Speaking engagements
Tech BBQ Sapporo
Sapporo – January 2023
Moderator: Hokkaido Futures: Growth, Investment & Opportunity
Tech BBQ
Copenhagen – September 2022
On stage interview: Why Speed Wins
Tech.EU Summit
Brussels – May 2022
Moderator: Sustainable Mobility and Transport
STARTUP Day, the largest startup festival in the Baltics
Tartu, Estonia – January 2020
Fireside Keynote with unicorn founder Sacha Michaud, of Glovo
Social Media Week London – October 2019
On stage interviews with social media marketing and brand managers from: Dove/Unilever, HSBC, Virgin Trains and Hyundai
Women Innovator’s Awards sponsored by European Commission on Science, Research & Innovation at Viva Tech, Paris – May 2019
Master of Ceremonies
LEAP Summit, Zagreb – March 2019
Speaker: Secret Ingredients of a Successful Story
Columbia Business School/Chazen Institute for Global Immersion, New York – February 2019
Guest lecture: Perspectives on the opportunities, challenges, and development of Cuba’s most viable industries: Tourism, Healthcare & Pharma, and Agriculture
AllWeb Summit, Skopje – November 2018
Keynote: How to Find Your Story
Entrepreneurship Innovators’ Council, Berlin – September 2018
Workshop: Secrets of a Successful Story
Platform for Inclusive Finance: Finance for Refugees Conference, The Hague – September 2018
Screening of my documentary on refugee entrepreneurs and keynote about inclusive finance successes
Asian Leadership Conference, Seoul – May 2018
Panel moderator: Blockchain for Business
Hello Tomorrow Annual Summit, Paris – October 2017
Workshop: How to Find Your Story
Asian Leadership Conference, Seoul – May 2017
Panel moderator: Strengthening Deep-Tech Ecosystems and the Role of Different Stakeholders
Panel moderator: Is Mars the Next Frontier? (The future of humanity beyond Earth)
Spark.me Startup Summit Montenegro – May 2015
How to Find Your Story and Working With the Media
Speaking topics
Ecosystems: Having reported on established and emerging ecosystems around the world, I understand why some prosper and others struggle. My talks include the role of stakeholders, how local government can propel or stall growth and other vital elements of a strong ecosystem.
Emerging and developing markets: Through my reporting, I question perceptions and discovers whether and how they reflect reality. I look for indicators that determine a market’s potential. For example, Kenya’s ‘rising middle class’ only makes up 5% of the population, yet the popularity of Pizza Hut provides valuable insights about the mobility of Kenya’s working class.
Smart Cities: It takes more than LEED-certified buildings to make a SMART city. An example is how a once-sleepy city in Florida has managed to fetch billions in investment funds from Bill Gates to transform a dead downtown and fragmented suburbs into one that’s regularly featured in the press and “top” lists of places to live and start a business.
Women & Entrepreneurship: Though they face internal and external challenges, there are specific ways organisations can support women to overcome these obstacles. Women’s consumer spending power is set to overtake men, which is changing the dynamics for female founders. I share insights about how successful female entrepreneurs have broken through barriers.
Trends, societal shifts and geopolitical changes: It is through my in-depth interviews and observations in the field that I am able to identify shifts that lead to trends and opportunities. For example, a landmark lawsuit in Japan and an ageing population represent changing consumer demands and specific opportunities.
Media Strategy and Storytelling: I work with startups and other businesses to shape and define their story and identify opportunities to engage with the press.
Personalized medicine, health, nutrition and longevity: I have long been fascinated by the possibilities related to customising treatments, therapies and nutrition to the individual for greater impact and improved health and longevity.
Food-related startups: A devoted foodie, I actively follow developing food trends, such as non-dairy ice cream produced from avocados, plant-based edible packaging, or solutions for delivering alternative proteins.
Luxury, lifestyle and travel/hospitality trends: In addition to my work as a foreign correspondent, I am Editor-at-Large of The Hotel Culture, a site featuring reviews of luxury hotels. My work includes involvement in developing and managing the site’s editorial content, design, structure and mission
Testimonials
I was delighted to have Amy moderate our panel discussion. With only a few days' notice, she was thoroughly prepared with well-researched questions that resonated with speakers and delegates. Amy's session generated a lot of audience engagement with thoughtful and provocative questions that brought out each speaker's expertise. The session was so lively it could have gone on much longer. I hope to work with Amy on future events. Justice Sirikah, Conference Production Lead, Fireside Conversations
Working with Amy was truly beneficial and propelled our media strategy. Her strong journalistic expertise helped us to identify and shape stories to pitch to the press. Furthermore, she has helped us find the company’s message, promote it and position it in a very compelling way. She is fast, smart and very easy to work with.Melanie Rozencwajg, Co-Founder and CEO, Archive Valley
Your talk is very inspirational... I never thought about how to tell a good story and the impact it can have! It was a great pleasure and very valuable.Guoming Sun, Founder, Sunogel Inc.
It’s not often that you come across a combination of a talented journalist and a speaker like Amy. Amy’s presentation covered the importance of storytelling and the relationship between start-ups and journalism. She presented three stories about unusual entrepreneurial successes from all over the world, and urged attendees to find their own unique story. Spark.me's crowd loved Amy’s presentation which was full of real-world journalism tips, presented in a no-nonsense way. I sincerely recommend Amy as a speaker to every conference program director!Vladimir Vulic, Co-founder of Digitalizuj.Me and Spark.me Program Director
Amy’s insights on how to address media were extremely useful for the 1000 startups attending the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit. We see so many incredible entrepreneurs but many of them have trouble effectively communicating about their projects. Amy’s workshop is a vital part of an entrepreneurs' tool kit and the perfect balance between practical and inspirational.Sarah Pedroza, Co-Managing Director, Hello Tomorrow
The workshop was really helpful in showing us we can build a strategy to create good stories around us. It motivated us to be more pro-active in demonstrating what we care about and how useful our product is. It was really useful to study other cases and understand the way you come up with stories and strategies. I would definitely recommend the workshop to colleagues! Tell me when you do another workshop, we'll tell our friends from the French Tech ecosystem! Marc-Antoine Durand, COO, Yubo
I discovered Amy at a tech conference and immediately knew that I wanted her to share her insights with our start-ups and innovators at the European Innovators Summit 2018 in Berlin. She has a compelling way of breaking down what it takes to trigger a good story, which everyone can easily apply. Her exercise-driven and interactive approach made the workshop a great success. Participants felt the session provided great value and a starting point for defining and developing their media strategies. We would work with Amy any time again and I can definitely recommend her for other events aimed at delivering value to portfolio companies.Liesa Siedentopp, Business Developer, Executive Agency for Small and Medium-Sized Companies (European Commission)
Amy is an engaging and energetic speaker. We had the opportunity to hear her talk about "Secrets for a Successful Story" on our main stage, with 800 people in attendance at our conference for people aged 18-35, from 40+ countries. They are a very demanding audience, and we have received only positive feedback about Amy's talk. Amy delivers value through her journalism background and by breaking down real-life case studies to illustrate the secrets of impactful stories. Her enthusiasm for connecting with the audience makes Amy stand out as a memorable speaker. Andrej Hanzir, Director & Founder, LEAP Summit