The spark
Speaker
A keynote, a moderated session, or a fireside chat — for events that are meant to move something.
The situation
You’re planning a session that has to land.
The agenda is set, the room is booked, and you know how these usually go: everyone nods, everyone walks back to their desk, and by Friday nobody remembers. You don’t need a talk that informs. You need one that dislodges an assumption already sitting in the room.
Maybe it’s the leadership offsite where AI comes up for the third year running. Maybe it’s the customer day when your audience has heard every version of the story already. Either way the question is the same: on Monday, how will you know the session happened?
What happens
Three formats, the same work behind them.
I build every appearance around your situation, not around a deck from the archive. We talk for 30 minutes first: who is in the room, what’s the uncomfortable question, and what should be different afterward?
- Keynote, 30 to 60 minutes
- One idea, properly built, carried by stories from 25 years rather than by bullet points. It ends on a sentence your audience can repeat on Monday.
- Moderation
- I keep the conversation moving, ask the question everyone is already thinking, and stop a panel from dissolving into politeness. Also as an interview or a fishbowl.
- Fireside chat
- Small group, open questions, no stage. For leadership circles, advisory boards, and customer roundtables where people should talk instead of present.
Topics for 2026/27: transformation, innovation, the big picture — and the work underneath all three: translating a situation until the decision becomes easy. What you won’t get: a tool list and seventeen AI startups in 45 minutes.
Straight talk
Not the right fit if …
- … you want a tool show. The room goes home informed and still decides nothing.
- … the talk is meant to sell a product. I don’t do sponsor messages and I’m not a testimonial for your software.
- … the core message is already fixed and someone just needs to say it out loud. Someone from your own house will be more credible for that.
- … it’s mainly meant to entertain. There are speakers who do that better than I do.
Not sure whether it fits? Call before you book. If someone else is the better choice, I’ll tell you — and I usually know who.
Track record
Stages I’ve been on.
Industry conferences, corporate events, internal leadership meetings.
SES · SMX · PubCon · a4u · Conversion Conference · Friends of Search · Internet World · Funnel Conference · Affiliate Tactixx
t3n · Marketing on Fire · Marketing Pioneers
The long version is in my book Der Elefant im Raum — all of it in German. Recordings and references on request.
Rate
€3,200 a day.
It’s here so neither of us wastes time — whether it becomes a single day, a series, or a longer mandate is what the first call is for.
The call
30 minutes before anything is booked.
Tell me who’s in the room and what should be different afterward. If I’m the right person for it, you’ll tell me. If I’m not, I’ll tell you.