Biography

One of Canada’s podcasting pioneers, Maffin writes a blog that is followed by thousands of people in the media, technology and business communities around the world. He continues to report on national technology trends on CBC Radio and is the past host of todradio dot com and Real Life Chronicles.

Maffin is recognized as a thought-leader in business innovation and strategy to trend-spotting and technological advancements. In January 1999, he launched MindfulEye, an artificial intelligence firm that developed the patented Lexant technology to perform syntactic analysis on public opinion comments posted on the Internet and aired in the media, thus providing a “mood monitor” of stocks. The launch of MindfulEye precipitated a meteoric rise in his popularity as a technology futurist.

Tod Maffin’s comprehensive understanding of Generation Y, high-velocity change and competition, hyper-innovation, and the accelerating pace of the world around us offer audiences an insider’s viewpoint of what the world holds in store and what lurks around the corner — whether it’s six months, a year, or ten years away.

His energetic, upbeat, jargon-free and highly entertaining presentation style ensures that audiences are not only captivated and engaged, but entertained and motivated. He has addressed audiences around the world — from Stockholm to Berlin and from Romania to Australia — and is one of very few speakers capable of bringing an audience to their feet in a standing ovation at 7am.

Speech Topics

Touch

For better or worse, digital business has fundamentally changed how organizations hire staff, market their services, and connect with stakeholders. The problem is, in an effort to use technology to connect with people more effectively, we have lost the humanity — that critical person-to-person connection — which is the engine of commerce and advocacy. TOUCH provides leaders of all types of organizations — private to public sector, community to enterprise business — with real-world, proven solutions.

Marketing and Communications

CRISIS:
SWARM!: Turning Combatants into Advocates When Good Buzz Goes Bad Online
Now that you’ve got your company’s social media platforms in place and staff trained, how prepared are you for when you’re attacked on those same platforms, either by angry customers, Internet “trolls,” or ill-informed pressure groups? This session can work as a full keynote, an interactive workshop, or intimate session for senior leaders.

FACEBOOK:
Exploiting Edgerank: Triple Your Brand’s Visibility on Facebook
So you’ve got a Facebook page for your brand, but it’s just not getting the traction you keep hearing about. You post something to your fan page and, a minute later, it’s already dropped off the bottom of your fans’ News Feeds. In this fast-paced seminar, Tod reveal how social media pros use Edgerank to keep their brand much more visible on Facebook’s all-important News Feed.

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Creating Contagious Fan Engagement Using Social Media
In this half- or full-day, attendees will learn the secrets behind creating contagious engagement in social media — the kind of interaction that drives real-world action. Fully-customized to your organization and competitive space, your team will learn how to identify and reach brand influencers, protect and moderate your social media channels, convert attackers to fans, exploit advanced tactics like retargeting and microtargeting, and more.

VIRAL:
Deconstructing Viral: How to Build a Killer Viral Marketing Campaign
Today’s viral campaigns may seem like jackpots in a one-in-a-million lottery, but it turns out they are well within the reach of any marketing team’s grasp. All it takes is knowing the secret ingredients behind some of the world’s most talked-about campaigns. By reverse-engineering each element of a successful viral campaign in your industry, Tod Maffin will show your audience the key markers that can launch a campaign into the viral stratosphere — markers that can be programmed into the smallest budgets.

Brand Loyalty / The Future

LOYALTY:
One Click Away: Cultivating Brand Loyalty in the Digital-Consumer Economy
In this era of the empowered consumer and websites that report the lowest prices on everything, it’s critical that organizations be proactive in deploying specific tactics aimed at earning and cultivating brand loyalty. In this presentation, Tod demonstrates how quickly loyal fans fall out of love with their “favorite” brands and offers precise action steps that need to be taken in order to maintain that loyalty.

FUTURE:
NEW:20/20 Vision: The Future of Business in 2020
In this fast-paced glimpse at what the business landscape will look like in 2020, Tod Maffin breaks down the top consumer and corporate mega-trends and reveals how they’ll affect all organizations. How will this smartphone culture change how people make purchases? What creative employee benefits will you need in place to retain your key people? How will neuromarketing affect your sales plans? How will you combat loyalty-sniping apps? It’s a look at the what future holds for us all, solidly anchored in real-world business priorities.

Living in a Digital World

NERD TIPS:
NEW:30 Secret Nerd Tips for Life Control
Tired of going to conference sessions where the presenter talks in theoretical, 50-thousand-foot generalities? You know the kind — you walk away thinking “He had nice slides, but I can’t apply any of that to my real day job.” In this fun information-packed session, Tod Maffin will reveal his 30 top nerd tips for working more effectively and living your life with less stress.

MENTAL HEALTH:
Taking Crazy Back: A New Roadmap to Mental Health in the Workplace
Once the founder and CEO of a multi-million dollar technology firm, Tod’s workload and always-on personality finally caught up with him and over the following years, he was crippled by a devastating depression and addiction — all the while struggling to appear to be productive to employers and colleagues, and happy and healthy to his friends and family. Tod will outline his own bold strategy for bringing mental health discussion out of the shadows in a way that will challenge your attendees for years to come.

Broadcasting / Government

BROADCASTING:
The Social Broadcaster: Infusing Social into Your Station’s DNA
One thing is clear in this new world of social networks — tweeting just ain’t cutting it any more. Stations and shows are struggling to use social media to engage with and broaden their audience. In this no-sacred-cows session, Tod Maffin will show you how leading broadcast brands are exploiting social virality and connect with their viewers and listeners.

GOVERNMENT
Smart Communities, Engaged Citizens
Using the same web sites that your civic stakeholders are already using, you could be helping lead the dialogue, getting important information to people, collecting opinion on issues from zoning to schools to property tax. And all with safe, secure, and standards-compliant tools. Tod Maffin will show your attendees how successful cities and communities your size are already using mobile and social media to be more effective in their communications, cutting costs, and — most importantly — developing an engaged, active citizen base. He’ll break down three successful campaigns for re-election and walk your group how the elected representative used specific digital tactics.