Keynotes

Jason Schenker is the most accurate financial futurist in the world. Since 2011, Bloomberg News has ranked Jason the #1 forecaster in the world in 23 different forecast categories for his forecasts of industrial metals prices, energy prices, agricultural commodity prices, currencies, and economic indicators.

For over a decade, Jason has been a keynote speaker, guest on CNBC, and frequent guest host for Bloomberg Television. He is also a columnist for Bloomberg Prophets, and he writes articles for MHI Solutions.

After working as an economist at Wachovia and a risk specialist at McKinsey, Jason founded Prestige Economics in 2009, as a financial market research firm that provides a retainer service to private companies, public corporations, industry groups, institutional investors, central banks, governments, and NGOs. Prestige Economics also prepares the monthly MHI Business Activity Index, quarterly MHEM forecasts, and forecasts for several MHI industry groups.

Jason has written three #1 best sellers: Commodity Prices 101, Recession-Proof, and Electing Recession. His most recent book, Jobs for Robots: Between Robocalypse and Robotopia, was published in February 2017.

Jason holds master's degrees in applied economics, negotiation, and German literature. He is also a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Chairman of The Futurist Institute, a learning organization he founded in October 2016 to help analysts and economists become futurists and long-term analysts. Jason produces The Financial Futurist, a weekly podcast and newsletter on markets, business, and future technology.

What challenges and opportunities does the U.S. and global economic outlook pose for your company? Join top-ranked economist, Jason Schenker, who will share his shortterm and long-term economic forecasts. This presentation will cover the growth outlook, as well as the outlook for interest rates, foreign exchange rates, energy prices, and industrial metals prices.

NY Times Bestselling Author, 4 time tech entrepreneur, hyper-growth CEO Chairman at Fuel Leadership, LLC

ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRE: THINK AND ACT LIKE A STARTUP (EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT)
Entrepreneurs look at the world differently. We celebrate them for their bold vision and courage -- they drive game-changing innovation that creates enormous economic success while making a profound impact on the world. What is it about the entrepreneurial mindset that helps these mavericks seize opportunity that others miss? A five-time successful tech entrepreneur, Linkner shows leaders and organizations how to embrace the creativity, grit, and vision of a startup and then channel this approach to drive growth, innovation, efficiency, and customer delight. Josh Linkner decodes the entrepreneurial DNA to help leaders of any size company in any industry or profession:

• Understand how an entrepreneur would attack their organization with the specific goal of dislodging it
• Reimagine their role through the lens of an entrepreneur
• Harness the ferocity of entrepreneurial thinking
• Embrace "startup speed" to increase velocity in your own organization
• Learn the five best approaches used by startups to create disruption
• Avoid the weaknesses that plague entrepreneurs by exposing the four biggest startup death traps

Entrepreneurs look at the world differently. We celebrate them for their bold vision and courage - they drive game-changing innovation that creates enormous economic success while making a profound impact on the world. What is it about the entrepreneurial mindset that helps these mavericks seize opportunity that others miss? A five-time successful tech entrepreneur, Linkner shows leaders and organizations how to embrace the creativity, grit, and vision of a startup and then channel this approach to drive growth, innovation, efficiency, and customer delight. Josh Linkner decodes the entrepreneurial DNA to help leaders of any size company in any industry or profession:

• Understand how an entrepreneur would attack their organization with the specific goal of dislodging it
• Reimagine their role through the lens of an entrepreneur
• Harness the ferocity of entrepreneurial thinking
• Embrace "startup speed" to increase velocity in your own organization
• Learn the five best approaches used by startups to create disruption
• Avoid the weaknesses that plague entrepreneurs by exposing the four biggest startup death traps

David Roberts is regarded as one of the world top experts on disruptive innovation and exponentially advancing technology. His passion is to help transform the lives of a billion suffering people in the world through disruptive innovation.

David served as Vice President of Singularity University and two-time Director (and alum) of the Graduate Studies Program. He is an award winning CEO and serial entrepreneur, and has started ventures backed with over $100 million of investment from Kleiner Perkins, Vinod Khosla, Cisco, Oracle, Accenture, In-Q-Tel, and others.

He is the recipient of numerous awards and medals and has led the development of some of the most complex, state-of-the art systems ever built, to include satellites, drones, and fusion centers. He also worked as an Investment Banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Goldman Sachs Headquarters. He received his B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering from M.I.T. was a Distinguished Graduate, and majored in Artificial Intelligence and Bio-Computer Engineering. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

David is Chairman at HaloDrop, a revolutionary global drone services company, Chairman at 1QBit the world first software company for quantum computers, and is a formal adviser to Made-In Space, responsible for manufacturing the first object in Space with a 3D printer on the Space Station.

Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley Business schools have all written and taught case studies on David's leadership, management, and decision making. He has been featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal, and in USA Today, Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, Business Week, CNN, and dozens of others. His startups have received many awards to include Internet World Net Rising Stars,Red Herring Catch, top 50 Private Companies in the World, Red Herring Top100 Private Companies in the World, USA Today Tech Reviews Best Picks, Internet Outlook Investors Choice Award, Enterprise Outlook Investors Choice, Best of the Web from PC World, and Apple Computer Premier Systems Integrator Award.

His fascination with technology began In fourth grade after building a hovering electric drone, to carry his younger sister to the bus stop, powered by what was formerly his mother's vacuum cleaner, and fortunately limited by the length of an electric power cord.

The emergence of disruptive technologies and the potential for more rapid deployment of existing, proven technologies all hold the potential to change development models and create new markets and business opportunities for entrepreneurs and those who finance them. This presentation will include technological advancements of autonomous vehicles such as drones, trucks and cars and help define new opportunities for supply chains as well as the threat of business-as-usual complacency.

As the first female president of a professional sports franchise, Susan O'Malley is a pioneer in two fields: sports and business. She knows what it takes to be a leader in a tough business environment and how to create an organization from the ground up. Once an intern with the Washington Capitals and the Washington Bullets (now the Wizards), O'Malley joined Washington Sports and Entertainment in 1986. Since that time, her ground-breaking business ideas and proactive approach to customer service brought her - and WSE - to the top of the sports business world.

During her presentations, Susan O'Malley speaks about leadership and thriving in a male-dominated field, calling on anecdotes and lessons learned from her life of unprecedented success. In engaging and upbeat presentations, she outlines seven seminal 'rules' for leadership and life and shares insider stories about entertainment, hockey, and basketball. Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, O'Malley is hilarious, brilliant, genuine, and inviting. Her warm sense of humor, self-described "folksy" style, entertaining stories, and sharp wit make her lessons memorable and an instant favorite among audiences. She leaves listeners thoroughly entertained and uplifted and with practical takeaways for their own lives and organizations.

A First in Sports. O'Malley joined Washington Sports and Entertainment during lean times. Under her guidance the company improved its bottom line and its winning percentage. In her first season handling off-court activities, the team experienced the largest ticket revenue increase in the history of an NBA franchise. The club also achieved the highest renewal rate of season tickets ever by the franchise, including the year following the 1977-78 Championship season. O'Malley's magic helped attract over 21.2 million patrons through the turnstiles of the Washington, DC-based Verizon Center. The 2005-2006 Wizards season saw the franchise tally 14 sellouts, averaging over 17,000 fans per game en route to their second consecutive trip to the NBA playoffs. Her accomplishments also include innovative marketing and customer service initiatives that are still in use today.

Reaching Lifetime Goals. From a young age, O'Malley identified her career goals and was supported strongly by her mother. As a grade school student, she wrote a paper declaring her intention to run a sports franchise. Her teacher deemed the goal "unrealistic," but O'Malley was not swayed. With family support and strong female influences, O'Malley's life and career have been an example for women who want to break into male-dominated industries. Her message is influenced by her family and the management lessons she developed in her unprecedented career. Due to her expertise in connecting with employees, transforming organizational culture, and hiring the right people for the right positions, O'Malley was able to blaze a trail for herself and others.

After leaving Washington Sports and Entertainment, O'Malley earned her law degree from Georgetown University, where she also taught a sports business marketing class and was awarded the Adjunct Professor of the Year Award. She served as St. Joseph's University's first sports marketing professor and is currently a full-time faculty member at the University of South Carolina. She is also consulting with The Sports and Entertainment Company (Sports-EntCo).

Susan is the former President of the Washington Capitals and the Washington Wizards, First Female President of a Professional Sports Franchise.

At age 29, Susan O'Malley became the first female president of an NBA franchise as well as one of the first women in a major front-office position in major league sports. In an engaging and upbeat presentation, O'Malley outlines her seminal 'rules' for leadership and life and shares insider stories about business, entertainment, hockey and basketball.

Her message is influenced not only by the management lessons she learned in her successful, unprecedented career, but by her family. By focusing on the lessons of her own childhood and then reinforcing them with her proven business expertise, O'Malley offers vital insights for leaders of all stripes. Learn how she implemented innovative marketing and customer service initiatives that led to the largest ticket revenue increase and the highest renewal rate of season tickets ever by an NBA franchise.

A trailblazer for herself and others, she is hilarious, brilliant, genuine, and inviting. O'Malley delivers these simple yet powerful messages with her trademark humor and will have you laughing while they're learning. You will be thoroughly entertained and uplifted and will gain practical takeaways for your own life and business.