Sam Conniff Allende
Sam Conniff Allende is an inspirational and business speaker about doing this differently.
Sam has always been an advocate of business as unusual, operating at the intersection of brands, policy, and social innovation to create positive change in the world.
The raves he ran as a teenager were under held a banner of Saving The World The start-up that began in his bedroom became a Bafta Winning activist content studio. The first business plan he wrote became UK Social Enterprise of The Year awarded by Prime Ministers and The Queen and is recognised for shifting industry to a more ethical model.
His NGO in Youth Development grew from London To Lagos providing hundreds of thousands of young people across the UK and Africa with Digital Skills. The TV show he produced was the world’s first multi-platform interactive drama, engaging millions of young people into important social debates.
The aspect of the 2012 London Games he ran was the largest youth program of its kind in a generation giving young people access to underused space all across the country. The book he wrote after stepping back from being CEO became an international bestseller and launched a global movement of Pirates, rewriting the rules of life, society, and work.
And, as a consultant, Sam currently advises Mercedes, Red Bull, Tate & Lyle, and Rolex on sustainability, accountability, and what he calls Professional Rule Breaking.
Awards & Mentions
2007 — Appointed as one of 25 Social Enterprise Ambassadors for the UK Government
2008 — Sam has a chapter dedicated to him in the once-name-drop-worthy Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s book, Everyday Heroes
2009 — Named as one of the UK’s 50 new Radicals in The Observer
2010 — Awarded UK Social Entrepreneur in the EY Entrepreneur of The Year Awards
2011 — Livity receives The Queens Award for Enterprise and Innovation and Sam is awarded a Big Society Award, nominated by that other once-name-drop-worthy Prime Minister, David Cameron.
2012 — Livity wins best Marketing Agency, and Campaign of the Year at Marketing Agencies Association Awards
2013 — Don’t Panic wins a Bafta for the Revolution Will Be Televised
2014 — Named on the Happy List, the people making the UK happier, and the Maserati 100, the people helping the UK’s entrepreneurs
2015 — Livity wins Social Enterprise Of The Year at the National Business Awards
2016 — Don’t Panic is third most awarded agency at Cannes
2017 — Livity becomes the first agency to win Grand Prix at BIMA Awards (for redefining the agency model)
2018 — Awarded CSR Leader of the Year at Global CSR Awards
2019 — Becomes an international best selling author with Be More Pirate
Talks and Workshops
Sam Conniff Allende core theme is always about ‘Doing Things Differently’ from his startups to his book, it’s always been about making change. His speaking topics include –
Uncertainty Experts – This is an online workshop that goes way beyond ‘resilience’ and provides personalised practical tools for dealing with ongoing uncertainty, in an interactive experience produced during the pandemic and designed deliberately as a very unusual interactive online experience.
Be More Pirate – This is a talk and workshop that’s resulted in immediate action, that’s enabled NGOs and Businesses alive to pivot on the spot through ‘mutiny’ and enabled thousands of people to give themselves permission to become pirates delivering the change they want to see in the world.
Professional Rule Breaking – This is a talk and workshop that examines the way we do things at work, how often they’re part of the problem and how to unpick, unravel, and ultimately rewrite the rules of work to create happier, healthier, and more productive teams.
“I’m still in awe at how Sam managed to energise and enthuse a large crowd of four hundred GMs and senior marketers from across the globe to feel liberated enough to emphatically stand up and talk about the ‘be more pirate’ difference they wanted to see. The decisions we made at KFC that very moment are significant in their own right, but feel like just the start. Thank you Sam for being such a force for change.”
— CATHERINE TAN-GILLESPIE KFC GLOBAL CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
“Sam gave us an entertaining and edgy talk that caught everyone’s attention — his message to challenge really resonated.”
— MARK WAGSTAFF HEAD OF THE PROGRAM MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY, UBS
"We left Sam’s workshop with fresh courage, determination, and energy secure in that we had one another’s backs.”
— POLLY COCHRANE, CMO, WARNER BROS