Sam Conniff rouses the Nicer Tuesdays audience to Be More Pirate

In past lives, Sam Conniff was the founder of creative network Livity and media platform Don’t Panic, but recently he’s gone rogue with a new mission: to encourage everyone to Be More Pirate. Born from research into the radical strategies of Golden Age pirates, his new ethos and book of the same name (with an added explanatory strapline “Or How to Take On The World And Win”) adapts these strategies for 21st Century work and life, and aligns them with modern day innovators or “rebels” like Elon Musk and Malala Yousafzai.

His Nicer Tuesdays talk was perhaps one of the most energetic ever to hit the Oval Space stage, rousing the audience to challenge the industry around us and ask the difficult questions to make a difference. “We need a rebellion,” he said, “a sexy, Star Wars-style rebellion because we’re suffering a real crisis of imagination in leadership.”

Since his book has come out, Sam said that he receives three or four emails a day from individuals with huge ideas, people rebelling in response to his call to action. “History tells us that those who break the rules become heroes and legends,” he said, inviting the audience to “think of a rule, a shit one, and break it like you mean it. Then rewrite it.”