William Higham is a futurist and global authority on future business strategy. He offers a practical approach to navigating what lies ahead. As an experienced marketer, he inspires audiences with actionable advice they can use right away. Consequently, his talks energize people to face future challenges with clear strategies for engaging tomorrow’s consumers and employees.
William reveals what customers, employees, and clients will expect from companies in the future. Moreover, he outlines the strategies businesses need to attract and keep them. His data-driven insights cover the future of work, the ethical consumer, and the impact of the Metaverse, Web3, and AI.
As an engaging speaker, William has inspired audiences worldwide—from Texas to Korea. For example, he has spoken at FT and Barclaycard conferences and at leadership events for Walt Disney, BT, Jaguar, and Colgate.
For 20 years, William has led Next Big Thing, advising clients like Amazon, Vodafone, HSBC, and MTV. Additionally, he appears in Netflix’s ‘Future Of’ series and predicted trends like the New Sobriety and Wellbeing Consumers. Furthermore, he promoted ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ (‘Dancing With The Stars’) to the BBC.
William authored The Next Big Thing: Forecasting Consumer Trends for Profit (Kogan Page, 2010), which has been translated into five languages. He has also featured on BBC and Bloomberg TV and written for The Economist, Advertising Age, and The Director. Besides this, he has presented on CNBC and judged WARC and IoD innovation awards.
William started in the music industry, working at Sony, Virgin, and Universal. Specifically, he managed PR campaigns for artists like Michael Jackson and Motorhead, and marketed for The Rolling Stones and The Cure. As a result of his work, he won a Music Week Award for his campaign for Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell 2.
His passion for music consumers subsequently led him to the trends industry. Initially, he worked as a trends consultant for brands like Levi’s and BT, then became MD of OnePoll, attracting clients such as Kellogg’s and Findus. Finally, in 2003, he founded Next Big Thing.
