NSB Logo Richard Worzel Richard Worzel

Richard Worzel

Speaker

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Futurist & business visionary

Leading forecaster and futurist Richard Worzel challenges organizations to examine the future and plan for the dizzying changes to come. He can equip your organization with the knowledge to face changes in the years ahead, and the tools to leverage those changes to revolutionize and dominate your industry.

Keynote Speeches

Technology

Technology has been a real game-changer over the past 40 years and more, but everything that has happened so far is really just a warm-up for what’s to come. In IT, not only is the pace of change accelerating, but the rate of acceleration is increasing. Big data and novel analytic techniques are revolutionizing all aspects of businesss, from drug research, to customer relations, to inventory management, and much more. Robots are about to emerge from the pages of fantasy into everyday reality, accompanied by computer intelligences that will challenge human workers on many different levels. The implications of this, and more, will be dramatic – and catastrophic for those who are not adequately prepared.

 

Health care

There are three major drivers of change in health care. They are separate, but interrelated: the aging population, technology, and money. When added to the politics of health care, these factors portend a stormy future of everyone involved in health care, particularly from an insurance perspective. Yet, it also implies that those firms prepared for the changes ahead will have a huge competitive advantage over their less-foresighted competitors.

 

Unexpected implications of demographics

That Canadian and American populations are aging is well known. That this may bankrupt governments at all three levels has been discussed but is widely ignored. But what are the downstream or domino effects of these developments? And how do they interact with demographic effects elsewhere in the world?

Agriculture and the environment
Negative influences include shifting rainfall and seasonal patterns, declining stocks of fossil water to support producers’ efforts; and an anti-scientific attitude by many consumer groups towards applications of the biosciences in food production, notably in genetically modified organisms. Changes in techniques and technology include such things as the application of Big Data and novel analytical tools to farm micro-management; the introduction of drones and robot labour to farms; and the potential for non-traditional production methods, from urban, vertical greenhouses to 3D printing of food and fibers.

Agriculture and the environment

Negative influences include shifting rainfall and seasonal patterns, declining stocks of fossil water to support producers’ efforts; and an anti-scientific attitude by many consumer groups towards applications of the biosciences in food production, notably in genetically modified organisms. Changes in techniques and technology include such things as the application of Big Data and novel analytical tools to farm micro-management; the introduction of drones and robot labour to farms; and the potential for non-traditional production methods, from urban, vertical greenhouses to 3D printing of food and fibers.

Platform Plus Presentations

Unique formats and ways to connect with audiences.
Workshop | Expecting the Unexpected
These workshops serve to assist and inform the Board of Directors and Executive Committee in preparing for emerging risks and so-called Black Swans.As part of its on-going efforts to develop strategic plans for the mid- to long-term future of the Company, its employees, and clients, the Executive Committee has asked for an assessment of the world of the next two to three decades with particular emphasis on emerging risks and potential surprises, which are also called Black Swans or Wild Cards.

Audience reviews:

  • His presentation was instrumental in setting the tone for each event. He presented subjects that were timely and relevant to our audience. When it came to getting his message across to his audience, Richard delivered! As a presenter, he was dynamic and engaging while providing thoughtful insight into the future of farming. With just the right mix of research, practical application, and entertainment, he captured the audience’s attention from start to finish.

    - OnCommunication for BASF Ag Solutions
  • From the beginning, Richard was excellent to work with. He received high praise from many conference delegates and was a highlight of the event. His knowledge and understanding of the agriculture industry allowed the audience to have confidence in his recommendations and foresight.
    Thank you Richard for contributing to the success of our conference. I would strongly recommend Richard Worzel as a presenter for future events and conferences.

    - President & CEO, Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers
  • Richard's presentation was both insightful and entertaining. The topic and material he covered fit in perfectly with our Firm's financial services industry training session. The feedback received from the partners and staff who attended was extremely positive. As a result, we invited Richard to present at the second offering of the training session later in the year. Overall, Richard did an excellent job!


    - Deloitte & Touche
  • Your presentation… set the context for the event and was very informative and entertaining. But, you provided us with a great deal more than an engaging presentation, and I would particularly like to thank you for all the time and effort you put into our event.


    - BMO Financial Group
  • His presentation style was nothing short of excellent… During his presentation a note was passed to me by one of our committee members indicating that, ‘Richard was a great choice, the audience is absolutely captivated.’


    - Johnson & Johnson
  • Richard Worzel is more than just a futurist and visionary… He makes the future come alive for people in a way that that makes it easy for them to take action today.



    - Fast Company Magazine
  • Your customized presentation was ideally suited to the needs of this highly technical- and highly demanding- audience. Your delivery was warm, confident, humorous, and well paced. What more could you ask?


    - 3Com
  • Richard Worzel was a pleasure to work with. He took extra time to cater his message specifically to meet the needs of our very unique audience—no canned speeches here! Conference attendees call Worzel “an engaging speaker,” ”easy to listen to,” and “captivating.” He provided “excellent triggers for thought” and can be described as “enlightening.

    - International Foundation for Employee Benefit Plans
  • From the beginning, Richard was excellent to work with. He received high praise from many conference delegates and was a highlight of the event. His knowledge and understanding of the agriculture industry allowed the audience to have confidence in his recommendations and foresight.

    - Canadian Association of Agricultural Retailers, Saskatoon
  • The session itself was nothing short of our most successful retreat to date. He clearly knows his material and everyone was impressed with the depth and breadth of his research in each area. The audience was so engaged in the discussion.

    - CEO Edge, Miami Beach
 

Speaker Biography

You want someone who can not only entertain, excite, and inspire the people at your event, but help them make more money and perform well tomorrow while doing so – to deliver the steak along with the sizzle. And whether it’s a keynote with take-aways they’ll use immediately, a workshop that will help bring them together as a team, or an executive briefing that brings clarity to chaos, Richard has been there and done that for folks like 3Com (“…you were once again able to exceed our expectations for this important planning session…”), IBM, Ford (“Thank you for the exceptional presentations you made to our dealers”), Deloitte, the Global Congress on Industrial Biotechnology (“It’s almost unheard of for a speaker to take such pains, and we appreciated it.”), Johnson & Johnson (“The audience is absolutely captivated!”), and many others. And, unlike other speakers, you not only get to see the draft of his remarks beforehand, but will have the chance to work with Richard on the final version to make sure it hits as close to the center of the bulls-eye as possible.

That way you’ll be comfortable that we’re going to achieve the best possible result when I appear before your people. Before he started consulting and speaking as a professional futurist, Richard worked in the investment business as an institutional investor, and earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation (which The Economist recently called the global gold standard for post-graduate degrees in finance). Because of that background, he knows that talk is cheap, but evidence is critical.

The future is his field of study, which means Richard isn’t a specialist on a single subject, but instead a generalist with a broad knowledge of a wide range of fields. He uses this background to create a big picture of what’s going on around your organization now and in future, ties all the lose ends together, and provides new information and insights that makes the presentation both intriguing and useful to your conferees.

For over 20 years Richard has helped organizations plan and prepare for a more prosperous, more enjoyable future, with senior business leaders, pharmaceutical companies, technology companies, agribusiness and farm groups, health care and medical groups, credit unions, banks, financial advisors, technology companies, life science researchers and investors, alternative fuel and energy groups, government agencies, manufacturers – and lots of others besides. But what’s important is that he can do it for your people, and create a unique, upbeat, candid, and useful presentation, outlined, designed, and fine-tuned specifically for your people.