Talks

John is highly sought-after keynote speaker, for conferences, team gatherings and industry events.

Below you will find an archive of films, presentations and details from just a few of the events John has spoken at, or run workshops for, over the last few years. If you are interested in him speaking at your event, please get in touch.

Regenerative Triangulation @ [y]our 2040

After joining the [y]our 2040 community in Switzerland over the summer, John joined an online session in November 2025 to dive more deeply into Regenerative Triangulation, a framework for thinking about the difference between Sustainability and Regeneration, and how the…
Wilding Gardens

If you want to connect, you will find me on LinkedIn here, or Bluesky here. Alternatively, you can send a message to us here. Update – the videos of all the talks are up now, here’s mine: Below you will…
A thing about design

In June 2025 brought a first visit to Norway in seven years, and a chance to talk about where we are going to need the skills that design has given us next. This talk was given to two IxDA audiences,…
Show the thing, change the thing

A showcase put together for ESTU in December 2024, with the central idea flowing through the Smithery work of ‘show the thing, change the thing’. The below is a PDF version of the slides, to discuss anything in particular or…
Build Your Own Commissioner

A workshop at the Dubai Future Forum, in collaboration with the School of International Futures and Future Friends, this was a framework to help find a practical way to start enacting the United Nations Declaration for Future Generations. If you…
Smashing – Antwerp

Do The Next Right Thing, Smashing Conference, Antwerp October 2024 Hello there! Firstly, if you want to chat or connect, either get in touch here or say hello on Linkedin. (Harrison in particular will be pleased). So, I was invited…
Smashing – Freiburg

Do The Next Right Thing, Smashing Conference, Freiburg, September 2024 I was invited to give a talk on Zenko Mapping by Vitaly Friedman and his brilliant, lovely crew from Smashing. As the audience was largely made up of seasoned practitioners,…
The Product of Design

I wrote this talk as a follow up to the 2015 dConstruct talk, Metadesign for Murph. It builds on the initial work I had been exploring in combining the social and material shearing layers into Zenko Mapping and now Zenko…
Assemblage Space

An Introduction to Assemblage Space, Stories4Policy, Lancaster University, July 2022 This was a brief talk that lays out where Assemblage Space came from, and how it evolved. Assemblage Space is a tool we have been developing from 2019 onwards, based…