David Rowan explains compellingly how emerging technologies will impact business — and how leaders should prepare now.

As founding Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine’s UK edition, David came to know the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Didi, Spotify, Xiaomi, Nest, Twitter and countless other ambitious startups from Tel Aviv to Shenzhen. He has since invested in more than 90 early-stage tech companies, including eight that became billion-dollar “unicorns”, and has built health-tech and climate-tech investment funds; and he’s an adviser to Lakestar, one of Europe’s largest venture-capital funds.

His best-selling book “Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds” (Penguin, 2019) has been translated to Japanese, Korean, Russian and Ukrainian. The book, a 20-country quest for bold corporate innovation in the face of technology-led disruption, sets out 17 proven strategies for future-proofing a successful business — from “Turn products into services” to “Empower your team” and “Become a platform”.

David has been a technology columnist for The Times, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller and The Sunday Times, and founded the VOYAGERS not-for-profit community of 800 innovators working to solve health and climate problems. He has received repeat requests to keynote for clients such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Google, KPMG, McKinsey, Chanel and Unilever, and has moderated events for the World Economic Forum and the UK and French governments. And he is still searching for the future.

David will customise a talk for your meeting or moderate your event in his accessible journalistic style.

His recent themes include:

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

What carbon accounting will mean for every business  

How emerging technologies will transform your industry

What AI, data analytics and blockchain really mean for business leaders

How to optimise customer engagement

What talent wants in the new world of work

Why purpose plus profit is the new business mantra

FINDING OPPORTUNITY AMID THE CRISIS: Technology offers hope for optimism as we emerge from the coronavirus crisis. Where 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-19has 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’s20-nation quest for non-bullshit innovation.

TEN LESSONS FROM THE NON-BULLSHIT INNOVATORS:

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