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The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

Your Fall ’24 Events: Hispanic Heritage Month Speakers on Innovation, Diverse Stories, and More

Every Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15), we pay tribute to the contributions of Hispanic and Latinx communities in America. Lavin’s trailblazing speakers—from the first Latina in space to the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author—celebrate the progress we’ve made and encourage us to play our part in the fight for inclusion.

The Top 3 Innovation Keynote Videos of 2023: On AI, Creativity, Change Management, and More

In a competitive landscape that’s moving faster than ever before, it’s never been more important to invest in the ideas of tomorrow. Our top innovation speakers offer practical strategies for harnessing your teams’ creativity, making change, and more. Watch our top innovation keynote videos now!

Trust Your Team—Innovation Will Follow (3:20)

David Robertson’s Innovation Highlights: From the LEGO Company to The GoPro

Diversity Is the Oxygen for Innovation—and Curiosity Is the Rocket Fuel (4:31)

The Art and Science (and Everything Else!) of Creativity: Five Perspectives from Lavin Speakers to Help You Unlock Innovation

In an age of rapid automation and innovation, creativity is the only thing that sets successful organizations apart from the rest. These speakers illuminate the many different facets of creativity—they explain why you should never sit down and try to be creative, why your most creative ideas come after you get stuck, and much more.

Non-Bullshit Innovation in a World of Constant Change (49:18)

Mastering Innovation and Execution at Autodesk with Minette Norman

Enabling innovation with automated decision-making

Bridging the Innovation Gap

4 Lessons You Need to Learn Quickly to Unleash Innovation

Best of 2012: Visionaries, Organizations, and Innovations Changing the Way We Learn

Martin Ford on Who’s Enjoying the Fruits of Innovation

Tread the third path to innovation

How ‘Little Ideas’ Can Lead to Powerful Innovations

David Robertson Innovation

End the Innovation Obsession

Five Inspiring Steps to Innovation with Jeremy Gutsche

Gender Equality As an Innovation Challenge (3:25)

How and Why We’re Hardwired for Innovation

Women in Innovation: NASA’s Dr. Ellen Ochoa (4:48)

How to Make Innovation & Change Happen (30:00)

How Conversation Can Spur Innovation (1:52)

The Most Crucial Innovation Since Fire and Electricity? AI

Conflict is the Enemy of Innovation

How Violence Hurts Innovation

The Golden Age of Innovation

How Conversation Can Spur Innovation

Using Technology to Accelerate Innovation

Why Innovation Requires Psychological Safety (1:24)

How Did LEGO Rewrite the Rules of Innovation?

What Can LEGO Teach Us About Innovation?

Doug Stephens: Innovation & How to Truly Implement It

How to Make Innovation & Change Happen

HOW TO WIN THE FUTURE – Innovation Keynote Speaker Jeremy Gutsche’s Speech on Change & Culture

Business Strategy Keynote Speaker Joe Jackman: People Are at the Centre of All Innovation

BETTER & FASTER: Innovation Keynote Speaker Jeremy Gutsche’s Top Speech on Innovation

What Does Innovation Smell Like? David Robertson on Finding Different Forms of Disruption

Innovation Keynote Speaker Jeremy Gutsche: Innovation Starts with Corporate Culture

Insights from the Corner Office: How to Build a Culture of Innovation

Jonathon Brown | The Future of Innovation

How Does Fiction Foreshadow Innovation?

Women in Innovation: NASA’s Dr. Ellen Ochoa

The Most Crucial Innovation Since Fire and Electricity? AI | Nicholas Thompson

How—and Why—We’re Hardwired for Innovation (6:35)

BETTER & FASTER (Book / Innovation Keynote Trailer) – Find Unstoppable Ideas with Jeremy Gutsche

Gender Equality As an Innovation Challenge

DISRUPT or be DISRUPTED – Innovation Keynote Speaker Jeremy Gutsche on Trends & Change

Innovation Keynote Speaker Jeremy Gutsche – 30 Minute Speech

Embracing Change to Kickstart Innovation: The Lavin Agency Welcomes Jason Feifer

This past year has taught us that sudden, unexpected change may always be just around the corner. And although this might sound scary, success is waiting for those who can let go of protecting yesterday’s status quo. Helping us find the courage to do just that is Jason Feifer—the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine and Lavin’s […]

Create the Future: Jeremy Gutsche’s Latest Innovation Guidebook Profiled by Inc

In Create the Future, Trend Hunter CEO and New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Gutsche reveals the frameworks that have helped 700 of the world’s most powerful brands, billionaires, and CEOs, accelerate real change.   Through his consulting work with Trend Hunter—not to mention his experience hosting the world’s #1 innovation conference, Future Festival—Jeremy Gutsche […]

Lead From the Future: Award-winning Innovation Expert Mark Johnson Joins The Lavin Agency

As the co-founder of innovation consultancy Innosight, Mark Johnson helps leaders envision their future, create new growth, and manage transformation. His upcoming book Lead from the Future breaks down what truly sets a visionary leader apart—and how to instill their unique approach into your own organization.   There’s no special mix of attributes that create […]

Innovation Expert Jeremy Gutsche Interviews Celebrated Thought Leader Malcolm Gladwell on the Power of Ideas

Trend Hunter CEO Jeremy Gutsche invited New York Times alum Malcolm Gladwell to the Trend Hunter offices for a thoughtful discussion on how and why we should challenge our assumptions—and the value it brings.   As the founder and CEO of Trend Hunter —the world’s largest, most powerful trend platform — Jeremy Gutsche is at […]

Abandoning the Status Quo: Innovation Guru Jeremy Gutsche Shares How CIOs Can Help Companies Disrupt

As the CEO of Trend Hunter, the largest trend-spotting platform in the world, Jeremy Gutsche is well-versed in the art of bringing big ideas to life. Now, he explains how CIOs will become crucial to disruptive innovation in the coming years.   The average lifespan of a fortune 500 company has fallen from a healthy […]

Why Does Having a Minimum Viable Product Matter? Laura Huang Explains the Benefits for Innovation

How can you maximize innovation, reduce risk, and build an entrepreneurial organization? Harvard Business Professor Laura Huang explains the importance of the Minimum Viable Product in achieving all three goals.  Instead of creating the disparate parts of a product and then assembling them into its final form, creating a Minimum Viable Product or MVP means […]

How Do You Manage Change? By Booking the Best Innovation Speakers

The world is changing—fast. You want the best innovation speaker to help you navigate your future. The Lavin Agency represents the best innovation speakers—great minds on the front lines of their industry, working to make the world a smarter place.     Jeremy Gutsche is “an intellectual can of Red Bull” (Association Week), a New York Times bestselling author and one of our most booked […]

Top 10 Innovation Keynote Speakers

The world is changing—fast. Innovation and creativity are becoming the most valuable assets a company can hire for, encourage and cultivate. But how does innovation actually happen? What does it really look like in action? These innovation keynote speakers are professors, entrepreneurs, scientists; they’re working on the front lines of innovation, helping you to better […]

Future Fest 2018, Jeremy Gutsche’s 3-Day Epic Innovation Conference, Is Underway

Future Festival 2018 Toronto—a three-day conference where the world’s best innovators gather to prototype their future—is happening now. JEREMY GUTSCHE, veteran Lavin keynote speaker and the festival’s founder and host, is also the CEO of TrendHunter.com: the #1 most powerful, predictive, and popular trend platform in the world. “The reason why,” says Gutsche, “is that we use big data from […]

Stop Being So Nice at Work! The Secrets to Effective Workplace Communication, With New Speaker Tessa West

Star NYU psychology prof Tessa West has spent her career studying how to communicate (effectively!) in uncomfortable workplace situations, and she says it’s not magic—just a simple set of research-backed strategies that will net you higher productivity and stronger teams.

How Organizations Can Move Beyond Inclusion—and Towards Indivisibility. DEI Speaker Denise Hamilton’s New Book

Imagine an organization where everyone contributes to the greater mission, where diverse ideas are embraced and used to fuel breakthrough innovation. We can get there, Denise says. But first, we need to move past mere inclusion—and towards the goal of indivisibility. Packed with insight and practical tips, Denise’s new book Indivisible is “a force for unity” (Adam Grant).

The Top 10 AI Speakers for 2024: This Is How You Thrive in the AI Revolution

Generative AI is already changing the way we think about work, the economy, investments, education, and society at large. It promises to be more disruptive than the internet itself. Lavin has been exploring the potential of AI for years, and we are proud to share the insights of our leading thinkers.

The Top Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Speakers for 2024

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, when we celebrate the AAPI communities who have made this country what it is. Lavin is proud to represent the world’s top AAPI Heritage Month speakers on solidarity and social justice, who embody and explore the 2024 theme of “Advancing Leaders Through Innovation.”

Tessa West

We all face uncomfortable situations at work. By learning how to navigate them, leaders can boost their teams’ productivity, creativity, and innovation.

The Top 12 International Women’s Day Speakers for 2024: True Gender Equality, Learning From the Past, and More

Every March, International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month give us the chance to be inspired by the women of the past, and to let their stories light the way towards our shared future. Lavin is proud to represent the world’s top IWD speakers: from literary icon Margaret Atwood to civil rights legend Minnijean Brown-Trickey, and many more.

3 Major Releases of 2024: Growth Mindset, a MoMA Show, AI and the Future of Education

2024 promises to be a blockbuster year for our exclusive speakers: from groundbreaking new books to Museum of Modern Art exhibitions, their ideas are poised to catch fire nationwide. Here’s a sneak peek at just three of the releases you’ll see from our speakers this year.

The 7 Best Books of the Year (and the Biggest Ideas for Next Year): Our Speakers’ Books on the TIME Top 10 and More

This was another banner year for books by Lavin speakers, which again helped shape the national conversation. We’re proud to have books by so many of our speakers on every Year-End list: from TIME to The Economist to The New York Times and beyond.

Top 10 AI Speaker Alexandra Samuel: The New Hybrid Work Is Humans + AI

The author of Remote, Inc., Alexandra says that if we can equip our teams to make effective use of AI, it will become not just a tool for productivity, but the key for us to play a meaningful role in transforming our workplaces for the decades to come.

Top 10 AI Speaker Justin Reilly: Your Company Needs to Become “AI First”

Just as the internet brought business into the Digital First and then Mobile First eras, breakneck advances in Artificial Intelligence are quickly bringing us into an “AI First” era, says Wavelo CEO and top AI strategy speaker Justin Reilly.

Top 10 AI Speaker Jeremy Gutsche: Make the Chaos of AI Work for You

“This is the year AI changes you,” says top AI futurist speaker Jeremy Gutsche. As CEO of Trend Hunter, the world’s largest AI trend-spotting platform, he shows us how to lean into the chaos and emerge as more powerful, AI-enabled versions of ourselves.

Top 10 AI Speaker Sal Khan: AI Won’t Destroy Education. It’ll Save It

Artificial Intelligence is already revolutionizing how we teach and how we learn—and that’s not a bad thing. Amidst the rampant questions and worries about AI’s role in schools, AI education speaker Sal Khan offers a powerful (and hopeful) case for AI’s transformative potential.

Top 10 AI Speaker Radhika Dirks: AI Is Revolutionizing Possibility Itself

If you’re still thinking of ChatGPT as a simple tool for productivity, you’re thinking too small, says AI innovation speaker Radhika Dirks, one of Forbes’s 30 Women in AI to Watch. The power of generative AI has brought our wildest and most ambitious moonshots—projects that used to take decades and billions of dollars to accomplish—within reach.

Top 10 AI Speaker Ajay Agrawal: Why You Can’t Afford to Be 2nd in the AI Future

Artificial Intelligence is disrupting our entire economy, which means that smart companies have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to consolidate power today, says AI leadership speaker Ajay Agrawal. As the founder of the Creative Destruction Lab, the largest incubator of AI startups on the planet, Ajay shows leaders like you practical ways to get ahead—and stay ahead—in the AI future.

Why Empathy Is a Vital Ingredient for True DEI: Stanford Psychologist Jamil Zaki

Empathy is a vital ingredient for thriving workplaces and for successful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, says Jamil Zaki, director of Stanford’s Social Neuroscience Lab. Drawing on his original research on the science of empathy, Jamil shows how you can learn this “soft skill” just like you’d learn a hard skill like coding: through practice, experience, and collaboration.

Mary C. Murphy

A growth mindset isn’t just for individuals. You can develop it in your whole organization, and unlock radical collaboration and innovation.

“Inclusive Leadership Is a Practice”: Daily Steps for Transforming Your Company Culture, from Minette Norman’s New Book

Building diverse teams is the key to breakthrough innovation. But teams can’t benefit from their diversity until everyone feels safe to bring their best to work—and inclusive teams require inclusive leaders. The good news? Inclusive leadership is a practice that anyone can learn—and in The Boldly Inclusive Leader, Minette shows you how.

Turn Collaboration Into “Creative Chemistry”: Fmr. Nike Chief Marketing Officer Greg Hoffman

Want to build a environment of radical risk-taking and powerful collaboration? “Never play it safe, play to win,” says Greg Hoffman. As Nike’s former Chief Marketing Officer, Greg’s insight-packed keynotes on leadership and innovation have lit up stages everywhere from Instagram to Adobe to EA Sports.

Creativity Is a Skill You Can Learn: Lavin Welcomes Caitlan Maggs, Former Cirque du Soleil Artistic Director

At the Cirque du Soleil, one of the world’s most famously creative companies, Caitlan worked on almost every groundbreaking show for two fast-paced decades. Now she shows you how to learn the skill of creativity—and unlock radical innovation and teamwork.

Technologies Like AI Will Reshape Society. Let’s Make Sure Everyone Prospers. MIT Economist Daron Acemoglu’s New Book

Congratulations to Lavin speaker Daron Acemoglu, one of the 10 most cited economists in the world, on the release of his new book Power and Progress: a hopeful look at the future of technology and democracy.

How to Get Unstuck: Adam Alter’s New Book Is a Roadmap to Creativity and Success

Everyone feels stuck, whether you’re wrestling through a difficult project or trying to mend a friendship. “People believe that stuckness is inevitable,” says Adam Alter, whose new book Anatomy of a Breakthrough is out today. “And it is—but it turns out to be surmountable.”

The Surprising Secret to High Performance? Talking to Yourself. Ethan Kross, Psychologist and Bestselling Author

If you want to develop resilience, innovation, and powerful leadership, you need to start by leading yourself. Lavin’s Ethan Kross is an expert on turning your inner voice into your greatest tool, and his work has caught fire in the corporate world. He’ll show you what he’s already shown C-suites across America: how to unleash your inner Ted Lasso.

David Rowan

To stay relevant, you cannot ignore the new rules of technology, business, or innovation.

Quick and Nimble

Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation

Creative Courage

Leveraging Imagination, Collaboration, and Innovation to Create Success Beyond your Wildest Dreams

Caitlan Maggs

Creativity is a skill, not a talent. You can learn it through practice—and unlock resilience, innovation, and collaboration.

Brick by Brick

How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry

The Power of Little Ideas

A Low-Risk, High-Reward Approach to Innovation

Exploiting Chaos

150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change

Women’s History Month 2023: Lavin’s Top Speakers on Gender Equality and Beyond

March is Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the amazing progress in women’s rights over the years, as well as the work being done today. With so many facets of gender equality to explore, Lavin can help you book the right speaker for your event to inspire leadership, growth and resilience. We’re proud to […]

The Top Happiness & Wellness Speakers of 2022

Good health, both mental and physical, isn’t just nice to have in the workplace—it’s the key to increased productivity, motivation, and creativity for workers and leaders in every context. Our TOP HAPPINESS AND WELLNESS SPEAKERS offer innovative, practical strategies that you can use to help everyone in your organization perform at their highest level, all the time. […]

Innovate for Communities, Not Individuals: David Robertson on How Cherokee Values Help You Innovate Better

Nobody lives in a vacuum. Our behaviors, needs, and desires are highly influenced by the people around us. So why does so much of our innovation center solely around the individual? MIT innovation expert David Robertson knows that if we can tap into the communities we serve, we’ll be able to develop a framework of […]

Use Your Personal Story For Radical Creativity: Nike’s Former Chief Marketing Officer Greg Hoffman

During his decades-long career at Nike, Greg Hoffman defined the brand’s identity through innovative storytelling.  As Nike’s former Chief Marketing Officer, Greg pulled from his personal life to create strong emotional attachments between people and products. Named one of Business Insider’s most innovative CMOs, he refused to stay within his comfort zone—instead, embracing creativity and innovation. Now, […]

Michael Katchen

In order to grow, we need to weave innovation into the DNA of our organizations.

David Robertson

The third way of innovation is not radical disruption—it’s a low-risk, high-reward strategy.

Margot Lee Shetterly

A greater diversity of voices in science, in the STEM fields, is key to the future of American innovation.

Randall Lane

Endless disruption has led to faster innovations, better approaches, bigger opportunities.

Charles Fishman

Innovation on demand? Creative leadership? NASA’s moon landing got there first.

Adam Alter

Many of the barriers you’re facing are subjective. You can get unstuck—and unlock radical creativity, innovation, and teamwork.

Ellen Bennett

Overthinking kills innovation. You need to dream first, and worry about the details later.

Sarah Kaplan

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are our greatest innovation challenges—risky, transformative, and ultimately worthwhile.

The Lavin Agency Welcomes John List, Chief Economist at Lyft

The ideas that change the world are those that reach the largest number of people, says John List: a leading economist at The University of Chicago, and the Chief Economist at ride-share giant Lyft. But how can we make sure our best ideas reach our desired audiences? Thankfully, there are vital attributes that all “scalable” […]

Overcoming Barriers to Change: The Lavin Agency Welcomes Loran Nordgren

At the heart of creating change lies a deep and often destructive assumption that can thwart our best efforts at innovation: it’s the conventional belief that the best way to get people to embrace our idea, is to increase the appeal of the idea itself. However, this approach neglects the psychological “frictions” that hold us […]

Futurist Jonathan Brill Reveals How to Turn Chaos Into Profit in Rogue Waves

Radical changes are hitting businesses harder, faster, and more often than ever before. And though everyone will face them at some point or another, some companies will fare better than others. In Rogue Waves, Jonathan Brill, an expert in resilient growth and decision-making in times of uncertainty, reveals an actionable plan for “driving change, instead […]

The Power of Creative Leadership: The Lavin Agency Welcomes Former Nike CMO Greg Hoffman

There is perhaps no one more qualified to advise you on the ins-and-outs of creative leadership than new Lavin speaker Greg Hoffman. Throughout his 20+ years at Nike, Hoffman helped lead the sporting giant’s most innovative branding, marketing, and design efforts—from the Emmy Award-winning Colin Kaepernick campaign to the most remembered ad of the 2016 […]

Luke Burgis’ Wanting Reveals the Power of Mimetic Desire

The billion-dollar question of business, politics, even the foundation of society itself—why do we want the things that we want? It is both shocking and revealing that everything we desire, do, or create is powerfully influenced by those around us. In his new book,Wanting, serial entrepreneur LUKE BURGIS makes a startling case about the hidden […]

Decoding the Future of Events: A Message From Our Founder

What will become of in-person events, now that the business world is acclimating to the affordability and accessibility of virtual events? The Lavin Agency’s Founder and CEO David Lavin considers the future of the industry he’s so passionate about.  There’s an interesting parallel between what’s happening in the events industry today, and the digital disruption […]

No Rules Rules: Erin Meyer Shares the Behind-The-Scenes of Netflix’s Culture

In her latest book No Rules Rules, Erin Meyer teams up with Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to reveal, for the first time ever, the unorthodox culture that made the streaming giant what it is today. We’re all familiar with the story. In the year 2000, Blockbuster turned down the chance to purchase a fledgling DVD […]

Reimagining Higher Education in Response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history. Not only that, but this crisis is exacerbating pre-existing education disparities for many of the most vulnerable students. How are higher education institutions carrying on with teaching during this socio-economic, cultural and health crisis, and what do we know about the future of […]

Silicon Valley, Reinvention, and the Future of Tech: Introducing Lavin Speaker Alex Kantrowitz

In Always Day One, tech reporter Alex Kantrowitz explores the industry’s unique culture of innovation. More than just a catchy slogan, the book’s title refers to the bedrock principle employed by one of the largest, most successful companies in the world: Amazon. The logic being that failure to invent like a start-up will eventually lead […]

How Can Entrepreneurs Get Through COVID-19? Business Journalist David Sax Reveals Two Essential Truths

If business owners can learn to embrace two certainties, they’ll be able to get through anything, says David Sax. In his new piece for Entrepreneur, he considers how the challenges presented by COVID-19 are showing us what we’re capable of. “The only way entrepreneurs will get through this is by embracing our two core truths […]

Lavin’s Top Women & Leadership Speakers Are Breaking Barriers—and Inspiring Others to Do the Same

In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re shining the spotlight on our Top Women & Leadership Speakers. These women are all powerhouses in their fields—from business and law to STEM and sports. They’re reshaping the worlds they work in, and as speakers, their stories and expertise empower other women to do the same.      […]

Navigating Our AI Future: Lavin’s Top 10 Artificial Intelligence Speakers

Once the stuff of dystopian nightmares, artificial intelligence has become an essential part of our daily lives. Today, AI recommends our products, routes our taxis, predicts our Internet searches. Tomorrow? It will be a tool as fundamental as electricity. Lavin’s Top 10 artificial intelligence speakers help us navigate the changes to come. Radhika Dirks: There […]

AI Pioneer Radhika Dirks Discusses Technology’s Disconnect from Humanity in New TEDx Talk

 Scientific study was born out of a desire to answer big, philosophical questions on the meaning of life. When scientists and technologists forget this nascent connection, says Radhika Dirks, they run the risk of creating without considering the ethical implications of their work. In her TEDx talk, Dirks reminds us why relating technology back to […]

Lavin’s Top 10 Corporate Culture Speakers Changing the Workplace of Tomorrow

More than just a modern-day business buzzword, corporate culture plays an integral role in a company’s success. Whether it’s innovation, collaboration, diversity, or a commitment to taking risks, Lavin’s Top Corporate Culture Speakers will help you elevate your organization by championing strong values and putting people first. Stephanie Mehta: Few people know what makes an […]

Connecting to Today’s Consumers: Lavin’s Top Ten Marketing Speakers

The last decade has seen a complete transformation in the way we do business. Lavin’s Top 10 Marketing Speakers expertly navigate us through the changing tides, and help leaders and organizations win the hearts of tomorrow’s consumer.   Sarah Kaplan Corporate social responsibility has morphed from a nice-to-have into an absolute must-have. In her talks, […]

Lavin’s Top CEO Speakers Reveal the Secrets of Inspiring Leadership

Being a CEO means more than having a fancy title and corner office. It means being able to lead under pressure, and in times of crisis; being able to inspire and mobilize a team; and lastly, being able to execute strategy with vision. Lavin’s Top CEO Speakers have walked the walk, and now they’re sharing […]

Create the Future: Jeremy Gutsche Offers New Tactics for Disruptive Thinking in His Upcoming Book

More than just a business buzzword, innovation has become a coveted ideal for nearly every organization on earth. The problem is, though everyone wants innovation, few know how to actually attain it. In his upcoming book Create the Future, Trend Hunter CEO and New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Gutsche offers a guide for mastering […]

Building a 360° Corporation: New Lavin Speaker Sarah Kaplan Navigates Stakeholder Trade-Offs

In today’s political climate, corporate social responsibility has transformed from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have.” Sarah Kaplan, author of The 360° Corporation, shows us how the next generation of business will survive—and thrive—amidst conflicting stakeholder demands.  “Today, increasingly, corporations are being asked, pressured, forced, encouraged, regulated, and coaxed to consider a broader set of stakeholders […]

Building an Innovative Culture: Fast Company’s Stephanie Mehta joins The Lavin Agency

Fast Company is the magazine that innovative businesses trust when they want to understand up-and-coming technologies, changing leadership and workplace trends, and ideas with the power to change the world. At the helm is Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Mehta, helping to shape the future for the next generation of business. If you want to understand the most […]

Shoshana Zuboff Dubs the City of Toronto the “New Frontier” of Surveillance Capitalism

Information is capital in the twenty-first century, a fact which has led companies like Google and Facebook to hunt, capture, and hoard the personal data of its consumers. The value lies not in the capacity for service improvement, but in the rich predictive signals such data provides. In an essay for Toronto Life, Shoshana Zuboff […]

Rebel With a Cause: Social Scientist Francesca Gino Explores Non-Conformity for NPR

Francesca Gino stumbled across Massimo Bottura’s unusual Italian cookbook by chance. Flipping through its pages, she discovered that the traditional Italian recipes she knew and loved had been replaced with creative, remixed dishes. On this week’s episode of Hidden Brain by NPR, Gino explains what she learned from the rule-breaking Michelin chef in her quest […]

The Pain of Losing Local Business: David Sax Investigates Why Saying Goodbye Hurts for the New York Times

In his New York Times opinion piece, bestselling author David Sax explores the indelible mark that brick-and-mortar businesses continue to leave on consumers—even in the digital age—and why it hurts so much when they close their doors.  “Why do we shed tears over businesses that shut their doors, when we know that the nature of […]

Shoshana Zuboff and Safi Bahcall Longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

Sixteen titles are competing for this year’s Financial Times and McKinsey Book of the Year Award. Among them are Lavin speakers Shohana Zuboff and Safi Bahcall, for their groundbreaking books The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and Loonshots, respectively.  In 2015, Lavin speaker Martin Ford’s book The Rise of the Robots became the first tech title […]

Lavin Speakers Reflect on the 50th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing

July 20th, 2019, marks 50 years since NASA put a man on the moon. These are the Lavin Speakers talking about mankind’s greatest achievement.   One Giant Leap author Charles Fishman continues his 50 Days to the Moon series for Fast Company. The award-winning journalist is also appearing at NASA’s 50th anniversary event—held in collaboration […]

What Did JFK’s Assassination Mean for the Moon Landing? Charles Fishman Investigates for Fast Company

The moon landing wouldn’t have happened without President John F. Kennedy, he who boldly promised the nation that we would reach the moon before the Soviets. But would we have gotten there by 1969—as promised—if he hadn’t been assassinated? In his latest article for Fast Company, Charles Fishman reveals surprising evidence that suggests JFK was […]

Lavin Speakers Nominated for Thinkers50: The World’s Most Prestigious Ranking of Management Thinkers

Thinkers50, the premier ranking of global business leaders, announced the nominees for their 2019 Distinguished Achievement Awards. Dubbed the “Oscars” of Management Thinking by the Financial Times, this year’s shortlist features no less than six Lavin Speakers, whose ideas are being recognized for their potential to change the world.   Ajay Agrawal—Digital Thinking Award In […]

Randall Lane’s Forbes Under 30 Summit Asia Kicks off in Hong Kong

Over 300 of the most influential entrepreneurs will gather for the fourth annual Forbes Under 30 Summit Asia. Creator Randall Lane discusses the significance of the event, and the Under 30 platform as a whole. Forbes 30 Under 30 is practically a cultural institution. Conceived in 2011 by the magazine’s Chief Content Officer Randall Lane, […]

Charles Fishman Explains How an Unlikely Pairing—Between NASA and Playtex—Led to the Apollo Spacesuits in Fast Company

In One Giant Leap, Charles Fishman writes the untold story of the moon landing—charting how the ambitious project was scaled through innovation, teamwork, and technological advancement. As part of Fast Company’s 50 Days to the Moon series—which features a story each day leading up to the 50th anniversary—Fishman explains how a bra company beat out […]

Lavin Speaker Daron Acemoglu Awarded MIT’s Highest Faculty Honor

Economist Daron Acemoglu has produced influential research in government, innovation, labor, and globalization. Thanks to his groundbreaking contributions to the field, this year Acemoglu has been named Institute Professor, the highest faculty honor awarded by MIT.   Daron Acemoglu has spent over 25 years at MIT grappling with large and complex economic questions. Over the […]

Will AI Facilitate a Universal Basic Income?: A Conversation with Martin Ford and Kai-Fu Lee

As the future draws nearer, experts are weighing in on the impact Artificial Intelligence will have on the workforce. What jobs will automation make redundant? Will it eliminate more positions than it generates? And is the answer to the problem a government-subsidized salary? Lavin Speaker Martin Ford makes the case for a Universal Basic Income […]

Lavin Speaker John Maeda Appointed Chief Experience Officer at Leading Digital Transformation Company

A leader in the world of design, technology, education, and computer science, John Maeda is one of Silicon Valley’s most revered names. Now, he’s spearheading design at Publicis Sapient—a digital consultancy firm—to guide legacy companies through the peaks and valleys of the digital revolution. As the Global Head of Computational Design at Automattic—the parent company […]

Top 10 Team-Building Speakers: Fostering Meaningful Connections in the Workplace

A company can’t succeed without its people, and people can’t succeed without each other. These Top 10 team-building speakers illuminate how to create long-lasting connections in the workplace—improving productivity, collaboration, and happiness in the process. Darby Allen is widely celebrated for safely evacuating the residents of Fort McMurray during Alberta’s 2016 forest fires. Today, the […]

The Moon Landing Was Virtually Impossible. In One Giant Leap—Out Tomorrow—Charles Fishman Charts How We Arrived.

In 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went to the moon, and their skill, courage, and the moment itself has been well-documented in the 50 years since. But the astronauts weren’t the only ones who made the moon landing possible. In One Giant Leap—out tomorrow—Charles Fishman offers a behind-the-scenes account of the ordinary people who […]

Unforgettable Workshops & Interactive Keynotes from Our Leading Workshop Speakers

Does your event call for hands-on audience engagement? Expertly led workshops? An unforgettable interactive keynote experience? These speakers do it all—speak, teach, and get people out of their seats for entertaining and motivating interactive workshops and keynotes, tailored to your audience’s precise needs.   David Robertson – How Do You Lead Innovation? David Robertson, MIT professor […]

A Q&A With Emily Esfahani Smith, Lavin Speaker and Author of The Power of Meaning

Meaning, not happiness, is the key to a good life. That’s the vital message at the core of Emily Esfahani Smith’s book, The Power of Meaning, an essential guide to living a life that matters, as well as her popular TED talk—viewed over 7 million times—and her viral Atlantic article. In our recent chat with her, she explains how you can develop genuine cultures of […]

Plan the Conference of the Future with Lavin + WIRED: A New, Exclusive Partnership

From ethics to innovation, culture to business, WIRED offers grounded, deeply-reported coverage of how technology will impact our jobs, our economy, our politics, and our lives. They provide the most essential information to help people set the smartest course for their future—mirroring our own mandate to make the world a smarter place. That's why we're […]

Top 10 Business Keynote Speakers

Great companies start with great leaders. Leaders who recognize incredible talent, even when it’s hard to see; leaders who can spot, manage, and prevent risk; leaders who build successful teams, adapt to change and create cultures of innovation. These business keynote speakers blend personal, compelling leadership stories with years of immersive research, interviews and anecdotes […]

Black History Month: The Struggles of Our Past Teach Us About Our Present

February is Black History Month—a time in which we celebrate the important contributions and achievements of African Americans throughout history. Lavin speakers Titus Kaphar, Heather McGhee and Margot Lee Shetterly engage with this crucial history through a variety of lenses: art, policy, STEM. But most importantly they draw wisdom from it, in order to forge a better future.    […]

The Icons & Ideas Making the World WIRED: EIC Nicholas Thompson’s Summit Celebrates the Magazine’s Past, Present & Future

The four-day summit, named WIRED25, was a celebration of the ideas, innovations, and icons that made the world wired. In addition to work immersions, keynotes, and even a robot petting zoo, editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson, conducted thoughtful, illuminating interviews with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, and Stacy Brown-Philpot of TaskRabbit, about the future of […]

Fresh, Powerful Perspectives: Say Hello to Our Women in Leadership Speakers

Innovative ideas come from diverse leadership. That’s a fact. Minette Norman, VP of Engineering at software leader Autodesk was the only person who could demolish the silos restricting progress; Maureen Chiquet led Chanel and Banana Republic through a decade of retail disruption; and Margot Lee Shetterly is the author of the #1 bestseller Hidden Figures, about the black […]

Introducing New Speaker Markus Giesler: One of the World’s Most Influential Consumer Sociologists

“The winner with consumers will always be whoever has the best strategy for managing the cultural, ethical and political factors of their innovation,” says Markus Giesler—one of the 40 Best Business Professors Under 40 and an incredibly influential consumer sociologist and ethnographer. Markus Giesler teaches the world’s first MBA course on Customer Design Experience and […]

Nat Geo is Developing a TV Series based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures—Margot Lee Shetterly’s runaway New York Times bestseller and the inspiration for the Academy Award nominated film—is being developed by the original producers into a series for Nat Geo, National Geographic’s cable channel. Shetterly’s book recounts the true story of the black women mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of America’s greatest achievements in space, […]

Blockchain Expert Michael Casey Breaks Down the Basics in May’s MIT Technology Review

Michael Casey is the Senior Advisor to MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative and author of both The Age of Cryptocurrency and The Truth Machine, two pre-eminent books on cryptocurrency. With ease and clarity, he demystifies the blockchain, breaking down what it actually means, for organizations, corporations and private citizens alike. His article for the May/June issue […]

Rebels Lead More Successful Lives. Francesca Gino’s New Book Rebel Talent (Out Now!) Will Help You Find the Rebel in You.

Francesca Gino has spent the last decade studying rebels and rule-breakers in organizations around the world, from high-end fashion boutiques in Italy to thriving fast food chains. The result is her new book Rebel Talent, a groundbreaking analysis of those who routinely defy the status quo, embrace the unfamiliar, and end up happier and more […]

Organizations Need to Cultivate Rebel Talent to Evolve, Innovate and Stay Relevant. Francesca Gino’s New Book Explains How.

Behavioral scientist and Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino has written the book on breaking the rules, in business and in life. Out May 1, Rebel Talent is already collecting praise from the likes of Angela Duckworth (the NYT bestselling author of Grit) and Ed Catmull, (president of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.)  Gino […]

At the Intersection of Art and Science: 3 Speakers Show Us New Ways of Seeing the World

Art and science have long enjoyed a fruitful partnership (da Vinci, anyone?) and Lavin’s speakers are no exception to the rule. In light of the release of physicist and writer Alan Lightman’s latest novel, Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine, we rounded up three of our speakers whose work brings together science and the humanities […]

Does Your Event Need a Workshop? A Moderator? Audience Engagement? These Three Speakers Do It All

Does your event call for a workshop, a moderator, an MC, or some other form of hands-on audience engagement? Tom Wujec, Misha Glouberman, and Ritu Bhasin do it all—speak, teach, and get people out of their seats for entertaining and motivating sessions. Best of all, these presentations are tailored exactly to you and your audience’s needs. Disruption […]

Three Female Leaders Whose Talks Will Inspire the Next Generation

Women don’t run the world (yet). But these women in leadership speakers—Maureen Chiquet, Jessica Jackley and Margot Lee Shetterly—are some of the strongest in their field, offering dynamic insights into how they’ve leaned in and leveraged their unique skillsets to make it in predominantly male worlds.   As Global CEO of Chanel and President of Banana […]