ABOUT GERD LEONHARD

Greetings, and welcome to MediaFuturist.com. 

I work as a Futurist in the Media, Technology and Communication Industries. I am also an Author and Writer, Media and Internet Entrepreneur, Strategic Advisor, Keynote Speaker & Presenter.

I focus on these industries and sectors:

• Recorded Music & Music Publishing
• Radio & Broadcasting
• Telecom & Wireless
• Social Networking & Web2.0
• Online Gaming & Virtual Worlds
• Film / TV / Video
• Print / News / Journalism
• Advertising & Branding
• Education & Training
• Cultural Policy

I live in Basel / Switzerland - and aboard a good many airplanes.

If you want to get a good feel for who I am, watch the video below or drop by the Media Conversations Future Talks channel (to select another episode from that series, below, just click on the book icon / guide button, and go from there). You can also visit my Youtube channel, get my iTunes video-feed here, or subscribe to my video RSS feed

 

Here is a short bio:

Gerd  Leonhard: Media Futurist, Author & Blogger, Keynote Speaker & Strategist

The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd 'one of the leading media futurists in the world'. He is the Co-Author of the influential book ‘The Future of Music’ (2005, Berklee Press), as well as the author of ‘Music2.0’ (published in January 2008), ‘The End of Control’ essays (online here) and of ‘Open is King- Stories from the Future of Media’ (late 2008, some previews are here).

Gerd's background is in music (he won the Quincy Jones Award in 1986 and is a graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music) as well in technology and the Internet (LicenseMusic, Inc. and Sonific LLC).

Gerd’s work focuses on the Future of Media, Content, Technology, Business, Communications and Culture, and he is considered a leading expert on topics such as Web/Media 2.0, social networking and social media, cultural changes due to disruption by new technologies, copyright vs. technology issues, online content commerce models, media convergence, mobile entertainment, entrepreneurship, the future of advertising and branding, future planning, digital content strategies and next-generation business models.

Gerd's keynotes, speeches, and think-tanks are renowned for his hard-hitting and provocative yet inspiring and motivational style. With over 50 engagements in 15 countries during the past two years Gerd has addressed global audiences in the sectors of recorded music & music publishing, radio, TV, film/video and broadcasting, online gaming and virtual worlds, telecom & wireless, and advertising and branding.  His clients include SonyBMG, RTL, ITV, the BBC, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, LebWeb3, MIDEM, The Financial Times, TribalDDB, Omnicom, the European Commission, Nokia-Siemens, and many others. He is much in demand as a speaker at many leading events and conferences around the globe, and is considered a leading blogger and visionary. 

Gerd is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (London), and resides in Basel, Switzerland. 

For some of his speaking engagements, Gerd is non-exclusively represented by the London Speaker Bureau (for a complete list of all agencies representing Gerd please go here)

Gerd is an expert on the drastic changes that are impacting content, media and communication companies as a consequence of the rapid deployment of new, disruptive technologies, and of convergence. His hard-hitting  yet inspiring presentations address issues such as the advent of the user-creator (aka the Usator, a term coined by Gerd) and the 'people formerly known as consumers', the attention economy in media, the wisdom of the masses and the rise of user-generated content, content syndication and pull-vs-push media, new business models for digital content, the culture of participation in media, copyright versus usage right, and the consequences of mass media becoming personal media. Gerd is equally fluent in technology, legal issues, social and cultural contexts, business models and general trends that affect media and communications.

 Gerd also works with select cutting-edge start-ups and new ventures in the entertainment and technology industries worldwide, as well as with investors and Venture Capitalists.

Gerd holds a Jazz Performance (Guitar) Diploma by Berklee College of Music (87), and is the recipient of Berklee's Quincy Jones Jazz Masters Award (1985).  He is also a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA, London).

Check out (or add to ;) what Wikipedia says about Gerd, or peruse Google Blogsearch here. Subscribe to Gerd's newsletter by using the box in the sidebar (right hand side) or just go to the sign-up page.  Gerd's LinkedIn profile and endorsements are here, and his Facebook profile is here. Follow Gerd via Twitter or Friendfeed.

New video: Gerd's Plans for 2008 (Video) (discussing upcoming books, plans, influences etc)

Clients and Speaker Agencies:

If you need pictures of Gerd can download this zip file with several high-res pics: 
gerd_leonhard_pictures_ok_to_use.zip

Download the latest biography (word doc, May 2008): gerd_leonhard_short_bio_may_2008.doc

If you want to download some fairly high-resolution video footage featuring Gerd Leonhard 'in action', go here (.mac file sharing site for my videos *promotional / marketing use only