine persistence with imagination
• Ready to bring their own “impossible” ideas to life

Chris Barton Keynote Programs

Bring Impossible Ideas to Life. How do you create something that experts insist can't be done?

Technology and AI are rapidly changing the boundaries of what's possible. Chris takes audiences inside the remarkable creation of Shazam and the challenges involved in developing an idea years ahead of the technology ecosystem required to support it.

He shows audiences how questioning assumptions, thinking from basic truths and approaching obstacles differently can unlock entirely new possibilities.

Ideal for: AI conferences, innovation summits, leadership meetings and organizations pursuing breakthrough ideas.

Overcome Obstacles with Imagination. Persistence matters—but simply trying the same thing harder isn't enough.

Chris calls his approach Creative Persistence: combining determination with the imagination required to find another path when the obvious route is blocked.

Using extraordinary stories from Shazam's journey, he shows audiences how to challenge barriers, question conventional solutions and keep moving toward ambitious goals.

Ideal for: Leadership conferences, sales kickoffs, entrepreneurial events and organizations navigating difficult challenges.

Eliminate Effort to Unlock Explosive Growth. Where is unnecessary friction making it harder for customers, employees or partners to say yes?

Shazam succeeded by making something incredibly complex feel effortless: hear a song, press a button and discover what it is.

Drawing on his experiences with Shazam, Google and Dropbox, Chris shows audiences how identifying and removing friction can create dramatically better customer and employee experiences.

Ideal for: Customer experience, sales, innovation, technology and growth-focused events.

Build the Vision You See, But Others Don't. What do you see that others can't see yet?

Breakthrough ideas often face resistance precisely because they're unfamiliar.

Chris shares the entrepreneurial lessons behind transforming Shazam from an idea many considered impossible into a product used by billions of people.

He challenges entrepreneurs and innovators to strengthen their conviction, prioritize what matters and find creative ways to turn vision into reality.

Ideal for: Entrepreneurs, founders, innovation teams and organizations building new products or businesses.

Why Book Chris Barton Through The Sweeney Agency?

Chris Barton combines an extraordinary entrepreneurial success story with practical frameworks for innovation, AI and breakthrough thinking—but the real value comes from connecting those lessons to the barriers and opportunities facing your organization.

The Sweeney Agency can help you:

• Confirm Chris Barton's availability and current speaking fee
• Determine which Chris Barton keynote best fits your audience
• Discuss customization around your industry and event objectives
• Coordinate format, timing and event logistics
• Compare Chris with other leading innovation, AI and technology keynote speakers

Is Chris Barton Right for Your Event?

Tell us the impossible idea, stubborn barrier or innovation challenge your organization is facing.

We'll help you determine whether Chris is the right fit, confirm availability and fees, and make the booking process simple.

Planning an innovation summit, AI conference, leadership meeting or corporate event? Contact The Sweeney Agency today [email protected] to discuss booking Chris Barton as your keynote speaker.

Few journalists have had the impact on history and their craft as Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Carl Bernstein. From uncovering the Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward to writing about national and international affairs for half a century, Bernstein’s books, reporting and commentary have revealed the hidden workings of government and politics around the world.

Bernstein’s important on-air reporting and commentary on Donald Trump for CNN has been widely recognized for continuing the kind of work he and Bob Woodward pioneered during the Nixon presidency.

In 1973, Woodward and Bernstein were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their Watergate coverage at The Washington Post, leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon and setting new standards for investigative journalism. The pair went on to write two classic best-sellers: All the President’s Men (also a movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman); and The Final Days, chronicling the end of the Nixon presidency.

Bernstein’s recently released book, Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom, became an instant New York Times bestseller, receiving extraordinary attention and praise in reviews throughout the United States and Europe. In it, Bernstein recounts his earliest days in journalism at the Washington Evening Star newspaper, where he began his career during the Kennedy era as a 16-year-old copyboy. The roots of his Watergate reporting can be seen in this remarkable apprenticeship as a teenage reporter in the nation’s capital.

Bernstein’s other best-selling books demonstrate his unique range as a journalist:  Loyalties: A Son’s Memoir, about his family’s experiences in the McCarthy era; His Holiness: Pope John Paul II and The History of Our Time – a biography of Pope John Paul II – that revealed the Pope’s pivotal role in the fall of communism; and A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, acclaimed as the definitive biography on the subject.

His magazine articles have appeared in Time, USA Today, Rolling Stone and The New Republic. From 1999-2001, Bernstein served as editor and executive vice president of Voter.com, a pioneering website that Forbes named the best political site on the internet. He has worked as Washington bureau chief and correspondent for ABC News; and, while at the Washington Post, was also a part-time rock critic.

Bernstein lives in New York with his wife and is the father of two sons, Jacob Bernstein, a reporter for the New York Times; and Max Bernstein, who plays guitar for Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus.

• Jason talks about how our brains get creative and explains how we can rocketfuel our own ability to get out of the world of the plain and ordinary to create bold new ideas that have the real potential to change and transform.

• Audiences leave with ten simple practical tips to help identify your own creative triggers and maximise creativity and ideation: both personally and within your organization.

• Jason Bevan was responsible for the innovation and creativity process at Warner Bros. Studios, marketing some of the world’s best loved films in EMEA and creating new ideas that were often used globally. Jason is also a TED circuit speaker and as an expert speaker for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

• Past clients include: KFC, BT, Netflix.

Jason Bevan was responsible for the innovation and creativity process at Warner Bros. Studios, marketing some of the world’s best loved films in EMEA and creating new ideas that were often used globally. Jason worked with legendary film-makers and actors on massive movies for 16 years and reveals how a number of iconic film ideas came to be and how we can all powerfully employ the same techniques used to create them.

Jason’s Innervation keynote talks and masterclasses show why creativity has become one of our most valuable skills and demystifies how we generate ideas with simple logic. Clear, easy to follow steps and tasks show how we can take inspiration from iconic movies and their makers to tap into the creativity we already have, but often don’t use…including people that don’t think they are innovative! It’s fun, uplifting and inspiring.

Jason offers a peek behind the curtain of the world of film, explaining how Warner Bros. pushed the limits of creativity with brave, ambitious ideas with principles we can use in our own work. How the Dark Knight batmobile led to supercars all over the world becoming matt black. How they made creative magic on the Harry Potter film sets by making them the friendliest places in film. How Jason got teams from 37 markets to energise from these films that pervaded global culture to create incredible ideas and seismic events that were seen all over the world. Jason’s talk was developed with a clinical psychologist for scientific accuracy.

Jason was known for pushing creative boundaries on campaigns for the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films, DC movies like Joker, The Dark Knight and Aquaman films, the Lego movies, the Conjuring and IT horrorverse and the Christopher Nolan movies. Previously Jason worked for Disney in London and Paris and continues to work with top film and entertainment companies, as co-founder of Content Creator Studios.

In addition to speaking on the TED circuit and as an expert speaker for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Jason has been on the judging panel for various highly regarded awards in the creative industry and speaks for major brands and at a number of renown trade & industry events worldwide.

Lisa Bodell:  Keynote Speaker on Simplification, Innovation & Leadership | Founder & CEO of FutureThink | Bestselling Author of Why Simple Wins

Simplify Work. Unlock Better Thinking. What could your people accomplish if they stopped wasting time on unnecessary work and focused their energy on what actually matters?

Lisa helps organizations eliminate the complexity, bureaucracy and low-value work that prevent people from thinking, leading and innovating at their best. Her message is provocative, practical and immediately actionable: stop adding more—and start removing what gets in the way.

Why Book Lisa Bodell?

Lisa doesn't just inspire people to work differently. She gives them practical tools to actually do it.

Her keynotes challenge one of the biggest problems facing organizations today: people are overwhelmed by meetings, processes, approvals and unnecessary complexity while leaders simultaneously ask them to innovate, move faster and accomplish more.

Lisa shows audiences how to create capacity by eliminating low-value work, simplifying decision-making and giving people more space to think.

The result is a keynote that can change not just how your audience thinks—but how they work the very next day.

What Makes Lisa Bodell Different?

• Founder & CEO of FutureThink — helping organizations simplify and innovate since 2003
• Bestselling author — author of Why Simple Wins and Kill the Company
• Simplification expert — helps organizations eliminate unnecessary complexity
• Innovation authority — teaches people how to challenge assumptions and think differently
• Highly interactive — incorporates audience participation and live exercises
• Immediately actionable — audiences leave with tools they can actually use
• Human-centered AI perspective — focuses on strengthening the capabilities technology can't replace
• Extensive corporate experience — has worked with leading organizations around the world

Why Is Lisa Right for Your Audience?

Lisa is an outstanding choice when your people are overwhelmed, moving too slowly or spending too much time on work that doesn't create enough value.

She is particularly effective for leadership conferences, executive meetings, innovation summits, transformation initiatives and organizations navigating AI-driven change.

Book Lisa when your audience needs to:

• Eliminate unnecessary complexity
• Create more time for meaningful work
• Make decisions faster
• Reduce bureaucracy and low-value processes
• Give leaders more capacity to actually lead
• Challenge outdated assumptions
• Strengthen innovation and creative problem-solving
• Determine where humans add the greatest value in an AI-enabled workplace

Audience Takeaways

Attendees will leave:

• Identifying unnecessary work they can stop doing
• Better equipped to simplify meetings, processes and decision-making
• Understanding how complexity can undermine innovation
• More willing to challenge outdated rules and assumptions
• Equipped with practical tools they can apply immediately
• Better prepared to create space for higher-value work
• Thinking differently about leadership in an AI-enabled workplace
• Ready to simplify how work gets done

Lisa Bodell Keynote Programs

Unleash the Power of Simple. What if the fastest way to improve performance isn't adding something new—but eliminating what no longer matters?

Drawing from her bestselling book Why Simple Wins, Lisa shows audiences how unnecessary complexity steals time, energy and attention from the work that creates the most value.

Through practical tools, interactive exercises and real-world examples, she helps people identify what they can eliminate, simplify or change so they can spend more time on meaningful work.

Ideal for: Leadership conferences, corporate meetings, transformation initiatives and organizations struggling with complexity.

Let Leaders Lead. How much time do your leaders actually spend leading?

Too often, managers become trapped in meetings, approvals, processes and administrative work that leave too little time for coaching, decision-making and developing their people.

Lisa challenges organizations to remove the bureaucracy preventing leaders from doing what they were hired to do: lead.

She gives managers practical ways to simplify work, remove barriers and create more capacity for the leadership activities that drive performance.

Ideal for: Executive meetings, leadership development, management conferences and organizations focused on improving leadership effectiveness.

Unleashing Innovation: AI-Enabled, Human-Led. As AI becomes more capable, what becomes more important for humans to do exceptionally well?

Lisa reframes the AI conversation around a critical opportunity: using technology to amplify human capability rather than simply replace human activity.

She explores how organizations can use AI to remove lower-value work while strengthening the distinctly human capabilities that drive innovation—including judgment, curiosity, creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving.

The goal isn't humans versus AI. It's creating organizations where AI handles more of the work while people do more of the thinking that matters.

Ideal for: AI conferences, leadership events, innovation summits and organizations navigating the future of work.

Why Book Lisa Bodell Through The Sweeney Agency?

Lisa Bodell combines provocative thinking with practical tools audiences can use immediately—but the real value comes from identifying where complexity is getting in the way of your organization's performance.

The Sweeney Agency can help you:

• Confirm Lisa Bodell's availability and current speaking fee
• Determine which Lisa Bodell keynote best fits your audience
• Discuss customization around your organization's challenges
• Coordinate format, timing and event logistics
• Compare Lisa with other leading innovation, change and leadership speakers

Is Lisa Bodell Right for Your Event?

Tell us what's slowing your people down—and what you want them spending more time doing instead.

We'll help you determine whether Lisa is the right fit, confirm availability and fees, and make the booking process simple.

Planning a leadership conference, innovation summit or corporate event? Contact The Sweeney Agency today [email protected] to discuss booking Lisa Bodell as your keynote speaker.

Liz Bohannon is the Founder and CEO of socially conscious fashion brand Sseko Designs, which she founded in 2008 as a way to provide educational and economic opportunities for women in East Africa. Liz shares the lessons learned from her 10-year journey growing Sseko from three women under a mango tree, into a successful international fashion brand that provides employment, educational and entrepreneurial opportunities to thousands of women across the globe.

Her story is filled with lessons for success that are grounded in the principle of having a beginner’s mind, which Liz sums up in her new book, Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now. In it, as in her presentations, she shares uncommon ideas toward success like, Own Your Average, Stop Trying to Find Your Passion…Create It, and Dream Small so you can do big things. Liz continues to channel her inner beginner as she manages 100s of employees across multiple continents, and her mindset sets her apart as a courageous, creative and effective leader.

The Sseko story has been featured in dozens of publications including, Vogue Magazine, Redbook Magazine, O Magazine, Inc., Fortune and others. Sseko has appeared on national broadcasts including ABC's Shark Tank and Good Morning America.

Among other notable honors, Liz was named a Top Three Transformation Leader by John Maxwell, Forbes listed her as a top 20 public speaker in the U.S. and Bloomberg Businessweek named Sseko as a top social enterprise to watch.
Liz now splits her time between Uganda and Portland, Oregon, where she and her husband Ben run Sseko Designs and raise their two young sons.

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

Get in touch to book your next great speaker.

Matt Britton is a world renowned expert on the impact of tomorrow’s consumer on the leading brands of today. Over the past two decades, he has provided invaluable consultation to more than half of the Fortune 500 on the influence and impact of Millennials and Gen Z. Currently at the helm of Suzy, a pioneering consumer intelligence platform, Matt has facilitated a radical transformation in how brands garner real-time feedback.

Since 2016, under Matt's leadership, Suzy has garnered over $100 million in venture capital from prominent investors such as The Foundry Group, Bertelsmann Digital Media, H.I.G Capital, Tribeca Venture Partners, fashion mogul Kenneth Cole, and NBA superstar Kevin Durant. Global leaders such as Netflix, Coca-Cola, P&G, J&J, Citibank, Verizon, Nintendo, and Nestle count on Suzy to validate critical assumptions, conceive compelling new products, and construct effective marketing strategies.

Before making his mark with Suzy, Matt established MRY, a digital and social media marketing agency, in 2002. With his guidance, the one-person startup transformed into a global powerhouse with over 500 employees in a span of 14 years. MRY, known for its innovative marketing strategies and successful product launches for behemoths like Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Ford Motors, Visa, and Google, was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2011.

In addition to his impressive corporate achievements, Matt is also the author of the NY Times best-selling book, YouthNation. This publication serves as the definitive guide for organizations of all sizes looking to understand and leverage the power and influence of an unprecedented demographic, making its debut at #1 on Amazon's business book list.

• Trusted by Industry Leaders – Advisor to Google, Microsoft, Deloitte, and top global organizations.

• Disruptive Innovation Expert – A leading authority on AI, automation, and exponential technologies shaping the future.

• Strategic Foresight & Innovation – Actionable insights to anticipate disruption and create competitive advantages.

• Author of seven books,  including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller Flash Foresight; One of the world's leading futurists who the New York Times called “…one of the top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker…”

• Master of Hard Trends – Navigate uncertainty with confidence using proven anticipatory strategies.

Click Here to Watch Daniel's Virtual Presentation

Daniel Burrus is considered one of the World’s Leading Futurists on Global Trends and Disruptive Innovation. The New York Times has referred to him as one of the top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker.

He is the author of seven books, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Flash Foresight and his latest Amazon No. 1 bestseller, The Anticipatory Organization.

He has delivered over 3,000 keynote speeches worldwide and is a strategic advisor to executives from Fortune 500 companies, helping them to develop game-changing strategies
based on his proven methodologies for capitalizing on technology innovations and their future impact. His client list includes Lockheed Martin, Verizon, Microsoft, VISA, Deloitte,
Google, Procter & Gamble, KPMG, Honda, FedEx and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Burrus is an innovative entrepreneur who has founded six businesses, four of which were U.S. national leaders in the first year. He is the CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology-driven trends to help clients profit from technological, social and business forces that are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities.

He is the creator of the Hard Trend Methodology, the Anticipatory Organization® Business Model, used by leading organizations worldwide, and he is a founding member of the
Department of Defense Joint Services Futures Group.

His accurate predictions date back to the early 1980s, when he became the first and only futurist to accurately identify the 20 exponential technologies that would become the driving
force of business and economic growth for decades to come. They included digital electronics, AI, distributed computing, genetic engineering, lasers, optical storage, photovoltaics,
fiberoptics and nanotechnologies to name a few. Since then, he has continued to establish a worldwide reputation for his exceptional record of predicting the future of technology-
driven change and its direct impact on the business world.

Burrus is a featured writer, reaching millions of monthly readers with his insights on disruptive innovation, exponential change and the future. His work is featured across various platforms, including LinkedIn, where he is a member of an exclusive invitation-only group of experts. On LinkedIn alone, he has built a following of over 1.2 million professionals.

He has been the featured subject of several PBS television specials and has appeared on programs such as CNN, Fox Business and Bloomberg. Burrus has been quoted in a variety
of publications, including Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Fortune and Forbes.

Dan Chuparkoff is a trailblazer with over 30 years of experience driving innovation at Google, McKinsey, and more. People call him the practical and understandable Technology-speaker.  His superpower is making complex things simple and useful. He has captivated audiences everywhere from the Fortune 100 to South-by-Southwest. Dan isn’t just a keynote speaker – he’s a technology executive with three decades of hands-on, technology-transformation experience. He will ignite your imagination and give you the tools you need for success & growth in the AI-FUTURE OF WORK.

• Reinvention Labs: AI Education & Research: Today, as CEO of Reinvention Labs, Dan leads cutting-edge research on the impact of technology on that work. With this research, Dan reinvents the way people work with the power of AI, robotics, & more.
• Google: the tech-giant: At Google, Dan led the Mobile Tools and Services team. His products powered more than 60% of the top 10,000 apps on both Android and IOS app stores. Dan works on moonshots and counts his users by the billions.
• McKinsey: the global enterprise: At the prestigious, 100-year-old firm of McKinsey & Company, Dan worked with global leaders to build software to solve some of the world’s biggest problems from healthcare, to manufacturing, to sustainability.
• Atlassian: the $6 billion IPO: At Atlassian, he worked on Jira, the world’s leading tool for planning, managing, & tracking work. While there, he managed multiple acquisitions and lead the preparation for a $6 billion IPO.

Through his informative talks and workshops, Dan Chuparkoff Dan REINVENTS the way we work with the POWER OF AI.

Click Here to Receive Your Customized List of Speaker Ideas

Virtual Events can:

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

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

WHO is your audience?

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

WHAT is your key message?

Are you focusing on change? Innovation? Leadership?

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

WHAT type of event suits your audience?

• Virtual Conference
• Webinar
• Hybrid Event

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

OUR ADVICE

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.

Andrew Davis is recognized as one of the industry's "Jaw-Dropping Marketing Speakers" - and is a mainstay on global marketing influencer lists. Wherever he goes, Andrew Davis puts his infectious enthusiasm and magnetic speaking style to good use teaching business leaders how to grow their sales and businesses, harness innovation, inspiration and performance, transform their cities - and leave their legacy.

Andrew is also best-selling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker. Before building and selling a thriving digital marketing agency, Andrew produced for NBC’s Today Show, worked for The Muppets in New York - and wrote for Charles Kuralt. He's appeared in the New York Times, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal - and on NBC and the BBC. He has crafted documentary films and award-winning content for tiny start-ups and Fortune 500 brands.

Click Here to Watch Andrew's Virtual Presentation

Erica Dhawan: Keynote Speaker on Leadership, Collaboration & Connection | Bestselling Author | Workplace Communication Expert

Turn Better Communication Into Better Performance

In a world of hybrid teams, nonstop messages and constant change, how do you make sure people truly connect, collaborate and get things done?

Erica Dhawan is a bestselling author and internationally recognized keynote speaker on leadership, collaboration and workplace communication who helps organizations transform the way their people work together.

Why Book Erica Dhawan?

Erica addresses one of today's biggest workplace challenges: we have more ways to communicate than ever before, yet connection and collaboration are often harder than ever.

She gives audiences practical strategies to reduce communication friction, strengthen relationships and create the kind of collaboration that drives performance.

Her keynotes are energetic, highly relevant and actionable—giving audiences ideas they can immediately apply to meetings, emails, virtual communication and everyday teamwork.

What Makes Erica Dhawan Different?

• Leading authority on modern collaboration — practical insights for today's connected workplace
• Immediately actionable — strategies audiences can use the moment they return to work
• Highly relevant — addresses hybrid work, digital communication, trust and teamwork
• Research-driven — combines behavioral science with real-world business examples
• Broad audience appeal — valuable for executives, managers and employees
• Customizable — Erica can connect her message directly to your organization's priorities

Why Is Erica Right for Your Audience?

Erica is an excellent choice when you want your people to communicate more clearly, collaborate across silos and build stronger working relationships.

She is particularly effective for leadership conferences, corporate meetings, sales kickoffs, association events and organizations navigating hybrid work, transformation or rapid growth.

Book Erica when your audience needs to:

• Communicate more effectively across teams and functions
• Strengthen trust in hybrid and digital workplaces
• Break down organizational silos
• Improve collaboration and teamwork
• Reduce misunderstandings and communication overload
• Build stronger relationships across generations
• Turn better communication into better business results

Audience Takeaways

Attendees will leave:

• Better equipped to communicate with clarity and intention
• Able to recognize digital behaviors that create unnecessary friction
• Ready to build greater trust across teams
• Equipped with practical strategies for stronger collaboration
• More confident communicating across different working styles
• Prepared to create more productive and connected workplaces

Erica Dhawan Keynote Programs

Digital Body Language:  How do you build trust when much of today's communication happens through a screen?

Based on Erica's bestselling book Digital Body Language, this keynote reveals how emails, texts, video meetings and digital interactions send powerful signals about trust, respect and inclusion.

Erica gives audiences practical strategies for communicating clearly, reducing misunderstandings and building stronger relationships in a digital-first workplace.

Ideal for: Leadership conferences, hybrid workplaces, corporate meetings and organizations focused on communication and culture.

Get Big Things Done:  The biggest opportunities rarely happen because of one person—they happen when the right people connect and collaborate.

Erica shows audiences how to unlock the power of relationships and networks to solve problems, generate ideas and achieve results that individuals and isolated teams cannot accomplish alone.

Ideal for: Leadership, innovation, teamwork, transformation and collaboration events.

Leading Through Connection

Today's leaders must do more than communicate information. They need to create clarity, trust and connection across increasingly complex organizations.

Erica gives leaders practical tools for strengthening communication, breaking down silos and creating teams that collaborate more effectively—even when people work across different locations, functions and generations.

Ideal for: Executive meetings, leadership development programs and organizations navigating change.

Why Book Erica Dhawan Through The Sweeney Agency?

Finding the right keynote speaker isn't simply about choosing an impressive name. It's about finding the speaker whose message fits your audience, your business challenges and what you want people to do differently after the event.

The Sweeney Agency can help you:

• Confirm Erica Dhawan's availability and current speaking fee
• Determine which Erica Dhawan keynote best fits your audience
• Discuss customization around your organization's objectives
• Coordinate format, timing and event logistics
• Compare Erica with other leading leadership, communication and collaboration speakers

Click Here To Book Erica Dhawan

• Talks about how to drive and incentivize breakthrough thinking within organizations in order to achieve clear, measurable and objective results.

• Audiences leave with an understanding of how to create a culture of innovation and how to incentivize the outside world to help solve an organization's biggest challenges.

• Dr. Diamandis is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, and with Dr. Ray Kurzweil, co-Founder of the Singularity University.

• Past clients include: Google, Microsoft, the United Nations, Facebook, TED, PhRMAs CEO Conference, Autodesk and Activision-Blizzard.

Scientist, engineer, doctor, and inspiring speaker Dr. Peter Diamandis is the world's foremost expert in incentivized innovation and the growth of exponential technologies. The art of incentivize smart and talented people within your company or those experts around the world to focus on solving your grand challenges. He has worked with Fortune 100 companies, government leaders and captains of industry over the past 15 years. In 2010 Diamandis is the winner of the Economist No Boundaries award for meta-innovation - driving innovation in the way people innovate. He is also the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Innovation, the Heinlein Award, the Lindbergh Award, the Wired RAVE Award, the Neil Armstrong Award, and the World Technology Award.

Diamandis inspires and moves audiences to action. His message is clear: there is no challenge that cannot be overcome. It is a matter of having a clear objective goal, clarity of what you are measuring and incentivizing the right community to solve your challenge. Using personal, in-depth and inspirational stories, Diamandis has been called one of the best speakers ever by numerous CEO-level audiences. He has received accolades from an impressively diverse list of listeners: Google, Microsoft, the United Nations, Facebook, TED, PhRMAs CEO Conference, Autodesk and Activision-Blizzard to name a few. Diamandis is a frequent contributor to CNN, CNBC and MSNBC.

Dr. Diamandis is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, a non-profit focused on designing and launching large incentive prizes to drive radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. Best known for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private spaceflight, the Foundation is now launching prizes in four groups: Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, and Education/Global Development. Today the X PRIZE has three active prizes: The $10M Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE and the $1.4M Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. Diamandis and the X PRIZE have been hired by the following groups to create incentivized innovation: Google, Cisco, Shell, Progressive Insurance, NASA, US Department of Energy, and the US Department of Transportation to name a few.

In 2008, Diamandis co-Founded the Singularity University along with Dr. Ray Kurzweil, serving as the Chairman & Vice-Chancellor of SU. Diamandis speaks dynamically and passionately explaining how the rapid growth of key exponential technologies are empowering individuals and companies to do what only governments were able to achieve in past decades. The key exponential technologies include artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, synthetic biology, embedded networks, nanotechnology/materials and human machine interfaces have the potential to transform industries and society over the next twenty years. Such technologies will drive a period of significant disruption or opportunity depending on the company's mind-set. Diamandis' ultimate message is that companies cannot remain stagnant. They must evolve or they will die.

Diamandis is the leading international figure in the commercial space arena, having founded and run many of the leading entrepreneurial companies in this sector, including: Space Adventures, the only company to have brokered the launches of private citizens to the Int'l Space Station; Zero Gravity Corporation is the only commercial provider of weightless, zero-gravity flights to the public and to NASA; and the Rocket Racing League is a cross between NASCAR and pod-racing from Star Wars.

Dr. Diamandis attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he received his undergraduate degree in molecular genetics and graduate degree in aerospace engineering. After MIT he attended Harvard Medical School where he received his M.D. In 2005 he has was also awarded an honorary Doctorate from the International Space University.

Diamandis has founded over 15 companies since his first year at MIT. Many of these are non-profits dedicated to creating change in the world. Peter's mission is to guide and inspire the transformation of humanity both on and off the Earth. His personal motto is: The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself! In 8th grade, while living in New York, Dr. Diamandis won first place in the Estes rocket design contest.

Diamandis' book Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think focuses on how exponential technologies, coupled with the DIY movement and the on-line connectivity of the rising billion will enable an age of global abundance providing water, energy, food, shelter, education and healthcare in unprecedented availability for humanity.

Mick Ebeling: Keynote Speaker on Innovation, Leadership & Possibility | Founder of Not Impossible Labs | Author | Entrepreneur

Make the Impossible, Not Impossible

What could your organization accomplish if your people stopped asking “Can we?” and started asking “How can we?”

Mick Ebeling is an entrepreneur, author, innovator and inspiring keynote speaker on innovation, leadership, problem-solving and purpose-driven business.

His message challenges audiences to stop accepting limitations, take action before they have every answer and use technology, creativity and collaboration to solve problems that truly matter.

Why Book Mick Ebeling?

Mick doesn't just talk about innovation. He shows audiences what innovation looks like when people actually do something.

His projects begin with seemingly impossible human problems. Instead of waiting for someone else to solve them, Mick brings together diverse teams, technology and an intense determination to find a way forward.

The result is a powerful business lesson: innovation doesn't always begin with having the answer. It begins with refusing to accept that a problem can't be solved.

Mick's combination of extraordinary stories, optimism and practical thinking makes his keynote inspiring while giving audiences a fresh perspective on innovation and action.

What Makes Mick Ebeling Different?

• Founder of Not Impossible Labs — an organization built around solving real-world problems
• Innovation with purpose — demonstrates how technology can create meaningful human impact
• Action-oriented mindset — encourages people to stop overthinking and start experimenting
• Extraordinary storytelling — brings innovation to life through compelling real-world projects
• Human-centered approach — starts with people and problems rather than technology
• Collaboration focused — shows how diverse expertise can accelerate breakthroughs
• Relevant to AI and technology conversations — keeps the focus on what technology can enable for people
• Highly inspirational — challenges audiences to rethink what they believe is possible

Why Is Mick Right for Your Audience?

Mick is an outstanding choice when you want your audience to challenge assumptions, solve problems differently and turn ambitious ideas into action.

He is particularly effective for leadership conferences, innovation summits, technology events, corporate meetings and organizations undergoing transformation.

Book Mick when your audience needs to:

• Challenge assumptions about what is possible
• Turn ideas into action
• Approach difficult problems with greater creativity
• Innovate with the customer or end user at the center
• Use technology to create meaningful solutions
• Break through organizational silos
• Collaborate across different disciplines
• Become more comfortable experimenting and learning

Audience Takeaways

Attendees will leave:

• More willing to challenge “that's impossible” thinking
• Inspired to take action before every answer is known
• Better prepared to approach problems from the user's perspective
• Understanding how collaboration can accelerate innovation
• More focused on solving meaningful problems rather than chasing technology
• Ready to experiment, learn and adapt
• Asking a powerful question: What impossible problem should we solve next?

Mick Ebeling Keynote Programs

Making the Impossible, Not Impossible. What if “impossible” simply means nobody has solved the problem yet?

Mick takes audiences behind the scenes of Not Impossible Labs and the remarkable projects created by teams willing to tackle challenges others had accepted as unsolvable.

Through compelling stories of innovation and human impact, he demonstrates how commitment, collaboration and experimentation can turn seemingly impossible ideas into real solutions.

Ideal for: Innovation conferences, leadership events, corporate meetings and organizations looking to inspire bold thinking.

Innovation for the Sake of Humanity. The most powerful innovation doesn't begin with technology. It begins with a human problem worth solving.

Mick challenges audiences to put people at the center of innovation and focus technology on creating meaningful outcomes.

His stories demonstrate how empathy, creativity and diverse perspectives can uncover solutions that traditional approaches may overlook.

Ideal for: Technology, AI, innovation, healthcare and purpose-driven business events.

The Fallacy of “Impossible”. How many opportunities disappear because someone decides an idea can't be done before anyone actually tries?

Mick challenges audiences to question the assumptions, processes and conventional thinking that can prevent innovation.

He shows how experimentation, collaboration and a willingness to begin without knowing every step can create breakthroughs.

Ideal for: Leadership teams, transformation initiatives, innovation summits and organizations navigating disruption.

Why Book Mick Ebeling Through The Sweeney Agency?

Mick Ebeling brings together innovation, technology, purpose and extraordinary human stories—but the real value comes from connecting his message to the problems and opportunities your organization needs people to approach differently.

The Sweeney Agency can help you:

• Confirm Mick Ebeling's availability and current speaking fee
• Determine which Mick Ebeling keynote best fits your audience
• Discuss customization around your organization's innovation objectives
• Coordinate format, timing and event logistics
• Compare Mick with other leading innovation, technology and leadership speakers

Is Mick Ebeling Right for Your Event?

Tell us the challenge your organization is trying to solve—or the “impossible” idea you want your people to start believing is possible.

We'll help you determine whether Mick is the right fit, confirm availability and fees, and make the booking process simple.

Planning an innovation conference, leadership meeting or technology event? Contact The Sweeney Agency today [email protected] to discuss booking Mick Ebeling as your keynote speaker.

Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina is a true leader and seasoned problem-solver. She passionately advocates for problem-solving, innovation, and effective leadership. Her mission is to inspire, equip, and connect individuals and teams to seize opportunities, face challenges, and accelerate impact in their communities and workplaces. She believes everyone has more potential than they realize and that those closest to the problem understand it best. Leading to unlock potential in others can result in progress and joy.

Carly’s experience spans from secretary to CEO, public to private, and for-profit to non-profit. She started as a secretary for a nine-person real-estate business and became the first woman to lead a Fortune 50 company. When Carly led Hewlett Packard (HP) in 1999, the industry faced the worst technology recession in 25 years. Under her leadership, revenue grew, innovation tripled, growth quadrupled, and HP became the 11th largest U.S. company.

During her tenure at HP, the company received numerous civic recognitions, including being named one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Business Ethics Magazine, one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers by Working Mother Magazine, receiving a 100% rating by The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, and being named one of the World’s Most Respected Companies by The Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

After leaving HP, Carly focused on giving back. Before Unlocking Potential, she served as Chairman of Good360, the world’s largest product philanthropy organization, and Chairman of Opportunity International, a Christian-based organization lifting millions out of poverty through micro-finance. She also founded the One Woman Initiative with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to empower women in Pakistan, Egypt, India, and the Philippines through increased economic opportunity.

Carly was appointed by President Bush and CIA Director Michael Hayden to serve as Chairman of the External Advisory Board of the CIA after 9/11. She held the highest clearances available to a civilian and focused on CIA recruitment policies, information technology capabilities, and organizational integration.

Carly is also a best-selling author. Her titles include Tough Choices and Rising to the Challenge. Her third book, Find Your Way, is out now.

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• Vinh talks about how leaders and teams can create and cultivate the RIGHT influence in our lives to make the difference between tremendous success or limited mediocrity.

• Audiences leave inspired and entertained by how Vinh teaches leaders how to achieve the right mindset through a presentation interwoven with entertainment, magic and powerful messaging.

• Vinh is a magician, powerful storyteller and CEO of Luminary Productions which produces exceptional video for individuals and companies all around the globe.

• Past clients include: Intuit, American Equity, Microsoft, Flinders University, American Dental Education Association, Western National Group, NALCO Champion, and Tetra Pak. 

Vinh Giang had only 6 months to graduate when he left his degree program in commerce and law to become an online magic teacher - ultimately building a hugely successful online business, 52kards, which now serves over 800,000 students around the globe. This earned him the award of Top Young Entrepreneur in Australia.

Vinh Giang’s real magic journey began when he finally understood what Robert Houdin (an amazing magician) meant when he said: “A magician is an actor playing the part of the magician.” Once Vinh understood the meaning behind this quote, he focused all his energy on studying the art of performance - and not the art of presentation. He has spent the last 15 years mastering the art of performance-enhanced communication - helping thousands of professionals worldwide to learn these skills.

Vinh is also the CEO of Luminary Productions which produces exceptional video for individuals and companies all around the globe.

Vinh’s presentations will bring out the magic in you! Prepare to be captivated by Vinh - as he:

• unlocks your mindsets - by presenting innovating concepts that produce deliberate and definitive action
• is an Entrepreneur who knows what it takes to lead and sell ideas
• is a Young Entrepreneur of the Year and award winning magician
• shares three key business ideas - and demonstrates them using the art of magic with on-stage audience participation
• creates a fun and highly entertaining atmosphere of illusion - where each key business concept is driven home in a truly profound and creative manner
• carefully crafts each performance creating the most powerful emotional experience for attendees - making the conference theme stick in their minds long after the event

“I believe that magicians are salespeople; they sell one of the most difficult products in the world. They sell magic - they sell the illusion. The way they’re able to sell magic is by working ridiculously hard. It takes thousands and thousands of hours to be able to sell the illusion, to be able to really sell the magic. Imagine if you applied the same mindset to your company - imagine if you applied the same dedication to your business - think about what you could achieve.” - Vinh Giang

Click Here to Watch Vinh's Virtual Presentation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nancy Giordano: Keynote Speaker on Future Trends, AI & Leadership | Strategic Futurist | Author of Leadering | Founder of Play Big Inc.

Don't Just Predict the Future. Help Build It. What future do you want your organization—and your leaders—to be responsible for creating?

As technology, AI and societal expectations reshape virtually every industry, Nancy helps leaders understand not only what is changing—but how they can actively shape what comes next.

Her optimistic, human-centered approach challenges audiences to stop thinking about the future as something that simply happens to them and start recognizing their responsibility and opportunity to help create it.

Why Book Nancy Giordano?

Nancy doesn't simply predict trends. She helps leaders understand the forces reshaping their world and decide what they want to do about them.

Her work sits at the intersection of exponential technology, AI, leadership, work and societal transformation.

Rather than overwhelming audiences with predictions, Nancy creates a compelling picture of what's becoming possible—and challenges leaders to think more boldly about the organizations, experiences and systems they can create.

Her central question is powerful:

What future do you want to be responsible for?

What Makes Nancy Giordano Different?

• Strategic futurist — connects emerging trends to practical leadership decisions
• Author of Leadering — introduces a new approach to leading through exponential change
• 200+ global keynotes — extensive experience engaging executive audiences
• Founder of Play Big Inc. — focused on helping leaders actively shape the future
• Deep technology perspective — explores AI and other exponential technologies
• Human-centered futurism — keeps people, purpose and responsibility at the center
• Highly customized — tailors presentations to the questions facing each audience
• Optimistic perspective — helps audiences become excited rather than overwhelmed by what's next

Why Is Nancy Right for Your Audience?

Nancy is an outstanding choice when you want your audience to understand what's changing, rethink outdated assumptions and become more confident shaping what's next.

She is particularly effective for leadership conferences, executive meetings, association events, innovation summits and organizations navigating AI-driven transformation.

Book Nancy when your audience needs to:

• Understand the forces reshaping business and society
• Prepare for the opportunities and responsibilities created by AI
• Think differently about leadership
• Anticipate the future of work
• Challenge outdated assumptions and systems
• Become more comfortable with exponential change
• Think more boldly about what's possible
• Move from reacting to the future to actively shaping it

Audience Takeaways

Attendees will leave:

• Better prepared to understand exponential change
• More confident navigating AI and emerging technologies
• Thinking differently about what 21st-century leadership requires
• Better able to recognize opportunities hidden inside disruption
• More willing to challenge outdated assumptions
• Understanding why human capabilities matter even more as technology advances
• Inspired to take greater responsibility for shaping what's next
• Asking: What future do we want to create?

Nancy Giordano Keynote Programs

Creating a Future to Be Excited About. What if the future isn't something to fear—but something we're responsible for designing?

Nancy explores the powerful technological, economic and societal forces transforming our world and helps audiences understand what these changes could make possible.

Rather than simply forecasting what's next, she challenges leaders to think intentionally about the future they want to create and the actions they can take today to move toward it.

Ideal for: Executive conferences, association meetings, innovation events and organizations preparing for significant change.

21st Century Expectations for Leadership. The leadership practices that got organizations here may not be enough to take them where they're going next.

Drawing from her book Leadering, Nancy challenges traditional ideas about leadership and introduces a more dynamic approach designed for continuous change.

She helps leaders become more curious, adaptive and forward-looking while developing the confidence to navigate a future where many of yesterday's assumptions no longer apply.

Ideal for: Leadership conferences, executive meetings and organizations transforming how their leaders think and operate.

The Opportunities and Responsibilities of Being AI-Led. AI is extraordinarily powerful—but what do we actually want to do with that power?

Nancy moves the AI conversation beyond productivity and automation to explore the bigger leadership questions surrounding artificial intelligence.

She challenges audiences to consider how AI can expand human capability while recognizing the responsibility leaders have to make thoughtful decisions about how these technologies are designed, deployed and governed.

Ideal for: AI conferences, executive meetings, technology events and organizations developing their AI strategy.

The Work of the Future. As technology transforms what machines can do, how should we rethink what humans do best?

Nancy explores how exponential technologies, changing expectations and new organizational models are reshaping work.

She challenges audiences to move beyond simply making existing work more efficient and instead consider how work itself can be redesigned to become more meaningful, human and valuable.

Ideal for: Future-of-work conferences, HR events, leadership meetings and organizations undergoing workforce transformation.

Why Book Nancy Giordano Through The Sweeney Agency?

Nancy Giordano combines future trends, AI, leadership and human-centered thinking—but the real value comes from connecting those forces directly to the future your organization needs to prepare for and help create.

The Sweeney Agency can help you:

• Confirm Nancy Giordano's availability and current speaking fee
• Determine which Nancy Giordano keynote best fits your audience
• Discuss customization around your industry and strategic priorities
• Coordinate format, timing and event logistics
• Compare Nancy with other leading futurist, AI and leadership keynote speakers

Is Nancy Giordano Right for Your Event?

Tell us what's changing in your industry—and what you need your leaders to understand about the future ahead.

We'll help you determine whether Nancy is the right fit, confirm availability and fees, and make the booking process simple.

Planning a leadership conference, AI summit, association meeting or corporate event? Contact The Sweeney Agency today [email protected] to discuss booking Nancy Giordano as your keynote speaker.

Kian Gohar is a bestselling author, AI researcher, and futurist. He coaches leadership teams to solve complex problems.

He is founder and CEO of Geolab, a research lab focused on the future of work, with training programs focused on AI and innovation, leadership development, and teamwork transformation.

Kian is a former executive director of the XPRIZE Foundation and Singularity University. He has coached the leadership teams of dozens of Fortune 500 companies, startup unicorns, venture capital firms, and government agencies, and fundraised nearly $50m for nonprofits that have changed the world.

His latest research on Human-AI collaboration has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal, and on a Stanford podcast selected as “Best Podcast Episode of the Year” by the podcast industry awards.

In 2022, he co-wrote “Competing in the New World of Work” with Keith Ferrazzi, which was on top of the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and translated into 7 languages.

He is a sought-after keynote speaker and emcee for marquee global events, including the World Economic Forum, YPO, and many industry associations. He serves on the board of the Transformational Leadership Council, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kian graduated from Northwestern, the London School of Economics, Harvard Business School, and was a Henry Luce Scholar in China.

Nikki Greenberg stands at the forefront as a world-renowned futurist and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, specializing in the intersection of artificial intelligence, technology, and innovation. Her dynamic and high-energy keynotes delve into the fusion of real space and cyberspace, emphasizing the transformative role of emerging technologies. Nikki's mission is to not only ignite inspiration about future possibilities but also to provide actionable insights on leveraging these advancements for business growth and success.

As a digital nomad with a versatile career spanning the US, Asia, and Australia, Nikki has excelled in various leadership roles, emphasizing innovation and cutting-edge design. She has made significant contributions as the Head of Technology Strategy at QIC, an Australian investment firm, revolutionizing a $17Bn AUM portfolio with tech-driven strategies.

Nikki's expertise and influence in PropTech and innovation have been acknowledged through numerous awards, including being named a Top 9 Most Influential Woman in PropTech (2024), Top AI Influencer (2023), and a ULI Global Luminary (2022). As a sought-after speaker, she frequently shares her insights on the tech-enabled future of different industries at prominent global conferences.

Her leadership extends to serving as a co-chair of ULI New York’s Technology and Innovation Council and founding Global Ambassador of Women in PropTech. Nikki's educational background includes Masters of International Business and Architecture from UNSW, Sydney.

Currently based in New York City, this Australian national is celebrated as one of the most influential voices in the realm of AI, technology, and future-focused thinking.

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

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

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

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

• Leading Speaker on Growth and Change Management

• Talks about 5 Practices to Unlock Unstoppable Growth and Hunting Discomfort

• Featured contributor in Forbes, Fast Company, The New York Times and Inc. Magazine

• Past clients include: Energizer, Intel, Samsung, United, XPrize, Duracell, Amex, Fortune Brands, NACS

Sterling Hawkins is an author, investor, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker who is globally recognized as a thought leader in organizational culture. Founder of the No Matter What Movement, he shows people how to practice trust to achieve the results they want regardless of obstacles.

Sterling developed his trust-powered success system to learn from the painful collapse of his multibillion dollar startup involvement. He's since combined his business background, research, study and practice to come back and launch, invest in and grow more than 100 companies. He's taken that experience to work with C-level teams and leaders and speak on stages around the world. He's been featured in magazines like Forbes, Fast Company, The New York Times and Inc.

He believes that the depth of your trust determines the extent of your growth and success in life and business. Getting results requires being brave, declaring big goals and stepping outside your comfort zone. To inspire people to unlock their own inherent potential, he shares five practices that help us push beyond our perceived limits to make a difference for our companies, communities and families. When he's not at home in Colorado, he may be out skydiving, swimming with sharks or adventuring with the No Matter What Movement.

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• Doc Hendley talks about the immense power of relationships to transcend perceived barriers through teamwork & motivation.

• Audiences leave inspired by his journey from keg-tapper to humanitarian, in his work to help the 1.1 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean water.

• Doc Hendley was named one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2009, and is the author Wine to Water: A Bartender's Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World.

• Past clients include: LinkedIn, United Water, Association for Healthcare Foodservice.

Doc Hendley is the Founder and President of Wine To Water, a global non-profit preserving life and dignity through the power of clean water. Wine To Water is committed to building a holistic, community-based model by supporting the life and dignity of all through the power of clean water. Their teams around the globe integrate strategies for social, environmental, and economic impacts through access to clean water.

Doc did not dream of dedicating his life to humanitarian efforts in developing countries. Far from it, in fact. He graduated from North Carolina State University with a communications degree that he wasn’t sure how to use. While bartending to pay the bills, he noticed the men and women sitting on the stools seemed to want to be part of something bigger. The 30-year-old Hendley got inspired behind the bar and traveled to Darfur, Sudan, and with the money raised, began installing water systems for victims of government-supported genocide.

In 2004 Hendley launched Wine To Water (W|W) from an idea that started with wine tastings and a humble donation jar. W|W radically transformed the process of bringing clean water to people in need anywhere in the world. To date, Wine To Water has dug, repaired, and sanitized drinking wells for nearly 2 million people in 53 countries. While developing water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions (WASH) in direct partnership with local leaders, WTW creates impact beyond water. This impact includes environmental sustainability, improved education, women’s empowerment, better healthcare, and economic growth.

For his life-saving work, Doc Hendley was named one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2009 chosen from over 9,000 applicants by a panel of judges, including General Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Turner, and Sir Elton John.

Doc Hendley is the epitome of the individual who has made a difference. Because of Doc and his organization, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have access to clean drinking water. Hendley is proof that anyone, even a “tattooed keg-tapper,” can cure what ails the world.

• David is a leading authority on leadership, customer service, innovation and sales and how TRUST is the common thread that weaves success into every business relationship and endeavour.

• Teaches audiences an actionable framework they can use immediately to build trust and solve their biggest challenges

• Inventor of The Enterprise Trust Index™, director of the annual study—The Trust Outlook™, and national bestselling author of The Trust Edge.

• Past clients include: FedEx, IBM, MDRT, Nationwide, New York Yankees, Pfizer, Toyota, Verizon

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David Horsager, MA, CSP, CPAE is the CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute, national best-selling author of The Trust Edge, inventor of the Enterprise Trust Index™, and director of one of the nation’s foremost trust studies: The Trust Outlook™.  David is a leading authority on leadership, customer service, innovation and sales.

His work has been featured in prominent publications such as Fast Company, Forbes, The Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal. David has advised leaders and delivered life-changing presentations on six continents - with audiences ranging everywhere from FedEx, Toyota and global governments to the New York Yankees and the Department of Homeland Security.

Shama Hyder is a visionary strategist for the digital age, a web and TV personality, a bestselling author, and the award-winning CEO of Zen Media – a global marketing and digital PR firm. She has been named the “Zen Master of Marketing” by Entrepreneur Magazine and the “Millennial Master of the Universe” by FastCompany.com. Shama has also been honored at both the White House and The United Nations as one of the top 100 young entrepreneurs in the country.

Shama is the bestselling author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing, now in its 4th edition and Momentum: How to Propel Your Marketing and Transform Your Brand in the Digital Age. An acclaimed keynote speaker, Shama has delivered keynotes in over 20 countries and spoken for recognized brands including Movado, Prudential, Chase, Tupperware, and Inc 5000.

As a result of her success, Shama has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Technology Titan Emerging Company CEO award. She was named one of the “Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25” by Business Week in 2009; one of the “Top 30 Under 30” Entrepreneurs in America in 2014 by Inc. Magazine; and to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list of moversand shakers for 2015. LinkedIn has named Hyder one of their “Top Voices” in Marketing & Social Media for three years in a row. Her online videos were awarded the Hermes Gold Award for
Educational Programming in Electronic Media and most recently she was given the Global Empowerment award for Marketing and Technology by Anokhi Media.

As the CEO of Zen Media, she and her team help both B2B and B2C brands to make meaningful connections with the modern-day customer via influencer marketing, and experiential and digital storytelling — and then turn those connections into bottom line results. Notable clients include Chase Business, The US Navy, DFW Airport, Mary Kay, and Tupperware.

Andrea Iorio is one of Brazil’s most requested keynote speakers about Digital Transformation, Innovation, Leadership and Soft Skills, and he shares his thoughts and ideas at the intersection of business, technology, philosophy and neuroscience in his more than 200 keynotes per year. He holds more than 10 years of experience in multinational and tech companies: he has been the Head of Tinder across Latin America for 5 years, and Chief Digital Officer at L’Oréal Brazil.

He is an economist with a Degree from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), and a MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins’ SAIS (Washington, DC), and is now an MBA professor at Fundação Dom Cabral.

He is the author of the books “6 Competências para Surfar na Transformação Digital” and “O futuro não é mais como antigamente”: both reached the n. 1 position on Amazon in the People Management and Leadership sections in Brazil He has more than 65k followers on Linkedin, and his podcast Metanoia Lab is among the top 100 podcasts in Business in Brazil.