NSB Logo David Allison David Allison

David Allison

Speaker Exclusive

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Human Behavior Expert & Leader of the Disrupt Demographics Movement

David Allison is a human behavior expert, an advisor to global brands, and a leading advocate for discarding demographic stereotypes. He is the behavioral science pioneer behind Valuegraphics: the world’s first database that can predict and influence behavior for anything on earth. The database makes it possible, for the first time in history, to identify the shared values of any group of people, helping organizations create exponentially better customer engagement and point the way to a less divided world.   His team helps innovative organizations such as PayPal, Lululemon and the United Nations Foundation connect to people with values based leadership.

 

 

Keynote Speeches

Virtual Keynotes & Webinars
Contact us for more information about this speaker & their virtual presentations. Click here for some of the most popular formats for virtual events.
Our Values Unite Us | Values Economy Signature Keynote

The Values-Driven Way to Tackle Anything, Together

  • Understand how values drive the agenda for everything in the world today.
  • See how we waste trillions of dollars each year using demographics to understand people, with eye-popping statistics from the global value graphics database.
  • Learn how human values can transform the way we work, and the kind of world we live in tomorrow.
  • Be inspired to change how you look at people, and leave with the tools you need to succeed in a values-driven world.
  • We have moved from the experience economy to the values economy 
  • Hear about examples of values-based leaders and companies
Finding Your Focus In The New Values Economy | Custom Research Keynote

The Science of Values & Influence

  • Answer the burning question: “How can we engage people, and influence the decisions they make?”
  • Discover the specific shared values of customers, prospects, investors, members … any group of people your audience wants to reach.
  • Learn how to use custom research findings to reach people deep inside their hearts, and engage with them like a trusted friend.
  • Create values-driven solutions that will resonate deeply with the people you care about most.
Breakthrough Data to Motivate (Whoever You Want to Reach)

The Values-Driven Science of Mass Motivation

David takes the stage and delivers custom research findings in a dynamic TED-style presentation that answers the burning question: “How can we influence people?”  His keynotes reveal the specific human values that will magnetically attract customers, prospects, investors, members…or whoever else your attendees want to reach. He explains how to use the transformational power of human values to tap into human hearts and minds, and engage people at the level of pure instinct. Lululemon, PayPal, and the United Nations Foundation use valuegraphics …and now your audience can too.

Your attendees will learn: 

  • The specific values that will influence the people they want to reach
  • How to use Values Thinking to develop values-driven solutions
  • How to catalyze colleagues and become a values-driven team

This is an enormous advance in the science of values and influence – exclusively created for your attendees – that gives everyone in the room a completely unfair competitive advantage over those who stayed away.

Mythical Millennials, Boomers and Gen Z: Ditch the Demographics

The Values-Driven Way to Discover Your Real Audience

David Allison begins his signature keynote by dispelling demographic myths. Boomers aren’t all bad with technology. Millennials are no more in love with avocado toast than anyone else. And Gen Z are not one enormous hive mind. In fact, we live in a post-demographic world where labels like age, gender, income, and education only describe what people are, not who they are. It’s clear we need a more accurate way to understand each other.

So, David’s team built the first global inventory of core human values. The data reveals how our values unite us across all demographic labels. He shows your attendees how to find the shared values required to influence any group of people they want to reach. And he inspires everyone to discard demographic stereotypes. “If we just change the way we look at each other,” he says, “we can create a values-driven world.” 

Your attendees will learn:

  • How to find the shared values of the people they want to reach
  • A brainstorming model that leads to values-driven ideas
  • How to convince colleagues to embrace the power of shared human values
Customized Keynotes

David will create a custom keynote packed with powerful insights from the proprietary Valuegraphics Database of surveys from around the world. This is the new science of understanding and changing behavior and it’s 8X more powerful than ever before.

David also offers customized presentations on cannabis, real estate, luxury, retail and more. View a full list of his presentations here.

Platform Plus Presentations

Unique formats and ways to connect with audiences.
Special Edition Sessions
Sometimes the board of directors, an HR team, or the marketing department wants to apply Valuegraphics to specific situations. These sessions could be a master class, an additional keynote, or even a casual dinner speech to help make the conversation flow.
The Values Thinking Workshop
Values Thinking workshops teach everyone how to create values-driven solutions. These can be live, or delivered as an on-demand online course.
The Values-Driven Power Panel
We share our research insights with three to five panelists of your choosing in advance of your event. On stage, David facilitates a lively discussion. This resonates deeply with the audience – these are the thought-leaders they respect sharing their values-driven ideas.
The Personal Valuesprint Finder
Everyone wants to know what their own values are. When they register for your event, participants get a link to take a survey. They are sent their Valuesprint results, and how they compare to each other. Your attendees know that their values will be part of David’s keynote: they will definitely want to attend! For even more intense engagement, we include a series of live one-on-one speed-coaching sessions, or Valuegraphics Labs, to help attendees apply valuegraphics in a highly customized way.
Valuegraphics Micro-Workshops: A Unique Interactive Opportunity
Event planners are searching for more engaging and collaborative educational programs. Adding Micro-Workshops to your event gives your attendees both a transformative keynote speech, plus the opportunity to custom-tailor the take-aways in a private one-on-one consulting session. Each 30-minute micro-workshop guides just one person (or one team from one company) as they use the custom data from the keynote, roll up their shirt sleeves and actually get the work done. They will leave with an implementation plan to engage and influence the people they want to reach with the enormous power of shared human values. Because it's all about values. Always has been and always will be. When you know what people value you can speak directly into their heart, and engage them like a trusted friend.

Audience reviews:

  • David is the Mick Jagger of human values and our People & Culture attendees were thrilled with what he delivered. - Director, Cube Business Media Inc.
  • Smart, relevant, engaging: an absolute delight to work with. On a scale of 10, he’s a 12!

    - Director of Education, Canadian Society Of Association Executives
  • David is one of our favorite speakers to book for business conferences. Each time he speaks, the feedback from delegates is excellent.  They enjoy his energetic and fun delivery but more importantly leave with information that asks them to look at the world in a different way.  Pushing people out of their normal day-to-day thinking is a part of what educational events such as ours strive to do, and David helps us meet those objectives regardless of the size or makeup of the audience. - Director, Conference Management & Marketing | Global Exhibitions | INFORMA EXHIBITIONS
  • Our internal shared values and those of our customers must be a priority, and David's research makes values a useful tool for meeting business objectives. He's a great speaker too! The whole room was excited and interested in thinking about big new thoughts!

    - President & CEO, Intracorp North America
  • David Allison sees and hears the patterns in the noise — and is then able to tell us what the real signal is. He's a born storyteller and people love him.


    - Douglas Coupland | Artist, Author
  • Audiences could listen to him all day!



    - Producer and Managing Director, Big Picture Conferences
  • Entirely new and quite priceless audience insights.

    - VP Consumer Innovation & Design, AMER SPORTS, Finland
  • Engaging, thought-provoking and overall fantastic!

    - Planner, Challenger Summit 2019
  • Amazing delivery! Hit it out of the park!! Well Done!

    - CEO, Middle East Council of Shopping Centres
  • So customized for us, a whole new perspective, a joy to work with. Book him!

    - VP Member Services, National Gift Association

Speaker Biography

“I’ve been described as a human values expert, a global researcher, and a best-selling author. I’m definitely a keynote speaker. Someone once called me a values activist, and suppose that’s true too. I know one thing for certain: I’m values-driven. Because we all are. It’s what unites us, and makes us human.”

David’s career took off as a copywriter and creative director in advertising agencies. He made campaigns for trucks, hotel rooms, hot dogs, newspaper subscriptions, flights, telephone services, cheese, and lawyers. On the side, he taught marketing courses at the university to pass along what he’d learned so far.

Eventually, he started a branding company where 40 people built campaigns for hotels, condo towers, resort properties, and office towers around the world. Plus, he was VP of marketing at Sotheby’s International Real Estate luxury project division.

Even earlier, from childhood right through his graduate year at school, he created campaigns, secured sponsorships, and attracted media attention for everything from beer gardens to bookstores.

All of this helped him see that people were behaving in ways that demographics couldn’t define. From his vantage point, the next step was obvious: we needed a better way to understand people. So, in 2015, he launched the Valuegraphics Project, years before the Values Economy emerged in response to the post-COVID world. 

Today, he helps brands like PayPal, the United Nations Foundation, Lululemon, and Five Star School Supplies change how they look at people. He speaks on stages around the world. His 2018 best-seller We Are All the Same Age Now was named one of the ten best leadership books of the year by INC Magazine. His new book The Death of Demographics was an instant bestseller, hailed by Kirkus Reviews as “Convincing, insightful and… revolutionary.”

He is an avid collector of contemporary art and plans to continue weightlifting until something forces him to stop. He lives in a retrofitted Vancouver office tower complete with a video studio and writes in a heritage cottage up the coast in British Columbia, Canada.

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