Colin Bryar is a business advisor and technology leader whose career has focused on optimizing business strategy and operations. He is a former top-level executive at Amazon, where he spent more than 12 years – much of it in the early aughts during the company’s period of unmatched innovation – leading the operations for IMDb.com, as well as working directly with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to help with overall business strategy, technology, and operations. Bryar is the co-author of Working Backwards, along with former Amazon executive Bill Carr, which provides an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices. Taking audiences inside the room, Bryar demonstrates how the principles and practices key to “Being Amazonian” can be scaled and applied to any organization. Bill Carr is a strategic business leader who has spent his career at the forefront of tech innovation. He is a former top-level executive at Amazon, where he worked for more than 15 years – much of it in the early aughts during the company’s period of unmatched innovation – launching and managing Amazon’s global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. Under his leadership, Amazon's digital media business grew into a global operation exceeding $1 billion in revenue as the company pushed to compete with Apple, Netflix, and Hulu. Carr is the co-author of Working Backwards, along with former Amazon executive Colin Bryar, which provides an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices. Taking audiences inside the room, Carr demonstrates how the principles and practices key to “Being Amazonian” can be scaled and applied to any organization.

Amy Webb may not be a superhero – but she does have a powerful ability to anticipate trends and emerging technology that will disrupt tomorrow. And she can envision and help prepare for the impact they’ll have on business and society. Now she’s teaching others, including corporate leaders, innovators and governments, to do the same. Founder of the Future Today Institute, Webb is a renowned futurist and strategist. For her, it’s not simply an interest; it’s a profession and a passion. Nor is “forecasting the future” about creating fantastical scenarios. Webb doesn’t simply make speculations or predictions; her work is evidence based, drawn from mapping and modeling quantitative and qualitative data collected in the present to understand what’s coming (5-20 years from now). Named to the 2017 Thinkers50 Radar list of management thinkers most likely to shape the future – and winner of its 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award – Webb is already making an impact on today’s Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, government agencies, large nonprofits, universities and startups worldwide. Focusing on the intersection of technology, business and society, she takes a purposefully broad lens to her work. When thinking about the future, most only look at their industry and direct competitors. Webb is adamant about looking at multiple, adjacent landscapes. “You have to be able to see the top of the forest in order to see where all the trees are and how they connect,” she says.

Colin Coggins and Garrett Brown are agents of change who are known for their surprising and entertaining approaches to purpose-driven leadership and igniting culture shifts that reposition organizations to scale growth and make a profound impact in their teams, and with their customers. At the foundation of Colin and Garrett’s philosophy is the idea that the most successful leaders and teams are the ones who are able to evolve transactional encounters into transformational experiences where connections are made, solutions are created, and value is felt. After decades of collective experience as sales professionals, leaders, and executives, Colin and Garrett’s paths crossed at enterprise software company Bitium, where they played key roles in growing the business from relative obscurity to a prominent acquisition by Google. They now serve as adjunct professors of entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, where they teach the hugely popular, first-of-its-kind class, “Sales Mindset for Entrepreneurs.”

When the world’s top companies want to understand what’s next for their businesses and how they can create the next big breakthrough in their industries, they turn to world-renowned futurist Sheryl Connelly. Connelly is a global trends and consumer expert whose mastery at identifying what’s coming around the corner and the potential influences on customer attitudes and behavioral patterns that directly impact business strategy is unparalleled. From 1996-2023, she was a cornerstone presence on Ford Motor Company’s global trends and futuring team, working her way up the ranks at the automotive juggernaut and becoming the company’s chief futurist. Connelly draws upon her business foresight expertise and experiences at Ford to help organizations in any industry identify and analyze global consumer trends in order to lay the groundwork for long-term, future-focused planning and strategy across the entire company, and anticipate the ever-evolving needs and desires of the people they serve.

Leonard Brody has been called “a controversial leader of the new world order” and was recently named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. He is a highly respected entrepreneur, venture capitalist, best- selling author and a 2 time Emmy nominated media visionary. He has helped in raising millions of dollars for startup companies, been through one of the largest internet IPOs in history and has been involved in the building, financing and/or sale of five companies to date. In 2004, Leonard co-founded, and was CEO of, NowPublic.com which is a pioneer in the field of citizen journalism. Leonard also acts as an advisor to venture capital funds in the US, Europe and Asia.

Childhood best friends, Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman, were just twenty-two when they co-founded the now iconic junk removal and moving company, College Hunks Hauling Junk. Starting as an idea to earn some extra money over college break in a beat-up cargo van, the duo has grown College Hunks into a $300 million national franchise with more than 100 locations – truly demonstrating what it means to be both bold risk takers and modern leaders. The company and founders have been widely recognized and acclaimed for their world-class culture and service, as well as their progressive approach to doing business in the 21st century. Through lessons-learned from their monumental business growth, the pair discuss what it means to create a purpose-driven, customer-centric organization, while also sharing their secrets to success: patience, persistence, and standing out in a crowded landscape. Building their company around visionary leadership, Friedman and Soliman showcase how to craft a world-class organization by developing an entrepreneurial culture of strong, reliable teams.

Bran Ferren is a designer and technologist working in entertainment, product development, engineering, architecture, and the sciences. He is former president of research and development, and creative technology for Walt Disney. Once known for entertaining millions by creating special effects for Hollywood, theme parks and Broadway, Applied Minds co-founder Bran Ferren now solves impossible tech challenges with previously unimaginable inventions. He has been named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company.

A business trailblazer and industry disruptor, Josh Luber combined his passion for entrepreneurship and sneakers to co-found StockX, the world’s first “Stock Market of Things,” with partners Dan Gilbert (co-founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers), Greg Schwartz, and Chris Kaufman in 2015. As CEO, Luber led StockX’s rise from idea to billion-dollar company and cemented its status as the leading marketplace for sneakers, apparel, and collectibles in under three years.

Jeff Kreisler is a best-selling author and financial columnist whose prized insights on the intersection of behavioral science and money have been featured by TEDx, MSNBC, CNN, SiriusXM, and more. Jeff’s research on how human behavior drives spending and saving habits, economic ebbs and flows, and the future of our markets led to his best-selling book Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter. The work was named a “Best Book of the Year” by Business Insider, Audible, Huffington Post, and The Washington Post. It was also named the “#1 Book Every FinTech Professional Should Read in 2018” by the global fintech company Strands. Jeff is currently the Head of Behavioral Science at JP Morgan Chase, where he is leading financial decision-making thought leadership and innovation efforts.

Dr. Ivan Joseph inspires and coaches people and teams to maximize their potential. An award-winning coach, educator, and leader, Joseph has spent his career leading cultural transformation, helping people believe in themselves, and creating cohesive teams. He speaks about self-confidence, embracing the “grit” to persevere in spite of setbacks, and leading teams to success, drawing from the lessons he’s learned from a life in sport. Dynamic and engaging, Joseph always leaves audience with a memorable experience that adds value long after the presentation ends.

Dr. Lior Zoref is a researcher, advisor, TED speaker, and author of the best-selling book, Mindsharing – the art of crowd sourcing everything about the power of collective intelligence. His book was translated to many languages and was listed by Inc. magazine as one of the best books for entrepreneurs along with books by Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Tony Hsieh. Dr. Zoref has been invited to speak at some of the world’s most innovative organizations, including Google, MIT Media Lab, Columbia University, The White House, Nike, Microsoft, and LinkedIn.

A creative mind dedicated to helping businesses develop new ways to deliver customer values, Joseph Pine is the co-author of numerous books including The Experience Economy. Pine is a marketing expert who illustrates the importance of creating unique interactions and experiences for consumers in order to drive revenue and growth. He consults with numerous Fortune 500 companies and start-ups around the world, helping them embrace the ideas and frameworks he writes about, develop concepts for creating more economic value, and see those concepts become reality. In his speaking and teaching activities, Pine has addressed both the World Economic Forum and TED and has been a Visiting Scholar with the MIT Design Lab and a Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam.