Speeches

A compelling business keynote speaker who makes complex information understandable.

As a renowned global futurist and best-selling author, Jack Uldrich is an accomplished business speaker, addressing hundreds of businesses and organizations, including General Electric, General Mills, Pfizer, St. Jude Medical, and more. His books include the best-selling, The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business, and the award-winning books, Into the Unknown: Leadership Lessons from Lewis & Clark’s Daring Westward Expedition, and Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies. His most recent book is Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future. Jack Uldrich participates in a number of speaking engagements nationwide and is represented by Leading Authorities Speakers Bureau, Convention Connection, Executives Speaker Bureau and Gold Star Speakers Bureau.

Jack presents complex information in an entertaining, understandable and digestible manner that stays with his audiences long afterwards.

Jack speaks to business, nonprofit and educational audiences about future trends, emerging technologies, innovation, change management and leadership. He is known working with clients in advance in order to deliver tailored remarks that will educate, entertain and inspire his audiences.

Clients include General Electric, IBM, Cisco, United Healthcare, PepsiCo, Verizon Wireless, General Mills, the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), Pfizer, Healthcare Association of New York, Southern Company, St. Jude Medical, Dressbarn, AG Schering, Imation, Lockheed Martin, Fairview Hospitals, Touchstone Energy, The Insurance Service Organization, The National Kitchen & Bath Association, The National Electric Rural Cooperative, The National Paint & Coatings Association and hundreds more.

Jack Uldrich Speaks at TEDx1000Lakes

Jack Uldrich Speaks on the Future

Future Flash with Jack Uldrich:

Speaking topics include:

Foresight 20/20: Ten Trends Transforming Tomorrow The next decade is only a handful of years away. What might the world of 2020 like look like? How will you and your business have changed? More importantly, how will you and your organization need to change?

The answer, in two short words, is: a lot!

Consider this: Eight years ago Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Wikipedia didn’t even exist; neither did the iPhones, iPads, apps or Kindles. Now, fast forward eight years into the future and try to comprehend how accelerating advances in information and communication technologies, the “Internet of things,” social media, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, biotechnology, brain-neural interfaces, gaming dynamics, crowd-sourcing and open-source sharing platforms will continue to drive seismic change and deliver paradigm-shattering transformation to nearly every facet of society.

It’s not easy.

In this engaging and entertaining keynote presentation based on his latest book (Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow), globally renowned futurist and best-selling author Jack Uldrich will take the guess-work out of understanding the near future by providing an in-depth exploration of how ten technological trends will transform the world of 2020.

Whatever your industry, association or organization, Jack Uldrich will work with you and your staff to create a customized presentation sure to not only energize and enlighten your audience but also provide them with the inspiration and ammunition to harness these trends and create their own successful future.

The Future Requires Unlearning. The pace of technological change is accelerating. Today’s organizations are living in a world where “constant change is the only constant.” New advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology are bringing forth exciting and unexpected discoveries every day, while the expansive and growing power of the Internet, social networking and the open-source movement are fueling the fires which threaten to consume much of today’s existing business landscape.

Life-long learning will obviously be more essential than ever in this chaotic and churning environment; but often lost in this new emerging reality of exponential change is the fact that before an organization can seize tomorrow’s opportunities it must first unlearn old, obsolete knowledge as well as unlearn the old ways of doing business.

In this fascinating, informative, entertaining, interactive and enlightening presentation, noted global futurist and best-selling author, Jack Uldrich—who has been hailed by BusinessWeek as “America’s Chief Unlearning Officer”—will not only explain why unlearning is a critical skill for your company or an organization’s employees, he will also demonstrate how unlearning can help:

–Successfully navigate a future where the pace of scientific and technological knowledge is doubling every seven years;

–Prepare for competition that doesn’t yet exist; and

–Seize opportunities which are, today, only on the periphery of their imagination.

The presentations draw heavily on Uldrich’s two new books on unlearning: Unlearning 101: 50 lessons for Thinking Inside-Out the Box and Higher Unlearning: 39 Post Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future.

Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Companies Deal with Emerging Technologies. Based on Jack’s book by the same name released in 2008 by Adams Media, Jack explores how exponential trends in information technology, biotechnology, robotics, manufacturing, material science and nanotechnology, are all converging at this unique moment in history. Uldrich’s presentation lays out ten specific strategies that executives, businesses and industries can use to navigate and survive in this era of unparalleled change.

Future Trends in Healthcare, Energy, Technology, Retail and other industries. Jack Uldrich also speaks frequently on future trends for specific industries. In 2010, he has addressed numerous medical associations on “The Future of Health Care,” as well as a handful of other business associations on the future of manufacturing.

Innovating Out of the Recession and Into a More Successful Future. The economy has slowed to a crawl but the development of new emerging technologies has not. Smart companies and organizations understand the best way to confront the slowdown is to speed up. Noted futurist and best-selling author Jack Uldrich outlines eight concrete strategies that will kick start innovation and help your organization create a new and profitable future.

The Future is Green. Jack Uldrich, the author of the best-selling books, Green Investing: A Guide to Making Money Through Environment-Friendly Stocks (2010) and Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies (2008), lays out in this entertaining, educational and informative presentation eight reasons why your future will be green. He further explains why “going green” will have as much to do with the color of money as it does protecting the environment. Depending upon the audience and the goals of the conference, Mr. Uldrich will tailor his remarks to: discuss particular green technologies (e.g. solar, wind, biofuels, advanced batteries, demand management and energy conservation technologies, etc.); emphasize the opportunities inherent in emerging green technologies, such as fuel cells and wave power; or outline the business and investment strategies necessary to take advantage of the coming green revolution.

The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. This topic, which is taken from his 2003 besting-selling book of the same name, can be tailored for any audience or industry. In the past year, Uldrich has spoken to a variety of groups in the pharmaceutical, energy, educational, agricultural, retail, insurance and computer industries about nanotechnology’s impending impact on their businesses.

Investing in Nanotechnology: Think Small, Win Big. This topic, which is the title of Uldrich’s third book (released in March of 2006), is ideal for audiences in the investment or financial services industries who are looking to profit from emerging trends.

Leadership/History topics:

Into the Unknown: Leadership Lesson from Lewis & Clark’s Daring Westward Adventure. Adapted from his book of the same name, Uldrich tells the inspirational story of Lewis & Clark’s amazing Journey of Discovery and explains what today’s businesses can still learn from these explorers’ trek into the unknown.

Five-Star Leadership. Taken from his awarding-winning book Soldier, Statesman, and Peacemaker: Leaderships Lessons from George C. Marshall this talk explores the leadership principles of the man Winston Churchill called “The Last Great American.”

Common Sense, Uncommon Wisdom. Adapted from his full length article, “The Extraordinary Leadership of Benjamin Franklin”, in the fall 2005 edition of Leader to Leader, this talk outlines what businesses and individuals can still learn from one of America’s greatest scientist, businessman, diplomat, politician and Founding Father.

About Jack Uldrich

Jack Uldrich is a renowned global futurist, independent scholar, sought-after business speaker, and best-selling author.

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Testimonials

Judging from the number of people that lingered to ask a question and the general “post-meeting buzz”, it’s clear that your presentation had people thinking. In all honesty, this is one of the best programs that we’ve had in a long time and we’ve had plenty of excellent ones. Thank you for an entertaining and though provoking program.
Jim Hancock, Wells Fargo

Dear Jack: Just a quick personal note to thank you again for speaking to our senior management team. Your words were exactly what we needed to set the team’s frame of mind for a day focused on strategy.
Joe Robles, CEO, USAA

Your opening address for conference was the best keynote presentation we have had in years. You were inspiring, thought provoking, motivational, and practical all at once—with a huge dose of practicality intricately added to the mix. But don’t take my words for it—73 percent of the people who attended your presentation gave you a five on a five-point scale and the other 27 percent gave you 4++.
Janice Mashak, Wisconsin Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

The generosity and openness you brought to your presentation on unlearning really set a tone of optimism and creativity that lasted the whole conference and contributed to nearly every session that followed.
Teresa Eyring, Executive Director, Theatre Communications Group

Thanks again for coming to SMUD and working with us! At last night’s Board meeting, board members shared that they felt it was, “the best workshop ever.” You are a masterful facilitator! The quality of the dialog and list of assumptions now up for deeper consideration and discussion represent a very positive step forward for SMUD – thank you! If you are thinking of another book – it struck me that you could write a “how to” guide for effective and persuasive communication. Your use of numbers, history, stories, analogies, etc… is masterful. I wish I could have all of our communication staff learn from you!
Elisabeth Brinton, Chief Business Officer, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

I have been doing professional development for 25 years and Jack is absolutely one of the top speakers I have observed. He spoke to about 200 of our project managers, superintendents and company leaders at the end of a long day of training and everyone was focused on his message. He received very high ratings on our conference evaluation forms. Jack uses humor, facts and creativity to get his message across. This was two years ago and many of our people still reference his talk.
Mike Smoczyk, Kraus Anderson

Jack’s session should be presented to all Federal Executive Institute students. Change and being able to look into the future (and unlearn) is all around senior executives.
Stephen Blair, FEI

Jack Uldrich was an extremely knowledgeable and engaging facilitator. I was impressed with his ability to bring both his work as a futurist and as a change management expert to bear on our regional issues.
Chris Morrill, City Manager, Roanoke

You were the hit of the show, numerous attendees came up to me and other staff members commenting on how much they enjoyed your talk. In fact, there was one gentleman who came up to me just after the opening ceremonies and said that hearing your presentation was worth coming to the show alone and he didn't need to hear anybody else.
Amy Purcell, The MoneyShow

I would like to sincerely thank you for stepping up to the plate and hitting the ball out of the park with your presentation on unlearning at our NAPM educational conference … your tangible examples gave our members optimism and ideas!
Dan Feder