Top Futurist Speaker Matthew Griffin : Inspiring Visions for Tomorrow’s World

Looking to book a top keynote speaker who delivers real impact? Matthew Griffin is globally recognised award winning speaker who has inspired tens of millions worldwide. With powerful keynotes and executive masterclasses delivered in over 80 countries, he is trusted by governments and the world’s most respected brands to inspire action and help them build high performance organisations.

In a way every one of us is a futurist, with a lower case 'f,' because we're all constantly thinking about the future and trying to figure out how best to navigate it and improve it for ourselves. In fact, not only is it estimated that we spend up to 40% of our mental musings thinking about the future, with most of it being about the near future (78%) versus the deep future (22%), but there are experts who say that thinking about the future is a uniquely human trait and that our brains are literally built, by "natures design," to "perform mental time travel." After all, we all dream and imagine, and through the power of story telling we are all able to take advantage of other people's experiences, imaginings, and reflections to prudently guide our own future behaviours and develop futures scenarios in our minds.

By comparison though, a futurist with an upper case 'F' is often someone who has chosen to dedicate their life and their career to exploring, discussing, and shaping "What comes next" - whether that's the next month, the next year, the next decade, or even the next Century. And beyond. Sometimes seen as "creative architects" they are people who help us envision and imagine what could be - the so called Plausible, Possible, Preferred, and even Preposterous futures.

I often think of Futurists, including myself, as the business and societal equivalent of Expedition Leaders - taking teams of intrepid adventurers and explorers into uncharted territory while trying to predict and navigate the terrain ahead of time before it comes into view. And Futurists have a lot in common with expedition leaders in many other ways as well - especially those Expedition Leaders who help some of the world's greatest adventurers push the limits of human endurance and performance.

After all, both roles require the ability to see beyond the present, and anticipate trends and scenarios in the future. Both need to develop strategies to deal with and navigate unpredictable conditions, and adapt and pivot as new information and risks appear. Both need to be able to weigh potential threats and opportunities. Both need to guide their clients through ambiguity and make decisions often based on imperfect data that drive collective progress. Both need to be able to clearly communicate their insights, plans, and visions. Both have to combine creative and pragmatic problem solving skills to overcome obstacles and stay on course. Both need to be constantly observing and learning. And both professions empower others and inspire their clients to embrace change and explore new horizons.

Ultimately, a Futurist is someone who you should be able to rely on to guide through uncharted "future territory" and come out successful at the other end.

Look around you and no matter where you live or your circumstances you don't have to look very far to see how the world around you is changing. Today though, the changes we are seeing are without precedent in Human history, and very different to those our ancestors and ancient ancestors witnessed. Today's change is multi-dimensional, taking place simultaneously in the digital, physical, and virtual worlds. It's more complicated, complex, and confusing. It's more disruptive and pervasive, at the global and local level. And, most of all, the pace of change has accelerated exponentially, with that pace of acceleration itself accelerating, so much so that today we can change the whole world in just a single day.

From its origins in the early 20th Century Futurism has long captivated humanity's imagination. It represents a forward-looking approach to understanding and shaping tomorrow's world, and rooted in art, literature, philosophy, and science it transcends disciplinary boundaries, giving us all a lens through which we can envision possibilities, confront challenges, and innovate for the future. Originally seen by companies as an optional benefit today Futurism, it can easily be argued, is no longer an option - it's a necessity.

In a world where increasingly powerful sci-fi like technologies challenge what it is to be human on a daily basis, in a world where global industries can be disrupted in days, not years, and where markets can get wiped out in hours, and in a world where geopolitical actions and movements all too often seem to be a pretext for the Butterfly Effect, where chaos ensues and follows, it's no surprise that business leaders, individuals, and politicians everywhere are struggling to make sense of the world we live in today - let alone the future. But, as the world around us increasingly seems to have more in common with a Hollywood movie than reality as we knew it, as we see Human-level Artificial General Intelligence (AI) emerging on the horizon, witness thousands of trends change the world even the best of us may be under estimating just how "wild" the future is going to be, which means that Futurism - the bridge between today and tomorrow - and the ability to envision and explore the myriad of futures we have in front of us, so that we can "avoid surprise" is now more crucial than ever.

BE BETTER PREPARED FOR CHANGE

FUTURISM : INFORMING BETTER LEADERSHIP

FUTURISM : INFORMING BETTER DECISION MAKING

FUTURISM : INFORMING BETTER STRATEGY

Just as every person is unique every Futurist has their own distinctive persona and speciality areas, and they are as diverse as the infinite futures they explore and research.

There are Futurists who lean more towards theoretical futures and those who are more practical, there are academics who research the future within universities, research institutions, and think tanks, and there are those who sit in corporate offices with a corner view, and then, of course, there are Futurists who specialise in near, medium, or deep futures, then there are those who specialise in individual subject areas and those who span multiple domains. And then there are the hobbyists, the science fiction writers, the cultural and social Futurists, the geopolitical and policy Futurists, the strategic and technological Futurists, the financial, food, healthcare, infrastructure, mobility, and retail Futurists. And, we could never forget to mention the Transhumanists. Think of a theme, think of a topic, think of a niche, and you'll find a Futurist already working on it.

In fact, start looking and you will see Futurists everywhere, but despite that there is only one Futurist who is described as a Polymath who helps audiences and leadership teams see every future and succeed ...

MATTHEW GRIFFIN FUTURIST SPEAKER

FUTURIST ADVISOR . AUTHOR . CEO . LECTURER . THOUGHT LEADER .

Described as a "Futurist Polymath" by NASA, and a "Young Kurzweil" by Kurzweil's own investment banker in new York, Matthew Griffin is the world's top Futurist. Covering over,000 emerging technologies up to at least fifty years out, hundreds of megatrends, and helping Royal households, G7, G20, G77+ world leaders, global investors, and the majority of the world's most respected companies envision, explore, and shape the future Matthew is the person that everyone turns to future proof their countries, companies, and thinking.

AWARD WINNING 15X AUTHOR

12,000 PAGES . 600,000 INSIGHTS

SPANNING THE NEXT 50 YEARS

1.4 MILLION DOWNLOADS

"A WALKING ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE FUTURE!"

NASA, KYLE E., SPECIAL PROJECTS DIRECTOR

Matthew Griffin, is a multi-award winning geopolitical advisor, leadership coach, and Futurist who NASA have described as a "Walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "Futurist polymath." One of the world's most renowned Futurists and strategic foresight experts Matthew is the 15 times author of the best selling "Codex of the Future" series, and is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working across the next 50 years whose mission it is to democratise access to the future for everyone, irrespective of their abilities or background. An in demand international keynote speaker, university lecturer, and mentor he is also the only Futurist to have been invited to speak alongside world leaders at both the UN COP and WEF Davos, and his two multi-award winning YouTube channels put him in the top 0.1% of YouTubers worldwide.

A rare talent in his past Matthew helped build and lead several multi-billion dollar business units for Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, and his ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77+ governments, and many of the world's most respected brands including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Disney, Dow, EY, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, and many others.

Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.

MATTHEW'S KEYNOTE REEL

FORTINET : THE FUTURE OF CYBER RISK

VODAFONE : DISRUPTION AND OPPORTUNITY

PARTNERS GROUP : EMERGING TECHNOLOGY PANEL

In the most simplistic of terms our present day happens when different events converge - whatever those events are.

Some of these events are the result of things that were set in motion many years, decades, or even Millenia ago, such as the development of intrinsic human behaviours, others happen spontaneously, and the remainder fall somewhere in between. Unsurprisingly, the theory goes that the more of these events, or Signals, that we can catch early, the better able we are to model the impacts when they converge, then the better we should be able to forecast the Preferred, Plausible, Probable, and Preposterous futures. And this has been my personal mission for the past two decades, at Dell-EMC, IBM, and now at the 311 Institute - to identify as many Signals as possible, intensively research them all, including their behaviours and the forces driving them, and then work to develop the most accurate version of the future that we can.

One of the oddest comments I hear from Futurists, even some of the most renown, is that it's impossible to predict the future, and that we aren't here to predict anyway. But, I dismiss that point of view, because even with limited data we can predict things such as the continuance of Electric Vehicles, the continuous development of AI, and so forth. I also believe that the more Signals we can see, and the better able we are to understand their behaviours and impact, that the breadth of futures that we can predict can be increased. And, for those occasions when we don't have data and or are working with imperfect data I developed the Anchoring Constants Foresight Model which so far has played a pivotal role of keeping my own predictions on track. Predictions, as you can see below, such as the emergence of Generative AI and autonomous AI companies, the democratisation of skills, and many others.

However, while envisioning the near and even medium term future is difficult, the further out we go the fuzzier the future gets.

WE ARE THE FUTURE

SEE EVERYTHING AND SUCEED

MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION

RAISING EVERYONE UP

SEE EVERYTHING . EXPLORE EVERYTHING . SUCCEED .

The reason to book me as your next keynote speaker is simple: I can help you see EVERY FUTURE and SUCCEED.

Unlike other speakers I can show you the whole future, not just the 30% of it that others will show you. And then I can share the tools and thinking you and your audiences need to explore it, understand it, and lead it. I understand though that you may think of this as so much marketing hype, so to prove that it isn't I encourage you to test me, and if you can find a topic that I can't discuss at an expert level, and in greater depth than others, then I'll DONATE $10,000 TO CHARITY.

Are you ready to take the challenge!?