Travels from New York, New York, USA
Scott Amyx's speaking fee falls within range: $20,000 to $25,000
Scott Amyx is the Chair & Managing Partner at Astor Perkins. Astor Perkins is a deep tech and sustainability VC that backs mavericks solving some of the hardest problems facing humanity on Earth and in space.
From climate change mitigation and adaptation, longevity, and human survival on Earth and in deep space, to the space economy itself, Astor Perkins is tackling some of the most difficult scientific, engineering, and technical problems that have global market potential.
Scott is also a Forbes New York Business Council Member, Singularity University/ Smart City Accelerator mentor and startup board member and SXSW Pitch (formerly SXSW Accelerator) judge. Scott is a Tribeca Disruptor Foundation Fellow, a disruptive innovation awards program of Tribeca Film Festival. Scott is a national Sloan Fellow/ Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He has spoken at TEDx on exponential technologies, Fourth Industrial Revolution & success. Scott is a global thought leader on breakthrough innovation, voted top global innovation keynote speaker, and author on smart cities, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and winner of the Cloud & DevOps World Award for Most Innovative and was voted Top Global Exponential Technologies Expert by Inc. Magazine, HP Enterprise, and Postscapes & Top 10 Global Innovation Keynote Speaker by Speaking.com. Scott has been nominated to the World Economic Forum as a committee member for the Future of the Internet. The Republic of Korea nominated Scott to present at the ITU Telecom World, United Nations. Sovereignties, governments, multinationals, and international consulting & research firms look to Scott for unrivaled insights and pulse on the changing landscape.
Scott was voted the Most Influential Leader in Smart Cities and awarded the 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by Inc. Magazine, Internet of Things Institute, HP Enterprise, World CSR Congress, and numerous institutions. Scott is enabling the realization of a global network of smart, sustainable cities through his partnerships with the United Nations, United Smart Cities, United for Smart Sustainable Cities, Smart Cities Council, and ASEAN Smart Cities Network, family offices, and institutional investors.
Scott has been featured on New York Times, TIME, Forbes, The Washington Post, WIRED, TechCrunch, Inc., Pew Research, Chicago Tribune, InformationWeek, Forrester, Gigaom, ReadWrite, Shots Magazine, Business News Daily, IBM Big Data & Analytics, Intel, Geektime, Examiner, TechBeacon, EE Times, IEEE, El País, Costco Magazine, and television and radio programs. He has spoken at TEDx, European Commission, World Economic Forum, ITU Telecom World (United Nations), International CES, SXSW, IBM Insight, IBM Amplify, IBM Watson IoT, IBM InterConnect, PTC LiveWorx, AMEX, SAP, CRM Evolution, THINK!, NED, Cloud Expo Europe, Cloud & DevOps World, KAIST, Samsung SDS, ArabNet Dubai & Riyadh, Internet Summit, JCK Las Vegas, Customer Service Experience, Razorfish Tech Summit, Location & Context World, Internet of Things World, K-Global Startup, and more. Scott is the co-author of Internet of Things and Data Analytics Handbook, an academic publication by John Wiley and Sons and The Advances in Information Security, Privacy, & Ethics (AISPE) Book Series: Managing Security Issues and the Hidden Dangers of Wearable Technologies, an academic publication by IGI Global.
Book Scott Amyx to learn how to systematically and consistently create profound innovation. Break through traditional thinking. Inspire and challenge your audience. Scott delivers actionable insights in an energizing, experiential and engaging manner that creates an environment for real learning and lasting change. His impactful keynote speeches are practical and applicable on the most pressing business challenges of today.
Scott is an expert in innovation that integrates exponential technologies and out-of-the-box thinking and methodologies to create breakthrough new innovations for organizations. In his most recent Forbes column, he discussed the use of crowdsourcing and AI with research-based analogical innovation that can systematically and consistently generate profoundly new-to-the-world innovations that have 10x growth potential.
Scott is the author of Strive: How Doing the Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success, which has been endorsed by Tony Robbins, Forbes, Singularity University, Tribeca Film Festival, and other global influencers.
Scott’s feature Wiley book Strive is available for order. Find out how doing the things most uncomfortable leads to success. Pioneering thought leader Scott Amyx shows anyone striving to succeed, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are, that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but doing the things uncomfortable he calls “strive”. Drawing on his own powerful story of an impoverished immigrant frequently told that he would mount to nothing, Amyx, now a celebrated venture capitalist and futurist, describes his meteoric rise from obscurity to prominence, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not intellect, opportunities or even network but pursuing personal change that’s uncomfortable. In this book, Scott takes readers into his defining life moments and stories from some of the most unlikely individuals who persevered through change to become outrageously successful. He also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in high performance. Finally, he shares what he’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from corporate CEOs, unicorn startup entrepreneurs to global policy leaders. Strive shows how you can shape your life and your career, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of delightful surprise.
Scott’s second feature book The Human Race: How Humans Can Survive in the Robotic Age is scheduled to come out next year. Scott explores the imminent net job loss from artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on income inequality and rise in populism and nationalism that are sweeping across the globe. He explores the advantages and disadvantages of basic universal income. Scott emphasizes the need to pursue job training and labor force development in human to human services that leverage our ability to empathize with the human condition. The empathy business models and services will become the bedrock of post Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Scott has over 20 years of large-scale strategy and implementation experience, managing double digit million dollar projects across multiple verticals. In his last corporate position as VP of Product Management, Scott helped the company be acquired by a Fortune 500 publicly traded company. Scott has also started numerous startups and successfully sold a company.
Scott has a master’s degree in applied microeconomics/ public policy from the University of Chicago. Scott was a national Sloan Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University.
Scott Amyx, expert on wearables and the Internet of Things, reveals the exciting, sometimes surprising and liberating effects of wearable technology. He explains to his audience, “With the expected projection of IoT (Internet of Things) sensors and wearables we can anticipate that people like yourselves and other executives and entrepreneurs will question the current paradigm; they have to."
Looking into a future that has radically different implications for commerce, personal communication and security, Scott tells us, “Researchers are going to continue to explore approaches that either r
Scott is a vanguard leader in how wearables, IoT (internet of things) and other new technologies will impact marketing, mobile, healthcare, design and overall business strategy. The program titles and descriptions below are just a sample of what Scott can address in his customized program for your audience.
Strive: How Doing the Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success
Find out how doing the things most uncomfortable leads to success. Pioneering thought leader Scott Amyx shows anyone striving to succeed, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are, that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but doing the things uncomfortable he calls “strive”.
Drawing on his own powerful story of an impoverished immigrant frequently told that he would mount to nothing, Amyx, now a celebrated venture capitalist and futurist, describes his meteoric rise from obscurity to prominence, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not intellect, opportunities or even network but pursuing personal change that’s uncomfortable. In this book, Scott takes readers into his defining life moments and stories from some of the most unlikely individuals who persevered through change to become outrageously successful. He also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in high performance.
Finally, he shares what he’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from corporate CEOs, unicorn startup entrepreneurs to global policy leaders. Strive shows how you can shape your life and your career, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of delightful surprise.
The Human Race: How Humans Can Survive in the Robotic Age
Scott’s second feature book The Human Race: How Humans Can Survive in the Robotic Age is scheduled to come out next year. Scott explores the imminent net job loss from artificial intelligence, robotics and the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on income inequality and rise in populism and nationalism that are sweeping across the globe.
AI-driven cyber-physical automation is expected to displace 50% to 80% of the human workforce by 2030. As the pace of convergence of exponential technologies reach near vertical slope, the trend of human displacement is unstoppable. What will be the role of humans?
For the structurally unemployed and underemployed, it will be bleak future with limited options. Only those with highly specialized PhDs in fields that create, train and maintain AI, robotic and advanced scientific and technical systems may have a place in the world of hyper-automation. Contrary to popular belief that only predictable physical work is automatable, as narrow AI continues to master new niches, it will amass a superset of capabilities that will not only replace tasks but holistic job functions. There is no senior executive, policymaker or subject matter expert that will be safe.
Scott explores the limitations of universal basic income and taxing robots. Instead, he proposes a vastly different, out-of-the-box solution called the Human Currency. It’s a global economy and a cryptocurrency based on human-to-human empathy services. Moreover, it has the resiliency and sustainability built into the system to ensure the viability of the human race for centuries to come.
Scott emphasizes the need to pursue job training and labor force development in human-to-human services that leverage our ability to empathize with the human condition. The empathy business models and services will become the bedrock of post Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Are You Ready for Disruption?
How do you turn disruption Into innovation? In PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey, 62% expressed concern about the impact of disruption in their industry. Disruption is coming from all direction — from the Internet of Things, blockchain cryptography, AI/ machine learning, data analytics, decentralized computing to changes in consumer behavior.
According to an Accenture study of 1,000 large enterprises, big companies struggle with innovation. The biggest barrier is not a lack of vision but because, by definition, big companies are mature. Organizational structures and processes are in place to guide the company towards efficiency. Seasoned managers steer their employees from pursuing the art of discovery and towards engaging in the science of delivery. Employees are taught to seek efficiencies, leverage existing assets, and listen to their best customers. Such practices and policies ensure that executives can consistently deliver positive earnings to Wall Street, but they also minimize the types and scale of innovation that can be pursued successfully within an organization. No company ever created transformational growth by doing what they do a tiny bit better and a tiny bit cheaper.
The biggest barrier is not a lack of vision but because, by definition, big companies are mature. Organizational structures and processes are in place to guide the company towards efficiency. Seasoned managers steer their employees from pursuing the art of discovery and towards engaging in the science of delivery. Employees are taught to seek efficiencies, leverage existing assets, and listen to their best customers. Such practices and policies ensure that executives can consistently deliver positive earnings to Wall Street, but they also minimize the types and scale of innovation that can be pursued successfully within an organization. No company ever created transformational growth by doing what they do a tiny bit better and a tiny bit cheaper.
Exponential Disruption: Is Your Organization Ready for the Era of Human-Machine Innovation?
Disruption is a great term, as long as it’s being applied to your competitors and not your firm. Exponential technologies are creating disruption. The convergence of exponential technologies is expected to disrupt almost every sector and business. Changing trends are forcing leaders to take a hard look at their business models and core competencies. New entrants are threatening to displace “cash cows” and prominent brands. How is your company positioned to take advantage of the multi-billion dollar opportunity that beckons? Or is your business at risk from the advances in technology? If your company is not embracing technological and business model changes, it may be in danger of becoming obsolete.
The Future of Innovation & Jobs
The new marketplace for industries like manufacturing, energy, gas and oil, and construction is a far cry from that in decades past. The perfect storm of problems has been brewing, as novel challenges cut into revenue and force corporations to scramble to find fresh opportunities. Obstacles to growth come in many forms. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that there has been a gradual slide in worker productivity, not over just the last few quarters, but over the last decade. However, just as some industries are struggling, there is little doubt that the tech sector is going strong—and that it is shaking up other verticals to create value and opportunities for expansion and growth. While it is not likely that a single solution can bring about significant change in the industrial sector, the appropriate application of advanced technologies, data analytics, machine learning and robotics can result in a greater optimization of business workflows and processes, enhanced safety, improved research and development, and the creation of new revenue streams. The silver lining is that innovation also ushers in new types of jobs that didn’t exist before. Innovation coupled with continuous lifetime learning and retraining creates a flexible and adaptable labor force.
How to Consistently Think Outside-of-the-Box for 10x Growth
Your boss tells you to create the next multi-million dollar blockbuster product. After all, you are the expert. Yet, no matter how much your team tries to think outside-of-the-box, your innovation iterations can’t seem to break through the legacy product. Sure it has better bells and whistles but at the end of the day, it’s still the same widget with a new name.
Scott shares that companies can systematically achieve better innovation outcomes by utilizing a combination of crowdsourcing and AI computation to create serendipity. Great ideas don’t have to occur once in a blue moon; it can happen consistently. Scott asserts that great ideas are inspired from other domains. Using a proven research-based methodology, Scott helps your organization to solve highly complex product development and innovation projects by utilizing the symbiosis of human-machine innovation.
Why Innovation Benefits from Dissent
How are decisions made in your organization? We like to believe that we make optimal decisions based on group consensus. According to research, even the best orchestrated consensus thinking is less creativity than the sum of their members. By definition, consensus is a general agreement among members of a group. In order to reach consensus, there are trade-offs. We start out with a complex problem with many dimensions, much like a heptagon with 100 sides. As concessions are made, the once jagged polygon smooths out to a simple rounded polygon with less sides. What we get is something not dissimilar from what others have already come up with, including our competitors. We fail to achieve a breakthrough.
Scott shares that in order to produce superior decision-making, organizations must embrace authentic dissenting viewpoints. Based on research, Scott indicates that when a team member shares a dissenting viewpoint, the creativity of the group increases. Dissent stimulates thought that is divergent and leads to greater innovation and creativity. It improves the quality of decision-making. We become more independent thinkers and, more importantly, we think divergently.
Why Innovation Shouldn’t Start with Business Requirements
There is an exciting new project kicking off at your work. So naturally, you start with requirements gathering. You hold a series of requirements gathering working sessions with stakeholders and users. The questions are generally oriented towards “what do you want?” However, this is highly problematic, especially if this is a new product or service. Matter of fact, asking your target customers what they want might even lead to disastrous results.
Scott presents the concepts of benefit-oriented and emotion-oriented requirements methodologies that will not only sharpen your requirements process but produce a profoundly innovative solution that will be lauded and loved by your customers. A benefits-oriented approach summarizes the greatest user needs to the highest abstraction level. It forces us to lift our eyes up from granularity of feature set to see the big picture. An emotion-oriented requirements approach increases user adoption, engagement and ultimate success of a new product or service by focusing on the underlying human emotional goals.
How AI is Transforming Retail & Financial Services
Scott Amyx walks the audience through the lens of a customer journey as s/he interacts with retail and financial services powered by AI. From chatbots to human like digital assistants (AVA), Outernets’ computer vision technology that turns any windows and surfaces into interactive experiences, Endor’s social physics platform that applies AI predictive data analytics to human behavior, fraud prevention powered by AI to Digits that converts credit cards and debit cards into cryptocurrency cards for purchases, the AI evolution is just beginning.
How to Transform a Nation
How to build a Fourth Industrial Revolution-driven nation to spur sustainable economic growth, to build new industries, to create jobs, and to raise the human capital of local citizens.
The World Economic Forum’s survey gives us hints on when the future will have arrived. When we have robotic pharmacists, when our clothes are Internet connected to when AI is seating on the Board of Directors. These disruptions cannot be stopped. It represents rapid and unstoppable evolution in the human innovation curve. With this massive automation and intelligence, many will lose their jobs — a net 7% of U.S. jobs by 2025.
So how can a nation instead of being disrupted become the disruptor?
Scott Amyx shares a framework for transforming a nation. In his presentation, Scott shares the role of futurism, R&D, experimentation, investment, implementation, and knowledge transfer in the transformation of a nation.
SPEAKING.COM: What do you want people to learn/take away from your presentations?
AMYX: Actionable insights, methodologies, frameworks and/or case studies to practically apply to their firms and job functions. People need cutting-edge research, technologies, and actionable objectives, but they don’t have the time or resources to invest in this kind of work. I take my material very seriously to ensure that the audience receives fresh, novel insights that they cannot readily access through other sources.
SPEAKING.COM: What kind of special prep work do you do prior to an event? How do you prepare for your speaking engagements?
AMYX: I easily spend over 80 hours (on average) preparing for a speaking engagement. I start 2 – 3 weeks in advance of a speaking engagement to ensure that I am fully prepared. I typically follow a clearly defined set of steps:
1. Research. 2. Draft the speech. 3. Create a PPT presentation. 4. Revise/edit the speech and presentation, including the case studies, humor, and personal stories. 5. Memorize the speech. 6. Practice the presentation. 7. Test a portion of the presentation at Toastmasters. 8. Refine the presentation.
SPEAKING.COM: Have you had any particularly memorable speaking engagements / unusual situations arise while on the road?
AMYX: Most events go without a hitch, but being agile and remaining calm are key to handling unexpected events. Murphy’s Law is always in effect—you can’t avoid technical hiccups or the occasional enthusiastic audience member who asks questions in the middle of the presentation. I appreciate true audience engagement, so I recognize the speaker, thank them, joke with them, and then identify their need so it can be addressed after the presentation. In the end, we all have a great time.
SPEAKING.COM: What types of audiences would most benefit from your message?
AMYX: My work targets decision-makers, visionaries, and managers who would like to understand how the technology landscape is changing and how it will impact their industries, firms, and careers.
SPEAKING.COM: Which of your keynote speaking topics are your favorites and why?
AMYX: Wearables and the Internet of Things are the most exciting, since their implications are not always obvious, but are transformational on every level. Teaching, empowering, and equipping an audience to prepare for the rising tsunami of change is exhilarating and motivating.
SPEAKING.COM: What inspired you to start doing speaking engagements?
AMYX: My writing on WIRED struck a chord with readers and conference organizers, and I was suddenly getting invited all over the world to speak on wearables and the Internet of Things. My speaking engagements were initially spread by word-of-mouth from audience members, and that has led to increased opportunities to share the most novel technologies and ideas from the world of wearables and the IoT.
SPEAKING.COM: How much do case studies, personal stories and/or humor factor into your keynote speech content?
AMYX: These key aspects of audience engagement are the lifeblood of my work. After painstakingly working out the technical portion of my speech and presentation, I carefully weave in humor, personal stories, and case studies to better connect with and inform the audience. All of these elements are vital to enhance adult learning and make for an effective, memorable speech.
SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the successes you’ve helped clients achieve?
AMYX: We partner with our clients to not only push the envelope, but to lead the market in their respective industries. We work with blue chip companies and startups in fashion, apparel, home textiles, jewelry, consumer electronics, sports performance, athletic equipment, retail, advertising, financial services, and manufacturing.
We are engaged at every level, helping companies to experiment, prototype, pilot products with customers, and launch new products and services by leveraging emerging technologies. Most of our work is under NDA, but our approach is global.
The KPIs that we have helped our clients attain include increases in top-line growth, higher same-store sales, new product launches, enhanced global reach and distribution, stronger brand engagement and loyalty, and new advanced data analytics to measure campaign and marketing effectiveness.
“Strive. Pushing through our limits, doing the hard thing, and focusing on constant and never-ending growth and improvement is the ticket to impact and fulfillment!” – Tony Robbins, World-Renowned Business Leader and Peak Performance Strategist, Best-Selling Author of Unshakeable, Money Master the Game, Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within
“We all know or have read stories of people who seem to rise from the ashes or come out of nowhere to achieve success. Strive points out that most of these individuals were not extraordinary by nature but extraordinary by action.” – Forbes
“The true alchemy of Strive is that it combines, great storytelling, great anecdotes, and some pretty profound insights. No question Scott Amyx’s key takeaway is to get comfortable being uncomfortable… or perhaps find yourself a different journey. Learning to live perpetually outside your comfort zone is perhaps a condition precedent for success — the special sauce for cooking up ideas that will change the world.” – Tribeca Film Festival
“Strive teaches us to embrace discomfort and achieve success in this exponentially changing world.” – Singularity University
“Scott’s presentation at NED 2018 was very refreshing, filled with interesting best practices from around the world and content tailored specifically for our country. We appreciated that he researched deeply into our culture, economics, politics and digital maturity to help our audience understand where we as a nation stand in transformation. His speech rallied the audience to keep moving forward, to continuously improve and to understand how Peru can lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution and to combat climate change.” – NED/ Seminarium Team
“Scott is a very insightful and engaging speaker! When we invited him to Colombia he gave us a very tailored presentation about the importance of the Internet of Things (IoT) for building smart cities, which was a very avant-garde experience for the audience. Also, when we took him to Costa Rica, Scott gave the audience an energetic introduction to the IoT, which was very much aligned with what our client needed.” – Esteban Barrera, Speakers Consultant, Thinking Heads
“Scott spoke at our conference on localization that had a theme of Internet of Things. He brought a lot of information, enlightening stories and eye-opening facts to our audience. He showed an incredible in-depth topic knowledge, yet the way he presented the information made all that data easy to understand and digest. Scott’s friendly style both on and off the stage made us all comfortable and ready to learn more. I highly recommend him as a speaker.” – Donna Parrish, Publisher, MultiLingual
“It was great working with Scott Amyx at this years’ IoT World and IoT Security shows where he provided some great insight into IoT technologies, the Wearables markets; and securing IoT networks through managed PKI Certificates! His presentations were engaging and comprehensive and we look forward to continuing to work with Scott moving forward.” – Dominie Roberts, Event Director at Informa
“Scott has his finger on the pulse of IoT and Wearables. He’s a definitive source of knowledge, who ties together all of the activity occurring in this nascent sector. Highly recommended.” – Tony Rovello, Principal Product Manager, Alexa at Amazon
“Scott Amyx was a delight to work with leading up to, during and after Wearables TechCon. He went above and beyond just speaking at his session Affective Computing and Sentiment Analysis in Wearables. He graciously volunteered to be a panelist on “Visions: The Future of Augmented Reality Devices” and even offered to help promote the show on Examiner. With all the little extras, combined with fantastic comments on his presentation from feedback collected at the show, I would be thrilled to work with him again on future shows.” – Katie Flash, Conference Chair and Content Director of InterDrone at Emerald Expositions
“As a conference organizer, we look for people who are on the forefront of industry. When we started out on a journey to put together the Wearables + Things conference, we immediately found Scott Amyx through his writings at Wired Magazine. Scott is not only willing to dig in and do his homework on an industry, he’s excellent at articulating the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. And he’s equally effective in writing and in person. We also asked Scott for recommendations about others who should be involved and he was more than willing to provide input and introductions. Scott is not only smart on the Mobile, Wearables and IoT industries, he’s enjoyable to be around. I highly recommend getting Scott involved in your events or projects as a reliable resource to improve outcomes.” – Pete Erickson, Founder, CEO of Modev. Producer of Spinnaker Summit, VOICE, Aspen Software Leadership Summit, Machinery.AI, EXOLeaders
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Strive
Scott’s feature Wiley book Strive is scheduled to come out in late 2017/ early 2018. Find out how doing the things most uncomfortable leads to success. Pioneering thought leader Scott Amyx shows anyone striving to succeed, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are, that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but doing the things uncomfortable he calls “strive”.
Finally, he shares what he’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from corporate CEOs, unicorn startup entrepreneurs to global policy leaders. Strive shows how you can shape your life and your career, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of delightful surprise. The Human Race: How Humans Can Survive in the Robotic Age
Scott’s second feature book The Human Race: How Humans Can Survive in the Robotic Age is scheduled to come out in 2018. Scott explores the imminent net job loss from artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on income inequality and rise in populism and nationalism that are sweeping across the globe. He explores the advantages and disadvantages of basic universal income.
Scott emphasizes the need to pursue job training and labor force development in human to human services that leverage our ability to empathize with the human condition. The empathy business models and services will become the bedrock of post Fourth Industrial Revolution.
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