Melissa Clark-Reynolds is a street-smart futurist and tech entrepreneur who helps leaders cut through noise, tackle change head-on and build clear pathways to tomorrow.
Trained by the Institute for the Future and appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the technology industry, she’s worked with everyone from Spark and IAG to NASA and Australian Pork, tackling everything from company strategy to digital disruption. Melissa brings principled insight and practical tools that help teams turn uncertainty into direction.
People often leave her sessions with their minds blown and their thinking reset — about risk, responsibility, and what to act on now. Whether she’s guiding a CEO through a tough transition or challenging a conference audience on the future of AI, Melissa is known for her grounded foresight and ability to call it like it is, with clarity and warmth.
Talking Points
What’s Next? Turning Signals into Strategy
Ever wish your team had a crystal ball? While the future may be uncertain, it’s not unknowable.What’s Next? Turning Signals into Strategy
In this highly customised keynote, Melissa Clark-Reynolds brings sharp analysis and grounded insight to help you see what’s coming – and what to do about it. Melissa doesn't just predict trends; she decodes the 10 most important signals from the future.
Expect an energising session that leaves you thinking differently — and ready to act.
Format: 50-minute keynote + interactive session
Audience: Scales from boardroom to centre stage
Key Takeaways
• The 5 megatrends most likely to shape your industry over the next decade
• How to spot signals before they become trends
• Reframe how you see your company’s risks and opportunities
• Apply Futures Thinking to build more agile, resilient strategy
Reimagining What’s Possible
What if “impossible” was just a starting point?Reimagining What’s Possible
In this interactive keynote, futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds invites you to stretch your thinking, challenge assumptions, and rediscover the power of imagination — not as fantasy, but as a strategic tool for navigating real change. Drawing on cutting-edge insights and grounded foresight, Melissa shows you how to spot the future hiding in plain sight, and how we can build momentum toward it, together.
Every attendee plays a part in this session. Through guided activities and collective exploration, together we’ll uncover new possibilities, connect the dots others miss, and leave energised to lead with vision and courage.
Format: 90-minute keynote + interactive session
Audience: Scales from boardroom to centre stage
Key Takeaways
• Inspired teams make better futures
• Imagination is more important than knowledge in a highly changing world
• Making the future happen is a team sport
• The future is often hiding in plain sight — if you know how to look
• Learn to read the signals and get ahead of your biggest challenges — or your competition
Turning Chaos into Opportunity
Making Sense of the MessTurning Chaos into Opportunity
AI, Robotics, deepfake science, geopolitical unrest, labour shortages and social change – is it all too hard to keep up?
In this keynote, futurist and tech entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds shares practical tools for spotting patterns in the noise and turning today’s turbulence into tomorrow’s advantage. With a clear-eyed view of what’s coming — and what’s already here — she’ll help you reframe uncertainty as a catalyst for action and growth.
Format: 45-50 min keynote + Q&A
Audience: Wide appeal – Technical, Business, and Leadership
Key Takeaways
• The present is messy and contradictory. And the future will be too
• The next digital divide is between those who use AI and those who don’
• You can’t build productivity by simply hiring more people
• Conversations around the water cooler are not about what you think they are
• You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you — expect more supply chain shock
• The next pandemic is already on its way
• Build resilience NOW if you want to win later
Owning the Future
Intellectual Property vs. the WorldOwning the Future
What do Prince, GitHub, gene editing, the future of advertising, and identity theft have in common? They all raise big questions about ownership in an AI-driven world.
As artificial intelligence reshapes how we create, share, and commercialise ideas, the rules around intellectual property — and the very notion of “original” — are being stress-tested. In this keynote, futurist and tech entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds explores the shifting landscape of knowledge, creativity, and control. From deepfakes to data scraping, she unpacks what leaders need to understand now to protect their value, their work, and their integrity.
Format: 45-50 min keynote + Q&A
Audience: Wide appeal – Technical, Business, and Leadership
Key Takeaways
• AI forces us all to ask: who owns what now
• Large Language Models rely on enormous amounts of data to learn and recombine into novel ideas and products
• How do you protect your own IP? And what’s at stake if you don’t?
• What happens if you use other people's IP?
• "Truthiness" and trust: responding to a world of deepfakes and synthetic media
• Navigating the new operating system of creativity, commerce, and control
Leading When Nothing Is Certain
AI disruption. Economic volatility. Shifting work models. It’s a lot — and it’s accelerating.Leading When Nothing Is Certain
In this keynote, Melissa Clark-Reynolds tackles the hard questions facing today’s leaders: How do you lead when the ground keeps shifting? What do you do when the way you’ve always worked no longer works? And how do you stay focused — and human — as AI rewrites the rules of business, productivity, and value?
This is not just a tech story. It’s a leadership one. From billing models to job redesign, Melissa shares clear frameworks and practical mindsets to help leaders navigate change, manage transition, and make confident decisions in a messy, fast-moving world.
Format: 40 min keynote + Q&A perfect for opening or closing, scales from boardroom to main stage
Audience: Wide appeal – Technical, Business, and Leadership
Key Takeaways
• AI won’t take your job, but someone using it might
• New tech means new business models, operating models, and ways of working
• Some jobs are disappearing now. More are on the way
• If you charge by the hour, what happens when your week’s work takes 3 hours?
• Leadership in uncertainty means letting go of control and doubling down on clarity
• Mindsets and leadership principles we need now more than ever
Video
Melissa Clark Reynolds | Showreel | Saxton Speakers
In this eye-opening keynote, Melissa Clark-Reynolds, a certified futurist and former tech CEO with 35 years in the industry, explores how today’s "weird" technologies become tomorrow’s everyday essentials. From her early start at university at just 15 to writing her first AI code in 1986, Melissa shares insights into the evolution of artificial intelligence, cultivated meat, and disruptive business models. Discover why Walmart, Nestlé, and Danone are rethinking the future of food, and how AI is disrupting the very people who built it. Whether you're a tech enthusiast or just trying to understand the chaos, this talk will challenge how you think about the future of technology, food, and health. Learn more about Melissa at https://www.saxton.com.au/speakers/melissa-clark-reynoldsMelissa Clark Reynolds 2017 Showcase
Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM is widely recognised as an inspirational role model and business leader. Melissa is a Digital Strategist and Professional Director - with 25 years experience as an entrepreneur and in the business start-up community. She trained with Clayton Christiansen in his approach to Disruptive Innovation through Harvard.Melissa, your presentation was extremely well received and added real value to the convention. Thank you for making our convention a success. ... keep reading YMCA
Her passion for tech, research, creativity, and the human elements within tech was inspirational.
Fantastic presentation! You tailored it beautifully to our audience and it had lots of great takeaways."
You stimulated our Board thinking for the rest of the day. A key message being the jobs we are educating our children for, possibly won't exist by the time they leave school!
We treasured your contribution to the Summit, not just your truly fabulous presentation but also your lovely energy and enthusiasm. You totally hit the mark!
Melissa's presentation exceeded our expectations and she received a standing ovation. She put a very human perspective on issues and was incredibly valuable for the audience.
The presentation was inspiring, motivating and a great way to start the conference.
It was different from what we anticipated but very effective. We would love to hear her again. She really grows on you and has messages from the heart.
What a way for our conference to open - we couldn't have wished for better ... She was outstanding - we couldn't have asked for more. What a wonderful woman! Gut wrenching emotion, laughter, tears, sudden intakes of breath - Melissa touched the audience in so many ways.
Received great feedback on Melissa from delegates, with many saying she was one of the best speakers they had heard.
Melissa was outstanding. She took the time to really understand our organisation and tailored a talk that was spot on. We asked her to challenge us which she did, but at the same time she was warm and engaging. We all learned a lot from the session. The talk received very high ratings from the participants at the conference and was the highest rating session of the day.
Melissa was on the panel at our HR Game Changer Conference and was a great presenter. She challenged the audience on thinking differently, shared her personal experience and had some fascinating insights into how wecan change the game.
Melissa addressed our brief perfectly. It was obvious she had spent considerable time to ensure delegates expectations were met. We would highly recommend Melissa as a speaker. She had great rapport with the audience.
