Gerd Leonhard

The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd ‘one of the leading Media Futurists in the World’. Co-author of the influential book The Future of Music (2005, Berklee Press), author of Music2.0 (2008), The End of Control (2007) and The Future of Content (2011), Gerd’s background is in music; in 1985 he won the Quincy Jones Award and subsequently graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music (1987). Since 2002, following a decade as digital media entrepreneur and start-up CEO, Gerd speaks at conferences and seminars around the globe on the Future of Media, Content, Technology, Business, Advertising, Telecom, Communications and Culture. Since 2011, Gerd’s area of expertise also includes important “green” topics.

Gerd’s keynotes, presentations and think-tanks are renowned for his hard-hitting and provocative yet inspiring, motivational style. With engagements in 43 countries since 2003, Gerd has addressed over 150,000 professionals, and is considered a key influencer.

His diverse client list includes Nokia, Google, Sony-BMG, Telkom Indonesia, Siemens, Kuoni, RTL, ITV, the BBC, France Telecom/Orange, Deutsche Telekom, The Financial Times, DDB, Omnicom, the European Commission, Nokia Siemens Networks and many others. Gerd is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (London). He resides in Basel, Switzerland.

Related Sessions
Tuesday 22 October 2013, 7.00pm Zunftsaal, Blue Monkey, Zunfthaus zur Schneidern. Stüssihofstatt 3 - 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

Publications

The Future of Content (The Futures Agency, 2011)

Urban hubris and the great inequality debate

"Who would choose to go to a session on free will at 10:30 on a Sunday morning? A few hundred of the most engaged, passionate and discursive participants I have encountered. As a neuroscientist on the panel I felt my science was aired and challenged in exemplary fashion. As a passionate believer in engagement I couldn’t have been more delighted."
Daniel Glaser, head, special projects, public engagement, Wellcome Trust

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