Alastair Humphreys – Keynote Speaker

Alastair Humphreys spent over four years cycling round the world, a journey of 46,000 miles through 60 countries and 5 continents. His books ‘Moods of Future Joys’ and ‘Thunder & Sunshine’ recount his epic journey described by explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes as ‘The first great adventure of the new millennium.’

Steering himself away from becoming an expert in any one niche of adventure, Alastair Humphreys is driven to try new challenges in new environments. He has walked across southern India (following the holy Kaveri river), rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, run the Marathon des Sables (6 consecutive marathons through the Sahara desert), rowed to France with Major Phil Packer, completed a crossing of Iceland by foot and packraft, and participated in an expedition in the Arctic, close to the magnetic North Pole. He has also walked across the Empty Quarter retracing the route of one of his heroes, Wilfred Thesiger, walking 1000 miles in 45 days through the desert in Oman.

Closer to home, Humphreys has been promoting the idea of micro-adventures, shorter challenges that help remove the barriers to entry so common in the sometimes elitist world of adventure. Corporate audiences appreciate that his concept of microadventures delivers relevant messages around creative thinking, change, finding opportunities within constraints, personal and team development, as well promoting physical and mental well-being. As Humphreys puts it, microadventures encourage ‘five to nine thinking’. The concept of microadventures led to him being named as one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year.

An entertaining speaker, Alastair Humphreys is passionate about encouraging others. Cycling around the world was a powerful learning experience and taught him many key lessons about resilience, human potential, risk and rewards. He shares practical advice about breaking down seemingly distant dreams into achievable goals, staying motivated when it gets tough and conquering self-doubt and a fear of failure. With humour, superb photographs and a huge range of anecdotes to draw upon, he challenges his audience to set more challenging goals. To do more.

His inspiring, funny and yet challenging talks about his expeditions deliver a case-study on self-motivation, setting small targets to achieve goals, the rewards of risk, the power of story-telling, the magnificence of our world, and a call to arms that nothing is achieved without being bold enough to begin it.