You can’t steer a parked car, so start creating the future today.
Lucinda Hartley is an award-winning technology entrepreneur and a leading expert in the social trends shaping the future of work and cities. As an urban futurist, she inspires organisations to think like entrepreneurs and plan for the disruption ahead.
Named one of Australia’s 100 Most Influential Women by the Australian Financial Review, Lucinda has spent the past decade building innovative, future-focused companies whose products are now used worldwide to improve data-driven decision-making.
Lucinda helped create the UN Sustainable Development Goals for Cities, has advised Google on city-shaping projects, and has delivered more than 100 neighbourhood improvement projects across Australia as co-founder of social enterprise CoDesign Studio. She is best known as co-founder of urban analytics company Neighbourlytics, where she pioneered world-leading technology for measuring wellbeing and urban life using big data.
As a keynote speaker, Lucinda draws on her deep experience in entrepreneurship, data, and innovation to inspire audiences to tackle complex problems facing leaders today—from technology disruption to generational shifts to the future of work. Her cut-through insights, data-rich presentations, and entertaining delivery style empower leaders to see around corners and navigate the future with confidence.
Lucinda is a regular media commentator and one of Australia’s sought-after voices on cities and social change. She has been featured regularly in ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, Qantas Magazine, Vogue Magazine, and The Age.
As an urban futurist, Lucinda advises government, business, and technology leaders on innovation strategies for smart cities, making her an invaluable resource for organisations looking to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.
Talking Points
Future Citizen: Social Trends Shaping the Way We Live
Lucinda helps leaders radically rethink their future business and gain comfort in uncertainty. This starts with understanding the future citizen and customer. In this talk, we'll unpack why we're bad at predicting the future and what your organisation needs to understand the next generation of citizens. We'll delve into data about lifestyle shifts, generational trends, and emerging impacts for your organisation, city or community. Future Citizen: Social Trends Shaping the Way We Live
Key takeaways:
● Understand key social trends driving the next generation.
● Explore the impacts of changing lifestyles on consumers and citizens.
● Gain a framework for embracing entrepreneurial thinking and adapting to change.
Future Work and Technology: Building Teams That Thrive on Change
This session offers insights into attracting talent in a competitive environment, creating work cultures that embrace generational change, flexible work modes, and digital disruption. We'll explore transformative trends reshaping the workforce and work nature, diving into data and case studies on how cities attract talent.Future Work and Technology: Building Teams That Thrive on Change
Key takeaways:
● Understand social trends driving talent attraction in a digital-first workforce.
● Learn from successful cities worldwide on talent and investment attraction.
● Gain actionable strategies to sustain thriving workplaces of the future.
Entrepreneurial Mindset: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
Learn how to think like an entrepreneur, regardless of your role or industry. This session dives into the entrepreneurial mindset, offering practical insights and tools to foster creativity, embrace risk, and drive innovation within your organisation. Explore key elements of fostering a culture of innovation. This talk isn’t theoretical, its based on Lucinda’s lived experience building teams, and backed by extensive data. Entrepreneurial Mindset: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
Key takeaways:
● Understand core principles of the entrepreneurial mindset.
● Learn from case studies of innovation in various sectors.
● Gain actionable insights and a roadmap to cultivate an innovation culture.
Social Innovation: Using an Entrepreneurial Mindset to Build Community and Create Impact
This talk explores strategies for turning creative ideas into impactful solutions, driving business success and positive social outcomes. Lucinda shares insights from her experience launching and working with social enterprises, and hard-won battles and lessons learned. Learn to leverage the entrepreneurial mindset to embed impact in your company culture, ESG strategy, and community.Social Innovation: Using an Entrepreneurial Mindset to Build Community and Create Impact
Key takeaways:
● Understand how the entrepreneurial mindset drives new social solutions.
● Learn from global case studies in community building and social enterprise.
● Gain frameworks for unlocking social innovation in your organisation.
The Future is Female: Women, Technology, and Social Change
This data-rich talk highlights trends in gender equality in technology and personal stories from Lucinda's experience as a female entrepreneur. It leverages the entrepreneurial mindset to help leaders embrace equitable approaches to sustainable development.The Future is Female: Women, Technology, and Social Change
This talk is ideal for your International Women's Day event and focuses on success stories and inspiration for change.
Key takeaways:
● Hear personal experiences of women in technology.
● Gain data-rich insights highlighting new challenges.
● Learn practical case studies and insights for actionable ideas.
Custom Talks & MC
Lucinda regularly facilitates events as an MC and can prepare custom talks. Get in touch to discuss how Lucinda can collaborate with your organisation on a custom topic or MC.Custom Talks & MC
Topics include:
● City-specific trends and insights
● Industry-specific trends and insights
● Entrepreneurial mindset and team culture
● Topics on cities, technology, and social change
Video
Lucinda Hartley | Urban Futurist & Leading Expert on the Future of Work and Living | Saxton Speakers
Lucinda shares insights drawn from a global career with the United Nations, Google, and major city-shaping projects. She explores the real-world impact of exponential change, why cities must be designed around people (not just infrastructure), and how entrepreneurial thinking can shape more resilient, connected, and future-ready communities and workplaces. Whether you’re planning a conference, leadership retreat, or innovation summit, Lucinda brings a compelling mix of strategy, storytelling and real-world solutions that challenge the status quo and inspire action.The New Living Sectors | Lucinda Hartley |The Property Congress Gold Coast 2022
Audio
Fantastic and engaging session, an interesting exercises in thinking about how we all live into the future. ... keep reading PWC - The Outside
In regard to Lucinda, we absolutely loved having her as our keynote speaker and part of the panel and Q&A discussions. Lucinda really engaged with the topic – Leading Innovation and offered her unique industry perspective during her keynote as well as part of the panel. One of our key objectives of the Women in Tech Alliance, is to provoke people to think, feel and do something differently and Lucinda’s insights, reflections and tips definitely prompted conversation and commitment to action.
Lucinda delivered an engaging, informative presentation that captivated our audience and was delivered in line with our brief.
Lucinda was fantastic, the group responded well to her insights, and she tied it back well to the audience and their business background.
Everything went really well and Lucinda was amazing. She is such a great speaker and was so inspirational for our group of teachers. The Geography teachers were buzzing all day. Saxton has also been wonderful to work with.
Lucinda is at the forefront of the global urbanism movement, challenging traditional approaches to planning and designing cities.
Lucinda's presentation engaged the audience with honesty, beauty and simplicity. She received one of the longest ovations of all our speakers.
