the organisations that will win aren't the ones with the best answers. they're the ones asking better questions.
Ben is one of the world's leading voices on curiosity as a competitive edge, and a globally ranked futurist whose work across industries has led him to a single consistent finding: the organisations and people that stay ahead aren't the ones with all the answers or the best data.
They're the ones with the curiosity to ask what no one else is asking.
trusted by leaders at.
What clients say
"Ben has a rare ability to make the complex feel urgent and the future feel navigable. We brought him in for our global leadership summit, and he had 600 senior leaders leaning in from the first minute. Months later, the thinking he introduced is still shaping how our executive team thinks about strategy.
Chief People Officer · Global financial services organisation
why the future can't wait
most organisations know the future is changing. but few are actually ready for it.
We're navigating a world that looks nothing like the one we were trained for. AI is reshaping entire industries. Generational expectations are colliding. Trust is fragmenting. Climate is repricing risk. Customers are less loyal. And the pace isn't slowing.
But when you peel back the covers and look inside most organisations, the focus is still on what is directly in front of them. They're thinking short-term and their decisions are reactive, managing this month's crisis instead of the next big opportunity.
the problem isn't a lack of information. it's that we aren't asking the right questions.
Organisations have more data, more reports, and more trend briefings than ever before. And still, most are caught off guard. Not because the signals weren't there, but because no one was curious enough to look for them, or brave enough to ask what they meant.
Being busy and being ready for the future are not the same thing.
curiosity isn't a personality trait. it's your competitive edge.
After working with hundreds of organisations and industries as a globally ranked futurist, Ben kept seeing the same pattern: the organisations that consistently stayed ahead weren't the ones with the biggest strategy teams or the best forecasts. They were the ones with a genuine culture of curiosity. Teams who sought out uncomfortable signals. And organisations who were willing to challenge their own assumptions before the market did it for them.
That pattern is what led Ben to develop the Future-Fit Curiosity Framework. The Framework, which underpins his upcoming book (The Art of Not Knowing: Why curiosity didn't kill the cat), identifies five distinct types of curiosity and outlines how each one drives better decisions, stronger teams, and more resilient organisations.
It's not about being right. It's about being ready. And curiosity is how you get there.
Showreel
see ben in action.
What clients say
"We spent years reacting. Ben changed that. He cut through the noise, brought genuine clarity to where we were heading, and gave our team the confidence to lead rather than follow. It's a big reason why we've seen a real big uptick in revenue and employee engagement, and why we keep getting him back.
Vice President · Global technology company
About
about dr ben hamer.
Ben is the founder of ThinkerTank and one of the world's most recognised futurists. He is ranked in the Global Gurus World's Top 30 Futurist Professionals list and holds the number one position for the Future of Work in the Asia-Pacific.
His career has been built on a single conviction: that the most future-fit organisations are the ones that stay curious. Curious about what's changing, curious about what their people and customers actually need, and curious enough to question the assumptions that everyone else takes for granted.
He brings international experience from the likes of the World Economic Forum and Yale University, couched in a deep understanding of the Australian and Asia-Pacific context, which included as Head of Future of Work for PwC.
Ben holds a doctorate and brings serious research rigour to everything he delivers. But what sets him apart is his ability to translate that rigour into plain language that resonates in boardrooms, strategy sessions, and keynotes alike. He's known for asking the questions others avoid, for making complex shifts feel understandable, and for delivering insight that's practical and grounded, rather than academic or abstract.
Keynote topics
what ben speaks about.
Each keynote is anchored to one of the five types of curiosity in the Future-Fit Curiosity Framework, and mapped to a real business problem. Whether the topic is AI, workforce strategy, customer behaviour, innovation, or futures thinking, the underlying question is always the same: what kind of curiosity does this situation demand, and how do we build it?
Every session is tailored to your industry, your audience, and the specific challenges in the room. Full abstracts, content breakdowns, and downloadable one-pagers for each talk are available on the Resources page.
The keynote that makes the case for curiosity as the most important capability for the future. It explores why most people and organisations unintentionally suppress it, and more importantly, how to build it at every level. This session introduces the full Future-Fit Curiosity Framework and gives every room practical tools to start building curiosity immediately.
Full abstract →This is the flagship futures thinking keynote, drawing directly on ThinkerTank's trend intelligence. The session explores the forces reshaping business, work, and society, reading the signals that sit outside your usual line of sight, connecting dots across domains, and building the organisational muscle of asking 'what if?' before everyone else does. The content is updated for every engagement to reflect your audience and what is trending right now, not what was relevant six months ago.
Full abstract →The quality of your decisions is determined by the questions you ask. But most organisations are far better at answering than asking. This keynote is about why we jump to solutions too quickly, how to generate and reframe questions to get to better outcomes, and why being a problem seeker matters more than being a problem solver. It's practical, interactive, and immediately applicable.
Full abstract →You can't serve people you don't understand. This keynote challenges the assumptions organisations make about their customers, replaces stereotypes with evidence, and explores what's actually driving expectations, behaviour, and trust. It's about building the empathy and curiosity to understand your customers as they are now and what they're becoming, not as you assume them to be.
Full abstract →This keynote takes the same People Curiosity lens but applied to your workforce. It unpacks what's really driving employee expectations across generations, why most organisations are designing for the workforce they had rather than the one they need, and how to build a culture where people want to stay, contribute, and grow. It's insightful but also a bit of fun, challenging generational stereotypes and replaces them with evidence.
Full abstract →The most powerful solutions come from refusing to accept the obvious framing of the problem. McDonald's wanted more customers, so they built playgrounds. Thailand wanted more tourists, so they taught the world to cook Thai food. Michelin wanted to sell more tyres, so they created a restaurant guide that made people drive further. This keynote is about questioning assumptions, thinking like a behavioural scientist, and finding solutions your competitors would not ordinarily consider as you embrace the art of reimagination.
Full abstract →Advisory
ben doesn't just talk about the future. he advises the organisations shaping it.
As founder and Chief Futurist of ThinkerTank, a leading trend intelligence agency, Ben delivers tailored futures thinking to some of the world's most recognised organisations, year-round. Beyond delivering keynotes, ThinkerTank undertake bespoke research, strategic advisory, and ongoing partnerships that connect global signals to your specific decisions, priorities, and risk profile. So, the relationship continues well beyond any single event. Because the goal isn't reliance on Ben. It's resilience in you.
This is what separates a keynote that informs from one delivered by someone who is actively doing the work, which comes with on the ground commercial acumen and insight.
Explore ThinkerTankWhy book Ben
what to expect when you book ben.
Ben's sessions are not a polished hour of trend trivia followed by applause and forgotten by the weekend. The content is rigorous, the frameworks are practical, and the provocations are real.
it's not just executive entertainment
Ben's sessions are not a polished hour of trend trivia followed by applause and forgotten by the weekend. The content is rigorous, the frameworks are practical, and the provocations are real. Organisations book Ben because their people are still talking about him and his content weeks later, and because the questions he surfaces don't stop when the room empties. That's what curiosity does: it doesn't close the conversation, it opens one that keeps going.
breadth without shallowness
Ben operates across the full landscape of trends: technology, AI, workforce, generations, customers, economics, and geopolitics. And he brings institutional rigour to all of it. A doctorate, a consultancy with real clients and real stakes, board roles, and a career in top-tier management consulting mean the breadth is genuine and the depth is real. He is not a single-lens futurist with one idea he has been pedalling for a decade.
connecting the dots
What Ben actually does that most futurists don't is show how forces intersect and collide with each other. Like AI and trust. Generations plus customer expectations. Economic pressure intersecting with workforce transformation. It's about the tapestry, not individual threads. That is the insight that lands with senior audiences and makes a session feel genuinely different to anything they have heard before.
tailored to your context
Every session begins with a detailed briefing call. Ben invests a real time understanding your industry, your audience, and the specific questions they're grappling with. He doesn't do generic off-the-shelf keynotes. Which is why clients keep coming back, frequently saying that the tailoring alone is what sets Ben apart.
substance and humour
Ben brings optimism, an evidence base, and a healthy dose of wit, because the best keynotes make you think and laugh in equal measure. He presents to rooms of five thousand as comfortably as a board of ten, and has the same effect on both: people still talking about it the next morning and feeling entertained in the process.
What event organisers say
"I've run too many events to count and had a lot of keynote speakers over the years. Most are good. Ben is different. He had 900 people simultaneously laughing, uncomfortable, and scribbling notes, all at the same time. The week after the conference, I had delegates emailing me asking if we could bring him back. That has never happened before. It's not just that the content was good, because it was. It's that Ben makes you feel it.
Events lead · Major industry association
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