Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? How do we know what ripples come from seemingly inconsequential events in our lives? What joys bloom out of despair? Success from abject failure? Eureka moments from lying in a bath of water? When Steve Jobs dropped out of college in 1972 and attended calligraphy class instead, did he know this would one day change the world of computers forever? The universe is a giant petri dish of connected reactions. Genius is the alchemy between experience, vision and grit. The ability to take small encounters and apparently unconnected themes and objects and find new ways to connect them together to innovate.

From human nature to the laws of nature, from personal connections to planetary connections, these abstract ideas and the curiosity to explore, investigate and ask questions that constantly push the boundaries of what we already know, are the cornerstones to human development and progress. When you drink your morning coffee, do you ever wonder what iterative leaps of imagination and connecting of dots took us from little red berries on a bush to a frothy cappuccino? Or how experiments with chemicals that fixed sunlight onto other materials and the development of ever better lenses with the foresight to see useful connections and put these together, lead to the birth of photography in the 19th Century? Without which you would not be taking selfies on your mobile phones or watching cat videos on YouTube today.

On a quest for knowledge, success and happiness, our speakers have both stood on the shoulders of previous giants and taken giant leaps of faith to pursue the connection of new dots. From learning from adversity to discovering cheaper and faster ways to boldly go where no robot has been before, and bending the rules to understand yourself better, our speakers will transport you more efficiently, dare you to dive to reach for the sky, develop a family ethos, show you the value of people and the beauty of honesty and simplicity, give you the power to choose, and reforest the earth.