Available to book
Linda Bernardi
Challenge conventional wisdom, break free from comfort zones, and imagine the impossible with Linda Bernardi, speaker, innovation activist, and technology disruptor.
Linda Bernardi lives and breathes technology disruption and innovation. Today, technology is evolving like never before, and Linda is involved in cutting edge technologies across all sectors, such as Finance, Retail, Healthcare, High Tech, Logistics, Automotive, Consumer Goods, and all others. Her focus is to enable all enterprises to imagine, disrupt, innovate at record pace, and make the impossible become possible. She works with startups all around the globe, as well as large companies, to enable and inspire enterprises to build a culture of mindful innovation. She loves to practice the beautiful Art of Imagination – the first step towards innovation. Linda believes that the best ideas are the ‘crazy’ ideas stemming from a keen sense of unbounded imagination, and she works to unleash people’s imaginations. Over the last few years, she has focused a lot of her work on how to disrupt and innovate in today’s (possibly permanent) virtual/disconnected world and the art of Leveraging the Digital Workforce to enhance innovation in companies. Unless we mindfully and creatively adopt new ways of thinking about innovation, we will not succeed in this new world. Linda’s background is equally focused on her history as a highly successful serial entrepreneur, as well as a serial high-level executive. She is a very active technology disruptor and a passionate innovator. She helps clients imagine, develop a vision, build products, reshape, and re-imagine their future. As a well-known author in technology disruption and innovation, she reaches thousands of people each year, helping reshape companies. Today, she is embarking on her most ambitious startup – connecting the world of video gaming and music dynamically via AI and machine learning. Like many other ideas, she is told this is ‘crazy’ and impossible, and she welcomes the challenge! Linda’s academic and professional background is in data and AI. She was the founder and CEO of the very first IoT company in the world, where she helped people imagine/realise a world where everything would be connected to the internet and how this would change the world. She was told it was impossible! Her other startups have disrupted numerous areas of technology. In her role as Chief Innovation Officer at IBM, she introduced Watson to the world and enabled IBM’s Fortune 100 companies to disrupt and innovate rapidly. She was SVP and head of products at Element AI in Montreal, building AI products for enterprises. As Head of Strategy at Consensys, Linda was involved in the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency (Ethereum), especially by the financial sector. She also built the largest clinical trial software product used by all pharmaceutical companies today and large-scale satellite detection and pattern recognition systems used by Aerospace and Defense today. Linda purposefully works across all sectors, never limiting the possibilities of disruption and innovation and always practising the art of imagination. To further promote the concepts of disruption and innovation, she authored her first book, ProVoke (2011), which discussed the necessity of innovation cultures. Her second book, The Inversion Factor (2017), received the Best Business Theory Award at MIT in 2018 and high praise from the WSJ. Linda’s graduate degree is in Applied Mathematics from UCLA. She is an avid learner, a relentless innovator, and excited to be part of your disruption and innovation journey.
Topics, sessions and talks
Step into the future with this riveting keynote that redefines leadership for the Age of AI, by equipping audience members to adapt, innovate, and dance with today’s relentless pace of change. — Escape the confines of binary thinking:Merge immediate and future-focused goals to create resilient, agile strategies that promise sustainable success — Turn disruption into opportunity – Proactively shape the future, transforming potential threats into compelling strategic advantages — Access the future today – Master five potent tools of modern leadership to navigate today’s complexities and command tomorrow’s opportunities
In the C-Agility topic, Linda Bernardi explores the rapid growth of disruption and innovation. In her book ProVoke, she emphasizes the need for humans to embrace these changes to foster capable and confident cultures. Bernardi argues that while we are currently disconnected, we share common objectives, speed, and purpose. C-Agility unites us like never before, but true success requires embracing challenges and rethinking organizational bonds. Beyond virtual connections, meaningful engagement is essential to sustain positive disruption and innovation. Attendees will learn how to create dynamic, innovative cultures that thrive in today's fast-paced environment.
Disruption is the key ingredient for innovation. Without disruption there is no innovation. Innovation is no longer an option. Across the board, all industries, are faced with immediate and meaningful innovation requirements, in order to exceed the expectations of their clients, to be ahead of competition and in order to thrive. In this keynote, Linda will explore the essential ingredients of disruption, blockers and success factors, key technologies to consider and how to meaningfully invert one’s business: to build products and service not only meet client needs (across industries) but to enhance their experiences. Linda will explore what key obstacles, tactics for impactful disruption and how to lead in the INVERSION game. She will be referencing my two books, first one ProVoke (regarding Disruption) and second book The Inversion Factor (regarding Inversion) and decades of experience and current ongoing projects, directly dealing with disruption.
Linda Bernardi takes a deep-dive into the emergence of today’s consumer-driven “Know-Me” economy and the trends surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI), The Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and crypto technologies. She raises her audience’s comfort level with digital disruption and sparks optimism in the idea of futureproofing your business. Her focus is to engage you in a positive way with these transformational technologies. As author of the Amazon best-seller, The Inversion Factor: How to Thrive in the IoT Economy, Linda shares with audiences how to abandon the ‘product-first’ model and capitalise on a ‘customer-need’ model, as Netflix and many others have done. Linda’s talks are a tour de force for audiences ranging from healthcare, retail, and insurance to financial, defense, and manufacturing. Linda’s enthusiasm will inspire your audience with optimism, empowering your organisation to futureproof your business in an increasingly disruptive, hyper-connected world.
The healthcare industry has traditionally resisted technological change, but AI, blockchain, and other innovations are now revolutionizing it. Linda Bernardi, former Chief Innovation Officer at IBM and Watson Co-Lead, explores how technologies like intelligent robotics, personalized medicine, and IoT-enabled services are transforming research, patient data, clinical trials, and drug approval. She emphasizes the need for hospitals to align with the consumer-driven "Know Me" economy, beyond just patient portals. Linda's expertise and enthusiasm will inspire attendees to embrace disruption and futureproof their businesses as these technologies reshape healthcare. Attendees will learn how to leverage disruptive innovation effectively.
Linda brings a wealth of experience as a serial entrepreneur and high-level executive, with a proven track record in leading groundbreaking innovations across multiple sectors. Her insights into leveraging digital transformation and fostering a culture of mindful innovation can empower your team to think creatively and stay ahead in today's fast-paced world. Booking Linda as a speaker will not only inspire your team with 'crazy' yet feasible ideas but also equip them with practical strategies to turn imagination into impactful innovation.
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frequently asked questions
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Linda Bernardi draws on two published books — ProVoke and The Inversion Factor — alongside decades of hands-on experience across sectors to frame her keynotes, referencing her own startup history and executive roles at IBM and Consensys as case material for the disruption and innovation principles she presents.
Linda Bernardi speaks on AI and big data in business strategy, organisational disruption and innovation culture, and connected virtual workforces in the age of digital transformation. Her headline credential is founding the world's first IoT company and serving as Chief Innovation Officer at IBM, where she introduced Watson to Fortune 100 companies; her second book, The Inversion Factor, received the Best Business Theory Award at MIT in 2018.
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