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Dr. Martina Olbert spoke at events around the world, including leading industry conferences, client events, professional associations, podcasts, radio shows, and held academic lectures at business schools across Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. Some of the clients, organizations, and conferences include:
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SPEAKER PROFILE
Knowledge is power. Especially if it's the right knowledge that comes at the right time and helps you make a better business decision. All my talks deal with the future of meaning – as the new essential building block of business today.
Dr. Martina Olbert, Founder and CEO of Meaning Global, is a visionary thinker, sensemaker, strategic/board advisor, humanist, futurist, social scientist, author, and a global speaker represented by Chartwell Speakers in London.
She is the world's leading expert on creating meaning in business, recognized by Forbes as "a preeminent authority on brand meaning" and a leading voice on sustainable future-fit economics and humanistic capitalism. She explores how business can benefit humanity to maximize human flourishing. Her focus is on reimagining business to empower a future of complete synergy between Commerce and Humanity.
Martina is a trusted advisor to many of the world's most influential brands and organizations on meaning creation, strategy, leadership, futurism, strategic foresight, societal and cultural shifts, humanistic and sustainable innovation, and building meaningful futures. Some of her clients include LVMH, Facebook, Estée Lauder, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, Heineken, Barclays Private Bank, KBC, and Kantar. In her career, she has worked with clients across all sectors and industries.
Martina is an inspiring speaker with a bold vision for the future of business. She views commerce as the most powerful force for positive change in society and the driver of a more meaningful, sustainable, and humanistic future.
With her talks, workshops, and client engagements, she helps brand and business leaders understand what all the recent changes in the world given the rapid evolution and ascension of humanity mean for the future of business – so that clients can capitalize on these shifts and make new and more empowered meaning to create radically new and higher forms of value that contribute to our human flourishing.
She spoke for clients globally at conferences and events across North America, LatAm, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia. Her speaking experiences and lectures include EXPO Dubai 2020 Global Sustainability Goals Week with the UN, King’s Business School London, Trinity College Dublin, Brand Week Istanbul, FashionTech Week Milan, Luxury Week, Quadriga Internal Communications Conference in Berlin, Consumer Insight Conference in Manila, and What is Luxury? panel at the Atlantis hotel in Nassau, the Bahamas, and more.
Speaking topics
Some of the clients' feedback on my talks, ideas, and insights:
"Eye-opening and invaluable experience"
"Reframing and refocusing worldviews for a better understanding"
"Dr. Olbert is one of the very few who can see the shift we are in with a steely-eyed brilliance"
"She presents a clear roadmap forward and can clearly see the future of meaning for consumers"
"The thought leader we need for the '20s and beyond"
"Martina is a true visionary so far ahead of the curve, she is able to see and think way beyond what is conventional"
"A revolutionary thought leader in a world where thought leadership is oftentimes merely an opinion"
"A thought-provoking clarity"
"Martina is one of the marketing leaders shaping a better world through brand"
"Fiercely intelligent, deeply spiritual, and possessing a 360-degree view of humans"
"An alchemist of the highest order with a magic so rare it transcends business into the realm of the entirety of the human endeavour"
"What Martina offers is a quake under our feet to put us on firmer ground. Exceptional view."​
"Her comments, ideas, and insights are one of the few sources that actually matter"
"Martina sees beyond the problems of today to grasp the underlying issues that have led to those problems in the first place"
"Real depth made accessible"
"Astonishingly valuable"
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The Future of Humanity
Where is humanity going, and what does it mean for business, consumer behavior, the economy, policy, culture, investment, and the macro systems of society?
There is a paradigm shift happening in our global society today that informs the future direction of humanity. The Covid-19 pandemic has meant a dividing shift in our collective consciousness, a mighty turning point, a no way back. Humanity started awakening to our collective power and how we are all interconnected. This has meant a steady rise of interest in our health, well-being, comfort, security, safety, and stability, and has turned our focus to the radically new topics of self-sufficiency, wealth creation, personal freedom, personal power and agency in society, and how we can create the reality that we want to live in through making responsible choices that lead to a life we desire. This has radically rewritten the codes of culture and society for decades to come and the 21st century. What we are about to witness is a radical expansion of human power that will revolutionize all areas of business, society, and public life. If you want to learn more about how this affects you, book this talk. It is based on the latest study, Reimagining Consumerism As A Force For Good, and new insights.
Spoke on the future of humanity at King's College London, and the EXPO Dubai 2020 Global Sustainability Goals Week with the UN
The Future of Business
The Rise of Conscious, Humanistic Capitalism and what it means for what we want now, and how we need to create and conduct business in the future
Business needs a new narrative, a new reason to exist that goes beyond making money through transactional value. Why? It is no longer enough. The way we do business has lost its meaning because we have lost our humanity along the way. Business is a creative discipline – it creates the global reality we all live in. It has the power to create the future world. So, as long as we do it, shouldn't we use business to create the world that we want to live in? Commerce and Humanity are fundamentally misaligned. We look at people as workers and consumers instead of seeing them as human beings whose needs and interests we are supposed to serve. We are now hitting the limits of this old business narrative. We are standing at the edge of a new Humanistic Paradigm, needing to conceive a new way forward. We need to bridge the gap between organizations and people to benefit our complete humanity and the planet. We need a new narrative centered on our humanity: what the core value of business is for people, what humans need to flourish, and where humanity is going in the future. This new business narrative needs to shift from people serving brands as consumers to brands serving people as human beings to add radically new value to our lives that elevates our global human well-being and maximizes human flourishing on this planet.
Spoke on the future of business at the EXPO Dubai Global Sustainability Goals Week with the United Nations
The Future of Brands
Maximizing Global Human Flourishing With Brands
How can we use brands as a force for good and as catalysts to drive a positive global social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental change in the world? And how can we do this in a real way that supersedes the declaratory old ways of brand purpose and a company mission statement? Business is the most powerful creative force in the world. It won’t be governments or capital markets that drive a positive change in the world – it will be commerce. Brands hold the emotional connections with people that are a part of our everyday life fabric and are nimble enough to adapt to changes in policies, global markets, and demand. In this talk, Dr. Martina Olbert explores the changing dynamic between brands and people in the post-COVID world and what this means for our collective future. It is based on her latest study, Reimagining Consumerism As A Force For Good.
Spoke on the future of brands at the EXPO Dubai 2020 Global Sustainability Goals Week with the UN and lectured to the graduate marketing students at King's Business School, King's College London
The Future of Luxury
What is the New Meaning of Luxury?
What is Luxury, and where is the luxury industry headed in the future? What do brands need to know about the changing meaning of luxury to maximize value and meaning? As our humanity is awakening today to its true essence, seeking authenticity and self-expression, the very meaning of luxury is changing from tangibles to intangibles. We don't crave material objects of desire as much as we crave the New Luxury: time, space, peace, serenity, true identity, human connection, and experiences. What has caused this sudden change in our perception of luxury, and what does it mean for the future? Dr. Martina Olbert is the author of the globally acclaimed The Luxury Report: Redefining The Future Meaning Of Luxury, where she explores the five cultural shifts disrupting luxury today and what they mean for the future of luxury houses, global brands, hospitality, leisure, and investment sectors.
Spoke on the future of luxury at the BOND Five Star luxury hospitality conference at the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas, FashionTech Week Milan, Luxury Week, and the Frame Awards in Amsterdam
The Future of Purpose
Corporate Purpose or Human Meaning: Which way is forward? Why betting on the human meaning instead of brand purpose is the right way to go.
Purpose has become the industry standard to orient a brand's and organization's future direction. But it was the wrong move. We need to move beyond the idea of purpose to achieve real, meaningful, and most importantly, delivered value in people's lives. We need to move beyond the overblown existential idea of purpose in business as the cornerstone of brand value and realize that the only real way to achieve purpose is through meaning. Human meaning. We need to abandon the idea of aspirational brand purposes as something that people buy and care about, and come back to reality, to create human meaning that can add real, tangible value to people’s lives. To make purpose more than corporate greenwashing, smoke-and-mirrors, and virtue signalling without any real social impact in the world, we need to finally embrace the truth and understand that people don’t buy your why, they buy their own why. This customer's why isn’t purpose to brands; it's meaning. This mindset shift will put brands on firmer ground and allow them to build a more meaningful, humanistic future. Dr. Martina Olbert writes more about this changing dynamic in business, brand leadership, and marketing in her article, Corporate Purpose or Human Meaning:​ Which Way Into The Future?
Spoke about the future of purpose at King's College London and on podcasts Thought Leadership Leverage: Purpose vs Meaning in Brands and Evolve To Succeed: "Not Consumers But Humans"
The Future of Leadership
What is the Real Meaning of Diversity in Business? Unlock creativity, meaningful innovation, value creation, and humanistic growth for your organization by understanding what diversity means for a business.
Not understanding diversity is costing organizations millions of dollars annually in lost new value that they are not creating, simply because their old mindset is blocking them from seeing a new direction filled with opportunity. In this talk, you'll learn why our outdated thinking about diversity is stopping us from achieving real progress in business and how a simple yet powerful reframe can unlock the immense power of diversity as an engine for human creativity, social innovation, diverse value creation, and future sustainable business growth. The key is to stop looking at diversity as a social representation tool that is supposed to check inclusion boxes and start seeing it for what it truly is: an engine for value creation and growth. Dr. Martina Olbert writes about this changing dynamic in business and why a fresh new take on diversity is important in her latest article, What is the real value of diversity? It's not social representation—it's value creation.
Spoke about this topic at the Quadriga Internal Communication Conference in Berlin
To check speaking fees and availability, contact Dr. Martina at hello@meaning.global
TESTIMONIALS
What the clients and audiences are saying...
"Martina held a lecture on The Future of Brands for my students at the King's Business School in London. She presents a clear roadmap for how brands can ensure they are not engaging in purpose-washing, but rather authentically engage with consumers as humans. The thought leader we need for the '20s and beyond."
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Professor of Marketing at King's Business School, King's College London
Speaking at Past Events Around the World
The Future of Players: How Cultural Disruption Impacts Planning & Product Innovation, Gaming Convention, London
The Meaning Of Luxury panel, Frame Awards, with Marcel Wanders, designer, Peter Cole, CEO, Design Hotels, and Caroline Cundall, InterContinental Hotels Group, Amsterdam
EXPO Dubai, Global Sustainability Goals Week with the United Nations: How Brands Can Accelerate The Transition To A More Sustainable Future, in collaboration with Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland and Andy Wilson, Dubai, UAE
Leveraging Thought Leadership podcast with Peter Winick on Purpose versus Meaning in Brands, New York
The Future of Brands: Reimagining Consumerism As A Force For Good lecture for graduate marketing students at King's Business School, King's College London, UK
Evolve To Succeed podcast with Warren Munson on the future of business: Not Consumers But Humans, UK
Brand Week Istanbul | Designing The Future: The Future of Brands: Lead With Meaning At The Core. Istanbul, Türkiye
How Cultural Disruption & Symbolic Codes Impact Brand Success, Marketing, and Consumer Innovation, Manila
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