Photo Credit: DarkMatter

Artificial Intelligence Keynote Speaker

Caelan Huntress started his career as an acrobat in the circus. As an actor, speaker, and digital marketer, he is an expert in earning and maintaining attention online. Caelan trains professionals how to prepare for the future of work through using AI tools.

Signature Topics

Prompt like a Pro: Practical AI Techniques

This is a high-energy, hands-on workshop where you’ll practice live with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity while learning the PILLARS framework for reliably great prompts. You’ll distill long PDFs in minutes, create a Custom GPT that mirrors your voice, compare models side-by-side, and use Advanced Voice Mode to rehearse tough conversations. You’ll leave with reusable prompts, templates, and a sharper creative process.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Apply the PILLARS framework to design high-quality prompts.
  2. Construct reusable prompt templates that mirror individual or brand voice.
  3. Compare outputs from multiple LLMs to determine model fit for purpose.

Human-First AI: Do the Work that Matters Most

In this fast-paced session, you’ll map your workflow to a five-step creative cycle, practice parallel prompting across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot, and learn to coach AI like a trusted teammate. Using a simple framework, you’ll identify the “last 5%” of high-value human work—the creative, discerning, meaningful tasks that keep your work original.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Analyse workflows and map them to a five-step creative cycle using AI.
  2. Differentiate between automated and high-value human work.
  3. Demonstrate effective parallel prompting to enhance creativity.

AI Governance and the Future of Work in New Zealand

Aotearoa can balance innovation with integrity in the age of AI. We unpack global governance trends, workforce transformations, and the ethical tensions between speed, safety, and creativity. You’ll learn practical frameworks for building human-first policies that foster trust, equity, and adaptability, to thrive in an AI-powered economy that reflects New Zealand’s values.

 

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Explain key global trends shaping AI governance & workforce transformation.
  2. Recommend frameworks that promote trust, equity, and adaptability in New Zealand’s evolving AI economy.
  3. Assess ethical tensions between innovation, safety, and creativity.

“Caelan’s presentation was unique, practical, and engaging. He had great command of the material, and from a performance perspective, he connected strongly with the audience. Bottom line: the attendees said this was one of the best presentations of the event.”

Mike Rayburn, CSP, CPAE, Co-Chair, National Speakers Association Annual Conference 2019

“Caelan is very personable, and his content is solid. He has an ability to sell without selling from the stage, and that’s a skill that speakers need to succeed today.”

Steve Lowell CSP, President, Global Speakers Federation

“Caelan has a great classroom presence that really helps his students get the message. He practices what he preaches and just watching him host online meetings is an education of its own.”

Dave Reed, Co-founder, eSpeakers

Recent Zoom chat feedback includes…

“My #1 favorite of the conference was Caelan Huntress’s presentation on productivity. He laid out a lot of good strategies on productivity, and gave just the right amount of information for me to then follow up and do my own research to implement into my life.”

“Caelan was the best because of the range of tips and concepts he communicated as well as his professional delivery and link to his website and the slides at the end. That was BRILLIANT on his part!”

“Caelan Huntress’ presentation spoke to me the most because it targeted my greatest weakness – time management.”

“This was an exceptional webinar. I thoroughly enjoyed it!”

“This was the BEST zoom session so far! Caelan is a rock star. Nice job.”

“You kept it fresh and lively.”

“Kept my full attention!”

“Great webinar, thank you!”

“He had so many actionable items that I can use to improve my productivity. I wish it would have gone longer!”

“Very inspiring and lots of great advice for how to improve your productivity. it was great. I’m glad you spoke from the heart and not from a script.”

Caelan's Photos

Caelan Huntress Bios & Introduction

SHORT BIO:

Caelan Huntress is the Founder of the AI Coaching Academy, where helps ambitious professionals prepare for the future of work through interactive AI training workshops.

LONG BIO:

Caelan Huntress is an AI Educator who teaches beginner and intermediate workshops through the AI Coaching Academy, a community for ambitious professionals to practice using the tools of the future. He is an author, public speaker, and business coach who spent ten years running an online business while traveling the world with his young family. A dual citizen in the US and New Zealand, his book ‘Marketing Yourself’ has helped thousands of personality-based businesses to create content that converts attention into revenue. With 25 years of experience in storytelling, first as a theatrical performer, and then as a marketing automation strategist, Caelan helps people learn how to use new technology to tell stories that matter, by finding the uniquely human work that robots cannot do.

ONSTAGE INTRODUCTION

Get ready for a show! Caelan Huntress started his career as an acrobat in the circus, and juggles flaming torches for fun. He knows a thing or two about the art of attention, and he’s going to do his best to earn your attention for a little while. Caelan is a keynote speaker, a marketing automation strategist, and an AI expert who teaches interactive workshops that prepare people for the future of work. His goal is to help you become more confident in using AI tools for daily tasks.

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Download Caelan’s Speaking Kit

Additional Topics

Build A Productive
GenAI Habit: Upskill yourself every day

The future is changing, faster than we can keep up. The only way to close the capability gap learn how to use Generative AI to get more done, make better decisions, and make more to publish. By learning about the 3 Inboxes of Productivity, Strategy, and Creativity, and time-blocking GenAI into your day, you can earn extra hours to learn these new futuristic tools through a few simple, daily habits and routines.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Separate Thinking and Doing for maximum creative efficiency
  2. Plan the time and topics for thirty minutes of GenAI training per day
  3. Use Time Blocking and Habit Stacking to set up systems for success

The Neuroscience of Narrative:
Business Storytelling Frameworks

Compelling stories are shortcuts to deep engagement. Our brains are designed to remember and understand through stories. When you can share your message through a story that starts with a character, and ends with a moral, people will understand your point more deeply. By learning the basic mechanics of story, and applying a storytelling structure to a commercial message, you can connect dramatically with your audience.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Understand the brain chemistry that makes stories so compelling to us
  2. Learn how to create emotional reactions in your listeners
  3. Apply the 5-act structure to your business story

Tall Poppy & Impostor Syndrome:
The Irony of Expertise

Growth creates a gap, between who you are and who you used to be. We fill this gap with impostor syndrome, because our mental model of ourselves is stuck in the past. The good news is, true impostors never feel this feeling. It is only true experts, those who earned their expertise through repeated failures, who doubt their own brilliance. You can grow to become greater than your fears, if you understand why poppies grow tall.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Learn how to fake it till you make impostor syndrome your friend
  2. Discover the clarity of the truest you, and how to share it
  3. Change your greatest wound into your greatest power

Marketing Yourself

Nobody stands out from the crowd by staying quiet, bland, or unseen. If you have something to say or something to sell, Marketing Yourself is how you attract an audience, spread your message, and sell your wares. Your personal brand is something no one else has. When you make your personality part of your branding, you have to handle haters, imposter syndrome, and self-censorship. By elevating the four cornerstones of your personal platform, and crafting a personal statement that resonates with the right audience, you can improve your impact, income, and influence, and design a lifestyle that suits you best.

Hybrid Team Culture

Work is a verb, not a location. Remote workers can get stuck in surviving instead of performing at their best, especially if the team is split between in-person office workers on alternating days. Hybrid teams require asymmetrical balance, with clear and open interactions across digital mediums. By planning interactive experiences, both synchronously and asynchronously, you can earn the full attention of a hybrid team. When people feel connected because of strong interpersonal relationships, they care more about their work, and are willing to support each other through challenge. Nurturing strong relationships in a hybrid culture will increase your team’s creativity, collaboration, and capacity.

Playful Productivity

Playing a game with our team can guide us into getting more out of limited resources of time and energy. By strategically using games to improve attention and increase innovation, play can transform how we participate in working. Play changes your state, gives you the resilience needed to solve hard problems, and empowers you to do better work in good cheer. By alternating between deep and shallow work, you can prevent cognitive fatigue by increasing variety & novelty. Practicing how to succeed (and fail) with your team in low-stakes play will form deeper relationships that enable you to handle high-stakes difficulties together.

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