2025 has brought no shortage of challenges. From an ongoing trade war with the US to escalating geopolitical tensions shifting the world order, from AI fundamentally transforming how we live and work to misinformation eroding trust in institutions and facts themselves — just to name a few.
To help us decode our changing world, we turned to our expert speakers throughout the year for their insight and guidance on today’s biggest topics, trends, and issues. Below, we’ve rounded up the top 5 of the year.
Misinformation and the Certainty Illusion
Is Certainty an Illusion? Combating Misinformation with Professor Timothy Caulfield
In 2025, Professor Timothy Caulfield released his fourth bestselling book, The Certainty Illusion, where he explores what he calls one of “the greatest and most important challenges of our time.”
The former Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, Timothy has worked in the science communication space for decades — specifically combating misinformation — and says he has never seen anything like what is happening right now.
In The Certainty Illusion, Timothy explores the forces contributing to today’s information chaos and unpacks why it’s so difficult, even for experts, to escape the fake. We sat down with Timothy to talk about his new book and the misinformation crisis — how we got here and what we can do about it.
The reality is that very often, there isn’t certainty… Recognizing this reality — and that our information environment is often rigged against us — may sound like a downer, but it is actually empowering and liberating. It can help people focus on the stuff that really matters.
Timothy Caulfield
Business Strategy in an Era of Declining Trust
The Changing Reality of Truth: How to Best Navigate a Post-Truth World
Increasingly, we live in a world where the very concept of “truth” is under fire. Social media feeds overflow with conflicting claims, AI-generated content is becoming indistinguishable from human-generated content, while public trust in institutions continues to erode.
So, when customers, employees, and stakeholders can’t agree on basic facts, how do organizations make decisions? When misinformation can damage a company’s reputation in minutes, how do leaders respond effectively? When political polarization threatens stability, how do businesses plan for the future?
To explore these questions and more, we turned to four leading experts whose work intersects with the challenges of our post-truth world.
Right now, no country has more at stake than Canada. Business leaders should be laser focused on preserving and deepening their relationships with US suppliers and customers and looking for new opportunities in other markets.
Janice Gross Stein
Being Human in an AI World
What Are the Essential Human Skills in the Age of AI?
As AI continues to transform industries and redefine roles, a crucial question emerges — which human capabilities will matter most in this new landscape? To find answers, we consulted six of our expert speakers who have dedicated their careers to understanding and amplifying human potential in evolving environments.
They identified six uniquely human skills that will become increasingly valuable as AI advances — critical thinking, creativity, adaptability, emotional intelligence, communication, and ethical literacy — and explored how to enhance and strengthen these skills within ourselves and others.
While AI absorbs repetitive tasks, human aspects like empathy and communication become more central, especially as workplace evolution increases emotional stress, leading to burnout and reduced performance. Organizations need emotionally intelligent people who can manage pressure, adapt quickly, and collaborate efficiently.
Jamelle Lindo
Crafting an AI+ Business Strategy
Dr. Helen Papagiannis: What Comes After What’s Next? AI+ and the New Rules of Human Experience
Dr. Helen Papagiannis is a globally recognized thought leader in immersive technologies, specializing in AI, spatial computing, and frontier technologies and their transformative impact on industries.
A question Helen often gets asked is, “what’s next for AI?” She encourages people to ask a far more important question: “What comes after what’s next?”
Helen wrote an article for us exploring how AI, combined with frontier technologies like augmented reality and spatial computing, is fundamentally reshaping the environments we live, work, and shop in, offering insights on what three shifts leaders need to prepare for.
Reality is becoming programmable. The organizations that thrive won’t be those who adopt the latest tools, they’ll be the ones who build experiences grounded in human desire, imagination, and powered by converging technologies.
Dr. Helen Papagiannis
Fight Overwhelm with Expert Advice
Stay Calm and Carry On: Fight Overwhelm with Expert Advice
When the stakes feel higher than ever, how can you stay calm and focused on your goals during times of uncertainty? We asked the experts.
Tackling leadership, business strategy, finance, wellness, and more, fight overwhelm with our survival toolkit featuring insights from business futurist Doug Stephens, leadership expert Tim Arnold, workplace wellness expert Jhanelle Peters, performance expert Dr. Kimberley Amirault-Ryan, personal finance expert Melissa Leong, and geopolitical expert Janice Gross Stein.
Publishing 2-3 blog posts weekly, we share insights and advice from our leading roster of experts on the topics that you and your audiences want to hear about. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to stay in the know.
More Expert Voices Helping Audiences Navigate Uncertainty
From economic uncertainty to a changing political landscape, from the emergence of new technologies to the future of leadership, our roster of professional keynote speakers and leading industry experts equip audiences with tools, insights, and strategies to best navigate uncertainty and a rapidly changing world.
In addition to the incredible speakers featured above, browse our website to meet more in-demand speakers and contact us to discover how these thought leaders can support your organization in 2026.
Colonel Chris Hadfield
Having commanded the International Space Station for six months, Colonel Chris Hadfield brings unparalleled expertise in leading teams through complexity and change.
Amanda Lang
Top business journalist Amanda Lang draws on original research and insight from top leaders to reveal the mindset needed to successfully navigate uncertainty.
Sam Goodwin
Held hostage in Syria enduring months of solitary confinement and interrogations, Sam Goodwin shares his story to help audiences cultivate resilience amid adversity.
