Keynotes and speaking
Talks your audience can use on Monday morning.
Each talk describes a problem your audience will recognise in their own organisation. It ends with questions they can ask their teams the next morning. The talks come from my advisory work with chief executives and boards.
Speaking enquiry See the keynotes Speaker pack (PDF)
ConferencesBoardsExecutive programmes
The keynotes
4 keynotes. Open one for the details.
Each one has what you need to get the session approved: what it promises, who it is for, what people take away and the formats.
Every talk works as a keynote, a keynote with a workshop, a panel, or a session I lead. If your programme needs something different, ask.
01 / Keynote
The Filter
Why bad news gets smaller on its way to you and what to do about it.
The promise
Your audience learns how information gets smaller on its way up. They leave with 3 questions to ask their own teams on Monday morning.
Who it is for
Chief executives, boards, executive teams and senior leadership conferences. Works best when the audience makes real decisions.
What people leave with
- Why honest reporting gets harder at every level. This comes from how organisations work, not from bad people
- 3 ways a leader can hear what is happening without relying only on the management line
- 3 questions that bring out what a team has stopped talking about
Formats
- Live keynote, 45–60 minutes, questions taken on stage
- Keynote plus workshop, half day, applied to your own decisions
- Closed board or executive session, 90 minutes, confidential
- Panel or moderated conversation, as panellist or as chair
02 / Keynote
Fix the System, Not the Pilot
What aviation learned by refusing to accept “human error” as the answer.
The promise
Your audience stops asking who to blame and starts asking what made the mistake likely. That one change makes the next failure less likely.
Who it is for
Operating businesses where failure is visible and expensive: energy, telecoms, mining, ports, logistics, construction, financial services and regulators.
What people leave with
- The difference between what triggered a failure and the conditions already in place. Each needs a different fix
- Why a serious failure usually comes from 7 to 12 small causes, not one big one
- What changes in a business when blame stops being the first question
Formats
- Live keynote, 45–60 minutes
- Keynote plus workshop, half day, applied to one of your own incidents
- Board or risk committee session, 90 minutes
- Panel or moderated conversation, as panellist or as chair
03 / Keynote
The First Generation Leader
Leading at a level no one in your family has led before.
The promise
Your audience stops seeing a small circle of advisors as a personal weakness. They start treating it as a gap they can close on purpose.
Who it is for
Founder-led and first-generation businesses, family groups in transition, emerging-market leadership programmes and any audience where most people are the first in their family to run at this scale.
What people leave with
- Why a family network gives leaders better information, not just social advantages
- Where to find a second opinion from someone who has nothing to lose by being honest
- How to tell the difference between advice and agreement
Formats
- Live keynote, 45–60 minutes
- Moderated conversation or fireside, 60 minutes
- Closed session for a founder or family board, 90 minutes
- Keynote plus workshop, half day
04 / Board session
Precisely Wrong
The question a board should answer before it approves the next AI system.
The promise
The board leaves with one written question and a clear idea of the evidence to expect before it is answered. This is a governance session, not a technology briefing.
Who it is for
Boards, executive teams and risk or audit committees about to automate a decision with legal, safety or reputation risk.
What people leave with
- Why a system trained on good-news data gives confident answers that are wrong in the same direction every time
- What happens when leaders' unresolved disagreements are built into automated decisions, thousands of times a day
- The question to ask after an automated decision goes wrong. Most governance rules cannot answer it
Formats
- Live keynote, 45–60 minutes
- Board or risk committee session, 90 minutes
- Working session I lead, 2 hours, with your technology and risk leaders present
- Panel or moderated conversation, as panellist or as chair
Have a date in mind? Tell me about your audience and I will tell you which talk fits.
Speaking enquiry Answered within 2 working daysWhat you get as the organiser
Everything you need to get it approved.
- Before
A short call with you
15 minutes to understand who will be there, what they believe now and what your programme needs them to leave with.
- Before
Promotional pack
Session title, a 50-word and a 150-word abstract, 3 takeaways, a speaker biography at 2 lengths and a high-resolution photograph.
- Before
2 or 3 background conversations
With people from your organisation, so the examples come from your world, not someone else's case study.
- On the day
A simple technical list
A lapel or headset microphone and a clicker. A screen facing me that shows my slides and notes. Slides sent 48 hours ahead. Panels and facilitated sessions need none of this.
- After
A one-page follow-up
The 3 questions from the talk, written so your delegates can ask their own teams. Yours to circulate.
4 things I ask for
Small asks. They make the difference.
If your programme needs a session that confirms what the audience already believes, there are speakers who do that well. I would rather say so at the enquiry than on the day.
- Closed sessions are confidential. The recording stops.
- The most senior person stays for the whole session.
- A short conversation with 2 or 3 of your people beforehand.
- The talk keeps the part someone expects me to leave out.
Enquire
Tell me about your audience.
Who will be there, what they believe now and what you need them to leave with. Dates, budget and format are easy after that.