As founding Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine, David Rowan came to know the founders of Didi, Google, LinkedIn, Spotify, Twitter, and WhatsApp, as well as countless startups from Tel Aviv and Shenzhen.

David’s Amazon #1 business bestseller – published in 2019 as Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds and then in 2021 as Non-Bullshit Innovation: 17 Proven Ways To Transform How Your Work – has been published in Japan, Korea, Russia, Ukraine and beyond. The book, a 20-country quest for bold corporate innovation in the face of technology-led disruption sets out sixteen proven strategies for future-proofing a successful business — helping leaders build resilience in a post-COVID-19 world.

Buy David’s book on Amazon HERE

He is currently working on a book about how business leaders are using culture to attract and motivate exceptional talent at a time where artificial intelligence risks commodifying entire sectors.

David has been a technology columnist for The Times, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller and The Sunday Times, and hosts a new podcast series about tech founders called Walks With Founders.

To the right: Hear David Rowans talk on the topic of Non Bullshit Innovation at USI

Voyagers.io

In 2019, David founded Voyagers.io, a community of over 3,500 impact-focussed people from over 40 countries who commit helping one another. They have specialist groups in topics such as health-tech and climate-tech, working to solve some of today’s biggest challenges.

Voyagers have recently focused mainly on building health and climate-tech. The climate-tech group have been working on everything from nuclear fusion to plant-based meals. In 2020, they build a fund to enable the health-tech group to invest in one another’s startups, as part of their “let’s help each other out” ethos. One of the biggest fund’s success was the mental-heath startup Cerebral; they were given $10m investment and is now valued at roughly $4.8 billion!

On behalf of the climate-tech fund, Voyagers have made nine investments, including on Sweden-based carbon accounting engine Normative; top VC funds 2150, Capital, Lowercarbon, and SYSTEMIQ; and on the UK protein-engineering company Epoch BioDesign who transform plastic into valuable side products.

Managing AI

David’s main aim currently is to teach leaders how to plan for artificial intelligence transforming their worlds.

He has recently been in Dubai, and even coming into the airport, face recognition meant he did not need to show his passport. The UAE government are boldly experimenting in adapting AI in real time, including personalised healthcare to reliably returning lost property. In fact, the government have just announced a new Ministry of Possibilities, a kind of ‘What if,,,?’ innovation unit at the heart of future planning.

However, David admits that not everything regarding AI is positive:

“I’m generally an optimist about AI’s ability to boost productivity, enhance our physical health, personalise education and democratise entrepreneurship. But there’s no doubting my tech-founder friends’ genuine concerns about the inherent risks of a world mediated by autonomous agents. We’re giving these algorithms access to vast amounts of our personal data; what if the agents go rogue? What if autonomous weapons systems decide to attack the wrong target? Or bad actors abuse these technologies to exploit and undermine our networks at scale?”

Whilst AI is transforming business at all levels, it hasn’t yet replaced demand for a person to speak on a physical stage, which is where real keynote speakers are key.

Corporate

He has given over 700 keynotes around the world for clients including Chanel, Goldman Sachs, Google, JP Morgan, KPMC, McKinsey, and Unilever.

David has moderated events for the World Economic Forum and the UK and French governments and is increasingly in demand to host webinars and virtual conferences.

David deconstructs tech trends in real-time, unpacking how major innovations like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous vehicles, and more, are changing businesses and consumers. He focuses on how technology-led innovation can build prosperity even in economic downturns and amid the COVID-19 crisis.

He delivers fascinating and knowledgeable presentations full of insight into the future of technology together with lively examples and engaging video clips which reveal that, in some cases, the future is already here.

He’s typically asked to speak about how innovation and technology are likely to impact a particular sector (from manufacturing to motoring), and what incumbent companies can do to protect themselves. He customizes every talk, and in recent months has addressed audiences in finance, fashion, utilities, television, insurance, shipping, travel, real estate and business software.

He also speaks a lot about changing business models, and how companies can develop a culture of innovation.

And he is still searching for the future.

Hear David speak below at Internetdagarna Stockholm

In the last year alone, he has given more than 50 keynotes in cities as far and wide as New York, Helsinki, Stockholm, Lima, Copenhagen, London, Dubai, and Astana. He has recently spoken on the future of real estate at Futurebuild in Brussels, on health-tech for Merck in Lisbon, on marketing for Facebook/Meta, and on insurance for AJ Gallagher in Las Vegas.

Keynote Talks

David Rowan is in international demand as a keynote speaker, event host and moderator, after-dinner speaker and webinar presenter. He travels frequently, and has a home studio at his London base for online presentations and moderating. His current keynote topics include:

What AI Means For Us Humans: How to future-proof your humanity in a machine-led world.

On Non-Bullshit Innovation: David on how to enable genuine innovation, based on his 20-country investigation for his bestselling book.

Below is a talk by David, “How Smart Companies are innovating”

His other keynote topics include:

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.

Ten Lessons From the Non-Bullshit Innovators: David travelled across the world to understand what it takes for businesses and governments to leverage digital transformation in exciting ways. He shares ten lessons from his new book Non-Bullshit Innovation that can be applied to all sorts of organisations.

Keynote Themes

His recent themes include:

– How to think about human talent in the AI era

– How to understand the impact of generative AI

– What exponential technologies mean for the next five years in retail, real estate, finance, media, and healthcare etc.

– What a 20-country quest taught me about building an authentic culture of innovation

– What AI agents tell us about the future of the workplace

– Why culture is the true business differentiator in a world of exponential tech

– What talent wants in the new world of work

Event Moderating

David has moderated events for the UK and French governments, and at Buckingham Palace. He has also moderated for the World Economic Forum, Pictet, Royal Academy of Engineering, AI Everything Global Summit in Abu Dhabi, TED Conference, the Web Summit, GITEX in Dubai, Vilnius AI Summit in Lithuania, and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

He has also hosted numerous awards ceremonies, frequently interviews CEOs on stage, and is often asked to host multi-day events.

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book technology expert David Rowan to speak at or host your next live event worldwide.  

Contact us.