Be future-ready, not future-proof.
Has disruption – from employee burnout, hybrid work, AI, global uncertainty, and more – shaken up your world? Are your people looking for clear leadership in this time of massive change? Do you want to be more confident in chaos and uncertainty?
Gihan Perera is a business futurist, conference speaker, AI researcher, and author who shows you how to be fit for the future in a fast-changing world.
For more than 25 years, he has worked with organisations and leaders throughout Australia and the world, helping them to lead in uncertainty, act with clarity and confidence, and thrive in a fast-changing world.
He is the author of Disrupted, Disruption By Design, The Future of Leadership, and ten other books.
Through his keynote presentations, interactive masterclasses, and in-depth leadership programs, he shares future trends and thought-provoking insights – delivered with interaction, engagement, and humour – that leave people feeling positive, empowered, and optimistic about their future.
Forbes magazine rated him the #5 social media influencer in the world (and #1 in Australia) in his area of expertise.
He has always taken the lead in embracing emerging technologies and trends, from his university thesis in AI more than 30 years ago, to leading a software development team building the infrastructure for the early Internet, founding one of Australia’s first Web development companies in 1996, teaching thought leaders how to create e-learning platforms, and helping business leaders with scenario planning to lead their teams into the future.
Gihan is one of Australia’s leading online presenters, and has been delivering online presentations since 2009. Citrix (the company behind GoToWebinar) engaged him to teach their clients around the world how to run better online presentations. Garr Reynolds, author of the world-renowned bestseller Presentation Zen, asked him to write the online presentations section for the book.
He is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), the only internationally recognised designation for professional speakers, and was awarded 2024 Educator Of The Year from Professional Speakers Australia.
His formal background is in science and AI, with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Western Australia. But he’s always been interested in people and the way they communicate – and how to become fit for the future, so they embrace change, act on opportunities, and live happier lives.
Talking Points
Fit for the Future
Thriving, Not Just Surviving, in a Fast-Changing World.Fit for the Future
Change is happening faster than ever – at work, at home, and in our community. That brings more uncertainty and disruption – but also opportunity and possibility.
From AI to climate action, from hybrid work to rising global tensions, the world is shifting in big and small ways. These aren’t just disruptions – they could be your next big opportunity.
You might think the future is outside your control, but you have more control than you think. We can’t be future proof, but we can be future ready. The key is knowing how to adapt, embrace new ideas, and stay flexible.
In this engaging, thought-provoking, and interactive presentation, you will explore the biggest trends shaping our world, discover how to navigate change with confidence, and walk away with practical ideas for creating your own future. Come ready to think, laugh, and leave inspired!
Key Messages
- Understanding the most important trends shaping our world
- Being an active learner and possibility thinker
- Leveraging the diversity in your team and community
- Taking control of your own future
Format
This is one of Gihan’s most-requested presentations, and is suitable for all audiences. Use this for a high-impact opening keynote, an inspiring closing keynote, or even the opening session the morning after the Gala Dinner.
Leveraging AI
Humans and Machines – Better Together.Leveraging AI
The AI revolution is here, and will continue to shape the way we live and work. If you’re not already engaging with AI, you’re falling behind. But it’s not as simple as just switching it on and hoping for the best!
AI offers incredible opportunities, and we have moved past the point where people are fearful about AI. Now your role as a leader is to help them be skilful, resourceful, and appropriately careful.
In this engaging and eye-opening presentation, you’ll discover how to leverage AI – to enhance your customer experience, empower your team to collaborate with AI, and boost productivity and performance to stay ahead of the game.
Key Messages
- Develop a well-rounded perspective on AI that balances its potential and limitations
- See real-world case studies showcasing AI in use
- Explore the potential benefits and opportunities of AI for your organisation
- Understand some of the ethical considerations and challenges
- Learn how to identify and engage ‘AI champions’ in your team
Future Ready Leaders
From Chaos and Confusion to Clarity and Confidence.Future Ready Leaders
We have already faced years of change and uncertainty, and the real disruption is still to come. The future of work will be even more fluid – influenced by climate change, working from home, diversity and inclusion, generational shifts, AI and automation, changes in global economic power, and more.
If your people are burnt out, fed up, falling behind, and pushing back, you’re not alone! More than ever, we need leaders to step up and lead the way – providing clarity and confidence when they face chaos and confusion.
The best people can – and will – choose where, when, how, and for whom they work. Will you create the sort of workplace that will attract and keep them? And are you the sort of leader they want to follow?
In this keynote presentation for leaders and managers, you will understand the essential components of the future of work, gain insights into the must-have skills for tomorrow, and learn what it takes to create the best workplace on earth.
Key Messages
- Discover how smart, savvy leaders thrive through crisis, recovery, and growth
- Understand the four key elements of the future of work – and how they apply to your teams
- Learn how to leverage individual skills and talents to create a more agile, resilient, and ‘antifragile’ organisation
- Adopt a mindset of an active learner and possibility thinker
Seeing into the Future
Practical Foresight For A Fast-Changing World.Seeing into the Future
Welcome to a world where uncertainty, change, and disruption rule! External pressures beyond our control have a massive impact on lives, and we’ve all seen this in the last few years.
We would love to have certainty about our future, but that’s impossible in a fast-changing world. Don’t step back and make your plans shorter and your goals smaller. Instead, learn to think like a futurist, so you can think ahead to see what’s around the corner and over the horizon.
Discover how to anticipate trends, spot opportunities, and prepare today for an uncertain tomorrow. The best leaders don’t promise certainty, but they offer more clarity and confidence so we can all make better, more well-informed decisions now.
In this compelling keynote for forward-thinking leaders at all levels, learn the essentials of futurist thinking so you can inspire, motivate, and lead your team through an uncertain – and exciting – future.
Key Messages
- Understand the key external factors that could affect your short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans
- Broaden your thinking to have an external perspective
- Engage the diversity and different perspectives of the entire team
- Adopt the mindset of an active learner and possibility thinker
- Stay relevant, flexible, and resilient in your planning
Customers on Your Side
Engaging The Customer Of The Future.Customers on Your Side
The world is in flux, and so are your customers. Are you keeping up?
If you don’t know what matters to them now, they will choose somebody else who does.
Many businesses start with a laser-focused view of their ideal customer, but over time, they drift apart. Far too often, the customer – your business’s true north – is forgotten. And in a fast-changing world, it’s easier than ever for competitors to swoop in.
The businesses that succeed adapt to the changing customer, with leaders who can lead in uncertainty, team members who put the customer first, and a culture that embraces change.
In this engaging and eye-opening presentation, we examine the customer of the future: what captures their imagination, what drives their loyalty, and what you need to do to stay ahead of the game.
Key Messages
- Understanding the five key trends shaping the post-pandemic customer
- Knowing how your customer’s journey has changed
- Creating stronger ties with your customers
- Engaging customers in creating better products and services
- Tapping into the diversity of team members when solving customer problems
Bright Sparks
Build a Culture of Change Agents.Bright Sparks
Disruption and innovation are both about change, but it’s disruption when change happens to you and innovation when you create the change yourself.
We have all faced massive disruption, and it’s now time to start being proactive. The teams and organisations that will succeed are those who create a culture that welcomes and embraces change and innovation.
Innovation is everybody’s business now, but innovation doesn’t mean you have to invent the next iPhone, solve climate change, or plan a mission to Mars. The secret is to engage in everyday innovation – with an environment that encourages change, respect and trust for the diverse experience and expertise of everybody in the team, and systems that make change and innovation part of everyday work.
In this engaging and entertaining keynote, discover how to make innovation an integral part of your team’s DNA and create a culture for sustained success.
Key Messages
- Understand the five key mindsets for future success
- Learn what leaders say that block change and innovation (you’ve probably said them yourself!)
- Boost trust, judgement, and independence in hybrid teams
- Encourage a learning and growth mindset
- Make innovation and change an everyday habit, not an optional extra
- Take more control of your own future
AI Leaders Lab (Masterclass)
Unlocking AI - Safely and ResponsiblyAI Leaders Lab (Masterclass)
AI has been around since the 1950s(!), and has been used in some industries for decades. But when ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, it took AI use to a new level. We have seen an explosion of interest – but also some confusion and uncertainty – about what AI means for leaders. It’s no longer a question of if AI will affect your organisation, but how you will lead your organisation, team, and yourself through it.
As a leader, you don’t need to be an AI expert, but you must learn how to set the direction, choose the right tools, and establish guidelines for people to use it in a safe, ethical, and responsible way. Some in your team want to floor the accelerator as quickly as possible. As a leader, you also have a responsibility to be sure the car is safe! The good news is you can get both speed and safety – if you do it right.
Unfortunately, too many organisations try to control AI with strict restrictions and rigid processes, which stifle progress and frustrate people trying to use it. There is a better way. With clear principles, practical guidance, and the right conversations, you can empower your people and protect your organisation.
This practical masterclass helps you understand more about AI at a leadership level so you can act with more clarity and confidence when making decisions about using it effectively, responsibly, and safely in your team and organisation. You will get a working knowledge of AI, practical tools to shape its use, and the confidence to lead your AI initiatives and strategy.
Don’t miss this opportunity to unlock the power of AI and shape your future.
Key Outcomes:
- We always tailor the masterclass to match participant roles and your other requirements. Outcomes include:
- A clear, practical framework for using AI in your team or organisation
Insight into current AI trends and how they are shaping your industry
- Discussion of risks, opportunities, and the human side of AI at work
- A stronger understanding of ethical, legal, and privacy considerations
- Space for peer discussion – hearing what others are trying, testing, or avoiding
AI At Work (Masterclass)
Practical AI For Productivity And PerformanceAI At Work (Masterclass)
AI has been around since the 1950s(!), but the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 brought it to the world’s attention. Now everybody’s talking about AI, and it’s an important part of every workplace agenda. That’s not surprising because we all now have access to world-class AI literally at our fingertips.
Despite this growth, many people are still struggling to get value from AI. If you’re not using AI effectively yet, you’re spending more time than you need to on repetitive tasks, missing out on new opportunities, and finding it harder to keep pace with change. Meanwhile, others are quietly using AI to get ahead.
Imagine being able to streamline your operations, increase productivity, and gain valuable insights that give you a competitive advantage. AI becomes a powerful assistant that helps you drive growth, enhance customer experiences, and make faster, better-informed decisions.
This hands-on, practical masterclass helps you cut through the noise. You’ll learn how to use AI to save time, sharpen your thinking, improve performance, and support better decision-making.
Key Outcomes
We tailor the masterclass to match participant roles and your specific requirements. We usually focus on one or more of these three areas:
- Enhancing the customer experience – ideal for frontline roles
- Boosting productivity and performance – suitable for all roles
- Managing and leading more effectively – suitable for leadership roles
Whichever outcomes we choose, the goal is to raise awareness about what’s possible and show practical techniques that people can apply immediately.
Make It Make Sense (Masterclass)
Clarity And Confidence In A Noisy World.Make It Make Sense (Masterclass)
In our complex, confusing, and connected world, we need to understand what’s happening before we can operate in it. Sense-making is the skill that takes incomplete, contradictory, or overwhelming information; filters it to identify what matters most; absorbs it and learns from it; and then shares it in engaging and meaningful ways.
In uncertain environments, with imperfect information, sense-making helps you work from incomplete data to form plausible ideas, test them iteratively, and update your understanding as new information emerges. It helps you avoid analysis paralysis while also avoiding reckless action.
Workplaces are saturated with dashboards, alerts, reports, and real-time updates, but clarity is harder than ever. This program helps you and your team cut through the overload and uncertainty, so you can distinguish between the urgent and the important, and make better decisions with more confidence and clarity.
Sense-making has three parts:
1. Choose: Be aware of your world – full of data, information, overwhelm, limited time and attention – to absorb and filter what’s relevant and meaningful.
2. Learn: Use this to identify gaps and weaknesses, find opportunities for growth, and consolidate what’s working.
3. Share: Take what’s most relevant and share that with others in meaningful, relevant, and engaging ways.
Key Outcomes:
- Scan widely across multiple sources – without getting overwhelmed or confused
- Recognise patterns, trends, and weak signals over time
- Form hypotheses and test them – quickly
- Integrate insights from different disciplines, roles, or perspectives
- Share data in meaningful ways to clarify, not confuse
- Present your ideas with confidence for greater impact and persuasion
Video
Gihan Perera - Examples from Pre-Recorded Presentations
Gihan Perera | Futurist, Conference Speaker, Author, AI Researcher | Saxton Speakers
Has disruption – from employee burnout, hybrid work, AI, global uncertainty, and more – shaken up your world? Are your people looking for clear leadership in this time of massive change? Do you want to be more confident in chaos and uncertainty? Gihan Perera is a business futurist, conference speaker, AI researcher, and author who shows you how to be fit for the future in a fast-changing world.Gihan Perera | People-Powered AI: Empowering Your People to Embrace the Future | Saxton Speakers
When it comes to AI, too many leaders think too much about the technology and forget about the people. It should always be people first, technology second. To succeed in the age of AI, you must bring your team along on the AI journey: facilitate their use of AI, address their concerns, and ensure they feel empowered, not threatened, by this new technology. In this interactive masterclass, you'll discover practical ways to help your people embrace AI and drive success on the AI journey.We were so pleased to have Gihan open our conference this year. He was inspiring, thought provoking and engaging - challenging us to see disruption as our chance to innovate our way into our ... keep reading Pearson Education
I have worked with Gihan over two countries and several industries, bringing him in as keynote speaker, trainer and workshop facilitator. He listens, understands where your organization and team is at, and tailors his content and format accordingly. He always has up to date knowledge both on the theoretical and practical space and is approachable to bounce ideas off, and even for asking for hands-on advice on tools we can use to demonstrate innovation in our organization.
A great balance of personal story, humour and interesting content, and his interaction with the crowd was fantastic. I can't think of how we could have better started the day.
Gihan was such a wonderful presenter and addition to our recent HP Connect event. His energy and ability to break down concepts and make it real left the audience wanting more! Attendees loved him!
Gihan kept the audience riveted for 45 minutes straight over Zoom! And he was a pleasure to work with.
Gihan's professional, thorough and collaborative approach were evident in all our dealings with him. Framed by Gihan's entertaining presentation style, his relevant knowledge of key issues in local and global context, practical tips and tools for the workplace, and his understanding of emerging trends resonated with the group and contributed to our leadership conference's success. Overwhelmingly positive feedback and light-bulb moments from delegates.
Gihan's candid style and humour won over the packed house from the moment he began speaking. It came as no surprise when he received the highest rating of all the guest speakers we had on the day. If you get a chance to bring him into your organisation or conference, I strongly recommend you do so before someone else books him.
"Gihan's presentation was a great opening session at our recent senior leaders forum. He cleverly integrated his knowledge and facts about technology evolution and other global disruptions into a compelling story about the change occurring in our working lives, and how we can best respond to it as leaders and individuals."
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