Henry Coutinho-Mason

Henry’s signature talk is a fast-paced dive into the key trends that will present innovation opportunities for your audience in the near future. The current versions of this keynote draw from Henry’s book, The Future Normal (written with 3-time WSJ bestselling author Rohit Bhargava and released in early 2023).

While the title might have remained a constant during his 10-year stint as CEO of TrendWatching, every session is unique thanks to Henry’s ability to bring in the newest and most insightful local and industry-specific case studies.

One event organizer who booked Henry to speak to 2,000 senior executives from a Fortune 500 company in Las Vegas described his keynote as “inspiring, energetic, and entertaining” – three words that are regularly reported on his feedback forms.

Audiences love Henry’s:

• Uniquely global and cross-category perspective and insight.
• Clarity and structure of the presentation – to connect what’s happening today with what it means for tomorrow.
• Ability to show examples that lie outside of their day-to-day yet are always highly relevant.
• Irreverent and accessible style.

People leave with:

• A notebook full of innovation ideas! Inspired by relevant, real-world innovation case studies to use with their teams or clients.
• Actionable insights into how those innovations will change what their customers will want next.
• Empowered to become a trend spotter themselves.

It’s one thing hearing someone talk about the power of AI. It’s another thing to have your audience experience it.

Live and in-the-moment. Together. 

Henry’s new interactive AI experience transforms the keynote format from something that people sit through, into a visceral personal and collective ‘a-ha moment’ that will live long in the memory of every participant.

But don’t mistake this session for just some fun ‘AI theater’.

Its real magic comes when Henry uses AI to analyze the generated images and unlock the collective intelligence of your audience – turning your next event into a powerful source of insights, just delivered faster and in a far more engaging format than any slow and expensive consultancy project!

You already know that the future of your organization depends on using AI effectively. This session won’t just transform the way your people think about AI, it will energize them to explore and seize the opportunities it presents.

Audiences love Henry’s:

• Innovative integration of AI into the keynote experience.
• Ability to make the concept of AI augmentation deeply personal.
• Demonstration of how AI will transform corporate strategy and culture.

People leave with:

• A radically new and optimistic perspective on AI and its implications.
• Images that they have personally co-created with AI!
• A personalized AI-generated assessment & launch guide for their idea.
• Shareable visual artefacts & reports, analyzing the collective future vision of the audience.
• A post-event Ideas Portal, capturing & categorizing everyone’s ideas.

This year it’s AI. Before that, it was the metaverse, web3 and crypto. And before those, it was social media and mobile. During his 15-year speaking career, Henry’s talks on how to think about new and fast-moving technologies have been enthusiastically received by executive audiences.

Henry’s approach is a deceptively simple one – don’t only focus on what’s changing; instead identify what won’t change for your customers. What are the basic human needs and wants that your customers will still look to your organization to cater to a decade from now?

So instead of talking solely about novel technologies themselves, Henry talks about the underlying relevant basic human needs they speak to – from convenience to transparency, and from empowerment and creativity.

This deeply human-centric view of technology might seem obvious, but Henry’s talks present a view of the world that is both fresh and compelling. More importantly, it’s an accessible and practical approach that audiences can take back into their organizations in order to think strategically about the long-term implications and opportunities that AI will present.

Audiences love Henry’s:

• Ability to cut through the BS! And show how to connect what’s happening today with a long-term roadmap for their organization.
• Fresh perspectives on well-known topics – both the focus on basic human needs and the relevant innovation case studies.
• Down-to-earth and accessible style that engages the audience as equals.

People leave:

• Feeling empowered and inspired, rather than nervous!
• With a clear strategic framework to use with their teams.
• Armed with current best practices (and some entertaining stories about the most niche use cases, too!)

Stay Ahead Of! – Your Customers’ Future Expectations

The conventional ways of knowing what your customers will want next (such as using ever bigger datasets or qualitative research) are barely fit for purpose in a world that is ever more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.

This terrifies most executives, but there's a silver lining. It is possible to understand the direction of future trends and the opportunities they present, by looking at the very disruptive startups and game-changing innovations that create such volatility. How are these new innovations changing customer expectations? And how can you get ahead of your competitors by catering to those new expectations?

Based on Henry’s first book Trend-Driven Innovation, this talk unpacks the theory of how to become not just a trendspotter, but a trend doer. And while this theory forms the basis of TrendWatching’s research, content & products which are used by 100,000 B2C professionals at hundreds of the world’s leading brands, this is miles away from being a dry, data-driven speech.

Instead, Henry brings in a unique and entertaining mix of global innovations examples to show exactly how the audience can spot what’s coming next.

Audiences love Henry’s:

• Focus on basic human needs as a strategic imperative.
• Integration of real-world innovations, to bring the theory to life.
• Down-to-earth style that is accessible and highly practical.

People leave with:

• A new way of seeing the world!
• Tips and tricks on how to embed a culture of trend-driven innovation in your organization.