Gerd Leonhard is a top-rated and constantly innovating futurist, keynote speaker and presenter, both in real-life and on real stages as well as in virtual or digital-only environments such as Zoom. Presenting online or remotely may be the new normal, now, but it is actually quite different than keynoting for ‘real life’ situations, and it requires entirely different skills (both in terms of technology, as well as in terms of content). Gerd has been honing his virtual presentations skills since 2015 – long before the current Corona-Crisis and the global shift to ‘remote everything‘.
For his virtual talks, Gerd is reinventing the very definition of keynote speaking, constantly adapting to this new medium: Less focus on the good old, linear-style keynote or powerpoint slides, less ‘talking heads’, less lengthy pontifications but hard-hitting and to-the-point content, deeply immersive and on-demand virtual backgrounds, a cinematic approach to virtual stage and event designs, a dazzling variety of live-interaction options with the audience and other speakers (q&a, polls, chats, shared media, live social media feeds, call-ins etc.) and overall a much shorter format with more focussed and entertaining content designed specifically for online audiences.
Have a look at Gerd’s 2020 Best of Virtual Keynotes Compilation, here on Youtube and embedded below, and at Gerd’s #1 2020 speaking topic The Great Transformation: With/Post-Corona Futures, his 2020 speaking topics or his latest book “Technology vs. Humanity”.
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… and Gerd as well as his colleagues and 50+ fellow futurists at The Futures Agency (TFA) are ready to assist you with amazing talks, program design and overall event expertise.
Virtual talks can also add a new angle to your event content, as critical learnings and insights build up into a unique library of knowledge and ideas, motivation and imagination, while reducing travel and health risks, lost productivity and CO2 output.
“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around” (Milton Friedman) 
From Gerd’s recent post: 12 bullets with his key post-Corona foresights
1. Post-Corona, healthcare will once again become a public matter and responsibility, and the spread of privatized healthcare will be reversed. Investments in healthcare, particularly in bio-technologies, will skyrocket. Millions of new jobs will result. Complex ethical challenges will emerge, related to ‘big data’, tracking & surveillance, AI/IA and genome editing.
2. Post-Corona, the fossil fuel industries (oil, gas and coal) will rapidly become burning platforms, with divestment reaching record heights and and with a huge influx of new money going into sustainable energy, generating 10s of millions of new jobs.
3. Post-Corona, ‘Big-Tech’ will be even further entrenched in our daily habits and rituals, but will also be constantly challenged on its ethics, values and responsibilities. ‘Too-much-of-a-good-thing’ will be the key challenge and regulation debates will rage. Will it be humanity on-top of technology or should we ‘transcend human limitations‘? READ ON
