The earlier we see change, the more choices we have about what happens next
Victoria Mulligan is a globally recognised foresight strategist, speaker and facilitator who works with boards and leadership teams to bring the future to life. Drawing on two decades of international experience and a human-centred approach, she equips organisations with the insight, imagination and practical tools to navigate uncertainty, challenge assumptions and turn change into opportunity.
Victoria has worked with governments, businesses and philanthropies around the world. Trained in psychology and strategic foresight, she brings a distinctive and deeply human perspective to the forces reshaping our world, from artificial intelligence and geopolitics to demographic change and the future of work.
Victoria is co-chair of the Australia–New Zealand node of The Millennium Project, a global futures think tank, and an advisory board member of the Global Futures Society. She has spoken at the United Nations Summit of the Future and the Dubai Future Forum, and is a regular contributor to New Zealand and international publications. She is also the founder of Design Futures Aotearoa, a not-for-profit focused on helping communities engage with long-term change and possibility.
Victoria's keynotes and workshops are designed to inform, inspire and equip. Research-rich, optimistic and highly engaging, her sessions connect big-picture change to the decisions organisations face today. Audiences leave with fresh perspectives, practical tools and greater confidence to recognise emerging opportunities and shape what comes next.
Big-picture thinking. Practical ways to prepare for what comes next.
Talking Points
Future Forces: The Megatrends Reshaping Our World
AI, geopolitics, demographic change, climate and energy are transforming the world around us. What happens when these forces converge, and where might the next opportunities for growth and innovation emerge?Future Forces: The Megatrends Reshaping Our World
Victoria takes audiences beyond the headlines to explore the global forces shaping the decade ahead. Taking an industry specific lens to current research, she reveals how seemingly disconnected developments could reshape markets, business models and customer expectations.
Audiences leave with a wider view of what's coming, fresh ideas about what's possible and a clearer sense of what tomorrow’s changes could mean for today’s decisions.
Best for: Major conferences, industry summits and bespoke sector briefings.
Anticipatory Leadership
What does it take to lead when the future is increasingly difficult to predict?Anticipatory Leadership
In a world of accelerating change, leaders need the curiosity to recognise what's emerging, the imagination to explore what might be possible and the adaptability to respond as circumstances evolve.
Drawing on strategic foresight, psychology and her international experience, Victoria explores the capabilities leaders need to navigate uncertainty and build organisations that are ready for change. She connects longer-term thinking to the everyday realities of leadership, from challenging established assumptions and recognising emerging opportunities to creating the conditions for innovation.
Audiences leave with new perspectives on their leadership practice and practical ways to bring anticipation, adaptability and greater agency into their organisations.
Best for: Executive gatherings, leadership conferences and corporate offsites.
Think Like a Futurist
What if you could learn to see the future differently?Think Like a Futurist
The early signs of change are often visible long before their implications become clear. Victoria introduces audiences to the mindset and methods of professional futurists, showing how to recognise emerging signals, challenge assumptions, explore alternative futures and imagine possibilities beyond the obvious. Through compelling stories and interactive moments, this energising keynote makes futures thinking accessible to everyone.
Audiences leave with fresh perspectives and practical techniques they can use immediately, both professionally and personally.
Best for: Leadership conferences, professional associations and events seeking inspiration and audience participation.
Hopeful Futures: The Future Is Still Ours to Shape
What becomes possible when we look beyond the headlines and imagine a future worth working towards?Hopeful Futures: The Future Is Still Ours to Shape
At a time when uncertainty dominates the headlines, it's easy to lose sight of how much progress is happening around us and how much influence we still have over what comes next.
In this uplifting and thought-provoking keynote, Victoria takes audiences on a journey through the emerging ideas, breakthroughs and extraordinary examples of human ingenuity that offer reasons to be hopeful about the future. From scientific and technological advances to new ways of living, working and organising our communities, she explores what's already changing for the better and what might become possible in the decades ahead.
Combining evidence of progress, inspiring stories and a healthy dose of imagination, Victoria challenges audiences to look beyond today's problems, question the futures they've come to expect and consider the futures they'd like to create.
Audiences leave energised, with fresh perspectives, a renewed sense of possibility and the confidence to play an active role in shaping what comes next.
Best for: Major conferences, closing keynotes, leadership events and organisations seeking an energising, optimistic perspective on the future.
The Ripple Effect: Exploring What Change Could Make Possible - Workshop
What might one emerging change set in motion?The Ripple Effect: Exploring What Change Could Make Possible - Workshop
In this lively, collaborative workshop, participants explore the multiple consequences of a major trend or disruption, looking beyond the immediate effects to discover unexpected connections. Together they identify where new opportunities for innovation could emerge, where risks might develop and which possibilities deserve attention.
It's an energising way to turn big-picture change into fresh ideas and useful conversations for your organisation or industry.
Format: Interactive conference workshop or keynote follow-on.
Takeaway: Fresh perspectives on cascading change, emerging opportunities and potential risks.
Think Like a Futurist: The Practical Workshop
An accessible introduction to the methods professional futurists use. Working on a real question, participants examine early signals, map drivers of change and challenge their assumptions. Victoria selects the tools to suit the group and guides participants from big ideas to implications they can use. Teams leave with a shared language for discussing the future and techniques they can apply long after the session.Think Like a Futurist: The Practical Workshop
Format: Interactive conference session or half-day team workshop.
Takeaway: Practical foresight tools applied to a live challenge.
Rethink the Challenge: What Lies Beneath? Workshop
When an organisation keeps returning to the same problem, it may need a different way to frame it. Victoria helps teams look beneath familiar headlines to the systems, worldviews and stories shaping their responses. By making those assumptions visible, participants can explore fresh approaches to entrenched challenges and imagine different ways forward.Rethink the Challenge: What Lies Beneath? Workshop
Format: Leadership or organisational workshop.
Takeaway: New frames for the challenge and fresh strategic possibilities.
Bespoke engagements
Victoria also creates industry-specific megatrends presentations, executive briefings, roundtables, fireside conversations and facilitated strategy sessions. A keynote can be paired with a workshop so delegates can apply the ideas immediately. For leadership teams, engagements can include tailored research, scenario development and follow-up synthesis.
Bespoke engagements
Victoria managed to present some quite intense information in an engaging manner, and the audience was deeply engrossed! It was certainly very thought provoking and stimulated discussion for ... keep reading Grace Hospital
Victoria is a fantastic presenter—warm, engaging, and articulate. She was also incredibly easy and friendly to work with, making the whole experience enjoyable and seamless.
Victoria absolutely delivered for us. She was a pleasure to work with and genuinely invested in understanding our audience and what we wanted them to take away. Her keynote was exceptionally well researched, translating global megatrends into compelling, relevant insights for Aotearoa’s fashion and textiles industry. She brought a unique perspective and a deep understanding of our local context, connecting big-picture thinking with the opportunities and challenges facing our industry. Her keynote resonated strongly with our audience and delivered everything we had hoped for, and more.
We first met with Victoria to discuss her speaking at a seminar for members of our co-operative, focused on current local and global trends, the future of advice, and how we can best meet the needs of tomorrow’s clients. Following that meeting, we were so impressed by Victoria’s knowledge, insight, and content that we expanded her session to include a facilitated workshop with our members. Victoria delivered an excellent keynote and a highly engaging, thought-provoking workshop. The themes she explored carried through into discussions across the two-day seminar and added real value to the overall event. She comes highly recommended by those of us who organised the seminar, and her session was very well received by those who attended.
Beyond being a leader in her field, Victoria is passionate about her clients being the same. Her future-focused workshop stimulated fresh thinking and rich conversations among our diverse group of leaders. Whereas outputs from sessions casting their net over a wide audience can often seem watered down, Victoria’s detailed preparation, expert insights and carefully crafted format helped maximise the opportunity for all delegates – prompting relevant ideas that are unique, yet strongly connected.
