Keynotes and workshops on creativity and AI

I’m Tim Brunelle, a Minneapolis-based keynote speaker and creative director. I talk about creativity, AI, and what happens to idea people when machines can make things. I’ve been giving talks to ad clubs, marketing associations, agencies, and universities since 2000, and teaching the subject at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design since 2008.

Talks

Kill the Creative Portfolio

Keynote, 45 minutes. For creative leaders, hiring managers, agencies, design schools.

My great-grandfather carried painted placards door to door in Minneapolis. That was his portfolio. A century later I’ve hired more than 200 creatives and taught portfolio development since 1999, and every portfolio has been the same bet: strangers can only absorb a sample of you, so you curate. AI just called that bet. When a machine can read everything you’ve ever made, the whole body of work becomes the credential, and the portfolio, a compression technology built for limited human attention, loses its reason to exist. This talk shows what replaces the portfolio now that AI has arrived: three concrete moves (keep, index, answer), none of which require AI, and a live, unrehearsed demo of how hiring managers actually interrogate a body of work now. Built on new research surveying creative leaders and hiring directors in 2010 and again in 2026. Submitted to SXSW 2027.

Generatively Better: Briefing and In-House Operations in the Age of AI

Workshop, half day. For in-house creative and marketing teams, agency departments, L&D partners.

Nearly half of employees using AI say they have no idea how to get the productivity gains their employers expect. This workshop closes that gap where it actually lives: in the brief and in the operation. Assuming we start in the morning: how the major text and image models work, when to use them and when not to, and a briefing practice that gets better work from humans and machines alike. In the afternoon: your real workflow on the table. Who does what now, where AI belongs in it, what governance Legal will sign, and what “working” will look like in ninety days. Teams leave with a rewritten brief template, an operating map, and a recording. Drawn from three years teaching AI for Creative Entrepreneurs at MCAD and from AI change work with corporate marketing teams.

Teaching Creativity and Purpose in the Age of AI

Keynote or fireside, 30–60 minutes. For universities, design schools, faculty development, higher-ed marketing and leadership.

I teach art students and I lead a university creative department, so I get this question from both sides of the desk: what are we teaching creative people for, when the machine can make the thing? The honest answer is that we were never only teaching the thing. We were teaching judgment, purpose, and the courage to ship. This talk is about how creative education changes when generation is free: what to keep, what to drop, how to assess work students made with AI, and how to make the case for creativity to a provost. Candid about what’s worked and what hasn’t in my own classroom since 2023.

🙋🏼‍♂️ All three adapt to an executive audience, a student audience, or a mixed room.

Who books me

Ad clubs and AAF chapters. AMA chapters and marketing associations. Agency all-hands and creative departments. Universities, design schools, and faculty development programs. Choral and arts organizations who want a marketer’s view of standing out.

Hear me first

Eleven recent interviews on the Curiosity+Courage podcast.

Minnesota Public Radio with Chris Farrell: “What will AI mean for art, artists and musicians?” (May 2024) and “AI has moved into the art world” (August 2023).

Also on Build a Better Agency (Agency Management Institute), The Teleologist podcast (Apple, Spotify), and The Brief Bros podcast.

Where I’ve spoken

2026 · Private corporate keynotes and workshops: DTC e-commerce brand (January–February); healthcare clinics brand (January, August–October)

2025 · Private corporate keynotes and workshops: DTC e-commerce brand (October–December); healthcare clinics brand (March–December); dental industry brand (January–March); 3M Creator Summit - Presentation on the Evolution of Creativity in the Age of AI

2024 · Private keynotes and workshops for a healthcare clinics brand (September–December) and a dental industry brand (July–December) · Social Media Breakfast, Minneapolis, host and keynote, “The State of AI in Social Media Marketing” (June) · Minnesota Public Radio, “What will AI mean for art, artists and musicians?” (May) · Minneapolis College of Art and Design, AI for Creative Entrepreneurs; History of Persuasion and Marketing (courses, spring)

2023 · Jack Link’s Protein Snacks, “How AI Actually Works” leadership masterclass (August) · Minnesota Public Radio, “AI has moved into the art world” (August) · Minneapolis College of Art and Design, AI for Creative Entrepreneurs (course, fall); The Future of Advertising (course, spring)

2022 · Roundpeg Consulting Summer Strategy Camp, keynote, “The Nature of Creativity, Circa 2022”

2020 · Minneapolis College of Art and Design, The Future of Advertising (course, spring)

2019 · Brand Innovators Workshop, Minneapolis, fireside presentation

2017 · Minnesota Magazine Publishers Summit, keynote, “How Idea People Thrive in an Age of Artificial Intelligence and Automation” · Minneapolis College (MCTC) Design School graduation, keynote · Business Community Leader Forum, Minneapolis, keynote · BrandLab Summer Workshops · Minneapolis College of Art and Design, The Future of Advertising (course, spring)

2015 · AIGA Design Camp, session

2013 · Minnesota AdFed Student Ad Summit, keynote, “Starting an Ad Career in 2013”

2012 · Chorus America 35th National Conference, “Creative Direction: Lessons from an Ad Man to Help Your Chorus Stand Out”

2010 · AAF Dayton, “Curating the Future” · OTA Sessions, keynote, “The History and Future of Advertising Ideas”

2009 · Social Media Breakfast, keynote · UnSummit, “Alphabet Soup: The Evolution of Trade Associations” · Brookfield Boutique Retail Roundtable, keynote, “Branding in the Digital Age”

2008 · Minnesota AMA, “The Brand of You” · AAF Birmingham, “What’s the Future of Advertising?”

2000–2002 · Volkswagen “Drivers wanted” case study: AAF New Mexico (2002), AAF Denver (2001), AAF Omaha (2001), Kreative Forum, Stavanger, Norway (2000)

Book me

Email tim@timbrunelle.com with the date, the audience, and the room. Or book a 15-minute Zoom to discuss.

Bio and headshot for programs

Copy and paste; no need to ask.

Tim Brunelle is a Minneapolis-based keynote speaker, change-management consultant, and creative director who helps in-house creative departments adopt AI. He is AVP Creative Director at the University of St. Thomas, has taught at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design since 2008, and writes Curiosity+Courage, a newsletter and podcast on creativity and AI. He has led creative teams at BBDO, Carmichael Lynch, Ogilvy, Mullen, Arnold and Land O’Lakes, co-founded three companies, and has spoken to ad clubs, marketing associations, agencies, and universities across the U.S. and in Norway since 2000. He has a degree in jazz. That explains everything. Tim's (free) newsletter is available at: timbrunelle.substack.com