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.

Regarded as the “CEO-Maker,” “DEI Professor,” and the “Cubicle to Corner Office Empress,” Dethra Giles is a workplace and career optimizer who advises organizations and individuals on how to chart their unique paths to success. She is a four-time TEDx speaker who has been named a “Top 100 HR Influencer” by Engagedly, and was selected by HR Gazette’s “HRchat” podcast as one of the “Top 22 Most Influential Figures in HR.” With clients including Kaiser Permanente, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), The Army Corp of Engineers, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Salvation Army, Giles shares a unique blend of advanced education and industry experience that has been described as “university-tested and industry-approved,” and can be implemented by organizations of any size, and across industries.

Conservation biologist and National Geographic explorer Steve Boyes gives audiences an eye-opening look at the world around us and shares insights on the power of exploration. Through the use of stunning high-quality images and stories, he challenges audiences to view the world with a fresh perspective. He believes that rich biodiversity is the key to maintaining our quality of life and connection to the planet, and he shares the human experience of the wilderness with audiences so that they come to understand why they need to protect areas that they will likely never see firsthand.

Mick Ebeling is an American film, television and commercial executive producer as well as an author, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was named as on one of the Top 50 Most Creative People of 2014, won the SXSW Innovation Award twice in a row (2014 and 2015), and was awarded the 2014 Muhammed Ali Humanitarian of the Year Award. He is the CEO of Not Impossible, an organization that develops creative technology solutions to address real-world problems.

Anjali Kumar is a former Google executive and the Founding General Counsel and Head of Social Innovation at Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand offering designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially-conscious businesses. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School and Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration, where she teaches Law of Innovation, a graduate seminar which follows an original syllabus of her own design.

A seasoned leader and gifted entrepreneur, Nate Mook knows what it takes to turn words into action and ideas into impact. For five years, Mook was the CEO of World Central Kitchen, working alongside world-renowned activist and humanitarian Chef José Andrés on the frontlines to ensure people in disaster zones have access to fresh meals and building food resilient systems with locally led solutions. Widely recognized for his expertise in technology, filmmaking, and building nonprofit organizations, Mook brings a Swiss Army knife approach to crafting powerful stories that bring people together and drive change in the world.

Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, is a globally recognized expert on how companies can profit from solving the world’s biggest challenges. His views on strategy have been sought after by many of the world’s leading companies, including HP, Ingersoll Rand, J&J, Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, PepsiCo, PwC, and Unilever. Andrew's latest book, The Big Pivot was selected as one of the "Best Business Books" by Strategy+Business magazine. Andrew’s first book, Green to Gold, was the top-selling green business title of the last decade, selling more than 100,000 copies in seven languages. Inc. Magazine included Green to Gold on its all-time list of 30 books that every manager should own. Andrew’s speeches around the globe, including a TED talk, provide a practical and optimistic roadmap to help leaders build thriving, resilient companies in a volatile world. He received degrees in economics, business, and environmental management from Princeton, Columbia, and Yale.

Sophia Kianni is an Iranian-American environmentalist studying climate science and public policy at Stanford University. She is the founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals, an international nonprofit with 8,000 volunteers in 40+ countries working to translate climate information into over 100 languages. She represents the U.S as the youngest member on the inaugural United Nations Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. Sophia’s work has been featured in news outlets including Forbes, CNN, Business Insider, BBC, NPR, ELLE, TIME Magazine, The Guardian, NBC, and even on the front page of The Washington Post. She was previously a fellow with PBS NewsHour and has written for news outlets such as MTV News, Cosmopolitan, Refinery 29, and Teen Vogue. She is a prolific public speaker and has spoken at universities across the country including Columbia University, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Cambridge University, and Harvard University. She gave her debut TED Talk as the closing speaker at the inaugural TED Countdown Conference. She has been named VICE Media's youngest Human of the Year, a National Geographic Young Explorer, and one of Teen Vogue's 21 under 21.

Peter Diamandis, the chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation and the author of best-selling Abundance, is a dynamic inspirational speaker who shows his audience how to drive and incentivize breakthrough thinking in order to achieve clear, measurable results. He is considered a key figure in the development of the personal spaceflight industry, as the first private-sector manned spaceflight was a result of an X PRIZE competition. He has also founded many other leading, commercial space-flight organizations and won myriad awards for his incredible work.

Dr. Dambisa Moyo is an international economist who analyzes the macroeconomy and global affairs. She has travelled to more than 80 countries over the last decade, during which time she has developed a unique knowledge base on the political, economic, and financial workings of emerging economies, in particular the BRICs and the frontier economies in Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Her work examines the interplay between rapidly developing countries, international business, and the global economy, while highlighting the key opportunities for investment. She is the author of multiple New York Times best-selling books, including Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth - and How to Fix It, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, How The West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly - And the Stark Choices Ahead, and Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World. Moyo was recognized as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" by TIME magazine, and was named to the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders Forum. Her work regularly appears in economic and finance-related publications, such as the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.

What does the future look like? Alex Salkever has been thinking and writing about this for two decades, covering AI and ChatGPT, green energy, genetic engineering, cloud computing, self-driving cars, and more. A former BusinessWeek editor, he is the author of four award-winning books examining the impact of technology on society and our personal well-being, including “The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future” and a book he co-author with Vivek Wadhwa, “Your Happiness Was Hacked”. Alex writes about and consults leading technology companies on innovation, the attention economy, blockchain and exponentially advancing technologies such as robotics, genomics, renewable energy, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and driverless cars. He is a columnist for Fortune and the former Technology Editor at BusinessWeek.com.

Frances West is an internationally-recognized thought leader, inspirational speaker, strategy advisor, author, and women in technology trailblazer known for her work in innovation, technology, and business transformation. She is the founder of FrancesWestCo, a global strategy advisory company focused on operationalizing inclusion as a business and technology imperative through her unique Authentic Inclusion™ blueprint. Her insightful and impactful approach comes from her unique personal background as a first-generation, no-English speaking immigrant to her trailblazing professional path as one of the first women in the technology field and her experience as a global executive in sales, marketing, business development, and research as well as her ground-breaking work in accessibility as IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer. Frances brings a valuable business perspective to this human rights-based initiative. Because of her expertise, she was invited as the sole IT industry representative to testify before the US Senate on the need to pass the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and she holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts in Boston in recognition of her work in accessibility, research, and digital inclusion.