Gus Balbontin
Speaker, Investor, Explorer, Advisor, Rebel, Thinker
Former Executive Director and CTO of Lonely Planet, Gus led the iconic travel brand through major transformation, driving digital innovation and growth. He offers sharp insights on leadership and strategy in fast-changing, competitive markets.
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Born and bred in wild Patagonia, Gus never allowed his small town and humble beginnings get in the way of his big dreams. A healthy disregard for the status quo and a severe case of the fear of missing out landed him in Australia at the young age of 17.
By the age of 22, he had dropped out of uni, hitchhiked South America, set up his first business and landed his dream job at Lonely Planet. Fast forward a few years and he was leading the company globally and working with companies such as Google X, Nokia and Amazon on the latest technology, creative cultures and high performing teams.
Seeking a change from corporate life as Executive Director and CTO of Lonely Planet, Gus moved back to his entrepreneurial roots, becoming an investor, founder and mentor.
Today you will find Gus building robots, developing AI solutions, making 3D printed wheelchairs and investing in climate change technologies.
He loves sharing a story but he loves even more knowing those stories make a difference to people.
Gus crafts a transformative experience that energizes and empowers. By connecting deeply with the audience, he ensures that the lessons learned resonate on a personal level, equipping each participant with the confidence and tools needed to turn inspiration into tangible, meaningful action.
While Gus is happy to speculate about the future, he brings into focus what you can control right now, to make you ready for any future.
Gus has inspired audiences of 10 to 10,000 around the world. He has a profound impact on businesses creating language, practical models and analogies that drive action as well as a personal impact, with people driving change in their own lives.
“I will make you laugh hard and equally think deeply about the puzzles of running a business in today’s world” Gus
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Pull the Future Towards You
Gus isn’t about vague predictions—he’s about preparing you for whatever the future throws your way. As an “Alternative Futurist,” he’ll guide you through the trends that matter, with a sharp focus on what you can do now rather than later.
Gus inspires audiences to start playing with novelty to increase their tolerance to change and pull the future towards us. Waiting for it to happen is a recipe for disaster.
Stop wasting time on speculation and start taking action.
Ai Through the Human Lens
Gus will help your audience understand Ai in simple terms, recognise how much we already use it today and play with some examples on how it can apply to your job, business or industry. He will help you cut through the hype to focus on what the real human impact is.
The battle scars he collected over the years supporting businesses and humans through the digital revolution, perfectly apply in today’s Ai context. For example, we overestimated what the internet could do short term and simultaneously underestimated what it was going to do long term. Today you can’t run your business without internet, in future you won’t be able to run your business without Ai.
You are probably thinking “I haven’t finished with my digital transformation and now I need to worry about Ai transformation? Yes! If you are still paying the backlog of digital debt, you are about to start piling up Ai debt.
Ai poses no danger, inaction does. The opportunity is open to those that act. Let Gus help you take action.
Self-Development – Best Career Insurance!
Regardless of if you are in corporate or self-employed, we tend to learn early on in our lives to outsource our careers and development to external parties. If it’s not the career coach, it’s the recruiter or the learning and development team or HR or…
Let Gus help you look back, set vague goals, build the most powerful network and own your career so it doesn’t happen to you, but you happen to it.
It’s uncomfortable but you learn to let go and build a portfolio of activity that will make you more relevant in your current job and every future role you ever hold.
Gus will provoke, inspire and give the practical tools to be more accountable and take control.
Cultures of Trust and Accountability
Gus dives deep into the fabric of team building, exploring how to create a culture of trust, psychological safety, and accountability. Learn how to empower individuals to take responsibility and act with autonomy and discover the leadership traits necessary to harness the collective power of your team—even in the most uncertain circumstances and in the most complex distributed virtual offices.
Gus will guide you in understanding how self-awareness and individual behaviour shape the overall performance of your business.
Unlocking Agility & Adaptability
In the relentless pace of today’s markets, corporate momentum can be your biggest enemy. Gus challenges you to break free from outdated, repetitive processes and embrace a more agile, entrepreneurial mindset. He’ll guide you in creating systems that support both established and emerging business models, transforming your organisation into a nimble force ready to adapt to any change. This keynote is your blueprint for thriving in the face of disruption.
Customer Focus and Activating Innovation
You must solve more customer problems than business problems, if you want to stay relevant. Gus will help you shift your focus from internal struggles to external impact, showing you how to strip innovation down to its core—moving from unsolved to solved problems.
Creativity is scary because people judge it, curiosity is not. Let Gus help you focus your attention and energy to spark the entrepreneurial fuel everyone has inside.
Gus brings practical tools to the table, helping you turn lofty ideas into immediate action and engage every member of your team in the innovation process.
Once you see Gus’ simple innovation models you will be surprised how much we over process innovation and try to control it with little return.
Leadership in Difficult Times
Gus led a large global restructure and has been involved in many large corporate and small startup shake ups. Leading yourself and others through difficult times is something we can easily take our eyes off.
In a world where our brains are still wired for survival in the wild, leading in the modern business environment requires some serious counterintuitive thinking, specifically through tough times. Gus dives into the evolutionary challenges that make today’s rapid change so hard to handle and helps you accept and engage with practises that will get you and your business through disruption.
More than a Keynote
Master Classes and Workshops
Not only is Gus a highly sought after keynote speaker but he also offers masterclasses and workshops.
Gus uses a masterclass to dig deeper on topics such as innovation and how to turn it into immediate action. His masterclasses are impactful, tangible and will make you think really hard about business and even life! Hands on, full of backwards and forwards with the audience, his Masterclasses are
the best follow on from one of his keynotes or a stand alone piece if you feel the audience needs more engaging and doing!
Gus loves to dig deeper and provide people with the time and extra mentorship a keynote can’t but a half or full day workshop can provide. This is extra space to interact with colleagues as well as explore, in more depth, important concepts of innovation, agility, team building, culture and dealing
with uncertain futures. A workshop will certainly be a deep dive that would perfectly complement a keynote if time allows.
Workshops are clever because we fix real problems the business faces (no Lego or pasta and marshmallows games) – Clients are surprised how fast and how much energy they can point towards solving something worth solving. They also help break down silos in your business and help people
break the ice and get to know each other better.
- Keynotes run usually for 45 min plus a 15 min Q&A, super fun, candid and full of practical lessons (Gus can adjust length as necessary).
- Masterclasses run usually for 60min, three key topics are introduced and Gus engages the audience in a series of personal, group and general audience discussions. Very hands on, doing and sharing kind of session.
- Workshops usually run for 3 hours (half day) or 6 hours (fully day) and include lots of practical tools and break out sessions for the audience to engage with the concepts and solve real business challenges.
Gus is always happy to tailor a package to suit a client’s situation and budget.
