Running an event – Post Lockdown, Innovation for Opportunities & Growth
5th Mar 2021
Running an event – Post Lockdown is a real challenge. The last year has seen our usual way of working drastically change, and in turn the way we socialise and communicate has also been affected. As we currently cannot hold corporate events in person, many of us have turned to virtual methods (thanks Zoom!) to stay connected with our teams and audiences.
This has led many of us to reflect and consider a ‘new normal‘ – a way of running corporate events remotely. And while we all wish to return to a pre-Covid event life soon, the reality is that virtual is here to stay for quite a while yet.
But could this be a good thing? How do virtual events compare to those in-person, and what benefits could they bring you, your employees and your business?
At Great British Speakers we’ve enrolled the help of some of the countries best Futurist keynote speakers, experts on future trends, economy, business and more. All of our speakers offer tailored talks to your audience on how to embrace this ‘new normal’, and to find opportunity and growth, both personally and professionally.
Here is a personal message from Great British Speakers director Jane Farnham
Here are the best Post COVID speakers around.
The future post COVID with Gerd Leonard
We Are Not Going Back to Normal: Resilience, Agility and Creativity Will Beat Everything Else
As Gerd explains, the world is being painfully but irreversibly rebooted by the Covid19 crisis – and we are not going back to the way things were before, instead, we must embrace a ‘new normal’ and adapt.
This keynote (usually held remotely) addresses topics such as:
What have we learned from this crisis?
The economic and business impact: the future of jobs, work, commerce and trade
The geopolitical impact: Europe, the U.S. and China – new power structures? De-Globalisation?
The future of capitalism: stakeholder value over shareholder value: finally, sustainable capitalism?
The environmental impact: how will this crisis impact climate-change action? How real is the ‘end of oil’?
The impact on medical & healthcare: entering warp-drive
The societal impact: is technological domination and permanent surveillance next?
The personal impact: fears and hopes, solidarity vs. opportunism, resilience vs desperation
The impact on investing: where will the money go?
The impact on education, learning and universities (and leadership)
Below is an excerpt from one of Gerds virtual post COVID talks
China was widely recognised as the source of COVID 19 and in contrast to nearly every other world economy has flourished with the only post COVID economy in growth. Mark talks about the threats and opportunities China presents for political, geo-politics and commercial perspective.
Mark is a solution-orientated, innovative and client-centric lawyer with experience working in big law firms, in-house, in finance, in Government and in the judiciary.
His extensive, global and diverse experience allows him to find answers where others find problems and has led him to be twice named as one of the ‘Top 50 most influential Brits in the UAE’, as one of the 100 most influential people in Dubai and by Forbes Middle East as one of the top 50 most influential expats in the UAE.
Talk topics
Leadership – leadership through change, leadership through a storm
Entrepreneurs – how to make business more secure
Tech & Digital – especially in the context of the law, law firms and justice
Economy & Geopolitics – especially China and its Belt and Road Initiative
Future Trends – especially law and justice
Management Challenges – handling political interference
Society: The Big Debates – AI judges and lawyers? Robotic judges? The death of lawyers? The future of the law. The future of justice.
The high street was in turmoil before COVID struck. And now, it’s even worse.
The recently announced takeover of Top Shop and much of the remains of Phillip Greens empire by ASOS hit the headlines.
Daniel Bobroff is the founder of Coded Futures, a creative technology advisory firm focused on the future of retail, and formerly the co-founder and Investment Director of ASOS Ventures, the online fashion company’s venture capital division.
Daniel has founded, invested in and led companies within a range of innovative technologies including virtual reality, visual search, e-commerce and ad-tech.
At the World-leading online fashion retailer ASOS, Daniel created the company’s venture capital arm. His mission was to identify and invest in the latest innovations within retail and fashion technology. He built an enviable network of cutting-edge retail tech talent, developing partnerships covering the latest in marketing, production and customer experience.
Scouting for the latest innovations across retail’s value chain, Daniel talks about the technology-driven future of retail. He evangelizes the need for personal, immediate, and interactive mobile experiences, new filters, the importance of culture and how all retail businesses will become technology businesses.
He is a highly demanded international speaker, recently delivering keynote addresses for the Retail Institute, Salesforce, Google and Facebook.
Caspar has over 30 years’ experience in building teams to make things happen, and has experienced many companies and environments. He’s consistently found that the most successful leaders and teams are the ones who recognise we are all building two teams. A work team AND a home team.
His experiences have covered big companies and small. Starting as an entrepreneur at 14, he has built and led teams in global corporations, start-up businesses, struggling businesses and high growth businesses.
His experience includes 10+ years in Professional Services including 5 years at KPMG Corporate Finance and several stints as a CFO.
Caspar has sailed twice around the world – the first time on a trophy-winning world racing yacht and the second time with his family team – his wife and three children under the age of 10.
He’s built multiple successful ventures from scratch and sold one for a 7 figure sum whilst sailing the Pacific Ocean.
In his speeches, he reveals to audiences a rarely discussed ‘secret to success’ for business and for families, that involves applying work values to home and applying home or family values to work, to the betterment of both.
Audiences come away empowered to thrive and live their best lives both at work and at home.
Government, Commerce, Education & Military with Chris Roebuck
By using simple actions Prof Chris helps businesses to quickly transform their performance, adding investor value, building better customer service and branding, and by boosting their bottom line by 10% + at no cost. His strategy even a supports effective risk management and cost efficiency.
Here are a few of the post COVID topics Chris is covering at present:
People – what are the affects of Covid on people, in business and personal development and how to overcome personal Covid obstacles.
Work – how has work changed, could working from home be the ‘new norm’ and what does this mean for future of work/business and finance
Leadership – what have successful leaders done during Covid and what does this indicate all leaders need to do differently?
Customers – how have we as customers changed, altering what we buy, why and how. And how does this also impact the way we as employees might respond to the ideas our organisations try to “sell” us.
Tech – how has Covid altered the way we use digital mediums in our lives and what are the future trends/impacts of this…
Business models and strategies – which organisations have survived best during Covid and why? Are traditional pre-Covid approaches now still relevant?
What about me? – how can I as an individual successfully move on from Covid to the ‘new world’ and achieve what I want to 2021.
Jonathan is a creative visionary, seasoned business leader and extraordinary storyteller who understands that every single organisation needs better tools to manage constant change, and create the unforgettable experiences that their customers and colleagues require.
His bold thinking and talent for connecting huge vision to practical action illustrate the compelling execution that great companies need to thrive in disruptive times.
Over the next few years the world’s best leaders, companies and cities will have to return to the drawing board and reimagine everything.
Those who don’t will be a horse-and-cart in an electric car world.
As we begin to think about how we get through this current terrible experience, we must also dream about the post-pandemic world, how we will reimagine our businesses and work, every element of our experiences and interactions.
Those who don’t reinvent and renegotiate everything will be unprepared for this brave new world.
Those who do, and who then successfully deliver their corner of the world, will flourish.
Benita Matofska is a leading expert on the Sharing Economy and the founder and CEO of The People Who Share, a social enterprise that helps people and companies discover and access the Sharing Economy.
In her role as CEO, Benita travels the globe speaking and consulting for people and companies looking to integrate the sharing space into their businesses.
Keynote talks
How Your Business Can Benefit from the Sharing Economy
The Common Misconceptions of the Sharing Economy
Business Model Innovation, Sustainability and Future Trends
A Comprehensive Overview of the Global Sharing Economy Market
How Technology can be Utilised to Access, Exchange and Trade Idle Resources into Profits
Alex Hunter is a branding and customer experience expert, keynote speaker, and angel investor.
Previously, Alex served as the global Head of Online for the Virgin Group, overseeing the Virgin brand’s global digital strategy in its entirety, as well as Sir Richard Branson’s personal digital strategy.
Key Speaking Topics:
– The Art & Science of WOW!
– How Covid-19 is changing customer experience forever.
– Incredible customer experience in the digital age.
– How the customer/brand relationship has changed FOREVER.
– Global branding and experience in the 21st century.
– Balancing online and offline for maximum effect.
A self-proclaimed ‘global citizen’ Hagai was born in the Middle East, grew up in the UK and has lived in Belgium, South Africa, and Australia. With his highly engaging style and fascinating content, which draws on his vast experience, high-level knowledge and specific data, he provides an astute, contemporary and dynamic insight into the hottest local and global political trends and quantifies the strategic and economic impacts on specific businesses and sectors.
1. Managing In Times Of Crisis – The impact of Politics in an Ever More Uncertain World on the global economy and your business.
2. What Are You Ignoring? – Why Only Looking At Economic Risk Damages Your Business
3. New Terrorism and Global Business – The ISIS/Daesh Effect.
4. Oil & Gas – How geopolitics is driving and defining price
As the CEO and founder of GDR Creative Intelligence, Kate has accrued more than 21 years of experience in trends affecting business sectors and consumer behaviour, sharing her visionary insights around the world. She is the innovation partner to around 30 of the world’s largest consumer brands, supplying market-leading consultancy and professional speaking to P&G, Tesco, Waitrose, Target, Sephora, Microsoft and Google.
Kate is a business futurist, adept at making complex societal shifts and emerging technologies relatable for any audience. She also advises on the future of customer experience, how marketing is evolving, and how the best of the best are using tech to adapt to new customer behaviour.
Keynote Topics
• Trends fit for the future: The surprising secret of persistently brilliant retail brands • Sustainable brands: a practical guide to a future that works for the planet, people and profit • How AI is changing the world • How and why Millennials and Gen Z are changing the nature of work, leisure and commerce • 21st Century Brands – why digitally native brands are so successful, and what legacy brands can learn from them • How Innovation in Customer Experience is the Heart of Future Growth • Old retail is dead, long live Chinese New Retail
Work, working conditions and employment in general have been hit hard in the COVID-19 crisis and given the number of employees still on furlough the situation could become catastrophically worse.
Dr Paul Redmond, author, keynote speaker, employment guru, is one of the UK’s leading experts on generational change and the future of work.
As an in-demand speaker, each year Paul presents at numerous conferences and events around the world, helping organisations and professionals acquire the skills and knowledge to thrive in today’s multi-generational workplace.
Paul’s keynote topics include:
Generations at work – how to manage and motivate today’s multi-generational workplace
How to recruit, retain and respond to Millennials
Getting the most from Generation X
How to target, engage and sell to each generation
Employability and the rise of ‘Zombie’ jobs – how to stay not just employed, but employable
Wellbeing at work: how to achieve happiness and wellbeing at work
Graduate Recruitment – recruitment advice for the 21st century
The Entrepreneurs view of Running an event – Post Lockdown – Nicklas Bergman
Nicklas Bergman is one of the foremost tech and futurist speakers in Europe, providing a technological perspective on society or on business.
Your audience to leave with a set of tools to handle the techstorm, or with a more awe-inspiring perspective on technology, maybe both!
With over 20 major tech investments under his belt, Nicklas Bergman is one of the most sought-out advisers and speakers on emerging technologies and their business implications. Nicklas spends extensive time with early-stage start-ups and keeping global businesses on par with the latest innovations so they can make the best decisions for their companies.
He has extensive knowledge of AI, nanotechnology, new materials, genetics, web services, and computing.
David Rowan is one of the world’s leading technology speakers and thought leaders.
He is founding UK Editor-in-Chief, of the highly respected WIRED magazine, author of Amazon #1 business bestseller Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds (Penguin). He has delivered over 600 keynote talks around the world and event moderator for governments, WIRED, TED and the World Economic Forum
Elsewhere he is technology columnist on The Times, GQ and Condé Nast Traveller.
Not just a speaker, he practises what he preaches, being an active adviser to & investor in 60+ tech startups to date.
Current Keynotes
FINDING OPPORTUNITY AMID THE CRISIS:
Technology offers hope for optimism as we emerge from the coronavirus crisis. Here are the growth opportunities — from re-inventing supply chains to rethinking education to building new brand heroes.
WHY BUSINESS INNOVATION HAS NEVER MATTERED MORE:
COVID-19 has forced business leaders to move insanely fast to adapt. But how do you build a culture of effective innovation? Here are the lessons from David’s 20-nation quest for non-bullshit innovation.
Our professional future innovation post-lockdown speakers are available all year around for virtual (and hopefully soon, in person) events
If you’d like to book any of the talent mentioned above then please do get in touch.
Alternatively, if you need help finding a specialist speaker not on our books then just e-mail Jane and Steve who will happily source a speaker perfect for your project. Or you can call 01753 439 289 to speak with a member of the Great British UK Team
We look forward to helping you with your next project.
A keynote AI Speaker can be a game-changer for tourism businesses. These experts can demonstrate how AI can simplify operations, personalise customer journeys, and improve accessibility without losing sight of what makes travel unique— authentic ... read more
Paris Bartholomew is an inspirational speaker on resilience, hope, and personal growth, which can be especially meaningful during the holiday season. Drawing from her experiences overcoming childhood trauma and health challenges, she encourages audiences to ... read more
In today’s society, discussions around mental health, masculinity, and neurodiversity have become increasingly crucial. One individual at the forefront of these conversations is Shaun Flores, a 4x TEDx speaker, mental health advocate, and social commentator. ... read more
