NSB Logo Nikolas Badminton Nikolas Badminton

Nikolas Badminton

Speaker

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Futurist Speaker and Consultant, Chief Futurist at futurist.com

Nikolas Badminton is an award-winning, dynamic and innovative virtual keynote speaker and futurist consultant who shares an awe-inspiring vision of trends that shape the future to world-leading organizations and governments. He provides expertise in new technologies and promotes exponential thinking with a critical, honest, and optimistic view that empowers you to plan for today, tomorrow, and for the future.

Keynote Speeches

Future of Artificial Intelligence

“Exponential data growth, sensors, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are changing how we live, work and operate as a society. These are the lifeblood and foundations for the next 300 years of innovation and human progress.”
-Nikolas Badminton, Chief Futurist

In this futurist keynote he will teach you 3 essential lessons:

  • Understand global megatrends and how artificial intelligence is changing our world
  • See the exponential technologies built on the foundation of artificial intelligence and how they will change the world
  • See how society and business needs to shift its mindset towards intelligence augmentation

Shift your mindset from what is to WHAT IF…

What if you create bolder visions of your futures, strengthen strategic planning capabilities, anticipate unforeseen risks, and understand the value it provides to the market, your customers, and your shareholders? What if you create an anticipatory organizational capability? And, what if you empower all employees to be curious about the futures that lay ahead of us in 10, 20 and 30+ years?

Facing Our Futures: Looking to 2030 and Beyond

Nikolas will deliver an energetic and inspiring keynote that ignites curiosity, shifts your mindset from what is to what if, and teaches you how to think like a futurist. He will share stories of cultural shifts, insights into new disruptive technologies, and rethink how you establish winning strategies in your organization by deploying foresight.

As always, the keynote is built in collaboration with clients to create the most impact possible and help you…

  • Understand the value of foresight – foresight is the missing link between strategic planning, disruption and our futures. See how it supercharges your organization by exploring positive and challenging futures.
  • Understand global megatrends shaping geopolitical dynamics – economic power, population growth, water-energy-food, waste, climate change and energy. 
  • Know the trends that will change your industry – Future of Work, Artificial Intelligence and automation, Smart Cities and Urban Planning, Metaverse and Web3, Privacy and Security, Agriculture, Aerospace, Engineering and Manufacturing, Transportation and Logistics, Finance and Insurance. 
  • Unlock a sustainability mindset – ESG policy, United Nations SDGs, and circular economy
  • Learn how to explore futures and operationalize foresight – how we can write scenarios and tell stories of our futures
The World in 2030 + The Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We are seeing the 4th industrial revolution take place with advances never seen before across the digitized communications, renewable energy, and automated transportation Internet. At the heart of all of these is Artificial Intelligence (A.I.).

Nikolas draws on his 20+ years of experience in big data, analytics and A.I. to look at how this revolution is starting and changing society, business, and personal life. The insights he provides gives to you deeper understanding of what he world will look like in 2030 by showing you the techniques, research, and systems that are being deployed across industries, cities, and transportation. He also looks at wider societal implications and the ethics around data, privacy, and how we are all going to be affected.

 

The Exponential Technology Revolution

The world will change in the next 20 years more than it has in the previous 100. At the heart of that are technologies that are advancing at a pace never seen before – exponentially. Nikolas will provide a deep dive into the key exponentially developing and growing technologies that are changing the world, including Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and Robotics, Computational Systems, 3D Printing, Medicine/Neurosystems, Cybersecurity and Bioinformatics, Renewable Energy, Nanotechnology, and Quantum Computing.

He will highlight the ‘signals of change’ that show how quickly the world is changing across industries – finance, agriculture, medicine, media, transportation and logistics, construction, and many more. Nikolas will also provide a view on ethical implications and insights on how these technologies affect planning, policies, and regulations at both the federal and state levels.

 

The Growth of Smart Cities

Over 1000 smart city pilot projects are in progress today with over 500 of them being developed in China. The future city is going to have systems in place to create the ability to monitor and program the city to react to what is needed in real-time.

With this vision comes the implementation and rollout of renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro), self-driving vehicles (autonomous truck fleets, municipal transport, on-demand taxis, and personal vehicles), electric vehicles, the internet of things, with Big Data and Data Science at the heart of operations. Nikolas will look at how city planning is changing along with the core technologies being deployed and will profile the global cities that are embracing this approach.

The Impact of Big Data, Social Media, and Privacy on Society

The Internet surrounds us, binds us together as a society, and helps us with almost all aspects of our lives. Everything seems to be in its place and useful.  Social media is both the amplifier and controller of our emotions as we go about our daily lives. Algorithms optimize every aspect of lives, and ubiquitous connections across billions of devices capture our every move. The new world won’t look that different but, it will operate completely differently with these systems. Nikolas will help you look deeper into this new world and realize how the normal function of childhood, family and community is being altered and manipulated for profit. And, with our full permission.

Audience reviews:

  • You wowed the crowd! Our Audience was begging for more! Super interesting, visionary and matching content, unique presentation formant & you’re a very engaging and powerful speaker. Definitely one of the big highlights during our event! Nik, you killed it!” “You wowed the crowd! Our Audience was begging for more! Super interesting, visionary and matching content, unique presentation formant & you’re a very engaging and powerful speaker. Definitely one of the big highlights during our event! Nik, you killed it! - Nicole Schwaegerl, Head of Community at Transporeon
  • Nikolas served as a dynamic host for this provocative event. Nikolas worked hard to understand the University and our intended outcomes; as a result, we engaged Nik to work with us as our strategic curator for the Waterloo Innovation Summit.

    - Senior Director Community Relations & Events, University of Waterloo
  • Nikolas was an absolute pleasure to work with from start to finish. His presentation was very well-received and we've heard only great things so far. I've attached the feedback that was submitted in the mobile app for his keynote for your reference.

    - Program Director and 2018 Committee Chair, ARMA Canada
  • Nikolas served as a dynamic host for this provocative event. Nikolas worked hard to understand the University and our intended outcomes; as a result, we engaged Nik to work with us as our strategic curator for the Waterloo Innovation Summit.

    - Senior Director Community Relations & Events, University of Waterloo
  • Nikolas’ genuine enthusiasm and knowledge of technology and industry trends made for a thought-provoking keynote to kick-off our event.

    - Director, Labour Relations Services, Metro Vancouver
  • Nikolas was completely accurate in the danger and ownership of data and how to secure it now and what the future holds.

    - Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce

Speaker Biography

Nikolas Badminton is a global futurist speaker and Chief Futurist that mentors top executives and the highest levels of government to explore desirable futures, anticipate unforeseen risks, and strengthen strategic planning.

He has spent 30+ years working with leadership at over 300 leading organizations at the frontline of foresight, strategy and disruption – including NASA, United Nations, Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, WM, JP Morgan CHASE, VISA, TD Bank, American Express, BISCI, ISACA, Rolls Royce, Procter & Gamble, US Department of State, UK Home Office and many more.

Facing Our Futures: How foresight, futures design and strategy creates prosperity and growth – is Nikolas’ number one best selling book and has been selected for the Next Big Idea Club and as the ‘Next Gen Pick’ for JP Morgan Private bank’s 2023 Summer Reading List to guide new leaders to ignite curiosity and embrace futures thinking.

Nikolas’ essential research has been featured by the BBC, VICE, The Atlantic, Fast Company, Business Insider, Forbes, Sunday Telegraph and many others. He appears on SIRIUSXM and CTV regularly, was a key advisor to the ‘Age of AI’ series with Robert Downey Jr, and appears in the Franklin Institute’s series ‘2050’.