Gerd Leonhard | Digital Futurist Speaker | Future of Work

Over the past two decades, Gerd Leonhard has risen to one of the top 10 futurist keynote speakers worldwide, he focuses on the future of humanity and technology, digital ethics, artificial intelligence, future-leadership and foresights.

With over 2,000 engagements in 60+ countries since 2004, and a combined audience of over 2.5 million people.

Gerd has been listed by Wired magazine as one of the Top 100 Most-Influential People in Europe, and as ‘one of the leading media futurists in the World’ by The Wall Street Journal.

His keynotes, are renowned for their hard-hitting and provocative  style – inspiring, humorous, motivational, and always personal.

Using cutting-edge creative  motion design, Gerd’s performances have become a unique immersive experience on the big screen, reinventing the visual side of the conference industry.

Gerd is highly regarded as a global influencer and has advised many business leaders and government officials around the globe.

Gerd Leonhard

His diverse list of clients include governments, NGOs and Fortune 500 companies such as SAP, Microsoft, Google, Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, Sony, UBS, Tetrapak, Mastercard, BBC, Unilever, Lloyds Bank, WWF, Sony, The Guardian, Telkom Indonesia, Siemens, RTL, France Telecom, The Financial Times, Ogilvy, Omnicom, The EU Commission, VISA, Audi, NetAPP and many others.

A true thought leader in the futurist space, Gerd is above all a dedicated humanist who believes that  all technological progress should further collective human flourishing. His credo is simple: People, Planet, Purpose and Prosperity.

Gerd uses his keynotes, presentations, workshops and advisory sessions to deep-dive on complex topics.

Recurring themes include the coming redefinition of human-machine relationships, exploring what it means to be human in a world of machines and algorithms, the future of work and jobs, and the ethics of technology.

As Gerd Leonhard likes to say, humanity will change more in the next 20 years than in the previous 300 years – so let’s maintain and protect what makes us human!

Gerd Leonhard has spent his lifetime  engaging  with change, as a professional artist, internet entrepreneur, and author; now exploring the role of visionary thinker and speaker.

His background is in the music business; in 1985 he won Berklee College ‘Quincy Jones Award’ and subsequently spent 12 years working as a professional guitarist, composer and producer.

Gerd Leonhard

He then caught the internet-bug and became a digital music & media entrepreneur.

From 1995 to 2002 he served as Founder/CEO of several internet startups, based in San Francisco.

In 2002, following the .com meltdown and the 9/11 crisis, Gerd returned to Europe and discovered his new calling as a futurist and as the CEO of The Futures Agency, a global network of over 40 leading futurists, speakers and personalities.

The future is already here – we just haven’t paid enough attention!

As we rush headlong into a machine-led world where the very essence of human being is being increasingly challenged, often reminding us to consider what moral values are we prepared to stand up for before “being human” alters its meaning forever.

Gerd travels around the globe to speak at leading conferences, events and seminars, helping individuals, enterprises and government organizations to deal with ‘future shock’, and to embrace change.

He is also an influential author and the co-author of the visionary book ‘The Future of Music’ and the author of five other books including his last best-seller, ‘Technology vs. Humanity’, which is now available in ten languages.

Gerd’s films on the future of technology and humanity, digital transformation and artificial intelligence have reached millions of viewers.

He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA, London) and an advisory board member of the Indian and Canadian Research Institutes.

He resides in Zürich, Switzerland and presents both in English and German.

KEYNOTE TOPICS 2020

THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION - TOP VIRTUAL KEYNOTE!

A with/post-corona future: what to expect in the next 3-5 years

Our world is being painfully but irreversibly rebooted by the Covid19 crisis – and we are not ‘going back to normal’. To many of us, this crisis may feel quite devastating but I think it also creates a very unique opportunity for what I call ‘The Great Transformation‘.

This keynote (usually held remotely) addresses topics such as:

• 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, a 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)