Philip Mckenzie

Cultural Anthropologist | Speaker | Curator | DJ

About

Philip McKenzie is an anthropologist who uses his expertise in culture spaces to advise organizations on how to best thrive in an increasingly challenging and uncertain environment. Our world is increasingly one where relevant connections and relationships are invisible to one another and established silos are not capable of unmasking complex opportunities. Philip’s work has placed him at the center of understanding the significance of culture as a reflection of shared values and thereby making the invisible visible.

Philip uses his quantitative background and experience as a former Goldman Sachs Trader and combines that with a qualitative understanding of the social and economic shifts we are experiencing worldwide. A true global citizen, Philip has traveled and worked extensively abroad, this includes designing and curating Influencer Conference and consulting for numerous clients on their internal and external cultural challenges and branding strategies particularly for diverse and multicultural audiences.

Philip is a writer and working on his first book There Are No Shortcuts: The Revolutionaries Guide to the Future.

Philip is also an accomplished DJ and plays music under the name 9 Is Water.

Check out Philip’s MediaVillage Page.

 

Consulting

Cultural Strategy

Workshop Design/Facilitation

Insight Research

DJ

Philosophy

The opportunity in modern business is to keenly recognize that our economy is now a cultural economy. What this means is that peer to peer interactions, authentic community and trust are essential to building and sustaining movements. One’s skill sets and relationships must not only be deep but they must be wide. Old networks are crumbling and newer vibrant matrix realities are on the rise. This is the potential of an economy driven by relationships, ideas and culture.

Using his philosophy of Invisible Dots and working methodology of Cultural Forensic, Philip can tailor solutions to both internal and external organizational challenges. Through workshop design & facilitation and research grounded in cultural answers exist to the most difficult problems.

Methodology

Cultural engagement and analysis is both an assessment of risk and an unearthing of potential opportunity.

Cultural Forensic

“A map is an abstraction of our physical reality. It provides a scale to denote distance but it does not truly represent our world. Culture fills in those gaps and allows the user to unleash the limitations of boundaries, as culture is almost limitless.”
– Philip L. Mckenzie

The Deep Dive is a culture and insights podcast with Philip McKenzie, an anthropologist who uses his expertise in culture to advise organizations on how best to thrive in an increasingly challenging and uncertain environment. At a time when communication is more and more truncated and there is little room for nuance The Deep Dive emphasizes the importance of conversation and inquiry. The Deep Dive requires that the listener leans into complexity in order to uncover insights that might otherwise remain invisible.

Every week, Philip will go below the surface with people who matter the most and are leaders in culture spaces.

Influencer Conference (InfluencerCon) was created by Philip in 2010. What began in NYC in the fall of 2010 has grown to become a global content platform that identifies and supports influencer culture globally.

InfluencerCon exists at the intersection of values, culture, creativity & commerce. InfluencerCon has grown to include London, Berlin, Mumbai and Sao Paulo. By bringing together tastemakers across industries and territories InfluencerCon has established itself as one of the forerunners of identifying what is next.

InfluencerCon has published two reports: Ownership Obsolete? When Sharing is Not Enough and Gatekeepers & Gatecrashers: Thriving or Dying?

Feel free to download and read them.

Testimonials

Philip was recently a guest speaker at Pratt Institute where he presented the topic of "a future based in culture and creativity” to to our BFA, interior design students. Philip had our international student-body paying close attention. His visual and spoken presentation fully engaged both faculty and students. Philip is a remarkably intelligent and engaging person interested in connecting his subject matter expertise to unexpected disciplines such as interior design. Working with Philip was a pleasure.

 

Robert Nassar
Visiting Professor
Pratt Institute

Phil was superb as a main-stage MC at Sustainable Brands ’18 Vancouver! He did an excellent job of introducing and synthesizing plenary content, adding his own authentic layers of deeply insightful commentary and entertaining remarks along the way. We’d love to have him back as a speaker for future events, by popular demand!

 

Dimitar Vlahov
Director of Content Development
Sustainable Brands

Philip presented a talk at our offices and it was amazing. He not only inspired our team but challenged them as well. His ideas pushed boundaries in culture building. He is a thought provoking and highly relevant force

 

Rob Principe
Founder
Scratch Academy

Philip gave an interesting talk at the 25th International Festival of Creativity Golden Drum, tackling the seismic changes and disruptions throughout society, culture and business, while encouraging Drummers to center humans in our daily business. The emphasis certainly inspired and left a mark. Thank you, Philip!

 
 

Mojca Briščik
CEO at Slovenian Advertising Chamber & President
Golden Drum Festival

Philip was an amazing keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at Sustainable Brands ’19 Istanbul. The audience was captivated by his ideas and his messages was exactly what our people needed to hear in these challenging times. It was a pleasure to listen his thought-provoking speech. Looking forward to our next meeting!

 
 

Cansu Duran
Business & Content Development Director
Sustainable Brands

Philip was a perfect opening speaker for our Digital Marketing Conference event. His talk was really inspiring and eye-opening for Russian audience, and we had lots of positive feedback from our guests. We try to mix our program with both motivation and practical talks. Philip managed to unite this two things in his talk and make a great start for the whole day of knowledge & inspiration. We will be happy to invite him to our further events as a speaker!

 
 

Valeria Nyukhalova
Event Director
Digital Marketing Conference

How Do You Capture Your Flag?

Philip has been a keynote speaker, interviewer/panelist and on air host across an extensive list of topics including not limited to influencer culture, organizational structural, diversity, etc. Over the course of several years Philip was interviewed by Capture Your Flag, a near peer learning site.
These interviews examine Philip’s unique perspective and philosophy on professional and personal development. and the role the cultural economy plays in our near future.

Philip McKenzie!

I am a creative and specialize on bringing big ideas to life. If you find value in my perspective and support my work, writing and the creative journey please support here. It is all appreciated and thank you.

Get in Touch!

phil@influencercon.com

Linked In: Philip Mckenzie
Twitter: Philip McKenzie: @farflungphil
Twitter: 2DopeBoysandaPodcast: @2dopeboyspod