Keynote Speaker for Leadership Offsites
CHALLENGE THINKING.
SHARPEN DECISIONS.
For senior leadership teams that need to challenge familiar thinking, surface different perspectives and make sharper decisions about what happens next.
Trusted to engage senior leadership audiences across enterprise, technology and professional services.
LEADERSHIP OFFSITE KEYNOTE SPEAKER FOR SENIOR DECISION-MAKERS
AJ Kulatunga is a keynote speaker for leadership offsites, executive retreats and strategy days, helping senior leadership teams challenge familiar thinking, surface different perspectives and make sharper decisions.
Leadership offsites often bring together executives who have been discussing the same priorities for months. Familiar assumptions, established positions and unspoken concerns can shape the conversation before the agenda even begins.
Through his Execution Intelligence™ work, AJ helps leadership teams examine what they may be taking for granted, test whether current assumptions still hold and connect the decisions made during the offsite with what needs to happen afterwards.
The result is a commercially grounded keynote that gives senior leaders a fresh perspective before they move into strategy, priorities and decision-making, helping the offsite produce clearer thinking and more purposeful action.
FEES & BOOKING INFORMATION
Leadership Offsites from AUD $7,500 + GST
Australian Keynotes from AUD $10,000 + GST
Virtual Sessions from AUD $5,000 + GST
International Keynotes from USD $10,000
Keynote, working-session and offsite-support packages are quoted according to the event format, audience, location, preparation and agenda requirements.
AJ offers fixed-fee keynote packages so organisers can plan with confidence. For most Australian capital-city events, standard travel is included in the quoted fee.
Travel Hubs: Melbourne, Singapore, London, Denver
Available for leadership offsites, executive retreats, strategy days, ELT sessions and senior leadership forums across Australia, Asia-Pacific and internationally.
Phone / WhatsApp: +61 418 810 397
WHAT YOUR LEADERS WILL WALK AWAY WITH
When you book AJ, you can expect:
- A fresh look at what the team may be taking for granted: Leaders are challenged to separate what is still true from the assumptions, habits and ways of working that have simply become familiar.
- Better conversations about the things that actually matter: The session gives the room practical ways to question ideas, surface different perspectives and explore disagreement without turning the offsite into a debate for its own sake.
- Greater clarity around priorities and trade-offs: Leaders leave better able to distinguish what deserves attention now, what can wait, and what may need to stop if the organisation is serious about moving something else forward.
- Clearer ownership of what happens next: Good intentions become more useful when someone knows what they own. The session helps move the room from collective agreement toward individual responsibility and visible next moves.
- A practical way to keep the offsite from disappearing on Monday: The First 48 Hours gives leaders a simple test for momentum: after an important commitment is made, what visibly stops, starts or changes once everyone returns to work?
WHAT YOUR LEADERS WILL WALK AWAY WITH
When you book AJ, you can expect:
- A fresh look at what the team may be taking for granted: Leaders are challenged to separate what is still true from the assumptions, habits and ways of working that have simply become familiar.
- Better conversations about the things that actually matter: The session gives the room practical ways to question ideas, surface different perspectives and explore disagreement without turning the offsite into a debate for its own sake.
- Greater clarity around priorities and trade-offs: Leaders leave better able to distinguish what deserves attention now, what can wait, and what may need to stop if the organisation is serious about moving something else forward.
- Clearer ownership of what happens next: Good intentions become more useful when someone knows what they own. The session helps move the room from collective agreement toward individual responsibility and visible next moves.
- A practical way to keep the offsite from disappearing on Monday: The First 48 Hours gives leaders a simple test for momentum: after an important commitment is made, what visibly stops, starts or changes once everyone returns to work?
FEES & BOOKING INFORMATION
Leadership Offsites from AUD $7,500 + GST
Australian Keynotes from AUD $10,000 + GST
Virtual Sessions from AUD $5,000 + GST
International Keynotes from USD $10,000
Keynote, working-session and offsite-support packages are quoted according to the event format, audience, location, preparation and agenda requirements.
AJ offers fixed-fee keynote packages so organisers can plan with confidence. For most Australian capital-city events, standard travel is included in the quoted fee.
Travel Hubs: Melbourne, Singapore, London, Denver
Available for leadership offsites, executive retreats, strategy days, ELT sessions and senior leadership forums across Australia, Asia-Pacific and internationally.
Phone / WhatsApp: +61 418 810 397
AJ uses live music as a simple, memorable metaphor for leadership, alignment, timing and momentum, helping complex ideas land in a way audiences remember after the event.
THE EXPERIENTIAL HOOK: A MESSAGE THAT SHIFTS THE ROOM
Leadership offsites are often filled with strategic updates, pre-reads, priorities and carefully managed conversations. The challenge is not only helping people understand the content. It is helping the room remember the moment when the conversation changed.
AJ uses live music as a practical metaphor for timing, alignment, trust and momentum. It gives senior leaders a memorable reference point they can return to as the offsite moves into harder decisions.
The music creates energy, but it also performs a strategic job: helping the central message stay usable once the team moves from discussion into decision.
AJ’s sessions are designed to create interaction, reflection, and practical action beyond the event.
KEYNOTE, WORKING SESSION, OR BOTH?
The most important leadership-offsite decision is often not which speaker to book. It is choosing the right format for what the room actually needs to do.
🎯 KEYNOTE ONLY
Best when: the team has to make decisions later in the day, and the thinking needs loosening before the agenda begins.
What it does: surfaces assumptions, sets the standard for the decisions ahead and gives the team a shared test for what must visibly change after the offsite.
Best suited to a 45–60 minute opening slot, though it can also work as a closing keynote where the goal is to lock in commitment after the discussion.
🎯 WORKING SESSION
Best when: the team needs to do more than hear a useful idea. They need to examine a strategy, structure, market assumption or operating belief together.
What it does: helps the room pull apart an existing orthodoxy, test what still holds and rebuild a clearer path forward.
🎯 KEYNOTE AND WORKING SESSION
Best when: the offsite runs over multiple days or the decisions are consequential enough to need a second pass.
What it does: the keynote opens the thinking; the working session applies it to the actual decisions on the agenda once the assumptions are already named.
Best-Fit Events:
- Leadership offsites
- Executive retreats
- Strategy days
- ELT planning sessions
- Senior leader forums
- Transformation leadership sessions
- Executive committee planning days
- Board and leadership alignment sessions
See AJ HOLD THE ROOM
Preview AJ’s keynote style with senior leadership audiences.
AJ combines strategic insight, humour, live music and practical frameworks to create a shared starting point.
Watch AJ’s Full Keynote Including Q&A
REVIEWS.
ABOVE & BEYOND.
AJ went above and beyond to build a presentation that truly served the room. It shows you everything about who AJ is at the core. He then spent the rest of CyberCon engaging with everyone, supporting those he knew were presenting. AJ is definitely part of our Cyber community now, and we shine brighter because of his inclusion.
Ben Doyle | CISO, Thales (RSAC Conferences CISO Bootcamp Convener)
TRUE EVENT PARTNER.
“Your preparation, energy, laser focus on getting the messaging right, and passion all helped to make this Ingram Micro and Red Hat event the huge success it was! Thanks a million, AJ!”
Grant Cleary, Principal Partner Marketing Manager | Red Hat
ABSOLUTE STANDOUT.
AJ Kulatunga was the kind of closing speaker that makes you forget you’re at a conference and just tune in. Funny, vulnerable, totally disarming and somehow managed to say (and sing) things we all needed to hear. A nice reminder that influence comes from how we connect, and the energy we leave behind. Overall Audience Satisfaction: 5/5
Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI)
CASE STUDY: From 1 Idea to 13
A global engineering and technology organisation had launched an internal innovation challenge, but only one idea had been submitted. AJ was brought in to shift the thinking and help teams act within the constraints of their existing work.
The challenge produced thirteen new ideas, with nine developed into solutions adopted by senior leaders and deployed across the business.
The relevance to a leadership offsite is simple: the measure is not whether people agreed in the room. It is whether the discussion changed what the organisation did next.
LEADERSHIP OFFSITE OPTIONS
Choose the format based on what your organisation needs the offsite to accomplish.
FIRST DECISION – CHOOSE THE FORMAT:
For: Organisations that need a strong keynote, shared language and a clear message.
Best when your people need to think differently before the real agenda begins. The keynote helps leaders surface assumptions, test inherited thinking and create a sharper standard for the decisions that follow.
For: Leadership teams that need to examine assumptions, trade-offs and decisions.
Best when the team needs to actively work through a strategy, structure or operating belief together. The session helps leaders test what still holds, what needs to change and what must be owned next.
For: Multi-day offsites or consequential decisions that need a second pass.
Best when the keynote needs to open the thinking and the working session needs to apply it. This format helps the team name the assumptions first, then work through the real decisions with more honesty and precision.
Not sure which format fits your offsite?
Our team can recommend the keynote, working session or combined format based on your audience, priorities and what needs to be different after the event.
SECOND DECISION – CHOOSE THE FOCUS:
For: Leadership offsites | Executive retreats | Strategy days
Good decisions often stall because agreement is mistaken for commitment. This keynote gives senior teams practical language for decisions, ownership and momentum before they move into the harder work of the offsite.
For: Cross-functional alignment | Stakeholder influence | Leading without authority.
When the offsite depends on leaders influencing across functions, reporting lines or stakeholder groups, this keynote helps the room build trust, communicate with authority and move ideas forward.
QUESTIONS LEADERSHIP OFFSITE ORGANISERS ASK
Is AJ right for a senior or sceptical audience?
Yes. AJ’s work is commercially grounded and designed for rooms that have already heard plenty of generic motivational content. The session is built for leaders who need to make decisions, not just feel inspired.
How far ahead should we book?
Most offsites are booked six to twelve weeks out, though busier planning months fill earlier. If your date is close, check anyway. Availability moves week to week and it costs nothing to ask.
What does AJ need from a briefing call?
A short call with the person holding the agenda. AJ wants to understand what is actually being decided, what the team already agrees on, what remains untested and what a good outcome looks like by the end of the offsite.
How is the keynote tailored to the decisions on our agenda?
The briefing call shapes the examples, questions and assumptions AJ brings into the room. The session is built around what your team is actually walking into, not a standard deck.
Does AJ travel, or is virtual an option?
AJ is based in Melbourne, Australia, and travels for offsites and retreats across Australia and internationally. Virtual delivery is available where the format calls for it, although the opening keynote slot works best in person.
Does AJ stay in the room afterwards?
Where useful, yes. AJ can stay for Q&A, a working session or informal conversation as the team moves into its own agenda. This is confirmed as part of the format and briefing discussion.
PLANNING A LEADERSHIP OFFSITE, EXECUTIVE RETREAT OR STRATEGY DAY?
Start with a conversation about your agenda, audience and the decisions your leadership team needs to make. AJ can recommend the keynote, working session or combined format that best fits the offsite.
Or call / WhatsApp AJ directly: +61 418 810 397