Natalie Nixon

Global authority on applied creativity for exponential business growth and consistent innovation. Award-winning author. Ranked as 1 of the Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World by Real Leaders.

Dr. Natalie Nixon is the Creativity Whisperer to the C-Suite, helping leaders achieve transformative business results by applying wonder, rigor and foresight. As CEO & Creativity Strategist at Figure 8 Thinking, Natalie is a highly sought after global keynote speaker & advisor, author of the award winning “The Creativity Leap” and editor of “Strategic Design Thinking”. Real Leaders named Natalie one of the “Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World” and she’s been featured in Forbes, INC and Fast Company. She is also one of the only few people on the Thinkers50 radar for 2024. As a magnetic keynote speaker, Natalie shares why creativity is not a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ and leaves audiences with practical tactics to upgrade their organizational and individual creative capacity in the midst of ubiquitous technology, hybrid work environments – always with an eye on the future of work.  She received her BA from Vassar College and her PhD from the University of Westminster.

  • Natalie Nixon Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type

    Please Inquire

  • Languages Spoken

    English

  • Travels From

    Pennsylvania, USA

  • Natalie Nixon Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type

    Please Inquire

  • Languages Spoken

    English

  • Travels From

    Pennsylvania, USA

Suggested Keynote Speaker Programs

AI IS YOUR CO-CREATOR

By the end of this keynote, audience members will walk away with the confidence to view AI as their collaborator and co-creator, as well as have a healthy critical assessment of the technology – all with the goal to amplify what makes us uniquely human.

4 CREATIVITY LEAPS YOU MUST MAKE FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK

This talk explores the opportunities for technology to amplify what is uniquely human vs humans getting overwhelmed by the technology. This talk takes the audience through 4 pivotal creativity leaps we must make to be prepared for the future of work.

ADAPT OR DISRUPT: CREATIVITY'S BUSINESS ROI

Creativity is the engine for innovation. This talk builds the business case for creativity and that the best leaders are creative to their core- no matter the sector. At the end of this talk, audience members will be equipped with a simple and unique method to apply creativity...

Creativity is the engine for innovation. This talk builds the business case for creativity and that the best leaders are creative to their core- no matter the sector. At the end of this talk, audience members will be equipped with a simple and unique method to apply creativity as well as tips to regularly exercise creativity for strategic outcomes and business impact with their teams and clients.

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SOFT SKILLS ARE HARD CORE

Just as we have IQ and EQ, we also have a CQ- or a creativity quotient. This talk explores the links between creativity and leadership and how leaders with a high CQ behave, interact with stakeholders, and co-create a strategic vision.

IT'S A HYBRID WORLD AFTER ALL: MAKING INNOVATION STICK IN THE MODERN OFFICE

What exactly does “working in the office” mean in a pandemic reality world? In this talk, Natalie shares examples and tactical methods to boost critical skills in our new working world of blurred boundaries.

THE FUTURE OF WORK IS JAZZ

This talk explores how the most successful and flourishing companies will be ones that are adaptive and improvisational. Attendees will learn the connections between jazz improvisation and optimal organizational design. The talk will break down what improvisation is, and how ...

This talk explores how the most successful and flourishing companies will be ones that are adaptive and improvisational. Attendees will learn the connections between jazz improvisation and optimal organizational design. The talk will break down what improvisation is, and how to improvise more at work. It will also explain what foresight is and how any team can build this competency for more relevant strategic planning.

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About Keynote Speaker Natalie Nixon

Natalie Nixon, PhD is “the creativity whisperer for the C-Suite”. She is a creativity strategist who advises leaders on achieving transformative business results by applying wonder & rigor. She is a highly sought after global keynote speaker, valued for her accessible expertise on creativity, the future of work and innovation.

Natalie was selected for Real Leaders’ “Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World for 2022” list; and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company and INC. She is the author of the award-winning The Creativity Leap-an honoree in the creativity category of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards. Her firm, Figure 8 Thinking, was named among the top 20 women-led innovation firms in 2021 by Core 77. Clients have included Microsoft, Salesforce, Comcast, Citrix, Morrison & Foerster, Living Cities, Vayner Media and Bloomberg.

A hybrid thinker, Natalie consistently applies her background in cultural anthropology, fashion, design thinking and dance. She is an early-stage investor at two social impact ventures, valued for her ability to work at the intersection of commercial value and stake holder equity.

Natalie is a trustee of the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt Design Museum; Vassar College; and Leadership+Design. She has lived in Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Israel, and Sri Lanka and is proficient in Portuguese and Spanish. She is certified as aForesight Practitioner by the Institute for the Future. She received her BA (honors) from Vassar College, and her PhD from the University of Westminster in London.

When she’s not dancing up a storm in hip-hop class, Natalie is fine-tuning her salsa, foxtrot and tango on the ballroom floor. She lives in her hometown of Philadelphia with her husband, John Nixon, and is the proud stepmother of Sydney.

Testimonials

Natalie was awesome and very easy to work with.  We couldn’t be happier!

Rick Britton

Blue Cross Chicago

Natalie is a dynamic and engaging speaker who makes design thinking principles accessible!

Rosalyn McPherson

President, The Roz Group

Natalie is a superb facilitator! She is a great listener and helps your group to land on new insights at the end of a workshop.

Grace Killelea

President, Half the Sky

 Natalie led a fantastic session with my consumer insights, sensory, and analytics teams! We focused on storytelling with data, using unique tools to simplify complex data for various audiences. In advance of the session, she took the time to build customized, relevant activities with me… and during the session she passionately brought to life new ways of thinking that could easily be applied. She was a pleasure to work with, AND I received a ton of great feedback from the team after the session.

Success is when in the days immediately following, more than a few team members came to me excitedly to show new ways that they were packaging data and influencing their teams!

Risa Schwartz

Consumer Insights, Sensory, and Analytics Lead at Tyson Foods

We are always looking for a rockstar keynote speaker to inspire and inform…Dr. Natalie Nixon had us all on the edge of our seats for her entire presentation! …My attendees absolutely loved her work across a multidisciplinary set of insights and anecdotes…punctuated with references to both her research and to hyper-relevant themes.

It was inspiring, but not cliche.
It was fun, but not trite.
It was academic, but not condescending.
It was informative, but not a lecture.

Nigel Prentice

Program Director, IBM Design

Media

Article

Jan 9, 2019

How You Can Be More Creative in Your Life

Have you ever wondered how creativity works? Or how you could be more creative in your own life or business?...

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Article

Apr 4, 2018

Treat Your Company Like a Jazz Song and Watch Your Team Jam

What do jazz music and your company’s structure have in common? If you said nothing you have a lot of...

Read More

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