William Higham Keynote Speaker

• Don’t Fear Uncertainty. Exploit It: How to lead in a volatile world

2026 is proving another highly volatile year for business. Many executives are understandably anxious about how to proceed. But they don’t need to be.

I believe uncertainty isn’t something to fear but to embrace, because it offers far more opportunities than calm. As Formula 1 champion Ayrton Senna said: “You can’t overtake 15 cars in sunny weather. But you can when it’s raining.”

In this, my most popular talk, I distil the 15 years I’ve spent in Uncertainty Management into a guide to exploiting uncertainty for growth and profit.

I explore practical ways to combine diversification, improvisation and collaboration with flexibility, flatter hierarchies and a founder mindset not just to avoid disruptive threats, but to identify and capitalise on multiple new opportunities.

• Collaborative, Creative, Change-Friendly: How to build a workforce fit for the future

In tomorrow’s uncertain business landscape, the most successful companies won’t be those with the best products or marketing teams. They’ll be those that can best adapt to new circumstances. Those with the best organisation: the most efficiently run offices, smartest workflows and resource allocation, inspiring cultures and engaged, productive employees.

But legacy environments and reporting structures are really hampering many companies’ productivity, engagement and efficiency. The introduction of hybrid was a good start – but much more needs to be done.

In this talk, I look at what CEOs and CHROs can do to rebuild the enterprise: creating environments and organisational structures ready for the future.

How to create structures that give individuals flexibility while fostering a collaborative, engaged community across hybrid workforces. That build flatter, results-driven hierarchies with a common purpose. That use new technologies like AI and IoT to empower individuals and improve workflows.

• Will Luxury Become a Gen-Z Necessity?: Opportunities for Luxury as self-care

Luxury used to be a way to use your wealth to increase your comfort levels. But over time it became less about making yourself and your family happy, and more about impressing other people.

Now a wave of new young HNWIs is looking to return the sector to its roots.

Seeing Luxury as a form of Self Care, they’ll be happy to spend on anything that makes them, and those they love, feel better, safer, closer and less anxious. Enjoying beautiful objects, unique experiences and indulgent services for the effect it has on them, not others.

In this talk, I look at the opportunities this new trend will offer. And how to stop selling Heritage Luxury and start selling Human Luxury.

• Managing from X to Z: Engage multiple generations in tomorrow’s workplace

Different age groups have always had different work needs, expectations and drivers. Your attitudes to work depend on when you grew up: in boom or bust, with a money-oriented or moralistic culture, the tech you had, who your role models were. And clashes can occur when your older/younger bosses or teammates don’t share those attitudes.

Generational differences have always caused friction at work. But right now? In the middle of a major Culture War? It’s not just friction, it’s a powder keg.

So how can you defuse the situation? How can you satisfy three very different generations’ needs and still keep everyone happy?

I’ve spent years tracking how needs evolve and what works across age groups. I’ve led multiple cross-generational teams – and projects aimed at specific generations. I’ve used this knowledge to create a talk to help.

The talk explores what’s shaped each generation, what it values at work and, vitally, how to help them all ‘play nicely’ together. Using interaction , discussion and reflection, I leverage the audience’s own experiences to build clear, practical advice that can be implemented immediately.