Big Ideas, Made Simple.
Scott Berkun is a bestselling author and speaker who explores how we work, create, lead, and live.
Through deep research, thoughtful storytelling, and a healthy skepticism of conventional wisdom, he transforms complex ideas into clear, memorable insights that challenge assumptions without oversimplifying them.
His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Wired, NPR, and other leading publications.
Give the room something to think about.
Explore topics and formats that get audiences thinking,
questioning, and seeing their world differently.
Whether you’re looking for an in-person or remote experience, Berkun offers keynotes, fireside chats, workshops, and executive sessions across a range of topics. Each can be tailored to the questions and challenges your audience cares about most. Because a good talk should feel like it was meant for the people in the room.
Research
Deeply
Quiet
Assumptions
Connect
the Dots
Tell Better
Stories
Most Popular Talks
CREATE
Design Thinking
Everything we use, from social media to our highways to our office desk, was designed by someone. What can we learn from their failures and successes? This talk teaches anyone how to better understand what good design is, how it’s achieved and why most things in the world are harder to use than their makers think they are. If you’ve heard about “design thinking”, this talk is a fun, fresh, true story based way to help your organization make better experiences for your customers and see the world with sharper eyes. Based on the new book, How Design Makes The World.
CREATE
Design Influence & Design Decisions
For design/UX savvy audiences, this talk uses the inspiring stories from How Design Makes the world to teach lessons on how to improve design’s influence on decisions. With practical examples and techniques, this session will help your team be more effective both strategically and tactically at influencing your product organization.
CREATE
Creative Process & Innovation Strategy
Everyone wants innovation but the popular myths that dominate our culture get in the way. This fun, surprising and memorable talk uses the true stories of innovation to help you and your team think clearly about how breakthroughs happen, how do find and develop new ideas, and how to remove the roadblocks that hold you back. Includes advice on what managers and individuals can do to improve their own creativity. Based on the bestseller, The Myths of Innovation.
CREATE
Creative Habits & Idea Generation
Many talks on creativity are surprisingly uncreative, repeating the same myths and misnomers. This fast paced talk debunks the erronous beliefs most people have about how ideas work and provides a fun and easy to learn way to improve creative habits and outcomes. Based on the book, The Dance of The Possible.
WORK
Remote Work & Workplace Culture
Berkun’s Amazon book of the year, The Year Without Pants, documented how the 100% remote company Automattic is able to succeed with a workforce that works from anywhere in the world. He was a traditional manager at a big company and learned how to transfer what he knew into this new way of working. This talk will teach the techniques, processes and values you need to be using to make your remote staff more effective, productive and happy.
WORK
Managing Fear & Effective Messaging
An insider’s guide for how to improve your organization’s idea pitching, storytelling and communication skills. From overcoming fears, to writing material, to better approaches for practice, in less than an hour your team will dramatically improve their ability to pitch, present and communicate online through Zoom and other tools. Based in part on the bestseller, Confessions of A Public Speaker.
Including: How to Lead Project Teams, The Political Playbook for People with Ideas, The Future of Work, How To Give Feedback on Ideas, Managing and Learning from Failure and other topics pulled from his many books and essays.
Hi. I’m Scott Berkun.
Bestselling author and speaker who explores how we work, create, lead, and live.
Through deep research, thoughtful storytelling, and a healthy skepticism of conventional wisdom, he transforms complex ideas into clear, memorable insights that challenge assumptions without oversimplifying them.
His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Wired, NPR, and other leading publications.
Have something in mind? Let’s talk about it.
CMO, QASymphony“Scott absolutely crushed it at our conference. He was smart, funny and engaging. He gave the audience a lot of actionable ideas and insights to take away. It’s no surprise that he was the highest rated speaker at our event. I highly recommend Scott for your next event or conference.”
Senior Director, NFL (National Football League)“Scott was great! Funny, inspiring and practical. A great storyteller and keynote for any event”
Manager, Amazon.com“Scott drew a capacity crowd of our top Amazon talent. This is a tough group to engage on the subject of creativity, and Scott was more than up for the task. He captivated the room with an inspirational, provocative, and humorous talk, full of takeaways that I’ve put into practice with my team.”
Innovation Project Manager, Australian Department of Defense“He was the ideal speaker to motivate staff to think differently about the way they approach work and about what it really means to innovate.”
Developer Advocate, Google“Scott was an amazing presenter… not only did he surprise us with new and unconventional insights into creativity, he also kept us hooked with engaging stories and anecdotes. If Scott is speaking near you, drop what you’re doing and go check him out!”
Partner/Chief Strategy and Creativity Director, Ketchum“Scott Berkun brings a dynamism and authenticity to speaking about creativity and innovation. He dazzled a group of highly creative communications leaders at Ketchum by sharing his myths of innovation through memorable anecdotes and storytelling. I’m excited to bring him back to do the dance of the possible. He’s fun and he’s funny and he knows how to keep a jaded crowd engaged.”
Senior Manager, Innovation and Operations, Disney/ABC“I received multiple texts from attendees DURING the presentation telling me how great he was! And of course I could see that for myself. Scott’s advice was clear, compelling, and immediately actionable. I’m so grateful we were able to book him – he was a hit with our audience!”
Leading Age“Highly recommend engaging Scott for your event… a gifted speaker with loads of energy and enthusiasm, Scott was genuinely interested in our association and what our members are doing to transform the field… to this day, attendees refer back to the content he presented.”
Event Videos
HIVE 2011: Feedback Without Frustration
Is it possible for developers, designers and marketers to talk about designs without wanting to kill each other? Yes! And it starts by using the same language, recognizing…
The Myths of Innovation
Author and Carnegie Mellon alum Scott Berkun shows that much of what we know about innovation is wrong as he explores the history of innovation and creative thinking. Featuring: Scott Berkun
The Dance of the Possible
Scott Berkun is a bestselling author and popular speaker on creativity, philosophy, culture, business and many other subjects. He’s the author of many books, including The Myths of Innovation, Confessions…
Saving Your Creative Soul
The true way ideas develop is uncertain and anyone who tells you differently is selling something. To find your creative soul you have to be willing to go into the unknown…
How Progress Really Happens
Progress and change is something we all want, but few have honestly examined how it’s done. This talk explores the real way change happens and how you can apply tactics in your own work and world.
Confessions of a Public Speaker
Scott Berkun is the best selling author of “The Art of Project Management”, “The Myths of Innovation”, and “Making Things Happen”. His work as a writer and public speaker have appeared in the Washington Post…