Talks + Topics
For Creatives, Brands + Businesses
Audience engaging talks + topics
KEYNOTE TOPICS . PUBLIC SPEAKER PROGRAM
Talks that make audiences think feel and act.
A.I is changing everything. Attention is the scarcest commodity. Most creative strategy hasn't caught up. Most talks are fact based but don’t admit, change is scary. People are very emotional when they talk about machine learning so why are we not embracing this feeling?
Carl speaks at the intersection of human emotion, creative leadership and innovation — with 25+ years of real commercial experience his talks and keynotes are based on real experiences & practical solutions. Not theory. Not a recycled business books. The kind of talk your audience will still be quoting on the way home.
D&AD
BAFTA Fullbright
APRO BRAZIL
ONLINE - INPERSON
THE MOMENT WE'RE IN
Your audience is overwhelmed.
Talk is cheap. People need solutions, from the real world
We want to be everywhere
This year business leaders face a triple pressure: generative AI is reshaping every creative process, audiences scroll past anything that doesn't move them in under two seconds, and the agency model that used to solve these problems is showing its age.
The organisations winning right now aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the most content. They're the ones who understand why humans feel before they think — and how to use that in every brief, every campaign, every piece of content they make.
That's what Carl talks about built on 25 years of making things that connect.
2 SECONDS
AVERAGE ATTENTION SPAN BEFORE THE SCROLL . IS THIS NOW OUR LIFE? IS THIS THE MARKETING CHALLENGE OR IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE? STOP THE SCROLL STAERT FEELING
73%
OF MARKETERS SAY AI HAS CHANGED THEIR CREATIVE PROCESS BUT THEY ARE NOT 100% SURE WHY AND MORE THAN 50% SAY THEY STUMBLED INTO MACHINE LEARNING FOR FEAR OF FOMO
6 YEARS
OF D&AD MASTERCLASSES — PROVEN METHOD BOTH IN THE UK + TO A GLOBAL AUDIENCE: BRAZIL - UAE - USA - EUROPE
What people loved
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“Carl is an inspiring professional, we always get great feedback from his D&AD masterclass. He alwasy engages with everyone. "
Lisa Evans - D&AD
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“Carl quickly understood our brand. He successfully challenged our thinking. His ideas on cross platform solutions gave us real emotioanl insight"
Mostyn Thomas - D3O
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![A woman smiling in front of a wooden wall, wearing a white shirt, with a partial view of another person beside her.]()
“Travel is a unique industry. Carl embraced the challenge + gave us an emotional update. His idea to position us as Travel Experts was a really great piece of strategy. "
Holly - Diverse Travel
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A greatGreat Masterclass - gave me a fresh perspective on the challenges of story telling especially in a commercial setting. Welcoming and informative.
Senior Copywriter
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Carl's AI presentation was insightful, engaging, and highly informative. Carl connected exceptionally well with the audience, encouraging participation and ensuring everyone felt involved throughout the session.
Fergus Bowen - Managing Director Bene
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![Yellow smiling face with oval eyes on a black background, with a circular arrow and the text 'Harness the power of emotional creativity' around the face.]()
This class was equal parts inspirational and tactical, a great primer on ways to add emotion to any script and video project.
Emotional Workshop CEO
Talks built for the questions creative events are asking
Each talk is warm, practical and grounded in real commercial experience. No jargon. No recycled business books. Actionable ideas delivered with the storytelling craft of a filmmaker who has spent his career making people feel something.
From Hollywood experience to boardroom battles Carl has seen a lot of universal situations. Situations that have lead to very different conclusions. Conclusions from which we can all learn.
Examples below are just that, examples. Most talks are bespoke or adapted to fit event needs.
Talk 02
Emotional Creativity —
The Strategy Your Agency Won't Sell You
The neuroscience of why people buy, share and remember — and how to use it in every brief.
Humans feel first and think second. Every purchase, every share, every click starts with an emotion — not a rational decision. Most marketing strategies are built the wrong way round. Emotional creativity is the method that fixes this — and it's the system Carl has been teaching at D&AD for six years. This is his signature talk: the one that consistently generates the most post-event action.
BRAND STRATEGY MARKETING TEAM SCMO EVENTS
Talk 04
From Hollywood to the Boardroom —
What Brands Can Learn From Film
What does directing an Oscar-shortlisted film have in common with building a brand campaign? Everything.
This talk draws directly on Carl's journey from feature films to global agency work — revealing the storytelling principles from cinema that transform how brands connect with audiences. Characters, stakes, emotion, resolution. The structure your content is missing. A unique perspective that no other speaker in the market can offer — because no other speaker has done both.
STORYTELLING BRAND BUILDING CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
Talk 06
BESPOKE
Your Brief —
Your Audience
Every organisation is different. Every audience has a different challenge.
Carl develops fully bespoke keynotes built around your specific brief — drawing on his broad background in film, brand strategy, AI and creative direction to craft a talk that speaks directly to what your people need to hear. Send your brief and he will come back with a proposal within 48 hours. No bureau, no obligations, no nonsense.
BESPOKE ANY SECTOR ANY FORMAT
Talk 01
MOST REQUESTED 2026
The Human Edge —
Creativity in the Age of AI
The urgent question facing every creative, marketer and leader in the room.
AI can write ten thousand headlines in a second. It cannot tell you which one will make someone stop scrolling at 11pm and buy something they didn't know they needed. That requires emotional intelligence — and that's where humans still win. Carl approaches this from a filmmaker's perspective: AI is a tool, not a replacement, and the creative leaders who thrive will be the ones who know what to feel, not just what to prompt.
AI & CREATIVITYINNOVATION FUTURE OF WORK30–60 MIN
Talk 03
Innovation Isn't an Idea —
It's a Feeling First
How the most innovative organisations share one creative habit — and how to build it in yours.
Most innovation programmes fail not because they lack ideas, but because they produce ideas that don't connect with anyone. The innovation that actually changes organisations — new products, new campaigns, new ways of working — almost always starts with a deeply felt insight about what an audience needs to feel. Carl draws on 25 years across film production and brand strategy to show why.
INNOVATION PRODUCT LEADERSHIP CULTURE 30–60 MIN
Talk 05
Stop the Scroll —
The New Rules of Audience Attention
In an age of infinite content and shrinking attention, the brands that win make people feel something in the first three seconds.
This talk decodes the psychology of scroll-stopping content and shows your audience the surprisingly simple emotional triggers that transform passive scrollers into engaged buyers. Built on real campaign results, behavioural science and 25+ years of production experience. The practical follow-on to the D&AD Stop the Scroll masterclass — suited to digital marketing, social media and content strategy events.
SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO MARKETING CONTENT STRATEGY 30–45 MIN
WHAT MAKES CARL DIFFERENT
Most speakers talk about storytelling few have written, directed and distributed the campaign
Why Carl
The Credibility gap
There are hundreds of speakers who will tell your audience about the importance of creativity, storytelling and emotional connection. Very few of them have actually made a film shortlisted for the Academy Awards, built a D&AD-approved curriculum and delivered commercial campaigns for global brands.
Carl's value to an event organiser is the credibility gap: he can speak to creative audiences, business audiences, tech audiences, leadership audiences and marketing audiences — and he’s believed by all of them, because the experience is real.
He is also genuinely easy to work with. No rider drama. No communication black holes. No last-minute surprises. He shows up prepared, adapts to the room, delivers — and then the next morning you get an email from your attendees asking who he was.
Royal College of Art + USC, Los Angeles
Classically trained at two of the world's most respected film schools — the rigour of the RCA and the commercial instinct of USC's School of Cinema-Television in Hollywood
Hollywood Screenwriter
Working as a gun for hire isn’t always easy but it’s amazing training. You get to see what the commissioners are really looking for and why they don’t say yes. You learn the craft and at the same time to learn how to please the audience and they are not always the same.
First Ever BAFTA Fulbright Film Scholar
Before the work, the recognition. The BAFTA Fulbright scholarship identifies the most promising British filmmaking talent — Carl was the first person ever to receive it
Amazon · Channel 4 · FilmFour · Coca-Cola · Fiat · Nestlé
Commercial clients alongside film credits — from large-scale productions for global brands to independent cinema. Same emotional instinct, different budgets, consistent results.
Creating roles for the big names
Brian Cox in The Cutter before Succession. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Ewan McGregor in Blue Juice before Hollywood. Rachel Weisz before James Bond. It’s not a dream it’s the offers Carl made without the luxury of big budgets. How was it done? Great charactres, stand out roles and page turning stories.
D&AD Approved · Brazil to BAFTA
Six years of D&AD approved masterclasses. International keynote speaking from São Paulo to BAFTA — the same method, tested in different rooms, working every time
A track record is only useful if you can see the results.
Awards, press and recognition from thirty years of connecting with audiences — now applied to your brand, brief or team.
"Carl is an inspiring professional. I always get great feedback — his D&AD masterclass consistently receives some of the highest scores of any session we run."
Event Formats
The right format for the right event
From a 20-minute keynote to a full-day masterclass. In person, online or hybrid. Carl adapts to what your event needs — not the other way around.
Keynote
The flagship format. A fully developed talk built around your brief, delivered to your audience. Opens with a story, builds through a framework, closes with a toolkit they'll use immediately.
20 – 60 MINUTES · IN PERSON / ONLINE / HYBRID
Workshop / Masterclass
The D&AD Emotional Creativity masterclass or a bespoke half-day session built around your team's specific challenge. Hands-on, practical, participatory. The audience leaves with a finished framework they can apply the next day.
HALF-DAY OR FULL-DAY · IN PERSON PREFERRED
Fireside Chat
A hosted conversation rather than a prepared talk. Works especially well when you want to explore a topic in depth or when the audience has specific questions they want Carl to address in real time.
30 – 45 MINUTES · REQUIRES A SHARP HOS
Panel / Speaker
Carl is an experienced panellist on topics including AI and creativity, brand storytelling, the future of content, emotional marketing and the intersection of film and business. Brings a distinctive perspective to any panel.
PANELS · ROUNDTABLES · GUEST SPEAKER
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Ready to talk
about your event?
Send Carl the date, the audience and the brief. He will come back with a recommended topic, format and a clear picture of what the session will do for your people.
