Futurist Jim Carroll
The World’s Leading Futurist
on Innovation and Growth.
For over 30 years, Jim has guided the world’s most iconic brands
through transformation, economic volatility, and industry upheaval.
“He delivers the actionable foresight and industry-specific trends that leadership
teams need to master the future. This insight is presented in a customized,
high-energy keynote that inspires immediate action.”
Futurist Jim Carroll is on a mission to help organizations understand how to align to tomorrow, today.
Jim Carroll has been the trusted advisor to the world’s most influential organizations, including NASA, Disney, and The World Bank. He provides the insight they need to move forward with big ideas and bold action. His expertise is rooted in detailed, customized research, delivering actionable strategies for an era of relentless disruption.
This focus on opportunity is at the heart of every keynote. Jim’s goal is to energize the room, shifting the audience’s perspective from a fear of the future to an excitement for its potential.
VIDEO: The Jim Carroll Advantage
Your event is critical. You don’t need an amateur. Learn about Jim’s 30+ years of experience on the global stage.
VIDEO: Trusted by World-Class Innovators
World-class innovators turn to Jim for insight on what comes next. Learn why NASA, Disney, Pfizer and the PGA selected Jim for their event.
VIDEO: Leadership Meetings
You thought you had time to prepare for a faster future – and then the explosive acceleration of all trends happened. Now what? I’ll show you the way!
VIDEO: A Keynote As Unique As Your Challenges
Deep insight based on extensive, customized insight – that’s what Jim Carroll is known for.
Partial Client List
ACCELERATE INNOVATION,
DELIVER GROWTH!
In a world of relentless change, it is a given that you need to know how to align to tomorrow, today.
That’s the insight that Futurist Jim Carrolll will share with you. Imagine if you could accelerate your way into the future, by clearly aligning future trends, your strategic thinking, and your internal engine of creativity. Countless global organizations have engaged Jim Carroll for his unique insight and proven track record in providing a customized leadership program that will let you:
- SEE DISRUPTIVE TRENDS: you’ll better understand the trends that will impact you in the near and longer-term
- FOCUS ON OPPORTUNITY: you will achieve clarity on the trends that matter
- ALIGN TO DISRUPTION: you will shift your thinking to the actions that matter
- UNLOCK CREATIVITY: you will discover that it’s buried in your teams – and how you can let it out
- ACHIEVE AGILITY: you will learn more about the role of fast-teams
- ENHANCE YOUR SPEED: you will discover how to better align to our faster future
- ACCELERATE INNOVATION: you will find ways to rethink your strategic pipeline
- COLLABORATE MORE: you will maximize the benefit of your internal idea factory
- DELIVER ON GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES: you shift from reactive defense to disruptive offense
You will join the company of global leaders at Disney, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, BASF, Nikon, and hundreds more who have found that Jim’s crystal clear trends and innovation insight take them into a world in which the future belongs to those who are fast!
Signature Keynotes:
Actionable Foresight for an Era of Unprecedented Change
Today’s leaders need deep insight into the trends that will impact them and the strategies to align with a faster, more complex world. Most importantly, they need to inspire their leadership members to get moving.
These keynotes are designed to deliver exactly that.
Being Unique: Why the Odd One Out Gets to the Future Faster
AI just handed everyone the same tools, the same data—and increasingly the same ideas. The result is a crushing sameness, and in a world moving this fast, sameness means arriving at the future last. In this provocative keynote, Jim makes the case that tomorrow never belongs to those who fit in—it belongs to the rebels and the odd ones out who refuse to conform and get there first. Uniqueness isn’t a quirk to apologize for; it’s an acceleration strategy—and in the age of AI, it’s your fastest route to what’s next. Based on Jim’s new book, Being Unique.
Solving the Acceleration Paradox:
A New Playbook for the Future of Work
The “Acceleration Paradox” of fast-moving trends has created a critical “Readiness Paradox”: a staggering 76% of workers feel unprepared for the future, and managers doubt their teams can keep pace with new skill demands. This disconnect is the single greatest threat to harnessing innovation. With 30 years of experience guiding organizations like NASA and Disney, Futurist Jim Carroll delivers the solution. His keynote is an industry-specific operating manual that provides a trends-oriented playbook to close the skills gap, master “just-in-time knowledge,” and align your team to the pace of change.[1, 1] It’s time to build a workforce that drives the future.
In this high-impact keynote, Jim cuts through the hype to reveal the specific megatrends—from AI and genomics to the future of work—that will define the next decade of your industry. Your team will leave with a clear framework to identify transformative opportunities, mitigate emerging risks, and build an actionable plan for sustained growth.
The AI Advantage:
Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Unprecedented Growth
AI isn’t just a technology; it’s a total business transformation. Jim demystifies complex topics like Generative AI, machine intelligence, and automation, providing a practical roadmap for leaders to leverage AI for efficiency, innovate new products and services, and position their organization to win in the new era of intelligent systems.
Leadership in the Era of Acceleration:
Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast
In today’s market, speed is the ultimate competitive advantage. Jim provides leaders with concrete, battle-tested strategies to foster a culture of agility, empower bold thinking, and execute with precision. This isn’t abstract theory; it’s a practical playbook for leading high-performing teams through complexity and uncertainty.
The Innovator’s Playbook:
How to Drive Growth in Any Economic Climate
Volatility isn’t a threat; it’s the single greatest opportunity for innovation. Drawing on powerful lessons from companies that thrived during past downturns, Jim delivers a compelling strategic guide for leaders to double down on transformation and capture market share. This keynote is based on the powerful concepts in his new book, Dancing in the Rain: How Bold Leaders Grow Stronger in Stormy Times, which challenges leaders to reject pessimism and seize the opportunities that uncertainty creates.
Proven on the world’s biggest stages
In a world of big disruptive change, you don’t need to be chasing small ideas!
Senior leaders at the world’s most demanding organizations turn to Jim Carroll to align their people to tomorrow.


Headline engagement
The Prime Minister’s Office of the UAE
The Challenge: A nation built to move faster than the world wanted a blueprint to stay out in front — across the economy, technology, the environment, society, and government itself.
The Result: The UAE Prime Minister’s Office commissioned Jim’s bespoke keynote “The Future in 5 Perspectives,” mapping the megatrends to 2035 and the mindset a fast nation needs to lead.

Invited twice
NASA
Shifting the mindset of astronauts and engineers for the era of space commercialization.

The World Bank
Helping a pillar of global development think decades ahead — including the IFC in Marrakesh.

Disney
Even a company built on imagination wanted an outside read on what comes next.

Ahead of the curve
Pfizer
A keynote on the future of healthcare — months before those trends reshaped the industry.

PGA of America
Opened the Annual Meeting and keynoted the Merchandise Show — before 40,000 attendees.

Volvo
Navigating the biggest shift in automotive history — electrification and autonomy.

The BBC
A futurist’s read on the wholesale disruption of media and audience behaviour.

Microsoft
Where accelerating technology takes business, work, and industry next.

World Government Summit
On stage before heads of government for the “Fast Forward to the Future” session.
Also on the client roster
READY TO ADD YOUR ORGANIZATION TO THE LIST OF GLOBAL INNOVATORS WHO TRUST JIM CARROLL? CHECK HIS AVAILABILITY AND BOOK NOW!
From the Stage to the Page: A Playbook for the Future
Jim’s actionable insights aren’t just for the stage. They are captured in a series of influential books that provide leaders with a practical playbook for innovation, growth, and navigating uncertainty. This is the deep strategic thinking that fuels every keynote.
- Dancing in the Rain: A leader’s guide to growing stronger in stormy times. (new in 2025!)
- Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast: Your playbook for momentum in the era of acceleration.
- Being Unique: Own your differentiation and amplify your success. (July 2026)
- Escaping Mediocrity: The antidote to inaction and a roadmap to the extraordinary. (new in 2025!)
- Embracing Mediocrity: A satirical masterclass on how to play small, think less, and stay comfortably stuck. (new in 2025!)
Futurist Jim Carroll is regularly booked by CEOs and senior executives of major organizations to provide an opening or closing keynote, on a highly customized topic. Learn more!
EXTENSIVE, CUSTOMIZED
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC EXPERTISE
“How long have you been a farmer?” asked one audience member of Jim after his keynote for a global agricultural organization.
That’s a testament to the massive in-depth industry expertise that Jim Carroll carries onto the stage for his highly specific, information-rich, heavily researched industry keynotes. He has *extensive* expertise in all of these industries and can delight you with his background and share a list of the global clients within the industries who have arranged for his industry insight.
- agriculture
- banking and finance
- education
- insurance
- healthcare
- automotive, trucking, and transportation
- manufacturing
- retail
- global economic development
Need to know more? Visit Jim’s industry page -> industries.jimcarroll.com
GLOBAL AUDIENCES
Jim Carroll has done a LOT of international work; he’s presented in Dubai, Sao Paolo, Budapest, Dubai, Sydney, Munich, Athens, Stuttgart, Prague, London, Paris, Brussels, Ghent, Stockholm, Zurich, Tokyo, Muscat, Mexico …. and in all of these situations, he has ensured that he is respectful of the audience in terms of pace, culture and local content, and translation requirements. Global experience matters.
GLOBAL REPRESENTATION
Jim Carroll is represented and brought into events worldwide by some of the world’s leading global speakers bureaus – those who represent other global icons, politicians, and business leaders such as Barack and Michelle Obama, George Bush and Magic Johnson, Anderson Cooper and Richard Branson, through representatives such as the Harry Walker Agency, Washington Speakers Bureau, and APB Speakers. Whether you are dealing with Jim directly or through one of his many global agents, you can rest assured that you are dealing with someone who has risen to the top of the global speaking industry.
The same agents who book some of the biggest names in the global speaking industry also regularly bring Jim Carroll into their clients, knowing that he delivers the unique insight that their world-class clients require.





From the Stage to the Page: A Playbook for the Future


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