Focus on what you can control today to prepare for whatever the future brings.
Born and bred in wild Patagonia, Gus Balbontin never allowed his small town and humble beginnings to get in the way of his big dreams.
A healthy disregard for the status quo and a severe case of FOMO (fear of missing out) landed him in Australia at the young age of 17. By the age of 22, he had dropped out of uni, hitchhiked South America, set up his first business and landed his dream job at Lonely Planet. Fast forward a few years and he was leading the company globally and working with companies such as Google X, Nokia and Amazon on the latest technology, creative cultures and high-performing teams.
Seeking a change from corporate life as Executive Director and CTO of Lonely Planet, Gus moved back to his entrepreneurial roots, becoming an investor, founder and mentor. Today, you will find Gus building robots, developing AI solutions, making 3D printed wheelchairs and investing in climate change technologies.
He loves sharing a story, but he loves even more knowing those stories make a difference to people. Gus crafts a transformative experience that energizes and empowers. By connecting deeply with the audience, he ensures that the lessons learned resonate on a personal level, equipping each participant with the confidence and tools needed to turn inspiration into tangible, meaningful action.
While Gus is happy to speculate about the future, he brings into focus what you can control right now, to make you ready for any future.
Gus has inspired audiences of 10 to 10,000 around the world. He has a profound impact on businesses creating language, practical models and analogies that drive action as well as a personal impact, with people driving change in their own lives.
Talking Points
Pull the Future Towards You
Gus isn’t about vague predictions - he’s about preparing you for whatever the future throws your way. As an “Alternative Futurist,” he’ll guide you through the trends that matter, with a sharp focus on what you can do now rather than later. Gus inspires audiences to start playing with novelty to increase their tolerance to change and pull the future towards us. Waiting for it to happen is a recipe for disaster.Pull the Future Towards You
Stop wasting time on speculation and start taking action.
AI through the Human Lens
Gus Balbontin will help your audience understand AI in simple terms, recognise how much we already use it today and play with some examples on how it can apply to your job, business or industry. He will help you cut through the hype to focus on what the real human impact is.AI through the Human Lens
The battle scars he collected over the years supporting businesses and humans through the digital revolution, perfectly apply in today’s AI context. For example, we overestimated what the internet could do short term and simultaneously underestimated what it was going to do long term. Today you can’t run your business without internet, in future you won’t be able to run your business without AI. You are probably thinking “I haven’t finished with my digital transformation and now I need to worry about AI transformation? Yes! If you are still paying the backlog of digital debt you are about to start piling up AI debt.
AI poses no danger, inaction does. The opportunity is open to those that act.
Self development - Best career insurance!
Regardless if you are in corporate or self employed, we tend to learn early on in our lives to outsource our careers and development to external parties. If its not the career coach it’s the recruiter or the learning and development team or HR or…Self development - Best career insurance!
Let Gus help you look back, set vague goals, build the most powerful network and own your career so it doesn’t happen to you but you happen to it.
It’s uncomfortable but you learn to let go and build a portfolio of activity that will make you more relevant in your current job and every future role you ever hold.
Gus will provoke, inspire and give the practical tools to be more accountable and take control.
Cultures of Trust and Accountability
Gus dives deep into the fabric of team building, exploring how to create a culture of trust, psychological safety, and accountability. Learn how to empower individuals to take responsibility and act with autonomy, and discover the leadership traits necessary to harness the collective power of your team—even in the most uncertain circumstances and in the most complex distributed virtual offices. Cultures of Trust and Accountability
Gus will guide you in understanding how self-awareness and individual behaviour shape the overall performance of your business.
Unlocking Agility & Adaptability
In the relentless pace of today’s markets, corporate momentum can be your biggest enemy. Gus challenges you to break free from outdated, repetitive processes and embrace a more agile, entrepreneurial mindset. He’ll guide you in creating systems that support both established and emerging business models, transforming your organisation into a nimble force ready to adapt to any change. This keynote is your blueprint for thriving in the face of disruption.
Unlocking Agility & Adaptability
Customer Focus & Activating Innovation
You must solve more customer problems than business problems, if you want to stay relevant. Gus will help you shift your focus from internal struggles to external impact, showing you how to strip innovation down to its core—moving from unsolved to solved problems. Customer Focus & Activating Innovation
Creativity is scary because people judge it, curiosity is not. Let Gus help you focus your attention and energy to spark the entrepreneurial fuel everyone has inside.
Gus brings practical tools to the table, helping you turn lofty ideas into immediate action and engage every member of your team in the innovation process.
Once you see Gus’ simple innovation models you will be surprised how much we over process innovation and try to control it with little return.
Leadership in Difficult Times
Gus led a large global restructure and has been involved in many large corporate and small startup shake ups. Leading yourself and others through difficult times is something we can easily take our eyes off.Leadership in Difficult Times
In a world where our brains are still wired for survival in the wild, leading in the modern business environment requires some serious counterintuitive thinking, specifically through tough times. Gus dives into the evolutionary challenges that make today’s rapid change so hard to handle and helps you accept and engage with practices that will get you and your business through disruption.
Masterclasses
In addition to his high-energy Keynotes, Gus offers interactive Masterclasses and Workshops designed to go deeper into critical business challenges. These sessions are practical, hands-on and tailored to drive real outcomes for your organisation.Masterclasses
Duration: 60 minutes
Format:
- Three key topics introduced
- Highly interactive with personal, group and audience discussions
- Hands-on activities focused on doing and sharing
Focus Areas:
- Innovation and turning ideas into immediate action
- Agility and adaptability in uncertain environments
- Building creative cultures and high-performing teams
Ideal For:
- Teams looking for practical tools and frameworks
- Events that need more engagement beyond a keynote
Workshops
In addition to his high-energy Keynotes, Gus offers interactive Masterclasses and Workshops designed to go deeper into critical business challenges. These sessions are practical, hands-on and tailored to drive real outcomes for your organisation.Workshops
Duration:
- Half-day (3 hours)
- Full-day (6 hours)
Format:
- Deep dive into concepts of innovation, agility, team building and culture
- Breakout sessions to solve real business challenges
- Practical tools and collaborative problem-solving (no gimmicks, no games)
Benefits:
- Address real organisational problems
- Break down silos and improve team connection
- Equip participants with actionable strategies for change
Video
Gus Balbontin
Gus Balbontin was amazing and everyone loved him. ... keep reading AMEX
Gus was amazing! Gus shared thought provoking ideas which had the team laughing and also challenging their thinking at the same time. I'd highly recommend Gus to speak at corporate events, he is entertaining and an absolute pleasure to work with.
Gus Balbontin talked about what is happening at the moment in the world and in reality, what is happening in the world for centuries now..."change", who are the ones to survive and how to do so. A topic not easy to hear but in all truthfulness, what all leaders should embrace and comprehend. A 5* is a perfection Im not equipped either to award or to acknowledge, yet for our group, for what I was looking for in a keynote speaker for our group, he delivered and then some! The group was really happy from deliverance and interacted as I hoped for! My only secret wish is that one day we will get to have Gus actually live on stage...who knows?
Gus was a master at taking what can be seen as complex ideas and making them simple. He challenged the thinking of the room through relevant examples and a down to earth perspective. Gus is an energising and humorous presenter and had the room in laughter.. we would highly recommend Gus.
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