Scott Dikkers
TheOnion.com Founder
New York Times Best-Selling Author
Peabody Award Winner
Time Magazine Top 50 “Cyber Elite”
THE ONION WAY
New Keynote for Corporate Groups:
- Live Your Mission
- Love Your People
- Have Fun Doing It
- Creativity and Innovation: Scott built a successful multi-million dollar company (20+ million social media followers) that has become a household brand.
- Leadership + Culture + Brand Loyalty: Scott focused on constructing a team, from the ground up, and giving them the freedom to create. This resulted in fun, outrageous ideas with a loyal fan base.
SPEAKING VIDEOS
Scott Dikkers is a seriously funny, inspiring keynote speaker who provides insight on how he built a successful multi-million dollar brand (with extremely loyal fans) using creativity and innovation, and believing in a company culture.
- Scott is the founder of TheOnion.com, a legendary comic brand.
- He is a New York Times best-selling author.
- Author of “Outrageous Marketing: The Story of The Onion and How To Build a Powerful Brand with No Marketing Budget”.
- Rolling Stone named him one of its top 10 favorite writers. Entertainment Weekly designated him “the funniest person in America”
Scott Dikkers is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, comedy writer, and comedian widely regarded as one of the most influential pioneers in comedy history. His visionary leadership at The Onion, his groundbreaking comic strip Jim’s Journal, plus his multiple top-10 comedy podcasts have garnered him tens of millions of fans all over the world. Rolling Stone named him one of its top 10 favorite writers. Entertainment Weekly designated him “the funniest person in America” and placed him on the “It List” of the hottest celebrities in show business. He graced the cover of Time magazine as one the top 50 movers and shakers online. He’s the winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, a Peabody, and more Webby awards than any other individual or organization. Considered a one-of-a-kind comedy legend throughout the entertainment industry, he literally wrote the book on comedy, the bestselling How to Write Funny, which spawned a training center at the famed Second City in Chicago where he mentors young creators who have gone on to win Emmys, Grammys, and Oscars.
An accomplished stage presenter who performs stand-up and has appeared on national TV shows like Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Saturday Night Live, Scott shares how he escaped a tough childhood through his love of comedy. A small, shy kid, Scott endured an upbringing marked by poverty, divorce, bullying, and even a suicide attempt at the age of eight. He found solace and inspiration from Mad magazine, which fed his passion and inspired him to create The Onion.
Scott outlines his journey in his bestselling book “Outrageous Marketing: The Story of The Onion and How To Build a Powerful Brand with No Marketing Budget”. With The Onion, Scott broke the mold for branding and marketing, and he spells out his unlikely success with hilarious stories that will bring audiences to tears with laugher. More about substance than hype, Scott makes clear how the creative process needs to be open, challenging, and engaging for teams and individuals to achieve their dreams.
Programs
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Scott Dikkers tells the tale of his beginnings in comedy and getting The Onion started, and shares funny stories about how he struggled in the early years, and then achieved great success. As a farm boy with no education, he’ll paint the picture of a starry-eyed kid who loved reading Mad Magazine and dreamt of one day getting his work published to improbably founding the world’s first humor website and heading up America’s longest-surviving humor publication. Dikkers connects his experience to the college audience’s lives by pointing out how much more opportunity they have to start something new like The Onion today, explaining that this is a magical time in their lives when they can make just about anything happen for themselves.
“I just wanted to say thank you so much for hosting our Leaders Connect program. It was great working with you throughout the process and the energy you brought to the event really kept everyone engaged and upbeat. The overall customer feedback we received on the event was incredible! We have already started thinking about what to do for next year and now there are talks about our leadership wanting to do another in just 6 months! “
—Zoom
“Scott Dikkers killed … his talk was amazing!”
—IBM
“Scott’s lectures were entertaining, informative, and delivered with an articulate and personable flair. Additionally, his talks have sparked students’ interest to attend future extra-curricular lectures, which is the best possible outcome we could have attained.”
–Indiana University
“Our audiences love him… funny, insightful, and relevant.”
-TechMedia
“Our audiences love him… funny, insightful, and relevant. He has spoken for us 11 times across the US and never disappoints. We are looking forward to booking Scott for more events!”
—Digital Summit
“Scott’s lectures were entertaining, informative, and delivered with an articulate and personable flair. Additionally, his talks have sparked students’ interest to attend future extra-curricular lectures, which is the best possible outcome we could have attained.”
—Indiana University
“Inspiring and thought provoking … but also simply a good time. He cracked us all up!”
—Yale University
“Scott Dikkers did an AWESOME job as the keynote speaker for our Virtual Writers Weekend Saturday night. He was incredibly well prepared; his tech and studio setup were perfect, and he was just so easy to work with, it took a lot of weight off my shoulders. Moreover, the audience LOVED him, and we all had a great time.”
—The Mark Twain House
“They loved him! The turnout for this event was almost as many people as David Sedaris brought in — over 1,200 people.”
—St Mary’s College of Maryland
“It was a blast! He kept the audience engaged, he was funny and so relatable to our students and community members. On top of all that he was so gracious with his time. We had good media coverage which is always awesome for the college.”
—Delta College
“We had almost 300 people which was thrilling considering the short turn-around time we had for the event. Scott was a great speaker, very natural on stage, easily connecting with the audience (more older students, faculty, staff, and community). And… what an easy, low-maintenance guy!
—University of Alaska-Anchorage
Topics
Creativity and Innovation
Leadership/Inspiration
Humorous
Team/Corporate Culture
Branding
Best Client Types
Corporate
Associations
College/University
Gala/Special Events
Best Attendee Types
Leadership
Management
Organizational Teams
Sales/Marketing
Community and College Groups
