speaking

I have keynoted national and international conferences, for regional library groups, and for local library groups on topics ranging from implementation and use of Web tools in libraries and higher education to personal electronics and the future of information. I have also led workshops, preconferences, and University-level classes. My areas of interest and expertise include:

  • Fostering innovation in libraries and museums
  • Near-future technology, and its affect on society
  • Maker tech (I literally wrote the manual for 3D printers in libraries)
  • Entrepreneurship and product design/management
  • Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning & the Information Ecosystem
  • Blockchain and decentralized services
  • The Internet of Things and ubiquitous surveillance
  • Intellectual property in the digital era
  • Copyright and fair use
  • Crowdsourcing

If you are interested in having me speak at your event or workshop, please check out my Video page, as well as my Presentations page. If you think I’m a good match for your event, please drop me an email at griffey at gmail.com. I would love to work with you.


If you are seeking me as a speaker for a conference or other library event, there are a few things worth calling out explicitly here. I will not speak at a conference or event that doesn’t include a Code of Conduct for said event, and I will turn down speaking engagements and panels where there is not attention paid to diversity in the makeup of the panel.

Further, I believe strongly in equal pay for equal work. I will  refuse any speaking engagement where keynote speakers or panelists are not fairly compensated due to their gender, gender presentation, race, or sexual orientation. If you have me, and also a keynoter of another gender, race, or sexual orientation than me, I expect that they are to be paid at the same rate that I am.

For any State that has a “religious freedom” law that allows individuals to refuse service to GLBTQ (or similar groups) or that has a “bathroom law” that insists on “birth gender”, I will only speak if the organization has clear policies in place that insist on equality of service and respect for individual’s gender self-assignment.

I agree with my good friend Jenica in my appreciation of clarity of communications from the event organizer to me, and so I include this in an attempt to begin with clarity of communication from myself to the event organizer.

My standard honorarium for a keynote address varies in regards to the preparation needed, but starts at $2500. In addition, I would expect to have included:

    Round-trip air travel from Nashville or, while I’m at Harvard, from Boston
    All other transportation costs, including mileage to/from airport on both ends of travel
    Minimum 2 nights hotel stay, one the night before I speak and one the night of my speaking engagement

Terms are subject to negotiation, and I am happy to work with groups to find a way to work within their budgets. I am also willing to negotiate for longer/more involved engagements such as consulting and workshops. References for any of the above can be derived from my Vita, or are available on request.