Speaking
Talks on advice, trust and conversation for leadership teams, advisory firms, universities and conferences. Every session is shaped around the people in the room.
Talks
Talks
Advice is older than money
From Krishna on the battlefield to the apps on our phones: what thousands of years of counsel can teach us about choosing whom to trust.
- Suits
- Conferences, leadership forums, universities
- People leave with
- A clearer sense of whose advice they rely on, and why.
The five qualities of a trusted advisor
Alignment, depth, voice, integrity and compassion: the ADVICEdge framework, with the stories and research behind each quality.
- Suits
- Advisory, wealth, real estate, sales and client-facing teams
- People leave with
- The twenty questions of the ADVICEdge Test, applied to their own client conversations.
Where human judgement still matters
Recent studies show that AI tends to agree with the people it advises, and that people value advice differently when they believe a person wrote it. A practical look at where accountability sits.
- Suits
- Leadership teams, technology and innovation events
- People leave with
- A grounded view of the research, and questions to ask before relying on any advisor, human or not.
Real conversations in the digital age
Why face-to-face conversation still shapes the outcomes that matter most, drawn from interviews with three hundred people and a hundred families.
- Suits
- People and HR teams, schools and universities
- People leave with
- Practical ways to make the important conversations happen, and happen in person.
Formats
How a session can run
Keynote
Twenty to forty-five minutes for conferences, offsites and leadership forums.
Workshop
A half or full day for leadership and client-facing teams. See Advising Well, Being Advised Well.
Conversation
Fireside chats, panels and moderated discussions on advice, trust and conversation.
Working together
How we prepare
Before any session, we talk about your audience: who they are, what decisions they face, and what you hope they will do differently afterwards. The examples, stories and research are then chosen for that room.
Workshops can include the ADVICEdge Test, worked through in pairs, so that people practise the conversations rather than only hearing about them.
BackgroundWhere the voice comes from
Ritu is a Dubai-based real estate investment advisor and the founder of Proact Luxury Real Estate. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy and IIM Lucknow, he spent over a decade in financial journalism with Bloomberg TV India, CNBC TV18, The Indian Express and Star News, then moved into brand positioning and public relations. His contributions to sustainability have brought him invitations from the United Nations to its COP climate conferences.
Large events invite him as a speaker and moderator. During the 2026 Gulf conflict, his market analysis ran on ABP News and CNBC Awaaz and in The Observer. He writes columns for Khaleej Times and BusinessWorld, and is the author of two books on conversation and advice.
Rooms he has spoken in include:
- GITEX
- IITs and IIMs
- Fortune 500 companies
Invite Ritu
Planning an event?
Share the date, the audience and what you would like people to leave with. You will get a reply within two working days.