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. The challenge is that creativity isn’t mentioned in the corporate boardroom because people don’t really understand what creativity is. 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.



What exactly does “working in the office” mean in a pandemic reality world? There are lots of opportunities to reframe collaboration, teaming and leadership to yield the best innovation and meaningful work. The place to start is by applying Natalie Nixon’s 3iCreativity™ framework: inquiry, improvisation and intuition. In this talk, Natalie shares examples and tactical methods to boost critical skills in our new working world of blurred boundaries.

We tend to talk about the future of work as a binary proposition - either “run for the hills, the robots are taking over” or “automation and ubiquitous cloud will make life easier and amazing for all!”. The 4th Industrial revolution is characterized by ubiquitous cloud tech, automation, and AI. 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.




This talk explains how to set up your organization for more wonder AND more rigor. Companies are clamoring to innovate but they are not investing the time to design processes and systems for creativity. They spend too much time in the weeds and forget that creativity is the engine for innovation. It goes beyond only setting up an innovation lab or center. Creativity requires wonder and rigor, and it’s the catalyst for innovation



Just as we have IQ and EQ, we also have 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. Fundamental to the capability is developing the 3iCreativity™ framework: inquiry, improvisation, and intuition.



This talk explores how the most successful and flourishing companies will be the 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. 

Natalie 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.

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, VaynerMedia 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 stakeholder 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 a Foresight 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