Jim Carroll

Post Pandemic Future Keynote Topics:

Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity: Leadership Strategies and Insight for the Post Pandemic World
History has taught us that only 10% of organizations become breakthrough performers during a period of economic challenge. Futurist Jim Carroll has carefully studied the strategies they pursue, the concepts that drive them, and the actions they take to become a success in this complex new world.

It's timely and critical insight! Recovery oriented CEO's and senior executives understand that in addition to managing existing challenges, right now is the time to focus on strategies that align to our complex new reality in order to achieve growth and pursue opportunity. They know that they need to act quickly to establish an innovative mindset with their team in oder to get there quickly.

In this interactive online virtual keynote, Jim provides his unique insight on staying ahead in volatile times. A culture that has everyone thinking about what can be done going forward rather than looking back. A solutions-oriented mindset in which people are thinking less about the problems that have occurred, and more about the innovative strategies that could be pursued. A leadership style and mindset that takes on volatility as a form of innovation oxygen, complexity as a foundation for action, uncertainty as the platform for disruption and ambiguity as the clarity for stifling aggressive indecision.

Moving Beyond the Meltdown: Aligning Your Strategy to the Fast Future

In the face of widespread economic volatility, organizations have three essential choices: they can panic and make rash decisions, they can freeze and do nothing, or they can respond to rapid change through innovation, particularly with respect to strategies, structure, capabilities, market,s products, and activities. Now is the time for business leaders to focus on trends and the future, and they need to act quickly to establish an innovative mindset to get there intact. Jim Carroll provides his unique insight on staying ahead in volatile times by providing insight on how leading-edge organizations are staying one step ahead of fast-paced economic trends. It's timely and critical insight! 

Our World in 2030: The Post-Pandemic Trends That Redefine Your Future
Years from now, we will look back and realize that many industries, technologies, concepts, and disruptive ideas accelerated throughout the crisis of 2020 - because they played a major role in the rebuilding of our dramatically different future. We will also know that by carefully analyzing the trends of yesterday in the context of fast-moving events that we were best able to understand these new trends of tomorrow.

Futurist Jim Carroll examines your world and industry in the microscope of a new lens, providing critical insight to the trends that matter - and that redefine our future. The acceleration of trends like 3D printing and biomaterial science, robots & cobots, genetic medicine and virtualized community care, resiliency-oriented supply chains and last mile logistics technology, delivery drones and personal space heat tracking - all of which are playing a role in our eventual post-pandemic, recovery oriented world. In this new future, business models continue to evolve but at a faster pace; new revenue opportunities are emerging at hyper-speed as entirely new products are invented and new industries are born to deal with the crisis; entire industries are forever changed as the new era of "personal space" and "economic distancing" came to define all forms of human interaction going forward.

It's in this context that the big ideas are being explored, the bold are defining their future, and the fast are aligning to acceleration. Covid-19 and the economic downturn of 2020 have redefined our future - but it's by understanding this new future and aligning to the opportunities that it presents that breakthrough performers discover their opportunities!

9 Things You Need To Do Right Now: Rediscovering Growth, Opportunity and the Future When Volatility is the New Normal!
Innovating at high velocity is vital to turning challenge into opportunity. Jim Carroll believes that organizations that focus on staying ahead of fast paced economic trends in an era of volatility are best positioned for long term success.

How? Innovative organizations succeed by mastering the pace of the new high velocity economy. In an era of economic challenge, they focus on discovering opportunity while moving through uncertainty!

In this keynote, Jim Carroll builds on insight captured during periods of economic uncertainty to provide a concrete foundation in which to move forward despite relentless economic volatility.

Is there a future out there? Definitely yes, but a constant drumbeat of negative news can cause people to lose sight of what will happen as we return to a period of economic growth. That’s where Jim Carroll comes in — this noted international futurist, trends & innovation expert spends his time with globally innovative leaders. He’s gained keen insight into some of the key trends which will impact industries, organizations and careers in the next few years to come, in a wide variety of industries from health care, to technology and manufacturing, to the skilled trades. Jim is a passionate believer that we live in transformative times — and in five or ten years, will look back at this time with awe at the new industries, products, careers, and opportunities that were developed.

Jim Carroll delivered an extensive number of global leadership keynotes to major organizations after 9/11, and again after the economic meltdown of 2008-09. He has a proven, battle-tested track record in providing compelling insight and time-tested strategies on aligning to the future despite uncertainty. In this leadership oriented talk, Jim covers the trends that will provide for major growth markets through the next five to ten years; where we will see the emergence of new careers, industries, business models and opportunities; and how a relentless focus on opportunity and growth is directly linked to future success. He will help you to make sense of what happened, where we are now, and what do we do next!

Jim Carroll will challenge you to focus on the opportunities of tomorrow, rather than the challenges of today

Popular Keynote Topics:

Accelerating Creativity: How to Rethink, Redo, Realign and Rethink your Future!
We will see more change in every industry in the next 10 years than we have seen in the last 100 as transformation and disruption sweeps the world.

Every company is faced with the rapid emergence of new competitors, significant new business models, more challenging consumers, the acceleration of science a race to the pricing bottom, and a transition to the speed of innovation that will define their future. How do you get ahead? By turning on your innovation engine, firing your creativity thrusters, and strapping in for a rocket ride into your faster future.

In this keynote, futurist and innovation expert Jim Carroll shares the insight that he has gained by spending the last 25 years with a relentless focus on what turns organizations into high-velocity innovation heroes. None other than NASA has invited Jim in – twice – to share his insight on innovation strategies.

Innovative organization accelerates their creativity by turning their innovation engines upside down, focusing on customer-oriented innovation and other unique models. They excel at sourcing ideas from the outside, turning that unique insight into fuel for their internal innovation factories. They challenge themselves on speed by getting into an iterative process of constantly rethinking, adjusting and redoing in order to discover the next best thing. They challenge themselves on business cycles, time to market and more.

In accelerated organizations, a partnership is a key focus, collaboration is critical, agility is oxygen and imagination is relentless.

Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast: Aligning Yourself for the Era of Acceleration
We live in a time of massive challenge, and yet one of massive opportunity. We’re faced with deep and complex issues involving the environment, health care, water, and food. At the same time, every industry is faced with upheaval and disruption. In this context, every industry is being redefined at blinding speed by technology, globalization, the rapid emergence of new competitors, new forms of collaborative global R&D, and countless other challenges! The speed with which these changes occur are now being increasingly driven by the arrival of a younger, more entrepreneurial generation; a group that seems determined to change the world to reflect their ideas and concept of opportunity. They’ve grown up networked, wired, and are collaborative in ways that no previous generation seems to be.

And therein lies the challenge.

Most organizations are bound up in tradition, process, certain defined ways of doing things — rules — that have helped them succeed in the past. Over time, they have developed a corporate culture which might have worked at the slower-paced world of the past — but now has them on the sick-bed, suffering from organizational sclerosis that clogs up their ability to try to do anything new. Those very things which worked for them in the past might be the anchors that could now hold them back as the future rushes at them with ever increasing speed. They are being challenged in a fundamental way by those who think big, and by some really big, transformative trends.

How to cope with accelerating change? In this keynote, Jim outlines his simple but transformative structure: Think big, start small and scale fast! The new model for going forward in the era of accelerating change involves aligning yourself to the big opportunities of today through bold, transformative thinking; the small scale steps that you can take today to align yourself to this future, and focusing on a culture of speed and agility that can help you to get there at the right time!

In this riveting keynote, Jim Carroll covers the major trends and opportunities that come from “thinking big, starting small, and scaling fast,” by addressing some of the fundamental changes that are underway. It’s based on his forthcoming book of the same name.

The Lessons of Powerful Optimism: Rethinking the Future Right Now
We have seen more change in the last 5 years than we have seen in the last 100 – and yet there is so much more to come. But with economic, political, career and business model volatility all around us, it’s all too easy to fall prey to a swirl of negative thinking — with the result that you lose sight of the fascinating opportunities from what comes next.

The best antidote? An uplifting, hopeful and motivational view into the future with futurist Jim Carroll. In this engaging, humorous and yet powerfully refreshing keynote, he takes you on a tour of the trends which are reshaping our world in a great way. A renaissance in thinking and imagination, enabled by 3D printing, advanced robotics, and self-driving cars, space tourism, and concepts involving asteroid mining, vertical farming, and other fascinating trends. An era that provides opportunities for the transformation of entire industries such as healthcare, retail, agriculture, sports, and transportation through big bold thinking. The acceleration of ideas with scientific advancements that are allowing us to solve some of the biggest challenges of our time having to do with education, the environment, energy, and water. A generation of millennials who know that it is a great time to think big ideas and do great things with their boundless enthusiasm and global awareness!

It’s time to turn your mind to the future once again, restore a sense of hope and optimism, and link yourself to the fast-paced trends which energize your outlook on opportunity!

In this keynote, Jim takes you on a voyage to the future, and promises to leave you with a boundless sense of optimism and passion for what comes next!

From Planck Constants to Yottabits: Leadership Agility When 'Faster' Defines the Speed of Fast!
In the world of technology and media, the impossible increasingly becomes possible; the unattainable is within reach, and the imaginary becomes reality before you can plan for it. The world of exponentiating science means that the inevitable march of technological advance leads to the world of the Planck constant and the yottabit - the smallest unit of measure defined and the fastest form of network speed - becoming a reality before you know it. What happens in an industry is which exponentiation accelerates even more? Big ideas, transformative change, and fascinating new technologies that further shape our world.

Futurist Jim Carroll excels at providing keynotes and leadership talks, both for companies in the technology and media industry, as well as CIO/CxO session and keynotes for their customers and their clients. Over the last 30 years, he has been the keynote speaker at dozens of user group meetings, CIO/CxO events, hi-tech company road shows and more. His experience at aligning your message to his trends and innovation insight has been well-honed - he headlined a national 'roadshow' for none other than the Digital Equipment Corporation in 1994! Since then, has keynoted events for HP, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, and countless others.

In addition, he has led CEO level, internal sales, marketing, and IT strategy events for major tech organizations worldwide, providing insight into the disruptive trends, accelerating change, edge-based concepts and science fiction realities that will continue to change their marketplace in the future. His respect is of such a degree that the Consumer Electronics Association invited him to open their annual CEO summit, speaking to leaders from throughout the fast-moving technology industry.

Tech and media companies need to ensure that they have leadership, R&D, sales and marketing infrastructure that continues to align to reality even faster being the new fast and that their customers have the insight to take advantage of the technology-based disruption occurring in their industry. A world in which hyper-innovation becomes the norm rather than the exception -- and standing still means instant obsolescence. One where rapid scientific advance defines the agenda - and a trend that might destroy your market already happened yesterday, before you even knew it had happened! A market in which physicists have figure out how to violate the basic rules of physics - such as stopping light in its tracks - and it makes your own product obsolete. Where its no longer crazy to talk about the concept of riding accelerating Human-Computer-Interface technology to put a part of your mind in an external yottabit ball.

Big Trends in Agriculture: Transforming the World's Oldest Profession
Whether it’s driverless tractors, weed-zapping robots or data-transmitting crops, the future of farming is happening faster than you might think!

Many people continue to view farming from the sepia-toned photos of the 1940s and 1950s. They don’t realize the technological and scientific advances or massive opportunities for international growth. Growers that focus on innovation as a core value will find success; their innovation will focus on the triple-feature need for growth, efficiency, and ingestion of new science. It will be by adopting new methodologies, products, partnerships and ideas that they will learn to thrive.

Jim is recognized worldwide as a “thought leader” and authority on global trends, rapid business model change, business transformation in a period of economic uncertainty, and the necessity for fast-paced innovation.

Jim has extensive experience in all aspects of the agricultural sector. A good example? He was the opening keynote speaker at a conference of the top 100 cattle ranchers, feedlots and stockers in the US — and thrilled the audience with his insight into global trends impacting the agriculture sector. Based on that event, he was then invited in to inspire 500 cattle ranchers — a very discerning audience — with the feedback that “you certainly challenged us as to the pace of change the future is bringing to our industry, at the same time that you inspired us to embrace its opportunities. You were outstanding! Ranchers are pretty conservative – particularly here in Texas – but you were the best speaker we’ve ever had at our event!”

Insurance in the Era of Disruption: The Challenge of Change with Fintech, Accelerated Risk and Hyper-Connectivity
Let’s face it: the trends impacting life and property/casualty and groups benefits insurance companies are real.

The industry is bringing rapidly disrupted by tech companies. Existing brokerage and distribution networks will be obliterated as more people buy insurance direct. Predictive analytics will shift the industry away from actuarial based historical assessment to real-time coverage. Policy niches, micro-insurance, and just-in-time insurance will drive an increasing number of revenue models. The Internet of Things (IoT) and massive connectivity will provide for massive market and business model disruption. Fast paced trends involving self-driving cars, the sharing economy, blockchains, personal drones, swarmbots, smart dust, artificial intelligence and augmented reality will either mitigate, accelerate or challenge the very notion of risk assessment and underwriting! What happens when Amazon, Google or some kid in a garage decide to really change the insurance business model?

What seemed to be science fiction just a few short years ago has become a reality today, as time compresses and the future accelerates. Whichever way you look, all sectors of the insurance industry are set for an era of disruption, challenge, and change!

Is the industry ready for transformative change? Not really! A recent survey indicated that while 94% of Chief Strategy Officers at insurance companies agree that tech will “rapidly change their industry in 5 years,” fewer than 1 in 5 CSOs believe their companies are prepared. Does the insurance industry have the innovation culture necessary to deal with the potential for what comes next? Maybe not.

Jim Carroll has been helping insurance organizations in the world understand the tsunami of change that is FinTech, the impact of mobile technology, social networks, rapid business emergence, accelerated risk, the emergence of new global competitors and heightened customer expectations. In his keynotes he puts into perspective the real trends impacting the future of insurance, offering critical insight into the key innovation and leadership strategies in a time of disruptive change.

The Jetsons Have Arrived 50 Years Early: What Are You Going to Do About It?
We have a new vocabulary! Self-driving cars, 3d printing, crowdfunding, the sharing economy, blockchains, personal drones, swarmbots, smart dust, vertical farms, Internet of Things, cognitive computing, smart factories, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, quantum computing, intelligent farms, smart clothing! What seemed to be science fiction just a few short years ago has become a reality today, as time compresses and the future accelerates.

George Jetson lived in the future, but the future is here now. Take a voyage with Futurist Jim Carroll into the world of tomorrow, today, as he outlines the key trends, technologies, ideas and initiatives that are transforming our world around us at hypersonic speed. A world in which the medical tricorder of the 23rd century is available today, the idea of Rosie the Robot is no longer a figment of our imagination but an emerging reality, and the flying car of the future will quickly morph into reality from today’s fast moving drone industry.

In just a few short years, it will the year 2025, and the world of tomorrow will be your reality of today.

Are you ready for what comes next?

The Internet of Things – Disruption and Opportunity in an Era of Pervasive Connectivity
Every industry is set to be transformed as an era of hyper-connectivity becomes the new norm. The result? Massive business model disruption; the rapid emergence of new competitors; industries in which customers empowered with mobile devices control a wide variety of devices that are a part of their daily lives; unique opportunities for deep analytical insight into trends and opportunities emerging in industries; a reinvention of manufacturing, logistics, retail, healthcare and other industries because of consumers that are empowered, connected, and enabled with a new form of lifestyle management that we’ve never witnessed before.

The Internet of Things is happening everywhere. Think about the video in the context of literally any other industry, and you realize the scope of the potential disruption that is occurring.

The Internet of Things is real, and it is unfolding at a blistering pace. We’re in the era of connected thermostats that link to an intelligent energy grid; autonomous vehicle technology that is self-aware, and networked into sophisticated, intelligent highway flow control systems. A connected trucking fleet that is self-diagnostic, predictive, and built for zero downtime. Intelligent home appliances that link to packaged food products that automatically upload carb, sodium and other dietary information as part of an overall health and wellness program.

Jim Carroll has been talking on stage about the Internet of things since the late 1990s when he began using the phrase “hyperconnectivity” to describe a world in which “every device that is a part of our daily lives is about to become plugged in.” Since then, he has delivered his insight on the topic to a wide variety of organizations: several global technology leaders with a keynote talk on the future of home automation; several of the world’s largest HVAC companies about what happens when a global, intelligent home and industrial energy infrastructure emerges through widespread connectivity; consumer, food and packaged goods conferences about the impact of intelligent packaging. He has been booked by many leading global health care organizations for keynotes that have focused on what happens when consumers start aligning their wellness strategies through their own personal healthcare infrastructure.

The Internet of Things is a substantive, transformative trend that will provide more change in every industry in the next ten years than they’ve seen in the last thirty.

Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Bitcoin and the end of Money: Understanding the Ultimate Disruption
In as little as ten years, the very concept of money will have been forever changed. And the fact is, it’s happening now in real time. But it isn’t just money that is being disrupted: the blockchain concept promises to unleash a wave of innovation that parallels and exceeds the impact from the arrival of the Internet economy. Making sense of reality is a challenge. A new vocabulary has emerged that involves radical new concepts, the decentralization of authority, and rapid hyper-innovation: blockchain, Ethereum, ASIC and currency miners, hard forks and smart contracts!

Understanding this new trend becomes even more challenging when faced with opinions that are all over the map. What does it mean when Jamie Dymon, the head of JPMorgan Chase calls Bitcoin a fraud and the people who buy it “stupid,” and yet at the same time, the head of the IMF says that Bitcoin could give existing currencies and monetary policy a run for their money? When a cryptocurrency goes from a valuation of a few hundred dollars to a multiple of thousands in just a matter of months? When 2018 will be defined by an acceleration of the acceptance of distributed ledger concepts, at the same time that a horde of fraud artists invade this fascinating new world.

The impact doesn’t stop with the arrival of the first wave of concepts as found in ‘money’ such as Bitcoin. What is emerging is the infrastructure and a foundation for the next economy: one that is reliant on distributed, digital trust, the elimination of the middleman from many business interactions, and fundamental, disruptive concepts that run up against most of the economic models of the last 100 years. These are challenging times, and difficult questions are being presented. Most important of all, what does it mean to your business and your business model? Is it a fraud, or is it a bubble? What’s real, and what’s not? Are we in the midst of the latest Tulip and dot.com phrase, or is there substantial change underway?

In this keynote, futurist and technology expert Jim Carroll peels away the layers of the world of cryptocurrency, outlining the challenges and opportunities that come with the end of the concept of money as we know it. These are truly transformative times – for the reality of blockchain goes far beyond the current hype surrounding Bitcoin. The concept of distributed ledgers will change entire industries, challenge the very nature of the legal concept of offer and acceptance, and unleash a torrent of hyper-innovation around business models.