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Duncan Wardle          

Former Head of Innovation & Creativity at Disney

As Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney, Duncan Wardle and his team helped Imagineering, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, and Disney Parks to innovate, creating magical new storylines and experiences.

He now brings his extensive Disney expertise to audiences around the world using a unique approach to Design Thinking, helping people capture unlikely connections, leading to fresh thinking and disruptive ideas.

Delivering a series of keynotes, workshops and ideation forums, his unique Innovation toolkit helps companies embed a culture of innovation into everyone’s DNA.

Wardle is a multiple TED speaker and contributor to Fast Company, Forbes & the Harvard Business Review. He teaches innovation Master Classes at Yale, Harvard, and Edinburgh University.

Speech Topics


Working in Harmony With AI

Poised to replace millions of jobs, it’s easy to view AI as the enemy. But what if instead we embraced Artificial Intelligence as the key to unlocking our true creative potential?

The future is here, and for the first time in history, it’s highly skilled labor at risk of losing jobs to robots. By some leading estimates, upwards of 40% of all current jobs could be replaced by AI within the next 15 years!

But even with the uncertainty it brings, I do not believe AI should be treated as our enemy. In fact, it’s just the opposite. We should embrace AI. Not as a tool to eliminate jobs, but as one to take over the tedious, repetitive parts of our work, freeing us up to leverage the skills that make us uniquely human: creativity, intuition, empathy, and imagination. The skills we were actually hired to use, but are so often restricted by unruly inboxes, excessive meetings, and repetitive reporting.

As Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney for the last decade, my job was to uncover the untapped creative potential of our teams by embracing new technology as an opportunity, not a treat. Today, I use this experience to show CEOs across the world how to do the same, providing their organization with the tools needed to leverage their most important asset: their people.

As part of my Working in Harmony with AI presentation, I’ll show you how by leveraging AI to take over the mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks hiding throughout your organization, you can redirect your teams’ energy towards the skills that make them uniquely human. And as a result, give your company a massive competitive edge.

Customer Experience Magic

Transforming a product centric culture into a consumer centric one. How companies can create Customer Experience Magic by deeply understanding their consumer, transforming their culture with amazing results.

Embedding Innovation Into Everyone’s DNA

How do you create a culture that embraces risk and entrepreneurialism, allowing everyone to innovate? Duncan shares how he infused a culture of innovation across the world’s most creative company, Disney.

Think Different

Duncan’s shares insights from his time as Head of Innovation & Creativity at Disney, providing a unique set of Innovation Tools and Techniques that everyone can use to Think Different

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