Adrian Watkins.
Speaking

Keynotes, workshops, panels.

Most speaker pages list the talk. Mine lists the question I want the audience to leave with. If the question is not yours, the talk is not for you. Singapore-based, available across Asia-Pacific time zones and back to Europe on request.

Adrian Watkins moderating an Ortus Club CXO roundtable in Singapore
Moderating an Ortus Club CXO roundtable. Singapore, May 2026.
Adrian Watkins moderating a 10-person executive roundtable, Ortus Club Singapore
Ten-seat executive roundtable, Ortus Club. Singapore, May 2026.
Adrian Watkins on stage opening the Taipei City Government Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025 event.
Opening keynote, Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025. Taipei City Government, November 2025.
Adrian Watkins on a sofa with a microphone during the Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025 fireside in Taipei.
Fireside, Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025. Taipei, November 2025.

Some of the topics I speak about.

One

Applied intelligence for boards.

What AI capability actually looks like at board level, and what nominating committees should ask of any company they sit on. The question to leave with: what is the one AI-related risk on this board's agenda that no one is sponsoring?

Two

AI governance for operating teams.

The EDGE Govern pillar in the room. Decision rights, model and vendor registers, kill-switch criteria, the boring artefacts that prevent the loud incident. The question to leave with: what is your current AI surface, and who could name it without opening a document?

Three

Building AI products for Asia, and the reason I launched democratising.ai.

Why most "global" AI products feel translated rather than built for the region, and what changes when you start with the market. Drawn from PromptAndGo.ai and AIinASIA. The question to leave with: which of your AI assumptions is actually a US assumption with a Singapore postcode on top?

Four

M&A and integration in tech.

What the SQREEM TotallyAwesome integration taught about collapsing two commercial stacks into one without breaking the AI surface in between. The question to leave with: what part of your integration plan assumes the AI just keeps working?

Five

Owned media for executives.

Building AIinASIA from zero to roughly 10,000 monthly readers with no paid distribution, and why most executives should publish on their own surface instead of renting LinkedIn's. The question to leave with: what do you publish under your own name in a year, and where does it live in 2030?

Six

Commercial governance under regulatory pressure.

Drawn from running this at SQREEM. Keeping commercial discipline, margins, and regulatory posture aligned when AI moves faster than policy. The question to leave with: which of your commercial controls would survive a 90-day regulator review?

Speaking calendar.

Upcoming and ongoing first, then recent. Selected dates.

Upcoming and ongoing
From May 2026

SDG Open Hack 2026, Ngee Ann Polytechnic Edition.

Mentor. Working with student teams across the NP edition of the hack as they build toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Running across the hack window and beyond.

Ongoing

Panels.

Frequent panellist across business strategy, operational implementation, playbooks, and frameworks. Increasingly with an AI overlay, often the entry point back to EDGE.

Recent
May 2026
Ortus Club logo

The Era of Services Delivery. Ortus Club roundtable.

Moderated a closed-door senior executive roundtable for the Ortus Club on services delivery and the impact of artificial intelligence. Off-the-record, Chatham House format.

March 2026

Launch Entrepreneurship Bootcamp 3.

National Library Board, Singapore, with BlackStorm Group. Workshop and keynote on governance discipline for AI-native founders. Second year running the interactive Sales and Marketing session at Launch.

November 2025

Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025.

Guest of Taipei City Government. Opened the event with "Democratising Intelligence for a Sustainable Future", then moderated the startup panel with Jameson Hsu (886 Studios) and Debbie Chien (Vulcanest). Adrian's post-event reflection: Is your AI earning its energy?

2024 and earlier

MMA Global and prior panels.

Listed speaker, MMA Global. Earlier industry panels in the Mumbrella, Branding in Asia, MartechAsia, and The Drum (Agencies4Growth) circuits.

Ongoing

Trade press panels and judging.

Ongoing: panels and judging across trade press in business strategy, AI, and operational implementation.

Adrian Watkins delivering an industry welcome keynote with audience visible.

Workshop and keynote format.

Keynote runs 30 to 45 minutes plus questions. Workshops run a half-day or a full day, with EDGE pillar artefacts as the working output. Panels are fine if there is a real argument in the room.

Adrian Watkins delivering the BlackStorm What is Marketing, Really? workshop. Adrian at a flipchart with the workshop title on screen.
Workshop format. BlackStorm Group, What is Marketing, Really?
Adrian Watkins moderating the startup panel at Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025 in Taipei. Three seated speakers.
Panel discussion, Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025 in Taipei.

Book Adrian.

If the topic, the audience, and the question you want them to leave with line up, the right next step is a short call.