Speakers

Ralph is a creativity and communications consultant, startup founder and innovation catalyst with deep experience in servicing individual, corporate and SME clients on four continents, as a speaker, presenter and advisor.

Ralph's involvement with innovation-driven companies began in 1999 when he created the World's first portal for book trade professionals (editing, production and rights management.) Today Ralph uses his innate ability to connect people and concepts and communicate ideas to build value for a variety of online and offline projects, is a founder and advisor to early stage startups, and coaches companies and organisations on creativity and communication. As "sense-maker", with a finely developed understanding of the world of technology, he bridges the digital divide for companies and organisations in transition. 

As an advisor, working in groups or one-on-one, Ralph weaves together strands of his multidisciplinary experience to deliver effective communication and creative thinking solutions to individuals and organisations. As a presentation coach he zooms in on the precise requirements from content to authentic delivery, and as a creativity catalyst to  teams, he combines approaches and tools from the creative industries to bring new ideas and solutions to the fore. 

Ralph is the author of The Pig, Not the Lipstick: How to bring true innovation by using approaches from the creative industries (coming out in 2017), and over thirty other books on subjects ranging from the World's largest yachts to winemaking and tribal mythology. Over a thirty-year career in visual communications (as photographer, author, producer and designer), Ralph has made retail multimedia products, designed music packaging, produced marketing communications for global hotels and resorts, directed documentary videos and staged collaborative arts events. His photographs have illustrated the pages of leading magazines and, together with his writing and design, helped corporates such as Siemens, Nike and Commercial Union tell their stories. 

He is the curator and Team Leader for TEDxWarsaw, Poland's first and largest annual TEDx conference (including TEDxWarsawPresidentialPalace, the first TEDx in the World to be opened by a sitting head of state,) a TEDxSeniorAmbassador for Eastern Europe, and regularly contributes to other media, design and innovation events globally. He consults through his Brighton based innovation and creative shop Elevater.agency. 

He is a guest lecturer at Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts School of Design, a co-founder of Seriatim Foundation, an NGO which helps people improve their communication skills, and a mentor at Founder Institute and PwC Startup Collider.