How do I book Erik Qualman for my event?

Booking Erik Qualman with Premiere Speakers Bureau is a streamlined 4-step process: 1. Availability Check: Contact us with your event date and budget to verify if your desired speaker is available. 2. Hold Date: We place a temporary 'hold' on the speaker's calendar while you finalize internal approval. 3. Contracting: We issue a contract outlining the fee, cancellation policy, and event expectations. 4. Logistics: Once signed, our event management team handles all travel booking, itinerary, and AV requirements.

Why should I partner with Premiere Speakers Bureau rather than contacting speakers directly?

Partnering with Premiere Speakers Bureau provides a comprehensive safety net for your event that direct booking cannot match. You get the same speaker for the same price, but with a dedicated team with over 30 years of event experience handling contracts, logistics, and are prepared for any emergency. We know what it takes to run an excellent event.

What makes Premiere Speakers Bureau unique compared to other agencies?

Premiere Speakers Bureau distinguishes itself by having over 30 years of experience while partnering with more than 35,000 events. PSB has also built a streamlined, fully online process that makes booking a speaker, handling travel and payments extremely easy for anyone looking to plan a speaker led event.

How does Premiere Speakers Bureau's 'Zero Cost Service' model work?

Premiere Speakers Bureau operates on a 'Zero Cost Service' model for event planners. Our services—including research, booking, and logistics—are always free to the client. The speaker covers our commission from their standard honorarium as payment for our role in marketing and managing their engagements.

How are speaker fees structured, and what is typically included?

A speaker's fee typically covers the keynote presentation, a pre-event planning call, and standard customization. Travel expenses are usually billed separately.

What are the standard policies for speaker travel and expenses?

Travel expenses are negotiated during contracting. We generally recommend a flat travel fee for simplicity, though we also offer line-by-line invoicing when preferred. PSB ensures these expenses adhere to professional standards, and our Event Portal allows for easy tracking and invoicing.

Erik Qualman

#1 Speaker on Digital Leadership

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Fee Range

$45,000

Travels From

Austin, TX, US

Erik Qualman
Biography

Erik Qualman is a globally recognized keynote speaker on AI, digital leadership, focus, and the future of work. He is a 5x #1 bestselling author and has spoken in over 60 countries and reached more than 60 million people while earning a 4.9 rating out of 5 for motivating his audiences. Qualman helps organizations turn change into a competitive advantage.

He is known for helping leaders and teams future-proof themselves in an AI-powered world—focusing not just on technology, but on the human behaviors that drive success.

A former Silicon Valley executive and sitting professor at Harvard and MIT’s edX Labs, he earned an honorary doctorate for his groundbreaking work. Qualman currently teaches Digital Leadership & AI at Northwestern University. His work sits at the intersection of innovation, leadership, and emerging technology, with a practical focus on moving to action.

His high-energy, interactive keynotes move audiences to action—literally and figuratively. Attendees wear his signature green glasses as a reminder to focus on the future—thinking big versus busy—creating a memorable experience that blends insights with fun.

His work has been featured on 60 Minutes and in The Wall Street Journal, and used by organizations ranging from Google to the FBI. He was voted the 2nd Most Likely Author in the World behind the Harry Potter series. Qualman’s Socialnomics work has been deployed by Nordstrom to the National Guard to NASA. His commencement address on “Things Happen for You, Not to You” is one of the most-watched in the world on YouTube.

Erik Qualman
Featured Videos

Current: Digital Transformation

Time 02:12

Erik Qualman
Featured Keynote Programs

Digital Leadership

Future Proofing You and Your Organization

Leaders this digital decade are made—not born. We don’t have a choice on whether we transform, the choice is how well we do it. The key is understanding & never forgetting the powerful harmony between the offline and online. While technology changes every second; human nature never does.

Based on profound and practical research, Qualman showcases the 5 Habits that drive success & happiness for employees, partners, and customers. Qualman reveals new techniques including Posting-It-Forward, Being Flawsome™, Socialnomics™, 1 to 10, and other insights that will transform your audience & organization. Learn how to stay a year ahead of your competition but never a year ahead of your market.

Key Takeaways:
1.   The 5 Digital Leadership Habits of leading organizations.
2.   New methods of innovation.
3.   Future Proofing top-line and bottom-line growth
This entertaining, educating, and empowering experience will provide your audience with the tools and knowledge needed today, and tomorrow, to drive quantum growth.

Focus

How to Focus In An Unfocused World | Big vs. Busy

It seems impossible to focus in this unfocused world. Yet, the main difference between winners and losers in this era of quantum change and distraction is … Focus. Winners are constantly focusing on BIG things versus BUSY things. While it sounds simple, it’s not easy.

The #1 killer of promising careers, teams, and businesses is a lack of focus. We either try to do too much, get easily distracted, or put our time, treasures, and talent into the wrong buckets. Qualman shares insights from his #1 Bestselling book, The Focus Project, providing practical techniques to make focus a daily habit. Learning to focus in this unfocused world is a modern superpower. How and what we focus on today will determine our growth and success tomorrow.

Key Takeaways:
1.   Being the change vs fearing the change
2.   Making focus a daily habit
3.   Going Big vs Busy

Artificial Intelligence

Transforming Your Future… Today

We don't have a choice on whether we digitally transform via AI. The choice is how well we do it. As a leading futurist, professor, and author, Erik Qualman is at the forefront of the AI revolution and the impact it’s having across all sectors.

The key is not only leveraging AI, social media, IoT, mobile, AI, and Blockchain, but more importantly, understanding how they work together to drive successful outcomes like winning customers, employee retention, and beyond. In short, it's about getting to artificial relevance.

Key Takeaways:
1.   Using AI to make your organization more efficient and human
2.   Overcoming the challenges these new technologies present including successfully navigating ethical implications, job adjustments, algorithmic bias, employee retention, privacy, security, and more
3.   Striking the right balance between AI and Eye-to-Eye (Jetsons + Flintstones)
This session will give you timeless tips on how to stay ahead today and tomorrow.

Innovation by Design

Being The Disruptor vs The Disrupted

To ensure you are the disruptor versus the disrupted, you must understand societal shifts and instill a culture of creativity around them. This session looks at key future trends and their impact on your organization. Qualman provides the roadmap for your organization’s continual transformation by fostering a culture of daily innovation. After all, most innovation is evolutionary versus revolutionary. Leap over the competition by landing on a foundation of progressive and practical innovation principles. Future forward.

Erik’s supporting books: Digital Leader, Socialnomics, What Happens in Vegas Stays on Youtube

View More Featured Keynote Programs

Erik Qualman
Featured Books

The Focus Project: The Not So Simple Art of Doing Less, Better

by Erik Qualman

Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success and Influence

by Erik Qualman

Digital Leaders are Made--Not Born

Fail forward, fail fast, fail better is a winning concept from Qualman's latest book, Digital Leader.
-- Tony Hsieh, New York Times bestselling author and CEO of Zappos.com, Inc.

People with a passion for something can be infectious. It's obvious that Erik Qualman's passion is social media.
-- Dan Heath, New York Times bestselling author of Made to Stick and Switch

Qualman is to social media what Deming is to quality and Drucker to management.
-- Scott Galloway, professor, Stern School of Business, NYU

Erik Qualman is a Digital Dale Carnegie.
-- Todd Young, CEO, ProspX

About the Book:

Digital footprints are what we post about ourselves. Digital shadows are what others upload about us. Collectively, they have changed the world forever. As leaders and future leaders we need to adapt to this new world.
-- from Digital Leader

Digital leaders are made, not born--you have it within you to become an effective digital leader. As a leader in the digital age, your reach is boundless. With advanced technologies, you can exert more direct and indirect influence than ever before--anywhere at any time. And everything you do, fail to do, and wish you didn't do is documented forever in the digital universe.

Digital Leader explains how to take full advantage of everything the digital age has to offer, while avoiding common pitfalls that can damage your digital legacy.

Bestselling author Erik Qualman explains what modern leadership means and describes how to be an effective leader in the digital world. In order to succeed, you need to adjust your leadership skills to adapt to today's digitally open world--and you need to start today. Qualman breaks the process down into five powerful truths you can use to establish your leadership stamp:

Simple: success is the result of simplification and focus
True: be true to your passion
Act: nothing happens without action--take the first step
Map: goals and visions are needed to get where you want to be
People: success doesn't happen alone

Basing his conclusions on a wide range of research and resources, Qualman provides an abundance of real-world examples and tips to help you create a path to success while leading others to achieve their best.