DR CHRIS ARNOLD
Chris helps organisations develop the human thinking they need to thrive in the age of AI.
Book through speaker agent
A different kind
You don’t need
another hour
of PowerPoint.
THE IDEA RUNNING THROUGH IT ALL
Technology is changing the possibilities.
Human thinking makes the difference.
01 / TALKS & WORKSHOPS
For the big stage. The boardroom. The team that needs a fresh perspective.
Thought-provoking ideas, real business experience and plenty to take back to work.
How do you make people better at working with AI, rather than merely better at using it? Explore the critical thinking, cognitive diversity and human judgement that turn powerful technology into meaningful progress.
Great minds don’t always think alike.
Different minds see problems differently. Discover what happens when organisations make room for that difference: richer collaboration, better communication and decisions that escape the echo chamber.
A different angle changes everything.
Develop HOW people think, not simply what they know. Question. Connect. Challenge. Interpret. Rethink. An invitation to see beyond the obvious and find possibilities hiding in plain sight.
Normal is overrated.
A provocative and practical rethink of talent, ability, difference and what we mean by “normal”. Chris brings business experience and his own lived experience to a conversation that goes beyond awareness.
What if doing good was more than a tick box?
An accessible introduction to social impact: what a business changes for people, communities and society. Drawing on Chris’s work as co-founder of My Social Impact, connect purpose with action, evidence and a story worth telling.
Good thinking works in more than one format.
02 / ABOUT CHRIS
Advertising. Strategy. Writing. Social impact. Community festivals. Music. Entrepreneurship. Speaking. Ideas.
Chris’s professional life looks unusually varied. But the same instinct runs through all of it: question the obvious, connect things that don’t normally get connected, and see what happens.
That’s what he means by a Thought Architect. Someone who helps people look again, think beyond the familiar and build a different way forward.
Over more than 25 years, Chris has worked across advertising, marketing, business, creativity and strategy. A former Creative Director and board director at Saatchi & Saatchi, his work has involved brands including IKEA, Diageo, AOL, Ford, Toyota, Sony and Sky.
He was also a board director of the Direct Marketing Association and chair of its Agencies Council and Creative Council. A Doctor of Business, author, business adviser and entrepreneur, he brings the realities of business into conversations about its future.
His book Ethical Marketing & The New Consumer reflects a longstanding interest in how business behaves. As co-founder of My Social Impact, he helps organisations connect social purpose with meaningful action.
Chris is dyslexic and has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. His own lived experience informs his interest in creativity, inclusion and the many different ways people think. It’s a personal perspective, not a claim that any two minds work alike.
A CAREER WORKING WITH BRANDS INCLUDING
BEYOND THE CONFERENCE STAGE
Same curiosity.A guitar, a live room and the possibility that something unexpected might happen.
Chris’s love of guitar, bands, live performance and improvisation is part of the same story. Listen closely. Make connections. Leave space for someone else to surprise you.
As founder of London Community Arts and Crouch End Festival, he has helped create places where people and ideas meet. He developed The Intimate Space in a 500-year-old church tower in North London, founded üF-Beat Fringe Music Club, developed The Holy Eye venue and created Explore Music More.
His contribution was recognised with the Haringey Community Hero Award 2024. Different stages. The same belief in what people can create together.
03 / IDEAS IN PROGRESS
Questions worth sitting with.
Assumptions worth disturbing.
A thinker who speaks.
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
A different question for anyone developing people.
Read on LinkedInAI × EDUCATION
What are we really preparing the next generation for?
Read on LinkedInFUTURE OF WORK
What happens if AI takes too many jobs?
Read on LinkedIn04 / WATCH & REVIEWS
Business experience meets curiosity, humour and a willingness to question the obvious.
FROM THE AUDIENCE
“Amazing. Really thought provoking. Probably the best talk we’ve had in years.”
Head of learning and development
Large American drinks company
“If everybody in the room agrees immediately,
something may have gone wrong.”
05 / LET’S START A CONVERSATION
An informal conversation about your audience, event, topic and objectives. A chance to work out what would be useful, before you decide what you need.
A conversation, not a formal speaker booking.
Professional speaking enquiries and bookings are handled through Chris’s appointed speaker agents.
Appointed speaker agents
Agent names and contact details to follow.A bespoke international keynote for thousands of delegates is a different undertaking from a smaller internal online session. Fees reflect the engagement.
They depend on audience size, online or in-person delivery, UK or international location, format and length, preparation and research, an existing or bespoke talk, and any accompanying workshop or facilitation.