NSB Logo Andy Nulman Andy Nulman

Andy Nulman

Speaker Exclusive

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Co-founder of Just for Laughs and Airborne Mobile, "Acquired Taste"

On the surface, Andy seems so simple; he’s the co-founder of Just For Laughs, the world’s largest comedy event.  He’s also the co-founder of Airborne Mobile, a pioneer in the now-ubiquitous mobile media industry.  He eschews the standard, the by-rote and the conventional.  What drives him is driving you; driving you to try something new, to see something different, to take a chance. Andy has a few “traditional” speeches up his sleeve and on his topics list, but where he really excels is being thrown a challenge and coming up with something custom written and produced.  Something just for you that audiences will remember. He’s an ‘acquired taste’, but for those willing to go down a different path, the trip with him will inevitably be unforgettable.

Keynote Speeches

Virtual Keynotes & Webinars
Contact us for more information about this speaker & their virtual presentations. Click here for some of the most popular formats for virtual events.
How To Be Creative

Full of surprises and discoveries, this one-hour interactive masterclass has a straightforward premise and unconditional promise–it explores the roots of creativity and pushes participants to become creative right then and there.  Through games, challenges and eye-popping examples, Andy leads participants through the looking glass, down the yellow brick road and into the final frontier.  He turns the brainstorming process upside down and uses standard mass-gathering materials like Post-It Notes, but in a most twisted and unusual way. When the dust settles, attendees will be full-fledged creative geniuses…well, at least creative enough to write a blurb like this.

 

Creativity, Curiosity and Guts

AKA – Getting Gutsy: Heart Attacks Are Better Than Yawns.

This rollicking event is based on the somewhat revolutionary “Creativity, Curiosity and Guts” class Andy teaches to McGill University MBA students.  It’s a primer on taking risks, thinking differently and enjoying the liberty that comes from doing so; think of it as a crash course in bravery. One student called it: “A reminder for me to trust my own authentic ideas and judgment.” Like Andy, this speech may not be for everybody, but may be just right for those looking for a little (yeah, just a little) organizational or personal shake up.

My Greatest Failure

One of Andy’s favorite credos is “Today’s failure is tomorrow’s back-slapping story over beers.” No matter what your worst personal catastrophe may be, it pales in comparison to his…something he will prove in “My Greatest Failure,” an examination of how and why things go wrong, and what they ultimately mean. (Note that this is not called “My Biggest Failure” or “My Worst Failure,” but “My Greatest Failure.” The distinction is important.) Presented with cringe-worthy video captures of Andy’s disaster of disasters, audiences will be relieved to learn that failure is a temporary state, feel better about themselves…and be thankful that they are not Andy.

Life Lessons to Learn

Some people collect hockey cards, others art, but Andy collects valuable business and life lessons. With a career spanning more than four decades, from co-founding the world famous Just For Laughs Festival to being a global pioneer in mobile gaming and entertainment, Andy has learned more than his fair share of important lessons, compiling hundreds of them in the process. In a speech customized for your specific themes and needs, presented like a poppy Buzzfeed list, Andy will dig into his database, share the lessons you need to learn to drive your company, motivate your attendees…and ensure that you don’t have to make the same mistakes he did.

Platform Plus Presentations

Unique formats and ways to connect with audiences.
Interactive Presentation | Risk—The National Anthem
So many people talk about risk, but so few people actually take them. In a veritable “walk of the talk,” Andy will examine the benefits of risk, outline the steps needed to feel more comfortable embracing the concept, and top it off with a literal “fly or die,” stopwatch-timed, nail-biting, high-risk event—composing an improvised “National Anthem” about your company or event based on suggestions from those in the audience.
Panelist/In Conversation

Audience reviews:

  • He was a fantastic speaker and really resonated with local media and with our conference delegates. Not only did he bring an abundance of energy and humour to his talk, he also did his homework about the Yukon and our tourism industry...I'd gladly recommend Andy to other organizations that are looking for a dynamic presenter.

    - Executive Director, TIA Yukon
  • Just a few words to let you know how much I enjoyed your performance yesterday at C-2 MTL. WOW, we need more of those “pertinent electroshocks” on creativity. Hope you’ll be back next year! - Loto-Québec
  • I LOVED listening to you talk about Surprise Marketing at the MGBC conference. It was one of the best speeches I have ever heard. You can be sure that I will be using this as inspiration to create new marketing pieces




    - Development & Promotion Manager, eFundraising.com
  • ...wow, fantastic way to start off conference...Motivating and energizing….an interesting and fun presentation which encourages one to think beyond the normal.

    - Attendees, Wal-Mart
  • "POW! Right Between the Eyes! proves that a little goes a long way; Nulman's radical new methods are bound to POW through traditional marketing and leave their mark

    - ManageSmarter

Speaker Biography

Here’s Andy’s story in an oversized nutshell, with ample sprinklings of superlatives, celebrity names and corporate giants:

Andy Nulman is an acclaimed, thought-provoking and (especially) risk-taking public speaker, who has motivated and entertained (and sometimes enraged) Fortune 500 companies the likes of GM, Eveready/Energizer, 3M and Wal-Mart.

Today, while he considers himself “50% retired and 50% unemployed,” he still takes on creative business challenges (like changing stodgy hockey culture at CCM), but as he says, “Only if said challenge is more interesting than walking my dog or reading a book.”

From July, 2010 until September, 2015, for the second time, Andy took on the position of President of Montreal’s renowned Just For Laughs International Comedy Festival, the world’s first and largest comedy event. This was Andy’s encore performance at JFL; from 1985 until 1999, he literally transformed the event from a two-day show to a month-long cultural happening, attracting over 2 million visitors per year to see talent the likes of Jay Leno, Drew Carey, Jim Carrey, John Cleese, Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ray Romano and Adam Sandler, and created/Executive Produced over 150 Festival TV shows, in a variety of languages, all over the world.

During the decade in between Just For Laughs stints, Andy was President and CMO of Airborne Technology Ventures, a company celebrated as a pioneer in the industry of mobile media and marketing. In 1999, Andy co-founded Airborne (then Airborne Entertainment) with Garner Bornstein, and provided the company with the insight and creativity necessary to successfully strengthen brands like Family Guy, Disney, Maxim, the NHL and the NFL through the creation of innovative mobile content and applications. Airborne was sold for over $100 million to Cybird of Japan in 2005 (back when $100 million was a big deal) and was honoured the following year as North America’s 4th-Fastest Growing Tech Company in Deloitte’s Fast 500 ranking.

There was a life before comedy though, starting as a journalist out of high school at the age of 16, becoming Entertainment Editor of the Sunday Express newspaper at 17 and writing for entertainment publications the likes of Variety, Us and Circus. This was followed by a three-year stint as a marketing consultant which led to co-promoting the first-ever North American concert tour of comedian Howie Mandel.

In 2013, Andy broke new ground as his “Grow Wings” speech was the most popular presentation at Montreal’s annual C2-MTL commerce and creativity event, where in later years, his role as “Troublemaker” allowed him to replicate classic “Wisdom of Crowds” experiments and slaughter sacred cows in the business and tech spheres. He has also been a frequent speaker at McGill University, including being honored to speak at the prestigious McGill Alumni Leacock Luncheon and the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. For three years, he taught the revolutionary “Marketing and Society” class in McGill’s BCom program, where his students learned how to build YouTube channels and use them as a powerful corporate tool. He now teaches an even more revolutionary class in the school’s MBA program, called “Creativity, Curiosity and Guts,” the three elements he saw sadly missing from most MBA students.

Andy has written three books: “How To Do The Impossible,” “I Almost Killed George Burns” and “Pow! Right between The Eyes! Profiting From The Element of Surprise.” Other accomplishments include being named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” business leaders by the Financial Post in 1997, being voted one of the Top 100 Montrealers of the 20th Century by the Montreal Gazette in 2000, and being honored as a distinguished recipient of the McGill Management Achievement Award in 2004. He is a board member of Tourisme Montreal, StartupFest, and won Startup Canada’s 2016’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Quebec.

In his spare time, Andy is also an inventive stage director, half-decent snowboarder, obsessive gym rat, hardworking hockey player and gutsy rock singer. Married with two grown children and a troublemaking dog named Rawqui, his major disappointment is that he has only one life to live…but he’s working on a solution.