Tom Cheeswright
Applied Futurist
Tom Cheesewright shows your audience the future AND teaches them how to see it for themselves. The acclaimed author shares stories about tomorrow’s tech, trends, and culture from his work with the world’s leading brands. Known to audiences from thousands of broadcast appearances, Tom is trusted to inspire, inform, and entertain every time.
Biography
Tom Cheesewright is the Applied Futurist, telling stories of tomorrow for the world’s biggest brands. He helps leaders to see the future more clearly and tell their stories to the audiences that matter, whether that’s the board, their staff, or their customers and prospects. Trusted by more than 30 of the global 500, as well as major government bodies such as NASA, Tom is in demand as a consultant, commentator, speaker and spokesperson.
Tom is recognised from his thousands of media appearances, explaining tomorrow’s world across TV, radio, print and online. He’s currently the resident expert on BBC Radio 4 series Dough and a frequent contributor to BBC Breakfast and News, but has also appeared on popular shows such as Sunday Brunch, You and Yours, and The Big Questions.
The author of three acclaimed books, Tom brings huge credibility to the stage, using his storytelling skills to teach audiences new skills, shift their thinking, and leave them inspired.
Speaking
Excite your audience and teach them a new skill: How to see the future.
Campaigns
Tom tells original stories of tomorrow as a content creator and spokesperson.
Broadcast
Tom is an experienced on-air performer, for radio, TV or corporate work.
Topics
Tom is most frequently asked to address ‘The future of...’ the industry or sector to which he is speaking. He can prepare tailored talks for any sector using his Intersections methodology. In the past he has successfully applied this approach to cars, construction, energy, food, sports, retail, and even superyachts!
Tom also speaks frequently on the following subjects:
High Frequency Change
Why we feel like change happens faster now, and what to do about it
Infinite Choice
How technology has lubricated innovation creating an explosion of choice. How will brands – and consumers – respond in the future?
How to future-proof your business
Building sustainable success in an age of high-frequency change
Example Videos
Publications
Tom’s most recent book is See Inside The Future (Usborne, 2024), a children’s guide to tomorrow’s world. This book is the fulfilment of a near-lifelong dream for Tom, whose career was inspired by the 1979 Book of the Future - to which Tom was asked to contribute a foreword on its reissue.
Prior to this, Tom published Future-Proof Your Business (Penguin, 2020), a manual for foresight and agility, as part of the Penguin Business Experts series. Future-Proof Your Business was recommended by the Financial Times as one of its business books of the month.
Tom’s first book, High Frequency Change, was published in 2019 by LID Publishing and shortlisted for the Business Book Awards in the ‘Leadership for the Future’ category.
What do you get when you book Tom to speak?
Tom is most commonly asked to keynote but he is happy to chair panels or interview other speakers on stage, while he is at the event. Tom is an experienced speaker with an audience of his own who is happy to work with you to help you promote your event.
This can include:
● Pre-event video
● Co-operation in pre-event PR and media interviews
● Contributed articles for event blogs or programmes
● Promotion on social media (~15,000 Twitter followers, 000+ LinkedIn connections with high proportion of senior leaders)
Feedback
“Tom's calm yet authoritative delivery really commands attention and respect. His keynote was meticulously prepared, blending informative content with real world examples. His ability to engage and inspire our audience was great, making him one of the most effective speakers we had at our event.”
Catherine Colman, ACS International School
“Tom's keynote and his following on-stage interview were engaging, eye opening and thought provoking. Tom's approach and seamless presentation of relevant content hit the mark on all levels and were insightfully reflective of the conference's key themes.”
Stuart Gilroy, Comms ViSION
“Tom really delivered what we asked of him in our future focused keynote, leaving our audience re-evaluating their business’ ability to adapt into the future with some key learnings from global industries. Tom was also great to work with ahead of the event and was an excellent chairman on the day, neatly tying the threads of different sessions together to give a lot of insight for our audience.”
Catriona Smith, World Rail Forum
“On behalf of BTC, I would like to thank you for the stimulating speech you held on our Sales Meeting in Prague. You gave an engaging talk that featured a good mixture of technical issues and practical examples. The insights you shared with the audience also on a personal level, made your speech truly entertaining and opened up the opportunity for a lively debate.”
Marko Grozdanic, BTC Europe GmbH
