Steve Lerch

Innovation Through Culture: Stories From a Decade at Google
Innovative thinking is changing the modern world faster than at any point in human history, but now more than ever, innovation is not resigned to only the inventors, engineers, and scientists. The greatest innovators of our time are men like Steve Jobs. A man who didn’t invent the first Apple computer (Steve Wozniak) nor the iPod or iPhone (Tony Fadell). Instead, he established a culture of innovation that catalyzed and nurtured new ideas and new ways of thinking.

Steve Lerch will share stories from a decade at Google, where he worked with the world’s most innovative brands like GoPro, FitBit, and Nest. Dive into the history of some of Google’s most iconic projects like self-driving cars and augmented reality glasses, and more importantly, understand the simple, underlying cultural principles that allowed for these innovations. Principles like Launch and Iterate, Fail Well, and Bet on Technical Insights.

Building Trust and Connection in a Digital World
The best marketers aren’t just the ones telling the best stories. The best marketers are the ones that leverage data, patterns, and insights to tell the most relevant stories to each and every customer. In our modern, digital-first world, there are countless ways to easily collect and analyze this data. In this presentation we’ll explore those opportunities and the amazing stories brands have crafted using these insights.

The Feedback Imperative: Building a Culture of Ideation, Collaboration, and Sharing
Humble leaders understand that every employee, every customer, and every random person walking down the street could be an asset. Everyone is capable of a great idea. Everyone is capable of having a skill that others might not possess.

In this presentation, we’ll learn how to establish a culture and design a system to gather ideas and feedback from every corner of your business and beyond.

The AI Gameplan: Practical Strategies and Game Changing Tools You Need to Know
This engaging speech unravels the complexity of artificial intelligence by keeping the focus where it belongs: the intersection of what your business needs and what technology has to offer. The AI Gameplan applies the lessons Steve Lerch learned over 10 years at Google teaching innovation principles, and applies them to artificial intelligence tools, strategies, and concepts. You'll leave this speech inspired about what the future may hold, but more importantly, with practical actions you can take today to improve the productivity and expand the impact of your team (or yourself).

Leading in the Age of AI: An Innovation Roadmap for Leaders
For some teams, there is nothing more comfortable than consistency and complacency. For others, there is nothing more distracting and enticing than the latest, shiny technology or new idea. In the age of artificial intelligence, it's the responsibility of strategic leaders to guide their teams toward useful innovations, without being overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite new technologies. In this strategic and tactical presentation, you'll leave with not only a more grounded understanding of AI, but with an easily followable roadmap for considering and implementing new technologies. We'll also highlight the AI tool and strategies that can help your business, right now.

Who the Heck Is My Customer?
Whether you’re selling a product, building a brand, recruiting new employees, or lobbying to legislators, your audience is online. This means there are tools and technologies at our disposal, simple and free technologies, that every business leader should know how to use.

Creative, Bold, Successful and Simple: The Future of Advertising
Today's advertising industry professionals are eager to predict what's next. We envision as of yet un-achieved technological innovations that suddenly manifest and dramatically change the marketing landscape. What we fail to embrace are the brilliant strategies and cutting edge uses of existing technology that are already happening across our industry. "What's Next" for you and your business may be "What's Now" for one of your competitors, an advertising leader, or some unknown mom-and-pop shop in a totally unrelated industry.

Consumer Behavior in a World of Memes, Gifs, and Trends
The digital world is empowering consumers like never before, and armed with new platforms for consuming content, asking questions, and making decisions, these consumers are demanding that today’s brands be more nimble, flexible, and relevant than ever before.

In this presentation, we’ll explore how the customers in your brand/industry continue to evolve and the steps you need to take to keep up.

Innovation Leadership: Empowering Your People to Think Differently

Brainstorming, creativity, and outside-the-box thinking may seem like unpredictable and un-schedulable activities. But when leaders expect new ideas to be randomly birthed from sporadic eureka moments, we fail to recognize our own ability to inspire and motivate our teams. Perhaps even more importantly, we forget to remove the impediments and barriers that hinder our employee's abilities to think differently. This speech is filled with inspirational stories and simple, practical steps that any leader or team can take to inspire innovation.