Cate Trotter

Cate is qualified Chief Innovation Officer, she has led innovation on one of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects,using ISO-certified frameworks to identify efficiencies worth millions and to build business cases for projects worth over £1bn in opportunities. 

Drawing on 15 years of international innovation experience, Cate has advised and inspired global brands including Chanel, Samsung, Lego, Mercedes, Nike and Microsoft. She has designed and delivered executive workshops, including a programme for Coty that identified $2m+ in savings, and similar strategic sessions for other global firms. Having founded and sold two businesses and built her own digital tools to accelerate innovation, she brings first-hand insight as well as boardroom perspective.

She is sought out by senior leaders from Unilever, L’Oréal, Carrefour, Aggregate Industries and Hugo Boss, equipping them with fresh perspectives on what’s next.

  
Known for her ability to cut through noise, make sense of change and energise audiences, Cate shares non-obvious insights on innovation, AI and transformation. She regularly delivers keynotes to audiences of up to 1,500, equipping leaders to act with clarity and confidence.
 

6 keynote topics 
 

Signals over headlines – the non-obvious PESTLE for your industry
 
Cut through media noise to identify the shifts that actually matter. Using structured PESTLE analysis, discover under-reported regulatory changes, demographic surprises and tech developments that will affect your decisions over the next 6-24 months
 
Outcome: Walk away knowing which weak signals are about to become major forces, with clear next actions.

 
Ideal audience: Strategy teams, boards and senior executives who need evidence-based foresight,not fortune-telling. 

Beyond the noise – the forces shaping your industry’s next chapter
 
While everyone chases headlines, the real transformation happens slowly then suddenly. Discover the structural shifts and emerging possibilities that could reshape how your industry works over the next 3-5 years – including the scenarios worth planning for today. 
 
Outcome: Gain clarity about which long-term trends deserve attention now, while they're still 
emerging and actionable. 

Ideal audience: C-suite executives and leadership teams planning multi-year transformation 
strategies. 

Copy, adapt, benchmark – what the world's best operators do.
 
The best ideas are already in operation somewhere. Discover how leading operators worldwide tackle your exact challenges – stolen brilliantly from unexpected sectors and surprising geographies. 
 
Outcome: Take home transferable practices from world-class operators, with confidence to adapt what works elsewhere.

 
Ideal audience: Operations directors, innovation teams and executives who know that borrowing brilliance beats reinventing wheels.

AI that pays its own way – uses saving money right now 

Forget ChatGPT party tricks. See how smart organisations use AI for both radical efficiency and breakthrough innovation – from eliminating grunt work to discovering impossible solutions.  
  
Outcome: Identify AI opportunities that deliver value in weeks not years, whether that's cutting costs or creating entirely new capabilities.  
 
Ideal audience: Leaders who want AI that transforms the business, not just the buzz.

No-theatre innovation – turning experiments into earnings
  
Most innovation is expensive theatre. Learn the specific techniques that separate costly innovation labs from profit-generating experimentation – with real examples of experiments with impressive results.
  
Outcome: Master a disciplined approach to innovation that actually delivers, with tactics for selling it internally. 
 
Ideal audience: CFOs, COOs and senior leaders who control budgets and need innovation to show returns, not just PowerPoints. 

Culture in the wild – a live safari through the digital signals shaping your industry 

Take a fascinating, unexpected tour through what real people are actually doing online. From TikTok subcultures to YouTube microcommunities to Reddit rebellions, see how digital tribes are creating tomorrow's expectations today – before they hit your boardroom. Join a live safari into the niches shaping tomorrow’s customers and markets. 

  
Outcome: Decode the online behaviours and conversations that predict what your customers will 
demand next. 

Ideal audience: Leadership offsites, marketing teams and anyone who needs to understand where 
culture is heading, not where it's been.