Keynotes etc
As a protest against recycled, soulless AI-generated content online, I want to do more analog stuff, and put together thoughts I actually believe someone might find useful. They’re based entirely on my own experience. They’re also based on topics I’ve been asked to talk about lately. (So I know they work.)
The talks are much better delivered on a stage or similar than behind a laptop.
Developing island communities with tourism in the toolbox
Growing up on a small island near the Atlantic Road, I saw tourism transform my home from quiet to crowded, from isolated to world-famous. One million visitors a year, but few local benefits. Even 30 years after it opened. What did they do wrong, what can be done?
Over the years I have worked in many places around the world. A lot of island and coastal communities.
It’s become my thing.
This talk explores how island communities can use tourism as a tool for resilience, not dependency.
It’s both personal and practical, full of real examples from coastal Norway and other islands.
Key themes:
Local value creation. How,
Tourism and its limits and possibilities
Connectivity, and community resilience
Tourism. Brutally Honest.
Based on the work with Transparency.travel. I’ve held this multiple times.
Tourism loves to talk about sustainability, while chasing growth at all costs.
This talk challenges that.
It’s an unfiltered exploration of the paradoxes, blind spots, and opportunities in modern tourism, and how we can rebuild the system from the inside out.
Key themes:
Truth and storytelling in tourism
Growth vs. meaning
The role of policy, power, and perception
Building a more honest industry
Qualified bets on the future of tourism: Society. Nature. Technology.
I hate technology. And I love technology. I hate how people use it. How they disconnect from the world. I hate that 90% of all online content is already made by AI, and that 99.99% soon will be.
And I love the possibilities with technology. I use it every day. I love living in this period of the world.
Twenty years ago, I studied linguistics, without realizing that I was already exploring artificial intelligence.
Linguistics is about how language forms and meaning emerges. That theory is now the foundation of today’s language models. During my masters I was asked to join a startup. We monitored 20000 news sources, and gave alerts in case of disasters and hazards. In this community was the first time I was introduced to machine learning and other technologies. I took this knowledge to my nature based companies, and I have learned a lot in the last 20 years.
This talk connects language, media, and technology with the future of tourism, and what it means to stay human in an automated world. I have done a lot of different things in tourism, and a lot of different things in tech.
Key themes:
AI and human creativity
Future signals and travel innovation
The intersection of nature and technology
Why the humanistic matters more than ever
Building a Concept from Scratch (When You Put Social and Environmental Concerns First)
All the companies I’ve started or worked with have had a purpose bigger than profit.
That doesn’t make things easier, but without it, there’s no point in starting.
Meaning and drive are what make it worth doing.
Travel Innovation, From Idea to Market
How do you take an idea in travel and turn it into something that actually works?
After helping hundreds of tourism companies and building several of my own platforms, I’ve learned that innovation in travel isn’t about tools or trends. It’s about people, persistence, and knowing where to start.
In this keynote, I share frameworks and lessons from years of building adventure companies, hospitality concepts, and learning platforms, all with social and environmental purpose at their core.
Key themes
Innovation and entrepreneurship in tourism
From getting started to scalable concept
Balancing creativity, market, and sustainability
How to build something real
Utheim & Co is led by Håvard Utheim, entrepreneur, storyteller and concept developer with 25 years of experience in media, technology, travel, adventure and sustainability.
Håvard holds a master’s degree and two bachelor’s degrees in communication from NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology, with additional lessons his education include entrepreneurship, media, theatre, communication, journalism, linguistics, pedagogy, psychology, architecture, tourism, philosophy, ethics and sustainability.
As a master’s student, he co-founded a company that monitored global media to provide security alerts for travelers. Since then, he has been an active part of the Nordic tech and startup community, with his own companies and as a consultant.
Håvard has taken the stage more than 500 times in professional settings, in business contexts as a keynote speaker, moderator, panelist and conference host, and as a stand-up comedian, mc or toasmaster etc. After an accidental debut in 2001, evenings and weekends for the next ten years were spent on comedy stages across Norway and Sweden, including over a hundred corporate events for clients such as Shell, the Armed Forces, BI, TINE, Avinor, DNB and NTNU, before shifting his focus to entrepreneurship and family life.
Now you can hire him as a knowledgeable and entertaining sparring partner, keynote speaker or consultant to challenge ideas and create future-ready strategies.