Julia Hobsbawm – Keynote Speaker

Julia Hobsbawm is an award-winning business author and productivity strategist who writes the syndicated “Working Assumptions” column for Bloomberg’s Workshift.

One of the first to predict the new era of hybrid working, Julia’s presentations and workshops provide business leaders with a framework for diagnosing how their organisation’s work culture is inhibiting productivity and growth.

This encompasses issues ranging from Working From Home (WFH) vs. In-person, AI/technology and changing attitudes towards work, to generational differences, mental health and the power of simplicity.

Julia’s latest book is The Nowhere Office: Re-inventing Work and the Workplace of the Future (2022), which was listed by the FT as a “book to read in 2022” and one of their best business books of 2022. She hosts a podcast of the same name with Stefan Stern.

In the book, Julia addresses the new challenges of remote working in the wake of the pandemic, repurposing offices for more creative interaction, managing WFH teams and satisfying the demand for more purposeful work with greater work/life balance.

The Nowhere Office was praised by the Financial Times, has been covered by media outlets including Forbes, Bloomberg and the BBC, and has been described variously by leaders in business, media and thought leadership as ‘a masterwork’, ‘a tour de force’ and ‘brilliantly captures the zeitgeist of our times – how and where we work’.

Julia has been described as ‘one of the cutting edge thinkers on the future of work’ (RSA), and “brilliant at seeing tomorrow’s ideas today”. Julia Hobsbawm’s award-winning book, The Simplicity Principle: six steps towards clarity in a complex world (March 2019), draws on nature and neuroscience to provide a workable system for achieving clarity and calm in an increasingly complex world. Arianna Huffington described the book as “The answer to the question of our modern time: how to recapture simplicity”.

Julia Hobsbawm is also author of Fully Connected: Social Health in an Age of Overload, which was shortlisted for both Management Book of the Year 2018 and Business Book of the Year 2018.A regular speaker for corporate audiences as well as the OECD and EU amongst policymakers, in 2018 Arianna Huffington named her editor-at-large of a new Social Health section of the global wellbeing portal, THRIVE.

Awarded an OBE for Services to Business in 2015, Julia Hobsbawm was launch chair of the Demos Workshift Commission, sat on the European Workforce Institute. Julia Hobsbawm is also founder of the knowledge networking business Editorial Intelligence, which pioneered new diverse network thinking and the ideas conference Names Not Numbers, The Comment Awards and the technology conference and podcast series The Human and the Machine.

She has made several BBC programmes on networks and networking, and is a regular commentator and broadcaster around the world. She is a Patron of The Zoe Education Trust, and the Facial Surgery Research Foundation. Julia is one of the foremost analysts of contemporary work and connectivity, and how they affect our everyday lives. Her insights – generated from meticulous research and decades of acclaimed commentary – are critical for any organisation looking to boost productivity through their work culture.

Julia Hobsbawm has extensive experience speaking for corporate events, international conferences and festivals. She is a regular speaker for Women Ahead/Moving Ahead, helping support leadership development in sport and business.