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DAVID WEINBERGER ​

There is no one with David Weinberger's perspective because no one has had a journey like his: philosophy professor, marketing VP at early Web startups, co-author of the seminal Cluetrain Manifesto, senior researcher at the leading Harvard Internet center, co-director of a Harvard innovation lab, a writer with innumerable publications in Wired, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, The NY Times, CNN.com, and many more... and a sought after keynote speaker on a truly global scale.

Meet David Weinberger

Along the way, Dr. Weinberger has been the marketing VP at one of the first Web search engine sites, an adviser to four presidential campaigns, a Franklin Fellow at the US State Department, and for seven years was a gag writer for Woody Allen's comic strip ... to name just a few stops along his remarkable career path.

That's why when major news media want to understand not just what is happening in the world of tech but what it means, they come first to David Weinberger.

When businesses want to see beneath the trends and the hype to the deep ways in which our networked technology is challenging our most basic assumptions, changing customer expectations, and realigning economic interests, they come to David Weinberger.

When organizations want a speaker who earns his Aha!s and laughs, they come to David Weinberger.

"I am not a futurist," he says. "The future is too surprising  that."

In fact, our basic idea of how the future works is itself undergoing change, his latest research shows. "People talk about how the present is speeding up, our attention spans are shortening, and we're being overwhelmed," he says. "If you think the present is changing, you ought to see what's happening to the future!"

With a philosopher's training and years of experience on the front lines of the Internet economy— The Wall Street Journal called him a "marketing guru"—his presentations are hailed for taking business thinking to a new level. His passion and insight leave audiences inspired. His sense of humor leaves them laughing. 

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SUGGESTED SPEAKING TOPICS

Dr. Weinberger has brought his insight and expertise to keynotes about innovation, marketing, leadership, social media, journalism, politics and democracy, education, libraries, and more. He will work with you to craft a talk perfect for your needs. Here are a few of his topics.

The New Alignment

What businesses and their customers want has never been perfectly aligned, but now the Net has trained customers to demand a closer alignment than ever. Achieving it requires giving up on some deeply-held business assumptions, but pays off richly.

Take-aways:
  • Adopt the "Gettysburg Principles" of being of, by, and for your customers.
  • Engaging with customers requires giving up expectations of control.
  • Markets are not just conversations. They are networks, and need to be understood in terms of network dynamics.
See: The Gettysburg Principles (HBR)

Our Next Future

We're redefining how the future works. If we get it right, we'll be unprepared for it.

Take-aways:
  • New strategies enable us to get around the hidden limitations of anticipating the future and preparing for it.
  • Now that our new science of predicting the future shows that we can't control the future, we should enable the future to be even more surprising.
  • To maximize the value of their resources, organizations need to find ways to open them up to the world.
See: The Future is a Platform (The Next Web)

Is the Internet Disappointed in us?

Twenty-five years after the birth of the Web, is it living up to our expectations? More exactly, as citizens and businesses are we living up to its expectations? 

Take-aways:
  • The original Web values have thoroughly reset the expectations of customers and employees. We forget that at our business' peril.
  • We can regain the original excitement of the Web by remembering what its promise was to business and life.

See: New Clues The Internet that Was (Atlantic.com)

Executive Seminar

Dr. Weinberger has been an acclaimed teacher at Harvard Law, Emerson, University of Stuttgart, and others. Let him bring his engaged, impassioned, always funny teaching skills to your next executive offsite, strategic customers meeting, or other gathering of 10-50 people you want to get talking and thinking.