Richard Worzel
Canada's Futurist & Leading Forecaster
Richard Worzel is Canada’s leading futurist and forecaster, with a client list that includes such organizations as Coca Cola, Sun Life Assurance, the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine & Surgery, the National Research Council, Rogers Media, Amgen, Lexus, and BMO Financial to name but a few.
With a background in computer science, economics and world trade, he has written articles on the future for the Report on Business, Canada Computes, the Financial Post, and many others.
As an astute and experienced institutional investor and advisor, he received the industry’s Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1978 and the following year established his own consulting firm, helping companies and organizations plan and prepare for the future.
Richard has written five best-selling books, including Who Owns Tomorrow, which reached the Financial Post’s best-seller list in the second week of publication.
A world-renowned and sought-after visionary, Richard Worzel has spoken to practically every type of organization and industry on how the future will impact them.
Particular areas of expertise include:
- anticipating the future;
- strategic planning;
- information technology & trends;
- forecasting;
- scenario planning;
- environmental scanning;
- future product identification;
- reports and consulting on the future;
- brainstorming;
- backcasting;
- helping organizations prepare for the uncertainty of the future & enabling them to recover from surprises.
Each and every presentation - whether as a conference keynote or in providing an extended workshop - is meticulously researched and customized specifically for the client and and their respective industry, organization or association.
Richard Worzel is frequently asked what topics he speaks on. The answer is that it depends on what would be most useful for your group. The future is a broad, complex subject, and there's always a lot to discuss, so the key question truly is: what aspects of the future will be of most value to your conference or workshop, and the people involved? Having said that, he knows it helps to have some idea of the kinds of topics he's spoken on in the past. Accordingly, here are some of subject areas in which he has created presentations or workshops.
The topic he creates for your conference or workshop will depend on what you and he decide would be of greatest interest and importance to your event. Likewise, if you don't see a topic that is just right, we'll put you in touch with Richard and he will create one that fits perfectly.
Richard has spoken on the future of the following:
Accounting:
- Dark Clouds & Silver Linings: Tomorrow’s Prospects and the Future of Accounting
- Life & IT: The Revolution Begins
- Lethal or Liberating: Corporate Financial Management and The Gale Winds of Tomorrow
- Things You and Your Clients Need to Know to Survive in Business Now
- When Does the Future Begin?
Advertising & Marketing:
- Car Retailing 2.0: The Future of Marketing in the Retail Automotive Industry
- The Elusive Echoes: Marketing to the Next Generation
- Liberating or Lethal: The Future Hangs in the Balance for Advertisers
Banking & Credit Unions:
- Decision Time: The Future of Credit Unions
- Can't See the Future for the Fees
- Locating Tomorrow
Biotechnology Genetics & Nanotechnology:
- The Biosciences Century
- Preparing for Our Bio-Based Future
Communications Telecommunications & IT:
- Life & IT: The Revolution Begins
- Grabbing Change by the Horns: Will Transformation Mean Evolution, Revolution, or Annihilation?
- Getting the Call: The Rapidly Mutating Future of Telecommunications
- Who Owns Tomorrow?™ The Future of Networks and Communications
Construction Cement & Concrete:
- Surfing the Waves of Change: The Future of the Construction Industry
- How High Is Up: Bidding for Tomorrow's Business
- Tomorrow's Work Space
- Moving Into Tomorrow: Building Tomorrow's Homes
Crime Prevention & Policing:
- Ready for Tomorrow
Education:
- Future Tense: Education in Tomorrow's World
- Facing the Future: What Are Schools For?
Energy, Oil & Electricity:
- Peak Oil & the Future of Energy
- Tomorrow's Power, Tomorrow's Promise
- These Fuelish Things: The Future of Energy and Society
Farming & Food Production:
- Sunrise or Sunset Industry? The Future of Farms and Farmers
- How Food Producers Can Contribute to a Greener Society: Breaking the Carbon Habit Without Breaking the Bank
- Tools for Taming the Future (Workshop)
- Nourishing Tomorrow: The Future of Farms and Farmers
- The Transformation Century: Confronting the Forces that are Changing Agriculture
Financial Advice & Services:
- Scary Times: The Prospects for the Financial Funds Industry
- Planning for the Planners: The Future of Meeting Planning in the Financial Industry
- Dark Clouds & Silver Linings: Facing the Future of Investing
- The Next Fifty Years in Investing: or, How to Avoid Making Dangerous Decisions in a Crisis
- Anticipating Wealth: Tomorrow's Edge for Financial Advisors
- How High Is Up? And How Do We Get There?
- Where's the Money? The Future of Financial Planning
- Simple Confidence: Creating Your Desired Financial Future
Food & Beverage Industries:
- Food for Thought: Our Customers & Our Future
- Rising from the Crash: What's Next for the Foodservice Industry?
- How Dairies Can Contribute to a Greener Society: Breaking the Carbon Habit Without Breaking the Bank
- Uncharted Territory: Preparing the Foodservice Industry for a Future Without Precedent
- Reading the Tea Leaves: The Future of Infusion Drinks
- What Will It Take? Food Retailing, and the Consumer of the Future
Governance:
- The Future of Work and the Challenges for Governments
- Cities of Tomorrow: Where Will the Future Come to Live?
- Innovative Government: Oxymoron or Inevitable?
Health Care:
- Making I.T. Happen: Using Information Technology as the Force Multiplier in Health Care
- Sea Change: The Future of Medicine for the U.S. Navy and Naval Personnel
- How Risk Management Affects Health Care: The Future of Risk Management in an Uncertain World
- Strange Days: The Future of Health Care & Pharmaceuticals
- Opportunity Pounds: The Future of IT in Health Care
- Inventing Our Way Around the Health Care Worker Shortage
- A Hands-on Future
- We Can't Handle the Truth: The Future of Health Care
- Towards a Healthier Society: The Future of Health Care
- Threats and Promises in Tomorrow's Health Care
Hospitality Industry:
- Planning for the Planners: The Future of Meeting Planning in the Financial Industry
- Beating Expectations in Hard Times: The Future of the Meeting Planning Industry
- Face-to-Face with the Future: The Exposition Market to 2015
- Checking Into Tomorrow
Human Resources:
- Inventing Our Way Around the Coming Staff Shortages
- The Future of the Labour Market
- The Strategic Importance of Human Resources in the Future
Innovation:
- Getting Greedy When Others Are Fearful: Linking Innovation, Sustainability, and Profits
- Innovate or Evaporate! How to Innovate Your Way Out of Tomorrow’s Tough Times
- Managing Innovation
- Creating an Innovation Organization: The Deliberate Act of Devising New Business (Workshop)
- Accountable Innovation: Creating an Innovative Organization that Maintains Accountability
- Innovation Thinking (Workshop)
Insurance:
- Inventing the Future: Creating Tomorrow’s Success
- Scary Times: The Prospects for the Financial Industry
- Being Sure: Tomorrow's Promises & Tomorrow's Clients
- The Future of Life: Strategies for Managing Change in Life Underwriting
- Insuring the Future
Management:
- How Lean Is Lean? The Future of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management
- Risk Management and Strategic Foresight: Avoiding Problems and Spotting Opportunities
- Getting Greedy When Others Are Fearful: Linking Innovation, Sustainability, and Profits
- Inventing Our Way Around the Coming Staff Shortages
- The Hard Edge of Fuzzy Subjects: The True Responsibilities of Corporations in the Future
- The Transformation Century: Understanding and Managing the Forces of Change in the 21st Century
- Hidden Tomorrows: Managing the Unforeseen Future
- Mastering What Happens Next (Workshop)
- Managing Change as a Strategic Weapon
- Unboxed Thinking (Workshop)
- The Threat from Communications
Media:
- Blood in the Water: The Dangers Ahead for Media
- The Future of Media
Municipalities:
- Re-inventing Our Towns and Cities
- The View from 2025: The Future of Municipal Information Systems with the Benefit of Hindsight
Pensions & Benefits:
- Get Ready! What’s Coming to the DC Pension Industry
- Challenges and Opportunities in Our Aging Society
Pharmaceuticals:
- Strange Days: The Future of Health Care & Pharmaceuticals
- Critical Care: The Future of Local Pharmacies in Today’s Economy
- The Dangers in Opportunity
Real Estate & Mortgages:
- Locating Talent: The Keys to Future Success
- Re-Inventing the Real Estate Industry (Workshop)
Retailing:
- Car Retailing 2.0: The Future of Marketing in the Retail Automotive Industry
- Critical Care: The Future of Local Pharmacies in Today’s Economy
- Changing an Uncertain Tomorrow into a Profitable Present: The Future of the Gift and Tableware Industry
- Managing for More: How the Future Will Affect Your Operations – and Your Profits!
- Creating Tomorrow's Products and Services Today (Workshop)
- Tomorrow's Powerful Consumer
- Using Technology to Get Personal
Sales & Marketing:
- Car Retailing 2.0: The Future of Marketing in the Retail Automotive Industry
- Standing pat means losing fast!: The new things you need to know to close tomorrow's sales
- The New Attitudes for Selling Success
Strategic Planning:
- How Risk Management Affects Health Care: The Future of Risk Management in an Uncertain World
- Now What? The Threats and Possibilities of the Next 10 Years
- Dark Clouds & Silver Linings: The Future of Risk Management in an Uncertain World
- Surviving the Crash for Fun and Profit: A Futurist’s Guide to the Hard Times Ahead
- Innovate or Evaporate! How to Invent Your Way Out of Tomorrow’s Tough Times
- Tools to Tame the Future (Workshop)
- The Next 20 Years of Your Life
- How to Avoid Predicting the Future (While Still Preparing for It!) (Workshop)
Technology:
- Opportunity Pounds: The Future of I.T. in Health Care
- Life & IT: The Revolution Begins
- Grabbing Change by the Horns: Will Transformation Mean Evolution, Revolution, or Annihilation?
- Tracking the Downstream Effects of Technology
- The Future of IT: Are We Up to It?
- Numinous Technology: Lurking Hazards, Hidden Significance
The Green Economy:
- How Food Producers Can Contribute to a Greener Society: Breaking the Carbon Habit Without Breaking the Bank
- Green Without Guilt: Social Responsibility that Pays
Transportation & Logistics:
- Moving Into the Future
- Delivering Tomorrow's Promise
Richard Worzel is represented by K&M Productions for speaking engagements. For more information on any of the above topics and booking Richard Worzel, simply contact us.
Your extremely informative presentation provided us with important tools for considering what the future may hold. The talk was fast paced but packed with information. I truly enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you as well for joining us during lunch and participating as a guest at my table for the Annual Awards Dinner. Your page two contribution to Ag Alert was also well received. I look forward to meeting you again soon.
–California Farm Bureau Federation (2012)
Your extremely informative presentation provided us with important tools for considering what the future may hold. The talk was fast paced but packed with information. I truly enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you as well for joining us during lunch and participating as a guest at my table for the Annual Awards Dinner. Your page two contribution to Ag Alert was also well received. I look forward to meeting you again soon.
–California Farm Bureau Federation (2012)
As a team, we really enjoyed your future-oriented approach to strategic selling. It fit perfectly with what we’ve been trying to put forward to our selling partners for years. You helped us make our case by putting it in concrete terms so they could see the benefits immediately. And the participants liked it very much as well: the survey response from our partners on your session was very favorable. On a personal note, I want to thank you very much for all of the preparation and hard work you put into the presentation. It really showed, and we appreciate it.
–Motorola Solutions (2012)
Richard's presentation was both insightful and entertaining. The topic and material he covered fit in perfectly with our Firm's financial services industry training session. The feedback received from the partners and staff who attended was extremely positive. As a result, we invited Richard to present at the second offering of the training session later in the year. Overall, Richard did an excellent job!
–BMO Financial Group
Richard Worzel was a great fit for our Friday plenary theme on the 'Future of Business/Human Resources'. From an event planners perspective, Richard was a joy to work with. He was very flexible and responsive to new ideas to engage our members leading up to our conference. He was graciously agreed to do a short 'promo' video about his plenary session and our conference that we used for marketing purposes. He also provided an article which we posted in three parts in our electronic newsletter. Richard was very engaged throughout the planning process and I had several phone conversations with him over the months leading up to our conference to ensure we were on the same page and that the details and logistics were ironed out. Richard also took the initiative to reach out to me with questions and clarifications to ensure he would be delivering the right information. I would definitely recommend using Richard for your next event.
–BC Human Resource Management Association
Mr. Worzel’s presentation style represents the best example of how a professional can extend warmth, authenticity and humor while simultaneously hitting the nail on the head surrounding critical and not always pleasant, issues. It truly was a pleasure for us to work with him. We unhesitatingly recommend him as a keynote speaker and will look forward to having him speak at future conferences.
– Foodservice Consultant’s Society International Worldwide Conference
Dynamic, articulate, thought-provoking and inspirational speakers are hard to find. It becomes even more complex when seeking speakers with powerful messages and revolutionary concepts. Add to the mix that the speaker must be able to connect with the audience and you will have some idea as to why we are delighted with the glowing comments we received from our delegates about your plenary presentation at our 17th Annual Conference.
–The Investment Funds Institute of Canada
What sets you apart from most professional speakers is your willingness to learn about our industry and to work with us through two sets of revisions to your talk...it then came together beautifully, and was tailored to the needs of this audience and this event. It's almost unheard of for a speaker to take such pains, and we appreciate it. It meant we could relax, as we knew what was going to happen before the event [had] begun.
– Biotechnology Industry Organization
We were very pleased with Richard Worzel's presentation at the CDA/ODA Joint Dental Conference. His remarks were quite thought provoking and opened our eyes to the forces that drive change. We especially appreciated his efforts in relating to our profession and connecting macro trends and issues to the world of dentistry.
–Canadian Dental Association
You delivered a perfect balance of theoretical and practical information, a refreshing change from the all-theory material we typically see. Your pragmatic and common sense approach to risk management and scenario planning was simple enough to incorporate into the business planning cycle of any organization and yet complex enough to ensure the value of the effort.
–Risk & Insurance Management Society (Ontario Chapter)
Your extremely informative presentation provided us with important tools for considering what the future may hold. The talk was fast paced but packed with information. I truly enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you as well for joining us during lunch and participating as a guest at my table for the Annual Awards Dinner. Your page two contribution to "Ag Alert" was also well received. I look forward to meeting you again soon.
–California Farm Bureau Federation, Sparks, Nevada (2012)
