Book Stephen Gilfus
Keynotes, guest lectures, and university residencies.
A platform architect, board director, and serial entrepreneur brought in by universities, conferences, and executive teams to translate the AI, governance, and platform inflection points into language a room can act on.
Sessions are designed for the audience in the room — students, faculty, founders, operators, or board members — and built around real cases from thirty years of building category-defining platforms.
Stephen Gilfus
Keynote & Guest Speaker
Past Stages
Talks have been delivered at universities, conferences, and corporate stages across the country.
Formats
How a session can be shaped.
- Conference keynote
60 to 75 minutes for industry, edtech, AI, and governance conferences. Tailored thesis with a memorable spine the room will quote afterward.
- University guest lecture
Single class, lecture series, or executive-education module. Designed with the faculty lead so the case work lands inside the syllabus.
- Executive workshop
Half-day or full-day session for boards, leadership teams, and innovation councils on AI strategy, platform design, and governance.
- Fireside & panels
Moderated conversation, fireside Q&A, or panel chair on category strategy, AI in regulated industries, and platform business models.
Audiences
Who the work is for.
- Universities.
- Business, engineering, public-policy, and entrepreneurship programs — undergraduate through executive education.
- Conferences.
- EdTech, AI, governance, cyber, and innovation summits looking for an operator who has built and exited at scale.
- Corporates.
- Boards, leadership offsites, innovation councils, and professional-services firms navigating AI repositioning.
- Communities.
- Founder collectives, accelerators, and policy convenings working on the future of AI, education, and platforms.
What to expect
A thesis, not a deck.
Each session is built around a single, defensible argument the audience can carry into their own work the next morning.
Cases, not abstractions.
Drawn from founding Blackboard / CourseInfo, building category-defining platforms, and three decades of board and operator work.
A room that participates.
Time reserved for live Q&A and structured table discussion so the conversation outlives the talk.
Speaking Topics
Talks, themes & sample sessions.
A selection of field notes on the topics Stephen speaks to most often — AI governance, platform architecture, edtech strategy, and category formation. Use these as a starting point when shaping a keynote or workshop.
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Booking
Ready to bring Stephen to your stage?
Share the audience, format, date window, and any context for the session. Inquiries are reviewed personally and answered with availability and a proposed thesis.