April Rinne Keynote Speaker

Change navigator and guide to help you embrace uncertainty and the unknown
Top-ranked global futurist with immersive work and travels in 100+ countries
Bestselling author of "Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change"

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April Rinne's Biography

April Rinne is a change navigator, speaker, investor, and adventurer whose work and travels in more than 100 countries have given her a front-row seat to a world in flux. She is ranked one of the 50 Leading Female Futurists in the world by Forbes and is a Harvard Law School graduate, a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, a member of the Silicon Guild and Thinkers50 Radar, a Fulbright Scholar, and the author of the international bestseller Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change. This book is peppered with her personal stories, insights and observations that underscore the fundamentally human nature of change… and that the best way we get through all this change is together.

April is a trusted advisor to well-known startups, companies, financial institutions, nonprofits, think tanks, and governments worldwide, including Airbnb, Nike, Intuit, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, AnyRoad, and Unsettled as well as governments ranging from Singapore to South Africa, Canada to Colombia, and Italy to India. For more than two decades, she’s been known for seeing emerging trends early, understanding their potential, and helping others do the same. April is also a bridge-builder between stakeholders, priorities, business models, markets, and those excited about change and those resistant to it.

Earlier in life April was a global development executive, an international microfinance lawyer, and a hiking guide. She spent the better part of four years traveling solo, with an insatiable desire to better understand how the rest of the world lives. (One lesson: Change is universal. How we deal with it is not.) She is as comfortable at Davos as she is talking with microfinance borrowers in an urban slum. A certified yoga teacher, she can often be found upside-down, doing handstands around the world.

Signature Keynote:

Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change

There’s an epidemic of change exhaustion, yet more change and uncertainty are ahead. When – and how – will this ever improve? Being adaptable and flexible have always been hallmarks of effective leadership, well-being, and a fulfilling life. But in a world of ever-more change, an ever-faster pace of change, and relentless uncertainty, flexibility and resilience can be stretched to their breaking points. The quest becomes how to find calm and lasting meaning in the midst of enduring chaos.

A world in flux calls for a new mindset, one that treats constant change and uncertainty as a feature, not a bug. In this talk, April Rinne helps you open this mindset — a Flux Mindset — and develop eight “flux superpowers” that flip conventional ideas about leadership, success, and well-being on their heads. You’ll learn to see change in new ways, craft new responses, and ultimately reshape your relationship to uncertainty from the inside out.

Whether you’re leading a team, strengthening your culture, inspiring engagement, sizing up your own career, reassessing your priorities, or simply want to show up more fully in the world, opening a flux mindset and activating your flux superpowers will keep you grounded even when everything around you is shifting. You’ll learn to see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel… and it’s not an oncoming train.Being adaptable and flexible have always been hallmarks of effective leadership, well-being, and a fulfilling life. But in a world of ever-more change, an ever-faster pace of change, and relentless uncertainty, flexibility and resilience can be stretched to their breaking points. The quest becomes how to find calm and lasting meaning in the midst of enduring chaos.

Key Takeaways

Learn how to open a Flux Mindset, cultivate the 8 Flux Superpowers, and boost your “fluxiness”

Improve your relationship to constant change, uncertainty, and unknowns

See the future – including your future – with fresh perspective and clarity

Show up fully for work, your family, team, friends, community – every part of life, every day!

Future of Work Keynote

Beyond the Ladder: The Future of Talent & Careers

What does the shape of a successful, meaningful career look like in today’s workplaces full of change – and how can you (and HR) design your best one? Across the professional spectrum, people are reassessing what they want from their careers – and lives. This has led to unprecedented job-hopping (without the stigma), freelancing, quiet quitting, and career pivots as well as exhausting debates about hybrid work. And this was all happening before the breakneck ascent of generative AI and the uncharted territory it entails. Taken together, it’s a lot.

One of the keys to future-ready professional development and sustainable, thriving work cultures is to rethink the shape of our careers. The one-way, up-or-out 20th century “career ladder” isn’t just creaky. It’s breaking. For talent and HR alike, this has profound implications – and represents a new world of opportunity for more useful career shapes and dynamics.

April Rinne has been working on “career portfolios” for more than 25 years, including her own. She helps organizations change how we think about work and individuals unleash their best, full selves. This isn’t about outsourcing one’s job or hiding side hustles. Rather, a portfolio approach is about seeing talent and career development with a fresh lens. Whether you’re running a Fortune 100 company, series A (or E) startup, venture capital fund, accelerator, association, think tank, or government, it’s a key tool for talent acquisition, retention, and thriving organizational cultures. It’s how to identify and nurture all of the skills on a team. Moreover, a career portfolio is essential for success in a world in which skills are evolving and changing fast. Creating your career portfolio is also one of the 8 Flux Superpowers in April’s bestselling book Flux.

Note: This talk is a perfect fit for “career weeks,” team L&D, HR gatherings, and Future of Work summits.

Leadership Keynote

Finding Certainty in an Uncertain World

Just because the future looks really chaotic doesn’t mean your approach to it has to be. For leaders everywhere, success hinges not only on understanding the macro forces that will affect your business and team, but even more so on how you see these forces: Your mindset towards change and uncertainty and your tolerance of the unknown. Imagine the time, effort, or resources you could’ve saved if you’d seen the full implications of smartphones back in 2006, hybrid work back in 2015, the covid pandemic before it hit, or generative AI today? Today, you can develop this vision – these superpowers and savviness – moving forward. Not only can you: Given the relentless pace of change, it’s safe to say you ought to!

April Rinne’s gift is to see key shifts early amid chaos and disruption, and to help leaders and teams navigate the unknown in ways that catalyze inner peace, growth, and future-fit perspective. As the world’s leading Humanist Futurist, April speaks with both head and heart. Drawing on nearly 30 years of experience in 100+ countries as well as insights from her bestselling book Flux: 8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change, she’s your #1 guide to today’s uncertain world. She helps you see what you’ve been missing, overcome your stumbling blocks, and boost your capacity to harness uncertainty to your advantage. With your team and for your organization, you’ll learn how to stop fighting uncertainty, transform not-knowing into wisdom, and be the flux – ready and excited for whatever changes are ahead.

Key Takeaways

Learn how to open a Flux Mindset, cultivate the 8 Flux Superpowers, and boost your “fluxiness”

Understand the surprising (and often unspoken) ways many leaders get uncertainty and the future wrong – and how to get them right

Apply insights and fresh perspectives for navigating change from different global cultures

Get future-ready tools for you and your team to truly be in control

Happiness & Inspiration Keynote

What the World Can Learn about Happiness from the World’s Happiest Country

How might we learn from Finland about happiness, a skill they seem to possess in abundance? April’s Finnish roots put her in a unique position to share wisdom from the land of sisu — inner strength — and satisfaction.

For the past six years running, Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world. Not only that, their lead over #2 Denmark and other countries appears to be growing. How is that possible? In this talk, April guides you through Finland’s culture and pillars of happiness, drawing on her personal Finnish heritage, global perspective, and unique experiences as a Finnish happiness coach and advising the Finnish government. Prepare to be surprised, refreshed, inspired – and able to find and maintain your own happiness better than ever before!

Key Takeaways

Deeply understand what true happiness really is (and is not)

Understand the dynamics of individual and collective happiness

Discover how to design aspects of Finnish happiness into your life, wherever you are

Create a happiness plan for your future

April Rinne | 2024 Speaker Reel

April on Change

April on Culture & Change

April on Career Ladders

Articles, Media & Podcasts

It’s Time to Rethink Traditional Career Trajectories

Harvard Business Review

Thinkers50 Announces The New Radar List Of Top Emerging Management Thinkers

Forbes

Change Management Requires a Change Mindset

Harvard Business Review

Fluxing with April Rinne

Visit Finland

Books by April Rinne

Comments & Testimonials

April's thoughtful approach was just what we needed. She uses her rich global citizenship to connect to the audience in a meaningful way. We've had positive feedback from across our audience that not only do they feel more able to embrace "fluxiness" but it felt special how she shares the ways different cultures understand and express their relationship to change. Thanks again!

Adobe

Once again, April wowed us with her wisdom. In a very timely and inspiring session, April shared her views and advice on a topic that concerns us all and is often the cause of great discomfort: Change! The Flux Mindset offers practical ways to 1) get more comfortable, 2) tame, and 3) draw strength from the inevitable change that surrounds us on a daily basis.

The World Bank Group

April is a true star. After our event we gathered to identify the top 10% of our speaker corps, and April quickly emerged as an automatic re-invite. April is thoroughly smart, engaging, and authentic — a powerful combination. Invite her. Your event will be the better for it!

University of Colorado at Boulder

The session was absolutely fabulous. Many of our attendees said it was the best keynote that IFT has ever had. We are very grateful to April for setting the stage for our event.

Institute for Food Technologists

Engaging and insightful. A real dynamo. Home run!

Dorsey & Whitney

We have had the pleasure of working with April on more than one occasion, and to say that she delivers every time is an understatement. Her wealth of knowledge is unmatched, her delivery is friendly and engaging, and she takes the time to fully understand who she’s talking to and what the end message needs to be. On top of all of that, she is an absolute joy to work with. Can’t recommend her enough!

HUB International

Drop the April bomb... and good things happen.

Airbnb

April lives in the future then helps create it now. Her grasp of the forces that create systemic change, innovation that matters, and how to accelerate into the future have helped us as we navigate our work towards a low carbon, equitable sustainable future. Be ready to innovate, at scale, fast when inviting her into your world!

Nike