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Keynote Speaker and MC
Location
International
Date
2017 - present
Keynote: Giant Thinking
How to take an idea that seems impossible and make it inevitable. Drawn from thirty years running international festivals, commissioning Philip Glass's final Piano Etudes, bringing Macklemore and Ennio Morricone to Australia for the first time, and persuading whole cities to do things they did not believe they could.
Keynote: Collaboration through Inspiration
The Giants project required bringing together Indigenous communities, government ministers, corporate sponsors, the armed forces, every branch of the emergency services, French artists who barely spoke English, and a city that was deeply sceptical. I have spent my career learning how to bring people together across divides that look unbridgeable. Your organisation probably has a few.
Keynote: Arts, Creativity, and Attention
As we grow cynical of generic content and artificial embellishments, the thing that still cuts through is actual intelligence and messy human creativity. Moments that catch you off kilter, that make you react or feel before you have time to think. I have made experiences for more than seven million people, and I know what makes people put down their phones.
As MC and Facilitator
I also MC conferences, and I love the work. I have hosted events on six continents, from a breakfast for 200 oncologists to rooms full of High Court judges, tech founders, and banking leaders. I keep the energy up from nine in the morning to nine at night, day after day, and I make intelligent links between speakers rather than reading their introductions off a card.
What People Say
"This man really has a Midas touch."
Margaret Throsby, ABC Radio
"Jonathan is THE best MC and one of the best keynote speakers I have seen in the twenty-four years I have been doing this."
Ian Stephens
"He reads the room, or the city, perfectly. Then he reimagines it. Then he inspires everyone to join the journey."
Laura McGillivray, CEO, Norwich City Council
"Actually proper funny, and infuses everyone he meets with infectious energy and positivity."
Stuart Goldsmith, The Comedian's Comedian Podcast
Giant Thinking. Creative leadership. Making big ideas happen.
In February 2015 I persuaded 1.4 million people to stop what they were doing for three days and walk with giants through the streets of Perth, Australia.
Two marionettes, one 11 metres tall, one 6, each weighing several tonnes, operated and supported by a team of several hundred people. Some audience members wept. Many followed the giants for miles. Three quarters of the city's population came out to watch. The place came to a standstill.
It was the largest single arts event Australia has ever seen. The moment I remember best came afterwards, when a woman stopped me in the street and said: "I have lived here forty years and I have never spoken to my neighbours. This week we all stood outside together and watched the giants walk past. Now I know their names."
My job as an artistic director is to dream up experiences like this. As a speaker, I help other leaders and organisations do the same.
Recent Engagements
- Opening speaker, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Yale University
- Keynote, UNESCO Yangtze Culture Forum (Nanjing)
- TEDx, Ten Traits of a Successful 21st Century Arts Festival (Perth)
- Closing keynote, NAB Bank (Melbourne)
- Keynote, Festivals Academy (Uganda)
- MC, Culture Business Fundraising Conference (Sydney)
- MC, The Road to Mondiacult, UNESCO (Latin America and Caribbean)
- MC, HP International training conference (Barcelona, live global broadcast)
