speaking services
We're passionate about de-stigmatising loneliness and helping all humans feel authentically connected.
Phil - a global loneliness thought-leader and connection expert - can speak in your workplace, your conference, event or podcast.
Phil shares his own lived experience of loneliness and his insights on moving through loneliness towards feeling authentic connection with your audience.
Let's make that happen for the humans you serve.
They're worthy of that.
Photo: www.photox.com.au
our current keynote topics
1
Learning the language of loneliness
One of the reasons we don't talk about loneliness within ourselves is that we don't know what words to use. Moreover, we don't know how to sit with loneliness when others share their stories with us. Phil draws on his love of language and experience learning six languages (French, German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and te reo Maori) and his initial difficulty to speak about his loneliness to help your audience talk about loneliness.
2
Coming out as lonely
If we are all to get the connection that we each need, we all need to own our loneliness and come out as lonely to ourselves and to those around us. Phil draws parallels between the power of coming out as gay as the type of vulnerability needed for your audience to own their loneliness and desire for improved connection.
3
Our search for belonging
All humans need to feel that we belong. We are all on a search to prove that we're worthy of love and belonging. Sometimes this search means that we get horribly lost and feel lonely. Phil shares his lifelong search for belonging as a beacon for your audience to recognise their own - and others' - search for belonging. Phil calls them home to feel belonging.
4
Solving the global loneliness epidemic:
perspectives from lived experience
There are many reports highlighting the global loneliness epidemic in a post-pandemic societies. Phil gives his five tips to solve the global loneliness epidemic. These tips come from his own expertise in public policy development, his own perspective from lived experience, his work at The Loneliness Guy and The Lonely Diplomat since 2018. He links academic research and public policy responses to loneliness with the human whose heart, mind and soul are experiencing loneliness.
5
Loneliness in middle age: our inconvenient truth
Loneliness feels like an unwelcome and inconvenient truth, because we live in societies which prize endless productivity and boundless happiness. Who has time to experience loneliness? As a result, we don't talk about loneliness. And because we don't talk about loneliness, we feel alone in our loneliness when it creeps up on us as we enter middle-age. Phil shares his thoughts about loneliness in middle age, and about how slowing down and listening to loneliness as the way to get the connection we each need and position ourselves for our next stage of life.
6
Three reasons why humans are lonely
While there are infinite reasons why humans feel lonely, Phil provides the top three reasons why the humans in your audience feel lonely. He offers realistic steps for individuals, groups and society to take to support those feeling lonely to feel genuinely connected again.
You need our expertise
Phil is a global loneliness and connection expert. He's an articulate, affable, highly-educated and engaging speaker who makes the topic of loneliness relatable.
Phil's keynotes, talks and presentations pivot conversations and conferences about loneliness from talking about the concept – the problem to be solved – to impactful conversations about a human experience that every human has.
Phil has an academic background in public policy, community development and international relations. He was an Australian Public Servant - including an Australian diplomat - for 23 years. Phil spent many of those years working in environments where the pressure to deliver high-quality results was relentless. Success was expected at all costs, every time.
He knows how lonely it can feel to be unseen and unheard in the spaces where other humans live, work and play. He understands how crippling loneliness in middle age can be. He also know that it's a valuable gift to help us make changes to live a more fulfilled life in alignment with our values.
Phil knows how difficult it is to ask for help and support. He also knows that the help provided sometimes does not actually help alleviate the thoughts and feelings of loneliness.
Photo: Michael White Photography
We're different
And proudly so.
Loneliness is too often discussed in a dry, conceptual way. Statistics, academic reports and general theories don’t resonate with the human experiencing the emotion.
Taking real steps to address global loneliness requires people like Phil - and sharing his wisdom and insights - to connect with other humans' hearts, minds and souls.
Phil's keynotes, presentations and talks inject humanity into how we collectively respond to the global loneliness problem because they come from him and his experience of loneliness.
His talks and keynotes always support, inspire and lovingly challenge you and your audience. Phil shares insights from his life and life experiences in a way that humans (including professionals, parents, LGBTIQA+ communities, students) see and understand their own life experience.
While it always takes courage for Phil to share his experience of loneliness with others, he does so because he creates the discussion he wishes was happening when he realised that he was lonely.
Hundreds of thousands of people globally have benefitted from hearing Phil's story and having him facilitate kind and honest conversations about loneliness, connection and belonging.
Humans feel more connected and engaged to themselves and the world because of our work.
Your audience will remember our unique insights into loneliness and how they can feel more connected.
SPEAKING EVENTS
November 2024
Phil spoke on the role of lived experience in research, policy and practice at the 2nd Annual Research Symposium in Sydney on Monday 4 November 2024.
The symposium was hosted by Ending Loneliness Together.
Phil joined other leading experts across research and evaluation, government, lived experience, community, health, mental health, youth, technology and priority populations, on how we can work together to deliver effective responses to address loneliness and social isolation.
previous speaking events
Harnessing Technology to Increase Human Connection conference - August 2024
Phil was part of a panel discussion on Artificial Intelligence for Social Connection: Navigating the Spectrum of Challenges and Opportunities.
The conference was organised by Friends for Good, as part of its Australian Loneliness Dialogue and was held during Australian Loneliness Awareness Week.
our work in the media
Science Magazine
'Can science find ways to ease loneliness?'
Phil's loneliness story and his thoughts on how to solve the global loneliness epidemic feature in this article.