Strategic Futurist, Convener, Keynote Speaker

Nancy Giordano

Described as endlessly optimistic, Nancy is a strategic futurist with a drive to help enterprise organizations and visionary leaders transform to meet the escalating expectations ahead. Recognized as one of the world’s top female futurists, she has spent her career building, shaping and evolving a portfolio of $50 billion worth of major global brands.  With growing conviction of what will (and needs to) shift, executives value her unique abilities to sense and synthesize the terrain ahead and to guide those ready to build more relevant and sustainable solutions. 

Nancy built a formidable career at several of the most influential ad agencies in NY, Chicago, and LA and for more than a decade has been the Founder/CEO of Play Big Inc., a strategic inspiration company, applying her broad understanding of the intense cultural and technological shifts we’re facing. Her extensive knowledge of the drivers shifting our future (and shaping business) have guided transformation projects with The Coca Cola Company, Brinker International, Sprint, Nestle, Acumen, Energizer, Mercedes Benz and many other Fortune 500 companies. Her work has made her an increasingly influential voice around the world, both as a keynote speaker and at C-level strategy exchanges, in wide range of industries including technology, entertainment, travel, food, retail, consumer products, homebuilding, talent, B2B services and much more. 

Her current work dives deeply into the emerging intersection of tech, business and society. She recently designed the talent and culture framework for an artificial intelligence start-up and produced Gigaom Change, a c-suite summit diving into the seven most disruptive technologies for enterprise. Putting her concepts into practice, Nancy is currently a board member for GMDC, a non-profit trade organization determined to keep member retailers relevant and thriving in the years ahead, is working with a leading fintech/martech provider to ensure the survival of community banks and credit unions nationwide and is helping usher in the world of distributed applications and computing by launching emergent cryptographic technologies Holochain + Holo.   

She has been ranked as one of the World’s Top Female Futurists (research by Ross Dawson) and was voted 7th Woman of Influence on the Future of Leadership list (Women Speakers Association). She was the first global TEDx licensee and currently leads a youth-led team to produce one of the globe’s largest TEDx events for teens, hosting over 600 teens annually. Nancy lives in Austin with her three fast growing, curly haired teens.