How to attract talent, and motivate your team to perform its best work, in a fast changing world when the “workplace” is more fluid than ever before.
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 150 early-stage tech companies, including two that became billion-dollar “unicorns”, and is an adviser to venture-capital funds, the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, and numerous tech businesses.
Former technology columnist for The Times, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller and The Sunday Times, he has been asked to give more than 600 keynotes in recent years, and has received repeat requests to present for clients such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Google, KPMG, McKinsey, Chanel and Unilever.
David’s Amazon #1 business bestseller “Non Bullshit Innovation: 17Proven Ways to Transform How You Work” (Penguin) 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 17 proven strategies for future-proofing a successful business — helping leaders build resilience in an uncertain world.
David Rowan has moderated events for the World Economic Forum, WIRED and the UK and French governments, and is increasingly in demand to host virtual conferences.
David Rowan 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 market crises.
The past couple of months have been busy, speaking for banks, food conglomerates, governments and consulting firms from New Orleans to Singapore. Clients have ranged from American Express to CBRE, the UAE government to Twilio, and topics have inevitably centred on how AI can benefit their organisations in concrete ways; how leaders can navigate powerfully converging exponential technologies such as AI, quantum computing and now spatial computing; how to build a culture of adaptive innovation in an organisation when the world will never move this slowly again.
David Rowan 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 customises 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.
David Rowan is also in demand internationally as an event host and moderator, after-dinner speaker and webinar presenter. He has also been moderating on numerous stages — at Dubai’s vast Gitex summit (interviewing the UAE’s Minister for Artificial Intelligence was a highlight, below), and at startup events such as the Sigma Squared Summit and the 10xFounders Summit. I’m spending a lot of time at university research labs and startup clusters, and I guess my main role is to translate what’s happening at the cutting edge in order for today’s business leaders to know how to plan.
He also delight in moderating events and holding together an inspiring conversation, whether running an entire four-day Marrakech conference for a payments company, or moderating sessions in Munich for a Chinese telco.
