LIST of HOT Conference Topics for Your Event, Meeting or Convention in 2020
By David Staughton CSP CCEO, Keynote Speaker on Growth in Tough Times and Small Business Consultant
- Want to know the HOT TRENDING TOPICS FOR 2020?
- Need some Great Ideas for your CONFERENCE & ONLINE PRESENTATIONS?
- Would you like to improve your Conference CONTENT DESIGN?
NOTE – Since March 2020 the Corona Virus has decimated the Speaking, Events & Conference Industry – This HOT TOPICS list has changed radically as some of these topics are deemed less important in the Crisis.
Visit new BLOG POPULAR TOPICS for ONLINE PRESENTATIONS & WEBINARS during the age of the Corona Virus & Lockdown
This Blog contains the TOP 20 Conference Topics for 2020 in detail.
One of the best ways to ensure a record conference attendance is to have the BEST keynote speakers and the hottest topics that will pull a crowd and please your stakeholders. You’ll also need great breakout speakers and workshop presenters that do amazing presentations which ensure repeat attendance at next year’s event.
Every conference needs inspirational and motivational speakers. The audience wants more than just content & lots of information – they want a great personality & presence and prefer an entertaining show as well.
Here is a list of Hot Conference Topics for small business, corporate, government, association and Not for Profit Events.
What are the 2020 HOT Conference Topics?

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD the 2020 HOT Speaking Topics and Conference Themes PDF by David Staughton CSP
HOT Topics for Conferences & Events in 2020
Here are the 20 HOTTEST Topics for Conferences in 2020
- Embracing Change & Transformation – Breakthrough Innovation & Creativity
- Wellness and Health – Meditation, Mindfulness, Holistic Health & Spirituality, Mental Health & Safety at Work
- Character, Ethics and Integrity – especially Values & rebuilding Trust
- Resilience & Reinvention – Overcoming hardships and challenges – Motivational Stories and Techniques
- Customer Experience CX – Human Experience (HX), Customer Focus & Customer Centricity
- Near-Futurists & Futurists – Trends & Consumer forecasters. Demographers
- Digital Disruption – Augmented Humans, Superhumans, Humanicity, AI, Blockchain
- Harmony & Belonging – Diversity, Inclusion & Gender Fluidity
- Leadership – Vulnerability, Bravery, Courage, Daring to Lead (We love Brene Brown!)
- Communication – Persuasion & Influence, Charisma & Presence – VIDEO making & Visual Storytelling are HOT
- Women in Business and Women in Leadership – Pay Equality & Rights #Metoo
- Inspirational Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR and Philanthropy
- Teamwork & Performance Topics – Boosting Productivity & Culture
- Technology Updates – Social Media, Marketing Automation, Cybersecurity
- Financial/Risk/Economics Topics – Climate, Economy Updates, Threats
- Entrepreneurism and Business Growth – Thriving in Turbulent Times
- Sporting Success & High performance teams coaching Topics
- Marketing and Branding Topics – Video, Positioning, Omnichannel, Automation, Texting
- Strategy, Productivity & Work Methods Topics – Get things Done – Meetings, Time Management
- Understanding People & HR Topics – Generational & Cultural Differences, Profiling, Neuroscience
BEST SPEAKERS on the 2020 HOT TOPICS
Best CONFERENCE MCs – Master of Ceremonies LIST
Best BIG CELEBRITIES as a Headliner for your Conference LIST
Best MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS LIST – Resilience & Reinvention
Best FUTURISTS & TRENDS SPEAKERS LIST – Change, Transformation & Disruption
Best Innovation Experts and Creativity Speakers LIST
Best SALES SPEAKERS & SALES TRAINERS LIST
Best CUSTOMER SERVICE SPEAKERS & TRAINERS LIST
Best STRATEGISTS & STRATEGY SPEAKERS LIST
Best CEO / BUSINESS FOUNDER SPEAKERS LIST
Best Conference Speakers Based in MELBOURNE LIST
Best Keynote Speakers in NEW ZEALAND LIST
More “BEST of” Speaker Lists coming soon!
Here is the most comprehensive guide to Australian Speaker Fees and how much you should expect to pay for different types of Speakers….
2020 Guide to Australian Conference SPEAKER FEES (Click Here)
2020 HOT CONFERENCE TOPICS IN DETAIL
1. Embracing Change & Transformation Conference Topics
- What’s Next?
- Dealing with Change
- Disruption – being indisruptable
- Future proofing business and career
- Forever Skills / infinity Skills
- Relevance – avoiding being irrelevant
- Thought Leadership
- Being Unstuck
- Thinking better & Decision Making
- VUCA world – Uncertain world
- Game Changer – Changing the Game
- Change ready
- Innovation innovative
- Transformation/transformative
- Evolution not Revolution
- Creativity & Innovation
- Quests – challenges – journeys
- Sticky change
- Global restructures
2. Wellness & Health Conference Topics
- Health Hacks and Shortcuts
- Changing Habits – Breaking bad Habits
- Morning & Evening Routines
- Better Sleep
- FLOW – Getting in FLOW / Body Hacking
- Tech free – Device Withdrawal and tech detox (Cal Newport)
- Meditation & Mindfulness
- Living a Better Life
- Bucketlisting
- Spiritualism and Buddhism
- Mental Health awareness – R U Ok?
- Psychological Safety
- The Gut – gut flora – microbiome – probiotics
- Calm & Simplicity
- Decluttering – less stuff (Spark Joy!)
- Running & Fitness – triathalons & cycling
- WHS & OHS Health & Safety
- Sugar free & gluten free
- Anti-Ageing
- Anti vaxxers
3. Character, Ethics & Integrity Conference Topics
- Case for Character
- Building and Regaining Trust
- Integrity and Keeping promises
- Doing what You Say
- Accountability and holding others Accountable
- Ethics
- Values
- Confidence
- Behavioural Models
4. Resilience & Reinvention Conference Topics
- Resilience
- Overcoming Rejection
- Bouncing back
- Dealing with Stress
- Mental Health
- Psychological Safety in the Workplace
- Dealing with Obstacles
- R U Ok?
5. Human Experience & Customer Service Conference Topics
- Customer Experience
- Customer Service
- Customer Loyalty
- Customer Centricity
- H2H, Humanicity,
- The Human Experience
6. Near Futurists & Future Conference Topics
- Future Trends
- What’s Next?
- Nanotechnology
- Biotechnology
- Genomics DNA testing
- Facial recognition
- Self-drive cars
- Autonomous vehicles
- Drones & Drone taxi
- Sharing Economy
- Globalisation
- Superpower shift
- Collaborative consumption
- Alternative energy solar – battery wind
- Sustainability – Waste and Cleantech
- Demographic, Social/Lifestyle and Environmental Trends
- Global & Government Trends
7. Digital Disruption
- Digital Transformation
- AI – Artificial Intelligence
- 5G Impact
- Big Data – data analytics
- Data Lakes
- Robotics
- IOT – internet of things
- Digital assistants
- Digital Twins
- The Singularity – man machines
- VR AR Virtual and Augmented Reality
- Hyper connected world
8. Harmony & Belonging Conference Topics
- Purpose – Simon Sinek’s why how what
- Values
- Social enterprise
- Inclusion
- Pay equality
- Diversity
- Bullying
- Say to violence
- Gender equality
- Tribal & tribe building
- Ninjas – unicorns
9. Leadership Conference Topics
- Vulnerability
- Bravery & Courage
- Authenticity
- Accountability
- Leadership Habits & Hacks
- Being Human
- Being Real
- Confidence
- Neuroscience brain science
- Thought leadership
- Transformational Leadership
- High impact leadership
- High performance leadership
- Self leadership
- Adaptive leaders
- Situational leadership
- EQ emotional intelligence
- Get me Brene Brown!
10. Communications Conference Topics
- Listening
- Confidence
- Executive Presence
- Video Making & Digital Storytelling
- Persuasion
- Storytelling
- Influence
- Charisma
- Human Lie detection (Steve Van Aperen etc)
- Pitching – using pitch decks
- Co-creation
- Presentation skills
- Running Panels and debates
- Body language
11. Women in Business – Women’s Conference Topics
- Women in leadership
- Gender equality
- Pay gap
- Breaking the Glass ceiling
- Geek girls / Nerdy Girls
- Women in STEM
- #metoo issues
- Bullying
- Mansplaining
12. Inspirational Corporate Social Responsibility Conference Topics
- Corporate social responsibility stories
- Good corporate citizen
- Corporate giving
- Corporate philanthropy
- Giving back – making a difference
- B Corp movement
- Triple bottom line
13.Teamwork/Performance Conference Topics
- High performance teams
- Sustainable teams
- Conflict Intelligence and Fighting Fair
- Accountability
- Inspiration – motivation
- Situational Awareness (SA)
- Synergy
- Collaboration
- Winning teams
- Playing a bigger game
- Focus – clarity
- Difficult people – no assholes
- Workplace psychopaths
- Talent management
- Coaching
- Growth/fixed mindset
- Goalsetting and planning Ahead
- Happiness in the workplace
- Gratitude
- Useful Belief & Cut The Noise (Chris Helder)
- GTD – getting things done
- Deliverables & Announceables
- KPIs KRAs CSFs OKRs outcome measures
- ROI ROE – Return on Investment and Equity
- Using Dashboards
14. Technology Conference Topics
- Cybersecurity
- VR AR
- Wearables
- Mobile friendly
- Cloud – MS azure
- Apps
- SEO SEM SERP
- Cracking the code
- Crossing the chasm
- Innovators dilemma
15. Financial/Risk/Economics Conference Topics
- Future of Money
- Banking 2.0 3.0
- Cryptocurrency – bitcoin ethereum
- Cybersecurity
- Hacking
- Personal Finances
- Peer to peer lending
- Succession – exit planning
- Financial literacy
- Side hustle
- Board governance
- Emerging economy
- Brexit
- Quiet power – introverts
16. Entrepreneurism & Business Growth Conference Topics
- Growth hacking
- 10X
- Crossing the chasm
- Cracking the code
- Hockey stick growth
- Venture capital VC
- Start ups
- Entrepreneur – wantrepreneur
- Exponential growth
- Roll ups – roll outs
- Burning man festival
- SXSW south by southwest
17. Sporting Success, Coaching and High performance Topics
- Sports Hero stories
- Female athletes
- Disabled Athletes
- Sports tech
- Winning Team Stories (e.g AFL Richmond Football Club)
18. Marketing & Branding Conference Topics
- Personal branding
- Logos taglines themes
- Marketing automation
- Influencers
- Going viral
- Insta-famous facebookers
- KOL key opinion leaders
- On trend
- Cause marketing
- Social selling
- Linked in
- Youtube
- Social media – insta stories
- facebook live – pinterest boards
- Food porn / Success porn
- B2B B2C B2G
- Omnichannel
- Retail revolution
- Channels Content Context
- Video making
- Podcasting
- Narrative Arc
- Personas – target market
- Style guide
- Brand elements
19. Strategy, Productivity & Work Methods Topics
- Better Meetings
- Time Management
- Strategic Thinking and Strategic Mindset
- Strategy Development
- Workshopping
- Hackathons
- Crowdsourcing
- Deep dive
- Agile – scrum – sprint methodologies
- Great game of business GGOB by Jack Stack
- Design day / discovery day
- Blind spots
- Due diligence
- Dreamboard – vision board
- Brainstorming
- Think Tank – summit
- Prioritising – 80/20 rule – Richard koch
20. Understanding People – HR Conference Topics
- Generational change
- Understanding Millenials or Gen Z
- Gen X Y Z and Gen Alpha
- Baby Boomers
- Next Generation
- Hipsters
- Parenting Strategies
- Multiculturalism – Rise of China – India BICI BRICs
- WageTheft
- Lifestylers & lifestyle shift
Be on TREND with The Best Sources of Hot Topics for Conferences & Conventions
Where can Conference Organisers find the upcoming hot and trending topics for conferences?
- SmartCompany
- AFR – Australian Financial Review
- Most popular TED talks
- US E-Newsletters like Morning Brew and The Hustle
- Airport bookstands – Singapore airport always has the latest books
- Google Trends – search data
- International Conferences – speakers
- National Association conferences – speakers
- Speaker Bureau Showcases of New & Breakout Speakers
- Best selling business books lists
The Top NINE Speaking Slots for Conferences & Events
Most conferences benefit from having these different areas covered during the event:
- An Opener/Closer – for Inspirational Energy
- A Future or Trends Update
- Leadership – for Direction & Improved Clarity
- Performance/Productivity Improvement – Work/Life Effectiveness
- Teambuilding/Culture
- Communication/Sales/Marketing Update
- Energiser – Change Mood/Pace of event – after lunch or Start of Day 2 or 3
- A Hero! Story – the big Finale
- MC/Facilitation/Acts – panels, crowdsource, hypotheticals
For some advice on finding the best speakers and entertainers for your event – contact your friendly Speakers Bureau
This Blog is a work in Progress for my friends in the Speaking and Conference industry. Your input is welcome. Please connect with me on Social Media or contact me.