Speaking & Teaching

I've been speaking, facilitating, and designing experiences for over a decade - 300+ sessions across four continents, from corporate boardrooms to conference stages to business school classrooms.

I write a newsletter called Groove Theory about how creative ideas, careers, and live moments find their rhythm. And I run Wavetable, a studio that builds interactive practice spaces for the future of work.

One obsession runs through all of it: helping people become who they think they can be. Not through information transfer, but through experiences they actually want to be part of.

If you want to work together - get in touch with what you're thinking.

Selected clients

• Corporate: Deloitte Global, EY, Pernod Ricard, Publicis Groupe, NBC Comcast, IBM, Mastercard, Ubisoft, mci group
• Education: Columbia Business School, IE Business School, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, The New School, University of Westminster
• Events & Creative: SXSW, CES, Soho House, IBTM World, CMX Summit, Betaworks, The British Council, V&A Museum, Creative Mornings

Keynotes

1. What AI Changes (And What It Can't) - Cutting through the hype to what matters for your business
2. Three Big Bets - AI strategy for agencies and professional services
3. Groove Theory - The five elements of creative work (and why they matter more in an AI world)
4. The Inverted Pyramid - Rethinking talent in the AI era
5. Everything is Experience Design Now - Why the future of communication looks like production

1) What AI Changes (And What It Can't)

Cutting through the hype to what matters for your business

Everyone's talking about AI. Most of it is noise.

This talk cuts through - what's actually shifting in workflows, customer experience, and how products get built. And what isn't: taste, judgment, the human decisions that AI can't make for you.

No jargon, no breathless futurism. A clear-eyed look at where AI lands in your business and where it doesn't.

Adaptable to your industry, your context, your questions.

2) Three Big Bets

AI strategy for agencies and professional services

The iPhone moment is here. Not for consumers - for how creative work gets done.

Most agencies are optimizing workflows. The ones that will thrive are rethinking their entire model - how they price, how they staff, what they're actually selling.

Three strategic bets. One conversation about what comes next.

3) Groove Theory: The Five Elements of Creative Work

Finding your rhythm when AI handles the rest

Some work connects instantly. Other work - equally smart, equally polished - just doesn't. The difference isn't quality. It's groove.

I write a newsletter called Groove Theory, reverse-engineering what makes certain work unmistakable: the Safdie Brothers' tension design, Dishoom's theatrical hospitality, Trent Reznor letting his songs go, Citymapper's interface choreography. Five elements keep showing up: Structure, Rhythm, Modality, Presence, Signal.

AI can generate content. It can't find the groove. These are the skills that matter more now, not less.

4) The Inverted Pyramid

Rethinking talent in the AI era

AI isn't just changing what's possible - it's changing who can do it.

A two-person studio ships what used to require a department. An indie developer builds a product that competes with funded startups. A junior with the right stack outperforms a team of seniors.

The old pyramid - where capability concentrated at the top - is flipping. And with it, everything we thought we knew about hiring, collaboration, and how scenes form.

5) Everything is Experience Design Now

Why the future of communication looks like production

A decade ago, production-quality experiences meant studio time, crew, and serious budget. Now a small team can produce work that used to require a department.

This shift is reaching everything - product education, internal communications, customer experiences, corporate events. The tools to create narrative-driven, production-quality experiences are accessible. But the bigger question isn't about tools - it's about what communication even is when information is everywhere and attention is scarce.

The answer looks less like content and more like experience design. Less like broadcasting and more like enrollment - work done with people, not to them.

Formats

• Keynotes - 20-60 minutes. I don't do the TED-style performance monologue. My keynotes have interaction built in - moments where the room does something, not just listens. Works better, sticks longer.
• Workshops - This is where I live. Half-day, full-day, multi-session programs. I've designed and run hundreds of these, and it's probably what I'm best at. Hands-on, structured, vibrant, with frameworks people actually use afterwards. Not death-by-Post-it.
• Expert-in-residence - Extended engagements where I'm your AI expert across multiple sessions, an event, or a product launch. Think: credible independent voice who can teach, engage, and hold a room - not a one-and-done keynote, but sustained presence. The gig that doesn't fit neatly into "speaker" or "facilitator."
• Panel moderation - Honestly, underrated. A good moderator does the prep, keeps the energy, makes the panelists look smarter than they expected, and gets the audience involved. I've hosted panels on AI, creator economy, learning innovation, and media futures - and I enjoy it more than I probably should.
• Facilitation - Offsites, strategy sessions, team days. When a group needs to figure something out together and needs someone to design and hold the structure.

In Action

What people say

"Extraordinary - one of the best teachers I've had in any environment"

"Loved the keynote content, but even more, the warmth, the sense of humor, how authentic you are. More speakers should be that genuine and warm"

"Dynamic, hands-on, funny, great energy, and full of information"

"Howard's facilitation exemplified an impressive blend of creativity, analytics, and empathy"

"THANK YOU HOWARD! I have the deepest respect for you and really am honored that I got to take your class. You are an amazing educator and an awesome cheerleader."

"Howard is a great facilitator. He has a friendly and relatable teaching style as well as nicely designed decks that retain my focus and help me to absorb what I am meant to be learning."

Speaker Bio & Photos

Howard Gray is a teacher, writer, and experience designer. He runs Wavetable, an experiential education studio, and writes Groove Theory, a newsletter about how creative work finds its rhythm.

Much of his current work explores how AI is reshaping learning and creative practice. He's delivered 300+ sessions across four continents, taught at Columbia and IE Business School, and sits on the SXSW advisory board.

Currently based between London and New York, Howard is still searching for the perfect breakfast.

Headshots

FAQs