Over 2 decades, Elena has educated, inspired, and mobilized audiences as intimate as roundtables and as vast as closing plenaries at international conferences.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

A sample of available keynote presentations

Today’s global trends and opportunities

Impactful changemakers respond to and leverage global trends because even what has worked in the past can be a liability moving forward. However, if our hindsight can be 20/20, our outlook is murky at best. How do we make sense of this changing world? Vitally, how do we identify the vacuums of opportunity to define the coming decades? A seasoned futurist lauded for mobilizing action in pursuit of possibility, Elena takes her audience on an immersive 360-degree multi-media tour of the megatrends reshaping our world and the opportunities they create for industries, organizations, and individuals.

What will it take to define the coming decades?

While crucial, transformation initiatives remain notoriously ineffective, with a staggering 70% failure rate. Our efforts are haphazard – an incidental byproduct of nearly assured self-destruction -- and understood in hindsight rather than predictively. That ends now! From tapping into purpose through mining a 360-degree landscape of megatrends and the opportunities they create for industries, organizations, and individuals to the skills required to vet, launch, scale, and exit from the ventures that will define the coming decades, Elena’s immersive keynote distills 20+ years of practice and current PhD research into an actionable roadmap to impact.

Are you a change-maker?

Have you wondered if something is wrong with you? You may be a change-maker and the world’s most precious resource! Chock-full with penny drops, this delightful talk introduces a new personality profile, otherwise overlooked and misunderstood. Drawing on 20+ years across research and practice in transformation, Elena argues that change-making must be treated as a profession so that every change-maker is positioned and resourced for the vital work of remaking our world for the better. With Elena’s aptitude test, every person leaves empowered to help define the coming decades.  

What if change weren’t a matter of chance? The building blocks of transformation

While crucial, transformation initiatives remain notoriously ineffective, with a staggering 70% failure rate. Our efforts are haphazard – an incidental byproduct of nearly assured self-destruction -- and understood in hindsight rather than predictively. This is in part because change-makers haven’t had the benefit of the roadmaps available to chemists, geneticists, architects, or florists. What if we did? What would become possible if there were formulas for transformational change? If we could assemble its building blocks to manifest our vision the future? Distilling 20+ years of practice and current PhD research, Elena introduces her work on the Periodic Table of Change; a world-first attempt at demystifying how we can envision, plan, and implement transformation. 

Mega trends. Delivered at a strategic planning offsite.

Digital 360 Summit 2021

On the Biden Infrastructure Plan

NZ21

 
 
 

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

  • IFMA Silicon Valley annual plenary: Let’s Make Good Change in 2024! CA USA. Jan’24.

  • VERGE’22: DERs: Activating Local Energy Markets. CA USA. Oct’22.

  • Circle’s Converge22. Blockchain, Sustainable Growth, and the Green Economy. CA USA. Sep’22.

  • NZ22: Role of EVs in Activating Nodal Energy Markets. CA USA. Sep’22.

  • Panelist, Digital 360 Summit: Platforms and Cloud Solutions. TX USA. Sep’22.

  • IEA Training: What is it like to inhabit grid-interactive buildings? Preview of the interactive energy future. Singapore. Jul’22.

  • Everything EV USA: EVs’ Role in Activating Nodal Energy Markets. Jun’22.

  • Panelist at Speaker at Global Blockchain Business Council’s The Long Game: Blockchain and Sustainability, joint event with American University’s Kogod School of Business. Apr’22.

  • NIBS Innovation Conference: How to Create Systems Change. Virtual. Sep’21.

  • Curated an international panel at NZ21: Unlocking New Revenue Streams for Real Estate while De-Carbonizing Energy Markets. Virtual. Sep’21.

  • Curated an international panel at Greenbuild’s Global Health & Wellness Summit: If Regulation Helps Achieve Equity, Should We Regulate for Healthy Buildings? Virtual. Sep’21.

  • Panelist at Global Blockchain Business Council’s Blockchain Central UNGA: Building Sustainable and Resilient Systems. NY U.S.. Sep’21.

  • Panelist, Digital 360 Summit: AI, Cloud, & Culture Change. TX U.S.. Sep’21.

  • Presented at IFMA Northern Colorado chapter meeting: Mitigating the Liability of (re)Occupancy Amid the Pandemic. Nov’20.

  • Presented at IFMA Silicon Valley chapter meeting: Leveraging Science for FM Excellence. Feb’21.

  • Presented at IFMA World Workplace 2020: Leveraging Science for FM Excellence. Dec’20.

  • Presented at IFMA Denver chapter meeting: Mitigating the Liability of (re)Occupancy Amid the Pandemic. Nov’20.

  • Curated the panel at IFMA Silicon Valley chapter meeting: Built Environment as a Lever of Public Health. Aug’20.

  • Panelist, scientific perspective: Wellness Programs for School Buildings. Virtual. Jul’20.

  • Panelist on the FMA Ideation.Virtual. Lessons Learned and What Can We Do Differently. Jun’20.

  • Panelist on the USBGC-LA Thought Leadership Roundtable on COVID-19: Reopen, Redesign, Resilience. CA USA. May’20.

  • Panelist on the USBGC-LA Thought Leadership Roundtable on Air Quality. CA USA. Oct’19.

A selection of presentations delivered more than 5 years ago:

  • Opening and closing plenaries: How do we relegate parental alienation to history books? Simply Parent Conference 2018, CO U.S. Jun’18.

  • Closing plenary: presentation and facilitation of a ‘fishbowl’ discussion at Living Future 2012 conference. Portland, OR U.S. May’12.

  • Co-design and facilitation of the UIA (International Union of Architects) Conference at COP17, aimed at producing a draft position paper from the built environment sector to the COP18 negotiators. Durbin, South Africa. Nov’11.

  • Green Building Council South Africa’s annual Convention: Repositioning Organisations for Sustainability: Leveraging Trends & Behaviour Change. Cape Town, South Africa. Oct’11.

  • Keynote at Russian Green Building Council Conference: Evolution of Sustainability. Mar’10.