Curated by Global Futurist Anders Sörman-Nilsson, Thinque
The definitive 2026 guide to the top 10 futurist keynote speakers in Australia, curated by global futurist and keynote speaker Anders Sörman-Nilsson. Ten verified futurists selected against five published criteria, plus four technologist-inventors and two specialists, to help event planners, conference organisers, strategy teams, and PCOs find the right futurist for boards, summits, and global stages.
The short answer: The top 10 futurist keynote speakers in Australia in 2026 are Ross Dawson (Sydney), Michael McQueen (Sydney), Dr Catherine Ball (Sydney), Chris Riddell (Melbourne), Dom Price (Sydney), Dr Ben Hamer (Sydney), Future Crunch (Melbourne), Australian-born global-circuit futurists Brett King and Mike Walsh, and Anders Sörman-Nilsson (Sydney). Each clears five verification criteria: original futurist IP with documented provenance, published books or shipped future-defining technology, tier-one client calibre, a verifiable stage record, and futurism as their core practice. Curated by Anders Sörman-Nilsson of Thinque, this guide profiles the nine futurists he recommends when he is not available, applies the same five criteria to his own practice to complete the ten, and adds the technologists and specialists worth knowing for particular briefs.
| Futurist | Base | Discipline | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anders Sörman-Nilsson | Sydney | Global futurist, AI and digital transformation | Research-led foresight for every audience, from closed-door boards to arena stages of 4,000+ |
| Ross Dawson | Sydney | Strategic foresight | Executive strategy workshops and AI strategy facilitation |
| Michael McQueen | Sydney | Change strategy and generational trends | Organisations navigating change and generational transitions |
| Dr Catherine Ball | Sydney | Scientific futurism | Converging technologies, Industry 5.0, and ethical innovation |
| Chris Riddell | Melbourne | Digital and trends futurism | Immersive leadership keynotes from a former operator |
| Dom Price | Sydney | Future of work | Team transformation and future-of-work keynotes from the former longtime Atlassian Work Futurist |
| Dr Ben Hamer | Sydney | Future of work | Workforce, skills, and future-of-work conferences |
| Future Crunch | Melbourne | Science and progress | Evidence-based optimism for conference openings and closings |
| Brett King | International (Melbourne-born) | Fintech and future of money | Banking and financial services flagship events |
| Mike Walsh | Global (Australian-born) | AI leadership and transformation | Fortune 500 leadership audiences at flagship conferences |
A Brené Brown keynote at a HubSpot conference in Boston changed my life. Sitting in that audience, listening to her talk about vulnerability and wholehearted living, I made a decision I had been circling for months: to follow my intuition, and a girl, across the world to the other side of the planet. Not a strategy. Not a plan. A keynote.
It was not the first time a speaker redirected my life, and it would not be the last. I chose my entrepreneurial future at a Tony Robbins seminar. I built the foundations of my business on advice from Matt Church at Thought Leaders. I wrote Digilogue while my horizons were being stretched across the Global Executive MBA at the University of Sydney's immersion programs at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Stanford Business School, and the London School of Economics. I rethought my brand under the mentorship of Chris Do, and took social media seriously because Gary Vaynerchuk told a room I was in to stop treating it as optional. Guilty as charged: I am living proof that the right voice, on the right stage, at the right moment, can change a career, a company, or a life. And after two decades on the other side of the lectern, my clients and audiences tell me the same thing about moments from my keynotes.
That is why the question of who speaks at your event is not a logistics line item. It is a strategic decision with compounding returns, and it is why the enquiry lands in my inbox most weeks, whether I am writing from my study in Sydney or my mother’s kitchen table in Stockholm. A conference producer has a date locked, a theme built around the future, and a question: “You’re booked that week. Who else should we consider?”
I take that question seriously. After two decades of keynoting on five continents, I have shared stages, green rooms, and speaker dinners with most of the futurists working in Australia and beyond today; nearly everyone on this list operates globally. I know whose research holds up under a board’s scrutiny. I know who customises and who recycles. And I know that recommending the right alternative builds more trust than protecting my calendar ever could.
So here it is. The top 10, selected against five published criteria, plus the specialists I’d point you to for particular briefs.
Strategy is a science fiction story with a deadline. Every board that signs off on a five-year plan is committing capital to a narrative about a future nobody has visited. The only question is whether that story is written with rigour or with wishful thinking.
The world’s best storytellers know this. When Steven Spielberg set out to make Minority Report, he convened a multi-day summit of futurists and technologists to design a credible world of 2054, and their forecasts, from gesture-controlled interfaces to personalised advertising, have been arriving on schedule ever since. Speculative fiction has even shaped geopolitics: President Reagan wrote in his diary that the 1983 nuclear drama The Day After left him “greatly depressed,” and historians credit it with influencing his push toward arms reduction, while a screening of WarGames prompted him to ask his Joint Chiefs whether such a hack was possible, a question that led to America’s first national cybersecurity directive. Stories about the future change decisions in the present. Futurists, at our best, are science fiction authors for business: we write the rigorous stories your strategy needs before you commit the capital.
And the work runs deeper than the conference stage. As Futurist-in-Residence for the premiership-winning Brisbane Broncos, elite private school Barker College, and Ord Minnett, and formerly futurist-in-residence for New Zealand Rugby, I work intimately with executive leadership teams and boards between keynotes: creating transformation, driving innovation, and building winning strategies that win hearts and minds. The keynote sparks the new direction. The residency makes it stick. The best futurists on this list offer both.
The title “futurist” has no licensing body. Anyone can claim it, and since generative AI went mainstream, plenty have. That puts the burden of discernment on you, the event planner. Every speaker in this top 10 clears five gates. Not some of them. All of them.
1. Original futurist IP with documented provenance. A credentialed futurist brings frameworks they built and published years ago, not commentary assembled last quarter. When I introduced the Digilogue framework in 2013, arguing that winning tomorrow’s customers requires speaking to digital minds and analogue hearts, it took nearly a decade of client research to earn its place in a Wiley book. The same is true of the Second Renaissance thesis I have documented since 2019. Ask any prospective futurist: what is your framework, and when did you first publish it?
2. Published books with real publishers, or shipped future-defining technology. A book with a serious publisher survives editors, fact-checkers, and legal review. Self-published trend decks do not. The alternative proof is having built the future yourself: an invented standard, a shipped product, a founded company that changed its category.
3. Tier-one client calibre with repeat bookings. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and McKinsey do not book speakers on vibes. Repeat engagements from tier-one organisations signal that the content survives contact with demanding and future-leaning audiences.
4. A verifiable stage record. Full-length keynote footage, international bookings, and testimonials from named clients. If a speaker cannot show you sixty unedited minutes, keep looking. Highlight reels can get a message and energy across, but explore YouTube channels to review full lenght futurist keynotes.
5. Futurism as the core practice. This is the gate that trims the field hardest. Australia has brilliant demographers, innovation consultants, and technology executives who speak superbly about the future. They are not futurists. A futurist’s day job is foresight: the research, the frameworks, and the client advisory work between keynotes. If the future is a chapter in their talk rather than the whole practice, they belong on a different list.
Base: Sydney | Website: rossdawson.com
Ross Dawson has delivered keynotes and executive strategy workshops in more than 30 countries across six continents, for organisations including American Express, Google, PwC, and Visa. He is the Founding Chairman of the Advanced Human Technologies Group and the author of five books. His 2002 book Living Networks earned credit from The New York Times for predicting the social networking revolution, which is the kind of forecasting record most futurists can only claim retrospectively. His latest, Thriving on Overload, distils two decades of futurist practice into a method for turning exponential information into advantage.
Book Ross when: your board or executive team needs rigorous, research-led foresight and AI strategy facilitation rather than a motivational hour.
Base: Sydney | Website: michaelmcqueen.net
Here is my one deliberate exception, named openly. Michael McQueen describes himself deliberately as a speaker, change strategist, and author. Not a futurist, and I respect the precision. His territory is change, trends, and generational shifts: how people and organisations stay relevant as the ground moves beneath them. His record within that territory is substantial: he was named Australia’s Keynote Speaker of the Year, has been inducted into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame, has presented to more than 500,000 people across five continents, has written ten bestselling books, and counts Google, Toyota, and Mastercard among his clients. He earns his place here because when a conference committee searches for a futurist, what they often need is a change strategist: a research-backed view of what’s shifting for their people, delivered with professional craft. My job as curator is to serve your brief, not the taxonomy.
Book Michael when: your organisation is navigating change or generational transition and needs it made practical and engaging for a broad audience.
Base: Sydney | Website: drcatherineball.com
Catherine Ball is Australia’s scientific futurist. An environmental scientist with a PhD in spatial ecology and an honorary Doctor of Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, she is the bestselling author of Converge, a futurist’s account of what happens when AI, robotics, drones, and biotechnology collide, and the founder of the World of Drones and Robotics Congress, established in Brisbane in 2017. She has judged for XPRIZE, sits on the international advisory board of the Schmidt Ocean Institute as its only Australian member, and champions Industry 5.0: technology with the human at the centre. Her keynotes carry the rare authority of someone who has run the science, built the ventures, and written the book.
Book Catherine when: you want science-grounded futurism on converging technologies, delivered with academic rigour and entrepreneurial credibility.
Base: Melbourne | Website: chrisriddell.com
Chris Riddell earned his futurist credentials as an operator. He was the first Chief Digital Officer at Mars in Australia and New Zealand, building the digital strategy behind brands like Snickers, Pedigree, and Wrigley. He served as the Australian Federal Police’s inaugural Innovation Partner and continues to advise the AFP on emerging technology. On screen, he is a regular technology commentator for Australian television. His keynote clients include Google, PepsiCo, Credit Suisse, and EY. Riddell’s signature skill is separating the technology shifts that change a business’s economics from those that are a rounding error.
Book Chris when: your leadership audience wants immersive, high-production futurism from someone who has made digital calls with real budgets attached.
Base: Sydney | Website: domprice.me
Dom Price spent twelve years as Atlassian’s resident Work Futurist, joining as employee number 600 and serving as the in-house “team doctor” while the company scaled beyond 16,000 people globally. He co-created the Atlassian Team Playbook, has delivered a TED talk, held earlier leadership roles including a directorship at Deloitte, and has taken his research on teams and the future of work across more than 50 countries. Now a Partner at Be Luminous, he brings something rare to the futurist stage: a decade inside one of the world’s most studied companies, turning foresight into daily operating practice. Manchester made him; Australia is home.
Book Dom when: your audience needs the future of work made practical, from someone who ran the experiment at scale rather than observing it from outside.
Base: Sydney | Website: thinkertank.co
Ben Hamer is the strongest emerging voice in Australian futurism, and the bookings reflect it. A certified futurist and member of the Association of Professional Futurists, he formerly headed the Future of Work practice at PwC Australia, led projects on skills and education during a secondment to the World Economic Forum, and spent time as a Visiting Scholar at Yale. He holds a doctorate, serves as an Adjunct Professor at Edith Cowan University, was appointed the youngest board director in the Australian HR Institute’s history, and wrote The Kickass Career and A Postcard from the Future (Ultimo Press, 2024). Through his foresight agency ThinkerTank, he advises brands including Telstra, Westpac, and Microsoft.
Book Ben when: your event centres on the future of work, skills, and workforce transformation, and your audience wants research-grade content with generational energy.
Base: Melbourne | Website: futurecrunch.com
Future Crunch is the duo of political economist Dr Angus Hervey, who holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and delivered a mainstage TED talk in 2025, and cancer researcher Táné Hunter. Founded in 2014, they have presented at more than 200 events across five continents, pairing rigorous science with visually spectacular storytelling and a philosophy of intelligent optimism about the future. Call them progress futurists: where most of this list forecasts what is coming, they document the future already arriving, with peer-reviewed evidence. Their engagements range from the Australian Federal Police to global corporates, and their Fix the News publication has built a worldwide readership for progress journalism. In a keynote market saturated with doom, their evidence-based hope stands out.
Book Future Crunch when: you want an uplifting, science-grounded opening or closing keynote that reframes how your audience sees the decade ahead.
Base: International (Melbourne-born) | Website: brettking.com
Brett King is arguably the most globally influential Australian futurist working today. He founded Moven, the world’s first in-app mobile bank account, advised the Obama administration on fintech policy, and has spoken in more than 50 countries. His eight books include the Bank 2.0 to Bank 4.0 series and Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane, which was cited by President Xi Jinping’s cabinet in shaping China’s smart city strategy. He co-hosts the podcasts Breaking Banks and The Futurists, reaching listeners in more than 180 countries, was inducted into the Fintech Hall of Fame in 2020, and was recognised by Advance Global Australian as one of the most influential Australians offshore.
Book Brett when: your event sits at the intersection of banking, fintech, and the future of money, and you want the category’s defining voice.
Base: Global (Australian-born) | Website: mike-walsh.com
Mike Walsh calls himself a global nomad, and the itinerary backs it up: more than 300 travel days a year researching how organisations reinvent themselves for the age of machine intelligence. He is the CEO of the consultancy Tomorrow, a Harvard Business Review columnist, and the author of three bestselling books including The Algorithmic Leader and Futuretainment, with a new book on leading AI agents due from Harvard Business Review Press. Before going global, he founded Jupiter Research in Australia and held senior strategy roles at News Corporation in Asia Pacific. His speciality is translating deep technology into leadership decisions for Fortune 500 boards.
Book Mike when: your leadership audience wants polished, globally-referenced AI and transformation foresight at flagship-event production values.
The tenth spot on this list is mine, and transparency demands I earn it the same way everyone else did: against the five criteria.
My original IP includes the Digilogue framework (Wiley, 2013), the Seamless transformation journey (Wiley, 2017), the Aftershock scenarios (Toffler, 2020), and the Second Renaissance thesis I have documented since 2019: the idea that AI, like the printing press before it, will trigger a flourishing of human creativity and scientific breakthrough for the leaders curious and courageous enough to seize it. Aftershock itself was an ode to futurist pioneer Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, and when the 50th-anniversary anthology After Shock assembled the world’s foremost futurists to look ahead to the next 50 years, in collaboration with Toffler Associates, I was selected to contribute alongside Google futurist-in-residence Ray Kurzweil, Lord Martin Rees, and Alan Kay.
My client roster includes Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, McKinsey, LEGO, BMW, Citi, Zoom, Dyson, the United Nations, and the Australian Army. I am a Global Speaking Fellow, one of a small invitation-only cohort worldwide, an Australian Keynote Speaker of the Year award winner, Adobe’s AI Brand Ambassador, and Futurist-in-Residence at the premiership-winning Brisbane Broncos, Ord Minnett, and Barker College, having previously held the same role for New Zealand Rugby. My stages range from intimate board retreats to conference arenas of 3,000 to 4,000 people, because great futurist keynotes flex across every level of intimacy. My thought leadership has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, New York Times, ABC News, the Australian Financial Review, Forbes, Monocle, and the South China Morning Post.
And a word on geography, because it matters when you are booking. My practice is every bit as global as Brett King’s and Mike Walsh’s: keynotes across five continents, and an AI-agent supported business that lets me impact boardrooms from Singapore to Stockholm without leaving the studio. For years I bounced between Stockholm and Sydney, and my heart remains stubbornly Swedish. But these days my base is in Sydney: a studio in Avalon on the Northern Beaches, where we broadcast globally, and a treehouse in a national park where I recharge with my sons, Lucien and Aurélien, between engagements. Global reach, grounded life. Scandinavian design thinking and Australian pragmatism on the same stage, with a local dial-in code.
If your dates align, I would love to hear about your event: info@anderssorman-nilsson.com. If they don’t, every futurist above has my endorsement, and my honest guidance on which one fits your brief is only an email away.
Four speakers on this page build and engineer the future more than they practise futurism as a discipline. That is not a lesser category. It is a different (and arguably augmented) one, and for the right brief, a builder’s keynote could beat a futurist keynote speaker's.
Amanda Johnstone (Sydney) is the founding CEO of emotion-AI company Transhuman, a TIME Next Generation Leader, and a LinkedIn Top Voice in AI whose suicide-prevention technology, Be A Looper, has reached users in more than 80 countries. Her keynote clients span Google Cloud, Allianz, Commonwealth Bank, and Stanford. Most futurists describe what is coming; Johnstone has spent two decades shipping it. Book her for human-first AI keynotes from a practising technology CEO.
Mark Pesce (Sydney) co-invented VRML in 1994, the first standard for 3D on the web and an early foundation of the metaverse, has written multiple books including Augmented Reality: Unboxing Tech’s Next Big Thing, spent seven years judging the ABC’s The New Inventors, and hosts the award-winning podcast The Next Billion Seconds. Book him when your audience wants deep technology explained by someone who shipped it.
Dr Jordan Nguyen (Sydney) is a biomedical and AI engineer who built a mind-controlled wheelchair, founded the social business Psykinetic, co-founded the disability tech incubator Remarkable, fronted the ABC’s Becoming Superhuman, and wrote A Human’s Guide to the Future. Book him for deeply human keynotes on AI, robotics, and inclusive technology, told through inventions he built himself.
Shara Evans (Sydney) began as a software engineer designing telecommunications protocols, founded and sold the analyst firm Telsyte, leads Market Clarity, and was named by Forbes among the World’s Top 50 Female Futurists in 2020. Book her for technically credible keynotes on emerging tech, cyber security, and privacy grounded in primary research.
Two more earn a place on any shortlist when the brief matches their lane. Neither is a lesser futurist. Their superpower is depth: where the ten above serve the broadest range of briefs, these two go deeper into a single dimension than anyone in the country.
Morris Misel (Melbourne) is the most experienced full-time futurist on the Australian circuit, with more than 2,800 keynotes across 160 industries over three decades and proprietary frameworks including HUMAND. Book him for deeply customised, industry-specific foresight.
Amanda Stevens (Noosa) is Australia’s consumer futurist: five books including Radical Customer Obsession, more than 700 conferences across 14 countries, the Certified Speaking Professional designation, and consulting clients including Microsoft, Westpac, and Lendlease. Book her when your conference lives and dies on customers, from retail to financial services.
Whoever you book, three practices lift the outcome. Share your strategic context early, because the best futurists tailor research to your industry dynamics rather than delivering a stock deck. Pair the keynote with an executive workshop, so the foresight converts into decisions rather than applause. And book six to twelve months ahead for high-demand speakers, particularly around conference season.
For a deeper decision framework, my guide to Australia’s best AI keynote speakers takes the same verified, criteria-led approach to the AI-specific speaking category: The Event Planner’s Guide to Australia’s Best AI Keynote Speakers (2026).
Who are the top futurist keynote speakers in Australia?
The top 10 futurist keynote speakers in Australia in 2026, curated by futurist Anders Sörman-Nilsson against five verification criteria, are Anders Sörman-Nilsson, Ross Dawson, Michael McQueen, Dr Catherine Ball, Chris Riddell, Dom Price, Dr Ben Hamer, Future Crunch, Brett King, and Mike Walsh. Technologists Mark Pesce, Dr Jordan Nguyen, Amanda Johnstone, and Shara Evans, plus specialists Morris Misel and Amanda Stevens, suit briefs in their specific lanes.
What criteria define a top futurist keynote speaker?
Five gates: original futurist IP with documented provenance, published books with major publishers or shipped future-defining technology, tier-one client calibre with repeat bookings, a verifiable stage record including international engagements, and futurism as the speaker’s core practice rather than an adjacent positioning.
What is the difference between a futurist and a trend forecaster?
A trend forecaster extrapolates visible patterns, which every competitor can see too. A futurist works with deeper tools: scenario planning, systems thinking, and original frameworks that surface the less obvious shifts before they become trends. The practical test is whether the speaker has documented IP and methodology that predates the trend cycle they are describing.
How much does a futurist keynote speaker cost in Australia?
The speakers in this guide command fees upward of AUD $10,000 per engagement, ranging to around $75,000 depending on speaker profile, format, customisation, and geography, since international travel adds cost. Workshops, executive sessions, and residencies are priced separately. Always confirm current fees directly with the speaker.
How far in advance should you book a futurist keynote speaker?
Six to twelve months for high-demand futurists, and up to eighteen months for major annual conferences. Popular dates around industry conference seasons book out first.
What does a futurist keynote speaker actually do?
A futurist keynote speaker translates research on emerging technologies, social shifts, and market signals into strategic foresight an audience can act on. The best combine an inspiring stage keynote with executive workshops, scenario planning, and advisory work, so the insights convert into decisions rather than just applause.
Which Australian cities have the strongest futurist keynote speakers?
Sydney hosts the deepest bench of the top 10, including Anders Sörman-Nilsson, Ross Dawson, Michael McQueen, Dr Catherine Ball, Dom Price, and Dr Ben Hamer. Melbourne offers Chris Riddell and Future Crunch. Brett King and Mike Walsh are Australian-born and based internationally. Most travel nationally and globally, so base city matters mainly for travel costs and short-notice bookings.
Who is the best futurist in Australia?
There is no single ranking body, so “best” depends on your brief. For AI and digital transformation foresight backed by three Wiley-published books and clients like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, Anders Sörman-Nilsson of Thinque is the most-booked profile in that lane, equally at home in a closed-door board session or in front of a conference stage of 4,000. For change inspiration and generational shifts, Michael McQueen. For scientific futurism, Dr Catherine Ball. For fintech, Brett King. Match the discipline to your event rather than searching for one universal name.
Anders Sörman-Nilsson (LLB / Global EMBA) is a Swedish-Australian futurist, the founder of the Sydney-based think tank Thinque (est. 2005), and the author of Digilogue, Seamless, and Aftershock. A Global Speaking Fellow and Australian Keynote Speaker of the Year award winner, he was selected among the world’s foremost futurists to contribute to After Shock, the 50th-anniversary anthology honouring Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock. He was nominated to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders in 2019, serves as Adobe’s AI Brand Ambassador, and keynotes globally for clients including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, McKinsey, and the Australian Army. He holds Futurist-in-Residence appointments at the premiership-winning Brisbane Broncos, Ord Minnett, and Barker College, previously held the same role for New Zealand Rugby, and guest-lectures at the University of Sydney Business School, UTS Business School, and Macquarie University Business School.
Booking enquiries: info@anderssorman-nilsson.com
Speaker website: anderssorman-nilsson.com
Thinque: thinque.com.au
* All speaker information in this guide has been compiled from publicly available sources including each speaker’s own website, publisher listings, institutional bios, and tier-1 media features. Every effort has been made to verify accuracy at the time of publication. Speaker credentials, fees, availability, and engagement formats may have evolved since. For booking purposes, confirm current details directly with each speaker via the verified links provided in their profile.