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Keynote Address

The Necessity of Strangers: The Intriguing Truth About Learning, Growing, and Success

Most of us have been taught to believe that friends, colleagues, and the people we know best are the real keys to our growth and success as kids and grownups. But what if this isn’t the case? What if strangers are more essential to learning, discovery, and making a difference in the things that matter most? In this inspiring, thought-provoking, and counterintuitive session, we’ll travel around the world to figure out why people who are very different than us hold the real key to reaching our full potential. In the process we’ll also discover that we can learn something important from anyone we meet and how to connect with others in more meaningful ways.

Dr. Alan Gregerman is a highly-respected and award-winning author, teacher, keynote speaker, consultant, community volunteer, and all-around nice guy who has been called “one of the most original thinkers in business today” and “the Robin Williams of business consulting.” His work, research, and writing focus on helping organizations to unlock the genius in all of their people in order to innovate, grow, and deliver the most compelling value to their customers. He is also the Founder of Passion for Learning, Inc.—an award-winning nonprofit that helps students in low income communities to develop the skills they will need to inquire, create, collaborate, connect, problem-solve, and communicate in a technology-driven world.

Alan’s three best-selling books—The Necessity of Strangers, Surrounded by Geniuses, and Lessons from the Sandbox—challenge our thinking about people, the world around us, where brilliant ideas actually come from, and how to reach our full potential as kids, adults, leaders, and organizations.

Download the Session Descriptions (PDF)