Partnership Forum Speakers
Steven Van Belleghem
Steven Van Belleghem is an international keynote speaker. Over the past few years, Steven has given more than 1,000 presentations at events in over 40 countries. His core expertise is the future of customer centricity. The combination between customer-centric thinking, the latest technologies and the human touch is the guiding principle in Steven’s stories.
Steven is an entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of inspiration agency Nexxworks and social media agency Snackbytes. As an investor he is also involved in the fast-growing digital agency Intracto and AI scale-up Hello Customer. Steven is also on the board of directors of Plan International. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, Steven is also a part-time marketing professor at the Vlerick Business School.
Steven has authored four international bestsellers and has sold more than 120,000 books. His work has been translated into seven languages and he is the recipient of a variety of awards (most innovative marketing book, best marketing book, best international business book). He is a popular vlogger: his YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/stevenvanbelleghem) has racked up more than 1.2 million views.
Rory Sutherland – Vice Chairman, O&M Group UK
Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioral science practice within the agency.
He works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behaviour – these are the very small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make – for instance tripling the sales rate of a call centre by adding just a few sentences to the script. Put another way, lots of agencies will talk about “bought, owned and earned” media: we also look for “invented media” and “discovered media”: seeking out those unexpected (and inexpensive) contextual tweaks that transform the way that people think and act. It is a hugely valuable activity – but, alas, not particularly lucrative. This is because clients generally do not have budgets for solving problems they have not noticed.
Before founding Ogilvy Change, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Direct Jury at Cannes and has spoken at TED Global. He writes regular columns for the Spectator, Market Leader and Impact, and also occasional pieces for Wired. He is the author of two books: The Wiki Man and Alchemy, The surprising Power of Ideas which don’t make Sense, published in the UK and US in March 2019.
Rory is married to a vicar and has twin daughters of 17. He is a trustee of the Benjamin Franklin House in London and of Rochester Cathedral.