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David Rowan

The leading authority on technology’s impact on business

Founding UK Editor-in-Chief, WIRED Author of Amazon #1 business bestseller Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds (Penguin) 600+ keynotes around the worldTechnology columnist: The Times, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller Event moderator for governments, WIRED, TED, World Economic Forum Adviser to & investor in 150+ tech startups

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David Rowan's videos

What David Rowan's clients say

Here is some of the feedback from audiences and clients who have worked with David.
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"David's talk was totally awesome. He blew us away. Our audience (internal staff) loved him. They thought he was brilliant."

Iress

"David has a way of making people stop, to sit up and take notice. This means comments he delivers have had a high level of impact and really got the audience talking and thinking deeply."

Huawei

"We had brilliant feedback about your presentation."

Small Luxury Hotels

"You energized, enlightened and inspired the client's (and our!) team."

PWC Strategy & for the Dubai government

"We've had such good feedback on the talk. We would be thrilled to have you speak at a future event."

Braze

"Your presentation was brilliant and so well received. I’ve already lost count of the number of people who’ve asked me where I found you!"

Mitie

"You were a truly exceptional speaker and I have received wonderful feedback about your talk."

Intercorp

"Feedback about your keynote has once again been outstanding!! (Event NPS 4.7/5) One quote from a participant: 'David’s keynote made me sit and think; The world is evolving, and I should also take time from my daily job to think how I can use my talent to bring some change!'"

OP Bank

"The team was blown away and they are a hard group to impress."

Google

"Truly inspirational."

Warner Bros

"Fascinating."

Goldman Sachs

"David Rowan was awesome."

Salesforce

"Magnificent."

Sky

"Just perfect."

Temasek

"You set the tone for the day perfectly, engaging the audience and steering the presenters through a very full agenda. The feedback from the day has been overwhelmingly positive, which is largely due to your dynamism, good humour and professionalism."

David Cameron, 
G8 Innovation Conference

"A stellar moderator – insightful and challenging to the speakers, witty and engaging for the audience, and very positive to work with."

World Economic Forum

"Your contribution at the event was terrific. The content was highly relevant & extremely interesting. Your talk received the highest audience review on the feedback application. The level of your professionalism is unrivalled."

Mercer, Hong Kong

"It went brilliantly: an excellent presentation. A great success!"

Sky Betting

"Insightful, thought-provoking and energizing."

Marubeni Corporation

"We had brilliant feedback."

Small Luxury Hotels

"Your opening talk was just fabulous. The feedback on your talk has been extremely positive."

PopTech

"A HUUUUGE thank you as always for being the one we trust to make any conversation bright, enlightening, energetic, thoughtful and insightful — always so, so grateful."

Founders Forum NY

"David was fantastic. The content was perfect. The talk was fast paced, interesting, relevant and accessible. It set up the innovation session of our agenda really well and I was delighted with the result."

Sky

"Thank you so much for an excellent session. You left the team in no doubt about the risks of disruptive factors and how they can impact any industry. Ours more than any is wide open here. Totally the right way to end the conference."

JP Morgan

Available for

David’s speaking themes

Languages: 

  • English
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Check availability

Check David Rowan's availability for your event

Complete the form below to check David Rowan's availability. If you prefer, you can also send an email directly to our head office.

How would David Rowan deliver their presentation at your event?
Please provide details of your budget for David Rowan's speaking fee, including currency.

David Rowan's 2025 biography

About David Rowan

David Rowan is today’s leading speaker on how emerging technologies will impact business — and how leaders should prepare now. He’s given more than 700 keynotes around the world, and has moderated events for the World Economic Forum, WIRED, the biggest global companies, and governments. As founding Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine in the UK, David came to know the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Didi, Spotify, Twitter and countless other ambitious startups from Tel Aviv to Shenzhen. His best-selling book, “Non-Bullshit Innovation: 17 Proven Ways To Transform How You Work” (Penguin), is a 20-country quest to identify genuine innovation in the face of technology-led disruption. The book sets out 17 proven strategies for future-proofing a successful business — from “Turn products into services” to “Build an ecosystem”.

David spends his time at tech’s cutting edge: visiting university research labs and startup clusters to meet the people building the future. He’s invested in more than 180 early-stage tech companies, including 8 that became billion-dollar “unicorns”, and runs venture funds that invest in health-tech and climate-tech. Currently he’s working on a book on how business leaders are using culture to attract and motivate exceptional talent, at a time when AI risks commodifying entire sectors.

David has been a technology columnist for The Times, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller and The Sunday Times, and at WIRED he built a conference and a consulting business. And he is still searching for the future.

David will customise a talk for your meeting, or will moderate your event in his accessible journalistic style. He deconstructs tech trends in real time, unpacking how major innovations like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and more, are changing businesses and consumers. He delivers fascinating and knowledgeable presentations full of insight into the future of technology together with lively examples and engaging clips which reveal that in some cases the future is already here. He’s typically asked to speak about how innovation and technology are likely to impact a particular sector (from manufacturing to motoring), and what incumbent companies can do to protect themselves. He customises every talk, and in recent months has addressed audiences in finance, fashion, utilities, television, insurance, shipping, travel, real estate and business software. He also speaks a lot about changing business models, and how companies can develop a culture of innovation.

His recent themes include:

  • How to think about human talent in the AI era
  • How to understand the impact of generative AI
  • What exponential technologies mean for the next five years in retail/real
    estate/finance/media/healthcare, etc
  • What a 20-country quest taught me about building an authentic culture of
    innovation
  • What AI agents tell us about the future of the workplace
  • Why culture is the true business differentiator in a world of exponential tech
  • What talent wants in the new world of work
David’s latest books
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David Rowan's 2025 talks & topics

Why this is AI's "Netscape moment" — and what that means for your business

How to understand the impact of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. What they mean for business resilience, the job market, process automation.

AI may be the future — but what does it mean for your business today?

How to be human in the emergent era of transformative AI, neural interfaces, simulated realities and planetary chaos

What AI means for the data centre

How exponential tech forces retailers to think like startups

How technology is changing operational real estate

The impact of AI on operational real estate

How exponential tech could impact aviation cybersecurity

FINDING OPPORTUNITY AMID THE CRISIS

Technology offers hope for optimism as we enter an era of uncertainty and financial fragility. Here are the growth opportunities — from re-inventing supply chains to building new brand heroes.

WHY BUSINESS INNOVATION HAS NEVER MATTERED MORE

COVID forced business leaders to move insanely fast to adapt. But how do you build a culture of effective innovation? Here are the lessons from David’s 20-nation quest for non-bullshit innovation.

TEN LESSONS FROM THE NON-BULLSHIT INNOVATORS

David Rowan travelled across the world to understand what it takes for businesses and governments to leverage digital transformation in exciting ways. He shares ten lessons from his new book Non-Bullshit Innovation that can be applied to all sorts of organisations.

WHAT TECHNOLOGY MEANS FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR INDUSTRY

David delivers bespoke presentations for client meetings. Recent subjects have included the future of food and drink (clients including Unilever, Coca-Cola, Barilla); the future of aviation (IATA); the future of real estate (CBRE, Leading Real Estate, Cushman & Wakefield); the future of media (Sky, Schibsted, BBC); the future of healthcare (BUPA, Vitality, Kaiser Permanente); the future of financial services (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan).

THE FUTURE OF THE WORKPLACE

How to attract talent, and motivate your team to perform its best work, in a fast-changing world when the “workplace” is more fluid than ever before.

FINDING OPPORTUNITY AMID THE CRISIS: Technology offers hope for optimism as we enter an era of uncertainty and financial fragility.

Here are the growth opportunities — from re-inventing supply chains to building new brand heroes.

THE TEN NEW RULES OF BUSINESS

HOW TO OPTIMISE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

WHY PURPOSE PLUS PROFIT IS THE NEW MANTRA

EVENT MODERATING

David has moderated events for the UK and French governments; WIRED; World Economic Forum; Pictet; Royal Academy of Engineering. He hosts awards ceremonies, frequently interviews CEOs on stage, and is often asked to host multi-day events.