Topic: The Future of Work

Patty McCord

Patty McCord brings the Silicon Valley concepts of fresh ideas and innovation and applies them to rethinking the way we work. She challenges norms and invites us to reconsider the idea of “best practices.”

From her many years working with companies that range from very large global tech companies to small very small innovative start-ups, Patty saw first-hand how companies can become slow and complacent and employees become cynics and whiners. She spent 14 years at Netflix experimenting with new ways to work. Making the Netflix culture deck become reality for the people who work there. From abolishing performance reviews to challenging the need for policies, Patty believes people come to work as fully formed adults with a desire to make an impact and be proud of what they do and she’s on a mission to spread the word that we can do this differently. She is frequently in the media with interviews and articles from Harvard Business Review, NPR, Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal. She speaks at CEO Forums, Business schools and for large groups around the world.

Jacob Morgan

Jacob is one of the world’s most sought-after speakers on leadership, the future of work, and employee experience... and for good reason!

He doesn’t deliver keynotes; he creates powerful experiences designed to create better leaders, transform organizations, and positively impact the lives of your audience. Jacob’s talks are customized, filled with both research and stories, and most importantly, they are actionable.

Coming from an immigrant family (The Republic of Georgia) Jacob was taught the values of hard work, fighting for what you believe in, and having a vision. He took a job after college working for a company that promised to treat him well and help him grow, but instead he was stuck doing cold- calling and PowerPoint presentations. Jacob quit shortly after the CEO made him fetch coffee. That was one of the last jobs he ever had.

Today, Jacob is an international best-selling author, acclaimed keynote speaker, professionally trained futurist, and entrepreneur with a global audience. Using his own proprietary research which includes surveying tens of thousands of employees and working with hundreds of CEOs around the world, Jacob designs each speech to be impactful, filled with stories, and backed by data.

His speaking topics focus on leadership, the future of work, and employee experience. His goal with every presentation is to show your audience the art of the possible, to inspire people to take action, and provide actionable tools to allow your people turn the possible into reality.

Jacob has recently released a new book Leading with Vulnerability: Unlock Your Greatest Superpower to Transform Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization. He is also a hos of his podcast Great Leadership with Jacob Morgan.

Jacob works collaboratively with your team to make the keynote align with your vision for a successful event, whether that’s for a group of ten CEOs or a packed house of thousands of team members.

Ade McCormack

Ade McCormack is an experienced international keynoter and public speaker. His audiences range from a select gathering of executive diners through to arena-scale events.

His focus is on disruption and people-centric transformation. He covers the implications for business models, leadership and talent management. He explores the changing nature of risk and culture. He considers the path humanity is taking in respect of augmentation and cognition. Strategically, he provides guidance on how to harness disruption and thus create super-resilient organisations. Ade guides the audience on what they need to do to remain economically relevant in these increasingly uncertain and volatile times.

His thought leadership and practical experience enable him to provide both a zoom-out and zoom-in perspective. He is often asked to be the opening keynoter because his perspectives set a disruptive and mind-moving tone for the overall summit / conference / event.

His work has taken him to 40 countries working with the world’s most recognised brands across many sectors. He is a former Financial Times columnist on digital leadership, has lectured at MIT Sloan School of Management on that theme and today works with the University of Cambridge at the sharp end of executive education. Ade is also a strategic advisor in both the public and private sector. He has written six books on digital matters and has a ‘bits to boardroom’ understanding of the issues, given his past life as a technologist (IT and astrophysics).

Ade McCormack has been referred to as ‘an inspiring slap in the face’ for his ability to convey the true extent of the challenges that we all face coupled with a way forward that will ultimately liberate us.

The problem he addresses is that many organisations are in a tailspin because their business model was not designed for the growing uncertainty and volatility. Some leaders are in denial and some think that the digitalisation of their anachronistic model will somehow save them.

Ade will make them acutely aware of the scope of the problem they are facing and how holding their breath and hoping the world will return to normal shortly will not cut it. He will highlight the implications in relation to a variety of areas including leadership, risk, innovation, talent, business models and strategic planning (RIP). He will then introduce them to the concept of super-resilience and how to build what in effect is a people-centric situationally aware ‘living organism’.

In order to capture the attention of the audience, Ade draws upon a variety of disciplines, including strategy, IT, neuroscience, anthropology, biology and human performance. He uses very memorable soundbites and memes to maximise audience resonance and retention.

Ade McCormack storifies his keynotes and thus they play out like a compelling drama where your audience is the hero. There is even a love interest! And there is quite a twist at the end when the antagonist’s true role is revealed. Your audience can expect to leave profoundly moved, enlightened and inspired. Ade’s keynote will reset the bar in respect of subsequent conversations within your organisation / throughout your event.

James Bellini

Dr. James Bellini is a leading futurologist and author with a considerable reputation as a thought-provoking speaker and moderator at top-level management conferences and business schools around the world. James has spent more than twenty-five years as a respected TV broadcaster, futures analyst and writer with a strong focus on social, economic and technological trends over the next ten to twenty years.

After an early academic career James joined the US-headquartered futurology ‘think tank’, the Hudson Institute, as its first British member. He subsequently moved to the BBC to present The Money Programme, Newsnight and Panorama and then to independent television as presenter, writer and narrator of a wide range of award-winning documentary series, current affairs programmes and environmental reports. For seven years he was a studio presenter with Financial Times Television and Sky News.

James has written many books and special reports and is a regular contributor to leading publications. He has also held senior executive positions in advertising and corporate communications and served on the European Advisory Board of the global future forum. He is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Dr Bellini has a Masters in law and history from Cambridge and a PhD from the London School of Economics. In January 2007 he was elected Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation, founded by Nobel Laureate Glenn Theodore Seaborg. In 2015 James was awarded the Professional Certificate in Coaching – with Merit – by Henley Business School.