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Keynote Speaker
Location
International
Date
2017 - present
Keynote: Giant Thinking
How do you take an idea that seems impossible and make it inevitable? Jonathan has spent his career doing this: running three of the world's largest international arts festivals, commissioning Philip Glass's final Piano Etudes, bringing Ennio Morricone or Macklemore to Australia for the first time, persuading entire cities to do things they never thought they'd do. The methodology behind it is Giant Thinking, and it works far beyond the arts.
Keynote: Collaboration through inspiration
The Giants project required Jonathan to unite Indigenous communities, government ministers, corporate sponsors, the armed forces, all the emergency services, French artists who barely spoke English, and a city that was deeply sceptical. Everyone had different agendas, very few thought it could be done. He has learned how to bring people together across divides that seem unbridgeable - and your organisation probably has a few of those.
Keynote: Arts and Creativity
We're drowning in content. What cuts through is true creativity, moments people actually feel. Jonathan has created experiences for 7 million people over his career. He knows what makes people stop scrolling, put down their phones, and pay attention.
MC / Facilitator
Conference hosting is a different skill from keynoting — and Jonathan excels at both. He has MC'd events across six continents, keeping energy high from 9am to 9pm, creating intelligent links between speakers, and wrapping everything up with humour, clarity and actionable takeaways.
He can also help design your event beforehand and deliver a post-event video summary for distribution.
Online, Jonathan plays Zoom like Jean-Michel Jarre plays keyboards — real-time polling, interactive chat, energising music stings, the works.
"Jonathan is THE best MC and one of the best keynote speakers I've seen in the 24 years I've been doing this."
— Ian Stephens, Speaker/Coach/Author
When mission-driven cities or organisations seek breakthrough thinking, transformational results, and extraordinary possibilities within their most challenging circumstances, they turn to Jonathan Holloway.
His insights and learnings resonate deeply, elevating audiences to think bigger and achieve more. He brings warmth, clarity, and creativity to high-stakes environments - igniting conversations and events that resonate with both hearts and minds.
Jonathan combines giant thinking methodology with transformational leadership to help organisations solve seemingly impossible problems and create experiences with lasting impact.
He has hosted major events across the cultural, academic, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors, including UNESCO's Mondiacult, The Festival Academy in Africa, Yale University, and cultural dialogues in the Middle East.
His international work spans humanitarian, civic, and public sector settings, from leading organisations to dreaming up transformational events; from inspiring people to hit their personal best to unlocking the potential of each team's unsung heroes.
Proven organisational leadership results:
- 900% + audience growth through transformation strategies
- 1.4M participants in a single cultural event
- £25M+ economic impact resulting from creative methodology
- Certified Speaking Professional (only 12% of speakers globally)
Recent high-profile engagements:
- Opening speaker, International Festival of Arts and Ideas (Yale University)
- MC, Coding Education closing ceremony (London, UK)
- "Ten Traits of a Successful 21st Century Arts Festival", TEDx (Perth, Australia)
- MC, Culture Business Fundraising Conference (Sydney, Australia)
- Closing keynote adress, NAB Bank (Melbourne, Australia)
- Keynote address, UNESCO, Yangtze Culture Forum (Nanjing, China)
- MC, Baker Tilly International annual Zoom conference (15 hours long in all time zones)
- MC, The Road to Mondiacult, UNESCO world conference (Latin America and Caribbean)
- Keynote address, Festivals Academy (Uganda)
- MC, HP International training conference (Barcelona, Spain and live global broadcast)
