James Poulter
Future of Work Speaker & Innovation Culture Speaker
James Poulter is the founder and CEO of Vixen Labs one of the UK’s leading Voice Technology companies and is a thought-leader and speaker on Innovation Culture, the Future of Work and Emerging Technologies (including the metaverse).
Previously as Head of The LEGO Group’s Emerging Platforms & Partnerships team as part of the Digital Consumer Engagement division, James pursued new technologies, platforms and partners to build digital consumer engagement with LEGO customers, shoppers and consumers on a global basis.
James Poulter is a seasoned marketer and communications professional with over 10 years of experience. He previously was the Head of Social Media for LEGO’s social network for Kids, LEGO Life – which launched globally in 2017 and has since grown to over 2m active users regularly posting their content to the world’s first global and safe social network for kids.
As well as devising and developing social features such as LEGO Life’s emoji keyboard, custom characters and moderation systems, James oversaw the launch of LEGO’s global partnership with GIPHY leading the LEGO channel to accrue over 1 Billion GIF views in it’s first year.
Prior to joining LEGO, James worked for a number of the world’s leading marketing, advertising and public relations firms including Edelman and Ogilvy leading digital marketing, mobile and social campaigns both in EMEA and globally as well as new business efforts for clients such as Diageo, Unilever, Bose, PayPal, HP and Adobe.
James Poulter now runs Vixen Labs one of Europe’s leading strategy consultancy and app development studio for voice assistants and conversational ai. Starting with a team of two people, in the space of three years, even during a pandemic, the team has now grown into over 20 staff and continues to grow from strength to strength.
Outside of work James is an advisor to the Church of England’s digital board as well as well as a number of other charities, entrepreneurs and start-ups.
James is also the host of the show “Signal” for The MediaNet which explores on a monthly basis the intersection between faith, media and technology.
SPEAKING TOPICS
James Poulter is an experienced speaker on innovation. From the future of work and emerging technologies, through to creating innovation cultures within organisations, and how they can adapt and find new ways of working, especially since the recent pandemic.
He speaking topics include –
Welcome To The MeetingVerse – How Web 3.0 is coming to eat the boardroom. In this session we will look at the ever growing “metaverse” and help delegates understand what it is, and crucially, what it isn’t. Giving insights into how Web 3.0 Technology is going to change the way we work, meet, learn and develop and the expectations of the next generation of workers. As we emerge from the pandemic we will look at the impacts that COVID has had on our ways of working and where technology like AR, VR, NFTs and Voice tech could change our workplaces in the future.
CTL – ALT- DEL – The Digital Revolution has already changed the way we work and communicate with our clients, but the future of the workplace has faced further challenges with the impact of COVID-19. In this presentation James Poulter looks at how you can continue to build a culture of innovation and what will need to change in order for companies to evolve to the new ways of working. Using some real-life examples from his time at Lego, Edelman and Ogilvy, James looks at what new controls (CTL) will need to be in place to allow a return to work. What will need to be altered (ALT) to allow your team to innovate, work together and still maybe work from home with a new work/life balance – and what will need to deleted (DEL) from previous ways of working. There is no choice now to innovate – innovate is essential to survive.
Building innovation culture through agile working: In this session James will talk through how using agile practices he and the team at Vixen Labs have built a multi-million dollar business in just 24 months by coming along side global business to build cultures of innovation which are ready to embrace change at pace.
Play + Work = Innovation Culture – When we blend the best of play with the best of work we get a culture that truly moves people to innovation. In this talk James will show you where your organisation sits on the “innovation pendulum” and how you can shift from a siloed approach to a culture of innovation.
Ambient Technology –In this presentation James talks on the impact of voice assistance, AI and conversational technology and how it is becoming the anecdote to our digital distraction and impact it will have and can have in the future. Learn where to begin in the world of voice marketing and move towards it.
2025 – Autonomous Connected & Enabled – In this presentation James takes you into the not too distant future to look at the real impact of new and advancing existing technologies and how they will impact individuals lives in a 24 hour period and what long term benefits they will bring.
The Ethics & Morality of Digital Technology – What happens when Alexa wants to divest her shares at Amazon? Or Siri wants to get baptized? We are living in a world where the AIs we live with every day take steps towards general intelligence. At the same time we want ever more functionality out of our devices, yet must give up more privacy to get there. In this session JP examines the potential pitfalls and prospects of a more technologically enabled world – through the lens of it’s impact on our morals and values.
PODCASTS
Talking Shop, Making Voice Work is a new podcast produced by Europe’s leading voice agency Vixen Labs and hosted by CEO James Poulter. Join for a deep dive into how consumers are using Voice daily to connect with businesses, and more key insights from our Voice Consumer Index 2021 report to understand how to use Voice as part of your marketing plan.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/talking-shop/id1585953514
Some other podcasts are below –
Vux World – Voice First Brand Strategy
Bringing AI to Lego Interview
Shiny New Objects – Interview
To hear an interview with James please listen to the “Practical Futurist Podcast Series” – James is featured in Episode 3 talking to Andrew Grill – To Listen Click Here
“One of the few people I've met that have the real ability to read people and situations well, and act on that knowledge in ways that lead to real interpersonal effectiveness. In the fast-paced and dynamic digital environment, there are some situations where entrepreneurs often find themselves struggling to steer safely out of a conversational jam - James definitely does not have that problem, he loves sharing his experience to help others build their business or community”
— TeComm & Lebero Events.
“JP is full of energy, ideas, and passion for technology. He is a very strong networker and collaborator who is always looking to support new projects and initiatives and is focused on ensuring he has a strong knowledge and expertise on whatever the “next big thing” around the corner is. He also has a fantastic network and is a valued sparring partner on many topics - from Voice to Blockchain via GIFs and Emojis. It has been great working with him at LEGO Group”
— Lego
“JP is the ultimate collaborator. He empowers his teammates and shares his knowledge of digital trends and technologies at every opportunity. He is the first person to volunteer for a hackathon and is an exceptional facilitator of strategic partnerships. JP was a key member to the development of LEGO's social app LEGO Life (launched #1 in Kids category), and the driving force behind the LEGO emoji language (featured on Jimmy Fallon).
— Mixed Reality, Microsoft.
“In this new age of digital marketing and pr, there are few people in the UK that absolutely 'get it'. Those that do have been busy proving just how valuable this new way of doing things is to business and James is one of those people. Knows his stuff, explains it in an easy to understand way and keeps his eye on future trends and how it all fits together”
— Business & Mindset Mentor.
“I thought that James’ talk was intuitional, intentiona and intelligent. His delivery style was very much the zeitgeist of our times. It inspired a vast amount of ideas”
— Syniad 2019 – Cardiff University
