Nick Buettner Keynote Speaker

Nick Buettner is the Community and Corporate Program Director at Blue Zones, LLC. He is responsible for leading the development and implementation of the Blue Zones Project in all of the Blue Zones Communities and corporate sites across the US. Using National Geographic photography and a dynamic, storytelling delivery, Nick takes audiences to these longest-lived cultures, shares his own observations from the field, and provides his group with ideas to immediately increase their own well-being.

In his previous role as executive producer on the Blue Zones team, Nick coordinated all field production operations and collaborated with Good Morning America, CNN, AOL, WCCO and the National Geographic Channel to produce live events from remote locations throughout the world. In the last 20 years, Nick has led 17 expeditions over 6 continents around the world, three of which to the Blue Zones sites.

His work with the Blue Zones expedition team provided him a firsthand, in-person glimpse of these Blue Zones — places that have the greatest life expectancy and where more people reach age 100 than anywhere else in the world.

In 2004, Nick Buettner & Dan Buettner teamed up with National Geographic and the world’s best longevity researchers to identify pockets around the world where people live measurably longer and better. In these “Blue Zones” they found that people reach age 100 at rates 10 times greater than in the United States.

After identifying 5 of the world’s Blue Zones, the Blue Zones team and National Geographic took teams of scientists to each location to identify lifestyle characteristics that might explain longevity. They found that the lifestyles of all Blue Zones residents shared nine specific characteristics. They call these characteristics the Power 9®.

In 2009 they partnered with AARP and the United Health Foundation to apply the Power 9 principles to Albert Lea, MN. It worked: after just one year, participants added an estimated 2.9 years to their average lifespan while healthcare claims for city workers dropped 49%. Harvard’s Walter Willett called the results ‘stunning’. They are now building Blue Zones in cities and businesses across the country and Nick is leading this charge.

Nick has received his BA in International Business with a minor in Economics from Augsburg College. In his free time, Nick enjoys playing hockey, gardening, and going on adventures!