Robert X. Fogarty is the founder of Dear World, a global storytelling movement that shares people’s most meaningful stories.

Dear World began as a photographic art project on the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, where Fogarty asked people to share a short message to the world. He then invited participants to write that message directly on their skin in washable black ink and be photographed by him.

Dear World has been featured on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, CNN, the BBC, Good Morning America and the TODAY show.

Fogarty’s work has taken him inside refugee camps, war zones, Ivy League and community college campuses, small associations, and Fortune 100 companies. Across every setting, Fogarty’s belief remains the same: “The best leaders do not just tell their stories. They make room for everyone else in the room to tell theirs.”

Today, CEOs and leadership teams from Google to Duke men’s basketball bring Fogarty and Dear World to design experiences when they need more than a keynote. They are looking to create the kind of shared experience people remember long after the conference ends. He credits FICP for helping launch his interactive speaking career back at the 2013 FICP Annual Conference. Dear World now counts more than a dozen FICP member companies as clients.

Write Your Future: An Immersive Storytelling Experience

In this meaningful journey woven throughout the conference, participants will experience the power of storytelling – not just as a tool for engaging audiences, but as a catalyst for personal reflection, purpose and transformation.

Founded in New Orleans by Robert X. Fogarty in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dear World emerged from a simple yet profound belief: people change when they put what matters most into words.

Together, FICP and Dear World will explore why stories endure, why letters continue to resonate and how writing can illuminate both who we are today and who we aspire to become. Through a guided process grounded in personal values, lived experiences and future intentions, participants will create a letter to their future selves - capturing the commitments, actions and aspirations they want to carry forward long after the event ends. A closing film and reflection bring the experience full circle, celebrating the stories and connections that emerge when people are given the space to flourish.

More than a keynote. A storytelling experience woven throughout the conference!

Henry Coutinho-Mason is obsessed with answering the biggest question in business: "What will people want next?"

Henry is one of the world’s leading authorities on consumer trends, having spent a decade as the managing director of TrendWatching. He is the author of Trend- Driven Innovation, which lays out a simple, accessible approach to anticipating customer expectations. It forms the basis of TrendWatching’s research, content & product that is used by 100,000 B2C professionals at hundreds of the world’s leading brands. 

Henry’s latest book, The Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work, and Thrive In The Next Decade, is a handbook for visionaries featuring the thirty biggest ideas and instigators that will shape humanity’s next decade. It was launched at SXSW in March 2023. 

As a speaker, Henry has given more than 100 inspiring and actionable keynotes & workshops in 30+ countries – with multiple repeat bookings from global leadership teams at J&J, Calvin Klein, Mastercard, the Tata Group and many more. He is also a guest lecturer at HEC business school in Paris. 

Based in London, his work with clients is on consumer trend & innovation strategy, typically around “The Future of X” (retail, work, digital, cities, travel, etc.).

Henry has been quoted as a trend expert in The Guardian, the FT, HBR, AdMap, The New York Times and The Economist and has appeared on television networks such as CNBC, the BBC and Brazil's Globo News. Fun fact: he was also included in GQ's Most Connected Men in Britain list for 2016.

As co-founder of 3Space, Henry is also an award-winning social entrepreneur. With its innovative solution to generating social value from empty commercial property, 3Space was commended in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas and won the European section of the FT/Citi Urban Ingenuity Awards.

Jason Dorsey’s passion is uncovering hidden insights and new strategies that future-proof your organization. He has led over 150 benchmark research studies on four continents to separate myth from truth for leaders. Adweek calls him a “research guru.” 

Jason is known for his unique, interactive, content-rich presentation style. He has received more than 1,000 standing ovations at events around the world, from India and Singapore to Chile, Finland, France and Egypt. 

A trusted expert on emerging trends, Jason has been featured on over 200 TV shows such as 60 Minutes, The Today Show, CNN, CNBC and hundreds more media interviews, including a New York Times cover story. 

Jason is President of The Center for Generational Kinetics (CGK), the leading generations and emerging trends research, strategy, and speaking firm. CGK has worked with over 700 companies around the world to drive innovation, growth and research-based thought leadership. 

Jason wrote his first bestselling book at age 18. His latest bestseller is Zconomy: How Gen Z Will Change the Future of Business and What to Do About It. This breakthrough book was a #1 New Release on Amazon and a Top 10 Business Book of the year by Forbes.com 

Jason’s mission is to unlock the potential of leaders and organizations through original research, unexpected strategy and innovation that future-proofs organizations.

Priya Parker is helping us take a deeper look at how anyone can create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering (or fight) at a time. She is a facilitator, strategic advisor and acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters and the forthcoming The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict. Parker regularly teaches on her Substack, Group Life and The Art of Gathering Digital Course.

Parker has spent 20 years helping leaders and communities have complicated conversations about community, identity and vision at moments of transition. Trained in conflict resolution, she has worked on race relations on American college campuses and on peace processes in the Arab world, southern Africa and India. Parker is a founding member of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network. She studied organizational design at MIT, public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and political and social thought at the University of Virginia. She was the executive producer and host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, which explored how people connect across distance and difference.

Parker’s The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (Riverhead, 2018) has been named a Best Business Book of the year by Amazon, Esquire Magazine, NPR, the Financial Times, 1-800-CEO-READS and Bloomberg. She has spoken on the TED Main Stage, and her TEDx talk on purpose has been viewed over 3 million times. Parker’s work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, TED.com, Forbes.com, Real Simple Magazine, Oprah.com, Bloomberg, Glamour, the Today Show and Morning Joe.

She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, Anand Giridharadas and their two children.

www.priyaparker.com