Below are Sam’s most requested assets.

Please get in touch if you need any more: [email protected]

On the Day:

  • Sam would always prefer to tech check on stage, and is happy to arrive early to do so.

  • Sam works in Google Slides and can send a live link a week before the event.

  • Sam prefers a comfort screen set to ‘next slide’ and a headset (not handheld) microphone.

  • Sam is always happy to capture additional content when requested for internal use.

  • Natalie will help amplify the event on Sam’s socials if appropriate

  • Sam will provide WhatsApp for communication on the day of the event.

The most speaker-ready speaker we’ve worked with.

–Ed Gillespie, MC, Future Forum

Headshots

Here is a selection of low res images, right-click to download.


Or, High-res copies are here.

Sam Conniff, Author, Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur and Public Speaker.
Sam Conniff, Author, Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur and Public Speaker.
Sam Conniff, Author, Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur and Public Speaker.
Sam Conniff, Author of Be More Pirate and Public Speaker.
Sam Conniff, Author of Be More Pirate and Public Speaker.
Sam Conniff, Author of Be More Pirate and Public Speaker.
Sam Conniff, Founder of Livity and Don't Panic, Public Speaker and Author.
Sam Conniff, Author, Award-Winning Social Entrepreneur and Public Speaker.

Sam’s Speaker CV as a PDF (download here)

AV requirements

Sam Brings

  • A MacBook Pro

  • Wireless presentation clicker and backup

  • A Google Slides presentation (backed up online)

  • A presentation designed to work on 16x9 display screens

Sam Needs

  • HDMI cable

  • A wireless, lapel microphone

  • Main power socket to power his laptop

  • A projector (DVI, HDMI or VGA Connector)

  • A speaker system that receives audio output from the laptop (or HDMI)

  • Optional (but preferred): External comfort monitor, set to the slide ahead

If you have an AV team on site, Sam is happy to have a pre-call if required and send slides a week in advance and do a run-though online.

intro script

It’s my pleasure to announce the next speaker.

Sam Conniff is an award-winning entrepreneur, best-selling author, published social scientist and a real-life pirate.. He is the creator of Uncertainty Experts—the world’s most extensive behavioural study into how we respond to uncertainty—and the best-selling author of Be More Pirate. This book became a global movement for causing good trouble.

He is also the co-founder of Don’t Panic, the Bafta-winning creative studio, and Livity, the Queen's Award-winning social enterprise. Sam won EY’s entrepreneur of the year award twice. In 2022, Sam turned down an MBE in an open letter to the Queen, saying he’d reconsider if she updated the title British Medal for Empire to British Medal for Excellence. He’s still waiting for a reply.

Sam’s mission is to help people thrive in uncertainty, lead with integrity, and take meaningful risks. His talks combine science and storytelling to equip audiences with the mindset and tools necessary to drive innovation, solve complex problems, and lead others with confidence—even when the road ahead is unclear.

Please welcome to the stage… Sam Conniff.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SAM

01

Uncertainty Experts

20th Century Leadership is so, last century. Sometimes the answers we need the most, come from the people we expect the least. I wrote and directed, the first of it’s kind, live, interactive and immersive documentary.

02

Be More Pirate

I wrote my first book as a love letter to change-makers and rule-breakers, it became a global bestseller and created a thriving crew of Good Trouble makers. How To Be More Pirate (the sequel book) is also out now along with the Be More Pirate podcast.

03

Livity

I co-founded the youth-led, purpose-driven, multi-multi-award-winning social enterprising marketing agency that still brings together the worlds biggest brands with the worlds most pressing challenges, in a unique bit of alchemy that’s changed the lives of thousands of young people.

04

Digify Africa

I co-founded a pan-African NGO delivering digital skills to create opportunity, employment and enterprise, co-led, co-created and co-delivered by young Africans, to hundreds of thousands of young Africans delivered with breakthrough technology, social enterprise and a wicked sense of humour.

05

Live Magazine

I founded and ran the UK based Non-Profit platform that over 15 years was a voice, launchpad and safe creative space to an entire generation of young people from less advantaged backgrounds across the UK. Nothing has ever taught me as much as those kids, to whom I’ll be forever grateful.

06

somewhereto_

I ran a unique space matching service for young people to access empty or underused space in every region of the UK, which was the flagship youth initiative of the Cultural Olympiad of the 2012 Olympic Games but became a successful community enterprise incubator in its own right.

07

Dubplate Drama

I exec-produced the “worlds first interactive multi-platform TV series” that first bought the UK grime scene to mmainstream screens and over three series changed youth culture and empowered young people on key social issues in a unique collaboration between broadcasters, platforms and charity.

08

Don’t Panic

I began the original activist agency, that began in the club culture of the late nineties, and went on to win Baftas, Cannes, Webbies and more for pioneering content and campaigns, from ending Shell’s relationship with Lego to launching the most successful charity campaign of all time.

2007 — Appointed as one of 25 Social Enterprise Ambassadors for the UK Government

2008 — Sam has a chapter dedicated to him in the once-name-drop-worthy Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s book, Everyday Heroes

2009 — Named as one of the UK’s 50 new Radicals in The Observer

2010 — Awarded UK Social Entrepreneur in the EY Entrepreneur of The Year Awards

Awards & honourable mentions

2015 — Livity wins Social Enterprise Of The Year at the National Business Awards

2016 — Don’t Panic wins Gold at Cannes

2017 — Livity becomes the first agency to win Grand Prix at BIMA Awards (for redefining the agency model)

2018 — Awarded CSR Leader of the Year at Global CSR Awards

2019 — Becomes an international best-selling author with Be More Pirate

2020 — Awarded an MBE for services to young people, but declined, in an open letter in support of Black Lives Matter.

2011 — Livity receives The Queens Award for Enterprise and Innovation and Sam is awarded a Big Society Award, nominated by that other once-name-drop-worthy Prime Minister, David Cameron.

2012 — Livity wins best Marketing Agency, and Campaign of the Year at Marketing Agencies Association Awards

2013 — Don’t Panic wins a Bafta for the Revolution Will Be Televised

2014 — Named on the Happy List, the people making the UK happier, and the Maserati 100, the people helping the UK’s entrepreneurs