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Nolan Bushnell          

Atari Founder, Silicon Valley Icon, Entrepreneur & Scientist Known as the "Father of the Video Game Industry"

Nolan Bushnell is a businessman and an electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. Bushnell has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News "Innovator of the Year" award, and was named one of Newsweek's "50 Men Who Changed America." Bushnell has started more than twenty companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. He is on the board of Anti-Aging Games. He is credited with Bushnell's Law, an aphorism about games "easy to learn and difficult to master" being rewarding. He was also the first and only person to hire Steve Jobs, which he details in his 2013 book, "Finding the Next Steve Jobs."

Today he oversees and/or sits on the boards of several companies that use Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, and Augmented Reality, as well as other advanced tech. In the process of founding over 20 companies, he pioneered many of the workplace innovations that have made Silicon Valley a long-standing magnet for creative talent. Additionally, he has consulted for numerous corporations, including IBM, Cisco Systems and US Digital Communications. He has been featured by major media worldwide including Fast Company, Wired, Huffington Post, CNET, The Guardian, BBC, and as a guest on countless business news shows.

Speech Topics


Innovation

How to foster it, encourage it and capitalize on it.

Fun:

What is it about fun that makes products and companies successful? How does creating wants, not just needs, power success?

Success and Failure:

While there have been many successes, there have been spectacular disappointments when businesses fail to launch. Often we learn more from our failures than our successes.

The Future:

What tools have been used in the past to be on the cutting edge as technology becomes available and cost effective? What are the trends that every company and discipline need to be aware?

Education:

What are the trends in education now and moving into the future? How will classrooms and learning be different in the years to come? How will they remain the same? How will education evolve in light of todays and tomorrows technologies?

Entrepreneurship:

Why it is essential to business today? What are the key elements of a successful entrepreneur? How do you recognize it and tap into it?

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Intrapreneurship:

How to encourage and build a culture of intrapreneurship in companies, helping established entities to stay on the cutting edge. Nolan created the culture found in the Silicone Valley today, which he implemented when he started Atari.

The Future of Technology and Gaming:

Where is the industry going? Why? Where are the pockets of potential? What pitfalls should companies avoid?

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News


Nolan Bushnell reveals Alexa-powered murder mystery board game ...
Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell and Hollywood creative director Zai Ortiz have created St. Noire, an Alexa-powered murder mystery board game.

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