Biography
Steve Sammartino wrote his first lines of computer code at age 10. He is one Australia’s most respected futurists and business technologists. He has an incredible ability to make sense of how emerging technology applies to your industry.
He is a born entrepreneur, and had his first startup at age 12 – an organic egg farm before the words “organic” or “startup” had been invented! He even started a clothing business part time and managed to build up the business to a point where he sold it. He used to start work at 5 am, sell to customers at lunch time and do the administration at night.
After completing studies in Economics and Finance at University he worked in multiple Fortune 500 companies including Proctor & Gamble, SAB Miller, Kimberly Clark, Mondelez (Kraft / Cadbury), WPP (the world’s biggest media company). He held many senior positions culminating in Directorships before decided to revert to his true passion for technology. His experience means he intimately understands the disruptive forces many established companies are facing today.
Steve has had multiple technology startups and he launched one of the first ‘Sharing Economy’ startups Rentoid.com, before Uber or Airbnb. Steve had a successful exit selling the startup to a public company. He now invests in emerging technologies and has multiple advisory board positions in startups involved in a variety of disruptive technologies across the Airline Industry, Automotive, Real Estate & Co-working, Internet of things, Quantified Self, Mobile applications, and 3D Printing technologies. Steve is heavily involved in the startup scene in Shanghai, China and has a passion for the culture. He travels there regularly for business and even speaks Mandarin.
Extreme projects are something Steve loves doing, in order to demonstrate what is possible today. He knows how to generate attention in the modern age of marketing with a number of his viral videos to his name. He recently built a full size driveable Lego car from 500,000 pieces. It has an engine made completely from Lego, and it runs on air. He also crowd funded the project on Twitter. It has over 8 million views on Youtube and was a global news story. He also put a toy space ship into earth orbit for under $2000 to prove how cheap powerful technology has become.
His debut book, The Great Fragmentation is a technology strategy manifesto for the modern age. It has been translated into multiple languages and has received rave reviews from some of the world’s leading business thinkers. It has a 5 star rating on Amazon. In 2017 Steve published his highly anticipated second book, The Lessons School Forgot, How to hack your way through the technology revolution.
A media commentator on technology and the future, Steve is a regular on the ABC and provides expert assessment on the rapidly evolving technology sector. He has also been featured on the BBC, The Smithsonian Institute, The Discovery Channel, Mashable, Wired, The LA times, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and even had documentaries made about his projects.
In 2020, Steve created TV series, The Rebound which aired on the Nine Network. The 6 part series is all about helping Australian businesses bounce back with useful hacks to get you on the fast track. It was borne from the Covid pandemic and in typical Steve style, the hard constraints of the pandemic forced creative solutions. The show was conceived, pitched, sold, written and delivered all during the middle of one of the strictest lockdowns in the world here in Melbourne!
Steve is guaranteed to insert the energy and knowledge into your event your audience needs to be excited about what’s possible for them in the future.
Testimonials
Steve Sammartino is a very inspirational, engaging, thought-provoking and knowledgeable speaker. He is also such a pleasure to work with. The audience loved his humour and his practical takeaways. Fantastic speaker!
Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand
In a word – brilliant! Steve was energetic, thought provoking and delivered his messages with fabulous humour! He absolutely nailed the brief and was so easy to work with – a positive for any event organiser!
Australian Institute of Project Management
Steve was one of the most popular speakers at our conference. So easy to deal with and accommodating to our specific requirements. His presentation fit the brief perfectly and he kindly stuck around to sign some copies of his books. I will definitely be recommending Steve to other divisions of our Company.
Jones Lang LaSalle
Steve was fantastic, he engaged very well with the members and they thoroughly enjoyed and valued his session. I appreciated the time he spent with the group after the session and he was also very easy to deal with from my initial booking to the presentation. He was able to meet the needs of our organisation for this event.
Institute of Public Accountants
Steve was amazing to deal with from the moment he had a quick phone call with my Manager (to go over the night) until he left at the end of the evening. I cannot fault him. When he walked in the door pre conference he was easy going and adaptable (we had technology issues) he took them in his stride and worked with us to make things work. His presentation was great! There were no moments of boredom from the audience, in fact the audience chatted with him for a couple of hours after the conference. At no time was any of this an issue for Steve. He is definitely someone I will recommend to others.
Department of Human Services
Steve was a great opening speaker for our conference – full of energy and encouraging attendees to think outside the box.
The University of Melbourne
Steve was just what we were hoping for to open up the minds and souls of our rather traditional mining/construction corporate attendees. He has a ton of energy, and is able to use it in a focused way to communicate big ideas in a way that leaves the audience involved and excited about the future. He picked up on our corporate context and drivers from a short discussion and was able to weave this into the session.
Rio Tinto
Extremely relevant, funny and very thought provoking.
Honeywell Building Solutions
Steve is super smart, thought provoking, inspiring and funny. Steve’s warmth and positive energy is infectious. Great feedback from attendees.
Laminex
It was a fantastic evening and he was a great speaker bringing energy, ideas, flashes of brilliance, humour, facts, figures, indepth knowledge, and even Chinese language for our Asian guests. He transported use to the future of what is possible. He was highly entertaining and a great opener for our economist to follow on from. We are hoping after this success that we will use Steve again at our future HNW events.
citibank
Steve was an absolute hit with our members in all 5 states. Survey results were fantastic. Insightful and engaging presentation. Steve was an absolute pleasure to work with.
Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia
Steve was a dynamic, energetic and inspirational speaker. Charged with the tough job of engaging a group of restless 17-year-olds, he managed to not only keep them entranced, but also to fire their imaginations and open their thinking to the myriad of possibilities the future may hold.
O2 Media
Steve captured to audience right from the get go, and took everyone on an insightful journey into the future in a funny, informative and relevant way.
Rail Industry and Safety Standards Board Limited
Outstanding session. One delegate remarked that he felt value for money from the event based just on Steve’s session.
Instil Group
It is possible that Steve was our best guest presenter ever.
HESTA
Steve was a pleasure to work with. He delivered in every state and the feedback for his session was phenomenal. He evoked laughter and thought within the audience. Definitely did not disappoint!
ING Direct
Steve was terrific. He hit all the right notes, and struck a nice balance between entertaining and informing. We particularly appreciated the workshop and are looking forward to seeing what unfolds as a result.
Landgate
Steve was excellent, high energy and challenged our thinking!
Bank of Queensland
Great content and a clear passion for what he does.
Corporate Tax Association
Steve Sammartino was a real surprise packet! Great content and by far one of our more interesting speakers. Highly recommended.
Housing industry Association
Steve was AMAZING! So thought provoking and inspirational. We’ve had nothing but good feedback for him and in fact some participants said it was worth coming just to see him!
Local Government Association of SA
Steve was truly a great and amazing speaker for our All-Company event at Flywire. Not only did he spend time and energy understanding our business, our challenges, but he also casually worked those themes into his presentation. I cannot wait to have another event, maybe with our Clients and have Steve come again.
Flywire
Very engaging, funny and insightful.
International Quality and Productivity Centre
Steve’s energy and enthusiasm really brings his presentation to life. His messages really made people think about technology, while keeping everyone very engaged and focused. Fantastic presentation and we were delighted to have Steve a part of our Conference – feedback from all attendees has been brilliant!
First State Super
Steve certainly lived up to his billing. Great content, energy in delivery and humour. I received a lot of very positive feedback from delegates during the conference about his presentation.
BTTB Marketing Pty. Ltd.
Steve is an energetic and engaging speaker who provided a linkage to technology to everyday life in business. He related the presentation to the conference audience and the key theme of the day.
Phillip Island Regional Tourism Board
Steve’s content and relevance to the theme of the conference was perfect.
Gener8
Stimulating, encouraging, thought-provoking, exciting.
Victorian Caravan Parks Association
Steve was the best speaker we had at the conference with regard to delegate feedback!
Australian School of Applied Management
Steve was charismatic, energetic and completely understood the needs of the MC role at our conference.
Conference Logistics Pty. Ltd.
Steve delivered a presentation on key themes that effectively engaged and addressed the perspectives and needs of two, disparate audience groups seamlessly. It was a really engaging, entertaining and thought provoking session. The feedback from our attendees on the day and subsequently was fantastic and I’m sure Steve will be receiving many requests to speak from companies who were in our audience. We’ll certainly be using Steve again for both customer and internal events.
Assa Abloy
Steve is very personable, engaging and energetic. He delivers really interesting, though provoking content in an entertaining way. The reaction of our audience was very positive.
Eftpos
EXCELLENT 10 out of 10 for me
The Faculty
Received a great response from the audience and delivered important information with humour.
CoE
NAB Core Banking
Steve was amazing – full of energy, positivity and humour! We really appreciated his commitment as he had just come out of hospital for hand surgery the day before.
Hire and Rental Industry Association
Very relevant to our conference theme and focus. Steve provided an exciting and highly energetic speech.
APCO Service Stations
Steve, was a true professional from briefing to keynote, listened and delivered directly to the our audience of 175+ delegates.
Dcb Conferences and Events
Steve was perfect for our function. He related well to them and was able to motivate and inspire. The information he presented was spot on and very interesting. Steve addressed a crowd of 1500 staff, graduates, friends and family as our 2015 Graduation Ceremony keynote speaker. His enthusiasm is infectious and his speech encouraged everyone to think of themselves as an entrepreneur, and make the most of the opportunities life presents. I saw that a number of our VIPs (senior staff and board members) approached Steve after the ceremony to further discuss his ideas; a sure sign of an inspiring speech and an approachable speaker!
Melbourne Polytechnic
I've known Steve for a number of years and 1st saw him present at Ignite Melbourne in 2010. Over my career I've been in the audience of a large number of speakers, in my opinion Steve is one of the best, frankly he makes it look to easy - throwing a net over a fascinating, range of interconnected tech, startup, future, pop culture and psychology topics with a deep knowledge, visible passion and energy. I've invited him to speak at two organisations I've worked at, a world-famous travel guide company and one of Australia's largest banks, hugely disparate audiences, yet on both occasions Steve delighted, entertained, engaged and educated. His talk at the bank was seen by over 250 people and was regarded by all I spoke to as the best talk they'd seen during the year, a very significant achievement given we had many world-class speakers in the last 12 months - Steve topped them all. And that's not all - he goes above and beyond to be approachable and interested in our people, a rare trait. What I love most about Steve is his boundless energy and amazing positivity - it is palpable and highly infectious. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to anyone.
Head of IT
Bankwest
Steve was the ideal speaker for Small Business BIG Marketing. It was the first time I have worked with Steve and he was bang on message! He delivered exactly what we asked of him but what impressed me the most was his delivery. His energy held the audience's attention for the duration of the event. His enthusiasm was amazing and information he imparted was invaluable for the attendees. Steve was willing to share marketing tips and tactics relevant to start ups but also had the big business insight. Steve was a delight to work with and provided very popular with guests who he was happy to chat to during break periods. I will absolutely use Steve again as a keynote speaker.
Event Management
The Launch Box
Steve Sammartino is simply the best presenter I have worked with. His ability to connect, engage and excite is second to none. In my time working with Steve I witnessed time and again his ability to 'wake-up' an audience and inspire them to want to achieve new levels. His energy is palpable, his delivery always superb and his content world class and always unique. If you ever get the chance to hear Steve speak, or in fact have Steve speak at your event, then you can be sure the audience will be far better off as a result.
CEO
Grey Group Australia
I was lucky enough earlier this year to see Steve present the final keynote presentation for our ad:tech Melbourne conference. I am sure I can speak for most in the room that day by saying that Steve’s enthusiasm, personality and idea’s around “Why Selfish Marketers Fail” was one of the best finishes to a conferences I have seen and it is testament to Steve’s presenting style that he was able to promote such interactions and ideas from an audience at the end of a 2-day conference. As a conference organizer Steve’s presentations are exactly the type of experience we (and of course our audience) is looking for. In keeping with his theme for this particular presentation Steve’s content was anything but “selfish” as he was able to put forward relevant examples, interact and entertain the audience and even share personal experiences which all added to the unique and passionate experience of his presentation. It goes without saying that Steve will continue to be involved in presenting at many of our events as we move into the future.
Sales Director
DMG Events Australia
Steve was wonderful - not only an excellent speaker who knows his stuff, he was also wonderful enough to spend the whole day with us. I can't tell you how much we appreciated this dedication.
The Change Team
Very engaging and truly energised the room.
IDG Communications
