James Woudhuysen

Author and innovation expert

Author and speaker on future trends, James Woudhuysen is an impressive trend spotter — identifying innovations early and creating proposals to deal with them.

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James Woudhuysen’s background

Broadcaster and author of books on energy and construction, now Visiting Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at London South Bank University. Expert on China, India, Japan and international relations, he shows how to master new social, economic and technological trends and develop counter-intuitive solutions.

After helping install and test one of Britain’s first computer-controlled car parks, he read physics at Sussex University and did postgraduate work at the Science Policy Research Unit. At the WPP, he helped lead Britain’s first study of online retailing, going on to head worldwide market intelligence at Philips Consumer Electronics, the Netherlands.

Woudhuysen spent many years consulting for top corporations. He has debated Bill Gates, Tom Wolfe, Arthur Scargill, Yvette Cooper and Simon Schama, and has contributed to the Economist and The Times.

Straight-talking and charismatic, Woudhuysen likes to debunk myths with clear statistics, and surprising historical insights. His speeches are funny, and very visual≥

Talks

Consumer Leisure and Play

Agility and the Future of Globalisation and R&D

The Future of IT

Energy and Transport

Human Resources, Change Management and the Future of Work

Construction and Housing

Market Intelligence, Innovation and Brands

Available for

Speaking Themes

Future of Technology

Languages

English

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Videos

Testimonials

Your session was excellent and we now have plenty of follow-up work. Thank you for the brilliant presentation prepared at very short notice.

Ghaleb Rostom

Head of airlines solutions, Northern and Western Europe, Amadeus

James joined our flagship event, World Procurement Congress 2017, as one of the expert speakers, working with an exclusive group of Chief Procurement Officers. He delivered a fantastic session, focusing on the world economy and technological innovation; received one of the highest Net Promoter Scores from our delegates. It has been an absolute pleasure working with Prof Woudhuysen and he has been incredibly flexible and accommodating in order to meet the needs of our event as well as interests of our clients.

Katya Ushakova

Content and research director, Procurement Leaders

Once again, James proved a real asset to our Congress team. As chair for five breakout sessions at our 900-strong annual international conference in Berlin, he ensured that presenters gave their best, and structured debates so that each was lively and full of audience interest.

Michele Parker

Head of Congress, Information Security Forum

At our annual conference, James gave an after-dinner speech on the future facing acoustics professionals, and presented Awards. His approach contrasted sharply with other after-dinner speakers we have had in the past: he worked hard to engage with us prior to the event, to understand our industry, the issues that may be of concern to our members, and to consider what may be important in our field in years to come. James' inimitable style was thoroughly entertaining, while his content stimulated some interesting discussions and heated debates.

Jack Harvie-Clark

Chair, Association of Noise Consultants

143 slides in 35 minutes! We were thinking it was not possible. But he did it! He captivated the audience about how the world will be digitised in the next 10 years: what's certain to happen, what's is not so sure. Engaging, charming, entertaining... with some French, too. I saw James two hours before the show, and in less than one minute I knew that we had made a good choice in inviting him.

Pierre Collette

Marketing Director, Xerox Belgium and Luxembourg

Fantastic, thought-provoking and provocative, James did not disappoint. We received brilliant feedback from our customers as to how engaging his presentation was. James is not just a standard speaker: he takes a brief, researches it and delivers a robust and well thought out presentation. I would not hesitate to recommend him.

Ashley Hayward

Managing Director, Kinnarps UK

Thank you again for your involvement in our event on the future of property last week. Everything went well and your sessions were excellent. The feedback received has been extremely positive and colleagues really appreciated your insight in to a broad range of topics. I anticipate a positive response across the business to the challenges you threw down for us.

Michael Auger

Regional director, Muse Developments

I thought everything went well and your sessions were excellent. The feedback received has been extremely positive and colleagues really appreciated your insight in to a broad range of topics. I anticipate a positive response across the business to the challenges you threw down for us.

Michael Auger

Regional director, Muse Developments, about two keynotes on innovation and property, 17 October 2017

A man with cosmic breadth, great depth, the ability to spark an audience and a twinkle in his eye, James livened up our conference on IT and the economy of the North East with a fearless line on the issues of the day. He earns his money with purposeful background work and a masterful nod to the underlying politics. A tightrope walker, he offers a great alternative to death by PowerPoint. Prepare to be energised!

Charlie Hoult

Chair, Dynamo North East

James opened our conference in Hamburg with a fast, passionate, fluent and entertaining look at what companies in maritime can learn from developments in manufacturing, construction and energy. Developing our brief, he covered marine drones, Augmented Reality, Digital Design Modeling, and the relevance of older crew to shipping safety. Our highly international audience loved it. James got the conference off to a cracking start, and, in other sessions, made useful contributions from the floor.

Kim Staarup

Chief Operating Officer, ShipServ