Terms of Use

Effective Date: 17 April 2026

1. About These Terms

These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) govern your access to and use of the website at thedigitalspeaker.com and the related products and services offered through it (together, the “Services”), including our keynote speaking engagements, the Intelligence Age Scorecard, the Strategic Executive Briefing, masterclasses, the Synthetic Minds newsletter, podcasts, and any other content or tools we make available.

By using the Services, booking a keynote, purchasing a Scorecard, subscribing to the newsletter, or otherwise engaging with us, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Services.

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any non-excludable right or guarantee that applies to you under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)), the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), or any other applicable consumer protection law.

2. Who We Are

The Services are provided by Futurity Ventures Pty Ltd (ACN 422 409 835), trading as The Digital Speaker, a company incorporated in Australia with its principal place of business in Sydney, New South Wales (“we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company”).

Australian Business Number (ABN): 89 422 409 835

General enquiries: enquiries@thedigitalspeaker.com

Privacy matters: privacy@thedigitalspeaker.com

3. Changes to These Terms

We may amend these Terms from time to time. The current version is always available at thedigitalspeaker.com/terms/. Material changes will be notified by updating the Effective Date above and, where appropriate, by email to registered users or Scorecard account holders. Your continued use of the Services after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

For keynote engagements, masterclasses, and Scorecard purchases that have already been paid for, the Terms in force on the date of purchase or contract signing will govern that transaction.

4. Website Use

4.1 Permitted Use

You may access and use the website for personal information, professional research, and legitimate business enquiries, subject to these Terms and all applicable laws.

4.2 Account Registration

Some features — including the Intelligence Age Scorecard, team administration dashboards, and the post-keynote feedback system — require you to register using a verified email address. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide, for keeping your access credentials confidential, and for all activity conducted through your account. Accounts are personal; they may not be shared, transferred, or assigned without our written consent.

4.3 Prohibited Conduct

You must not:

• use the Services in any way that breaches applicable law or infringes the rights of any third party;
• reverse-engineer, decompile, scrape, data-mine, or attempt to extract the source code or underlying models of any part of the Services, including the Scorecard, the WAVE framework diagnostic engine, and any AI-generated report;
• use automated tools, bots, or scripts to access the Services, other than well-behaved search-engine crawlers operating in accordance with our robots.txt;
• resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute any part of the Services or their output without our prior written consent;
• upload or submit content that is unlawful, defamatory, deceptive, infringing, harassing, obscene, or malicious, or that contains viruses or other harmful code;
• use the Services to train, fine-tune, or evaluate any machine-learning model, or to build any competing product or dataset, without our express written consent;
• impersonate any person or entity, including Dr Mark van Rijmenam, or falsely represent your affiliation with us;
• interfere with, disrupt, or probe the security of the Services, our hosting infrastructure, or any connected system.

5. Services We Provide

Depending on your engagement with us, we may provide one or more of the following:

• Keynote speaking engagements, in person and virtual, including holographic and broadcast formats;
• The Intelligence Age Scorecard — an AI-powered executive assessment platform offered at Individual, Team, and Strategic Executive Briefing tiers;
• The Strategic Executive Briefing — a customized, facilitated briefing delivered under the Intelligence Age Scorecard program;
• Masterclasses based on Dr van Rijmenam’s book Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, offered live and on demand;
• The Synthetic Minds newsletter and related podcasts and publications;
• The Partner Program and Trade Association Program;
• The Delphi Digital Twin chat experience.

6. Keynote Speaking Engagements

6.1 Scope and Deliverables

Keynote and workshop engagements are contracted with Futurity Ventures Pty Ltd (the “Company”) and are delivered by Dr Mark van Rijmenam (the “Speaker”). We will deliver the keynote or workshop described in the signed engagement contract or Statement of Work (the “Engagement”). The Speaker is responsible for the content and manner of delivery, developed in consultation with the client (the “Client”) in advance of the event. Any agreed customization, research, or preparatory discovery calls form part of the Engagement.

6.2 Fees and Payment

Unless otherwise agreed in writing:

• an invoice for the total fee (the “Fee”) will be issued within three (3) business days of contract signing;
• 50% of the Fee (the “Deposit”) is payable within five (5) business days of the invoice date;
• the remaining 50% is payable no later than five (5) business days before the event date;
• the Speaker’s reservation of the event date is not confirmed until the Deposit has been received in cleared funds;
• all bank, transfer, and currency-conversion fees are borne by the Client;
• fees are exclusive of GST, VAT, or any equivalent tax, which will be added where applicable;
• overdue amounts accrue default interest at a rate of 11.07% per annum, calculated daily from the due date until paid in full.

Where an unpaid invoice is referred to a debt-collection agent, all reasonable costs of recovery — including legal costs on an indemnity basis and debt-collection commissions — are payable by the Client.

6.3 Travel, Accommodation, and Technical Requirements

Because the Speaker travels from Sydney, Australia, all international and domestic travel, accommodation, ground transfers, and visa costs must be arranged and paid for by the Client in accordance with the Speaker’s rider, promptly upon contract signing. The Client is responsible for providing a properly lit, heated or cooled venue in good working order, together with all stage, AV, lighting, and microphone equipment specified in the rider. The Client will limit the audience to the number legally permitted at the venue.

6.4 Recording, Streaming, and Reuse

Recording, broadcasting, live-streaming, or rebroadcasting of any Engagement — in whole or in part — is permitted only where expressly agreed in writing and subject to any additional fees and restrictions specified. Recordings may not be used for internal training, on-demand libraries, or external distribution without the Speaker’s separate written consent. Photography for social media and event coverage is permitted.

6.5 Cancellation by Client

The Client may cancel the Engagement by written notice, subject to the following cancellation fees, calculated as a percentage of the Fee:

• more than 90 days before the event date: 25% of the Fee;
• between 31 and 90 days before the event date: 50% of the Fee;
• within 30 days of the event date: 100% of the Fee.

All non-refundable travel and accommodation costs already incurred are in addition to the above and remain payable in full.

6.6 Cancellation by Speaker; Force Majeure

If the Speaker is unable to appear through no fault of the Client (including illness, bereavement, transport failure, or government travel restrictions), the parties will use good-faith efforts to agree a substitute date or a mutually acceptable substitute speaker at no additional cost to the Client. If neither option is acceptable within a reasonable time, fees already paid for the un-delivered portion of the Engagement will be refunded.

Neither party is liable for failure to perform caused by events beyond its reasonable control (a “Force Majeure Event”), including pandemics, acts of government, natural disasters, war, terrorism, labour disputes, or widespread network or infrastructure failure. Where a Force Majeure Event prevents delivery of an Engagement, the parties will work in good faith to reschedule, convert the Engagement to a virtual format, or otherwise mitigate loss.

6.7 Confidentiality

Each party will treat the other party’s non-public information — including commercial terms, client strategy, audience data, and the content of any discovery call — as confidential, and will use it only for the purpose of the Engagement. The Client must hold in confidence the Fee and the specific commercial terms of the contract. Confidentiality obligations survive termination of the Engagement.

6.8 Independent Contractor

The Speaker is engaged as an independent contractor. Nothing in the Engagement creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between the parties.

7. Intelligence Age Scorecard

7.1 Nature of the Service

The Intelligence Age Scorecard is an executive-level diagnostic assessment. It collects your responses to a structured questionnaire, analyses those responses using large language models operated by Anthropic (see the Privacy Policy for details), and produces a written report with reflections, benchmarks, and suggested priorities under the WAVE framework (Watch, Adapt, Verify, Empower).

7.2 Tiers and Fees

• Individual tier: USD $25 per assessment, providing one individual Scorecard report.
• Team tier: USD $2,500, providing an administrator dashboard and multiple seats for a single organization, a team report, and analytics.
• Strategic Executive Briefing: USD $10,000, which includes a Team Scorecard and a customized facilitated briefing delivered to the client’s senior leadership team.

Prices are quoted in United States Dollars unless otherwise stated and are exclusive of GST, VAT, or any other applicable tax. We may vary pricing from time to time; the price in force at the time of your purchase applies to that purchase.

7.3 AI-Generated Content and General Nature of the Report

Scorecard reports are produced, in whole or in part, by automated systems. Reports are general strategic reflections grounded in your responses and the WAVE framework. They are not legal, financial, investment, medical, tax, or engineering advice, and they are not a substitute for professional advice from a qualified adviser who has reviewed your specific circumstances.

AI systems can produce outputs that are incomplete, out of date, or incorrect. We apply a multi-layer Synthetic Review Panel and editorial review before delivery, but we do not warrant that a report is free from errors, that it reflects the current state of any law, market, or technology, or that acting on it will produce any particular outcome. You must exercise your own professional judgment before relying on any part of a report.

7.4 Licence to Use the Report

On full payment, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide, perpetual licence to use your Scorecard report internally within your organization for strategic, educational, and planning purposes. You may share the report with your employees, board, and professional advisers under obligations of confidentiality.

You may not: (a) publish the report externally, in whole or in substantial part, without our written consent; (b) remove or alter our branding, attribution, or the WAVE framework methodology notice; (c) resell, sublicense, or redistribute the report; or (d) use the report, any benchmark data, or any aggregate output to train any machine-learning model.

7.5 Refunds and Cooling-Off

Because Scorecard reports are digital services supplied immediately on purchase and delivered in personalized form, they are not generally eligible for change-of-mind refunds. Where you are an EU-based consumer with a statutory right of withdrawal under Directive 2011/83/EU (the Consumer Rights Directive), you are taken to have expressly consented to the supply of a digital service during the 14-day withdrawal period and to have acknowledged that your right of withdrawal is lost once supply has commenced.

Nothing in this section limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law or any other non-excludable consumer protection law. If a Scorecard report is not delivered, is materially different from what was purchased, or is defective in a way that cannot be reasonably remedied, you are entitled to a remedy — including, where appropriate, a refund — in accordance with those laws.

For the Strategic Executive Briefing, the keynote cancellation terms set out in clause 6.5 apply to the facilitated briefing component, to the extent it has been scheduled.

7.6 Account Deletion and Data Portability

You may close your Scorecard account and request deletion of all personal data we hold in connection with it at any time, by following the self-service deletion option in your account or by emailing privacy@thedigitalspeaker.com. Deletion is typically completed within 30 days and is confirmed by email. Where specific records must be retained for tax, accounting, fraud-prevention, or legal-compliance reasons, we will retain only the minimum necessary and isolate them from active use. Full details of our deletion practices are set out in the Privacy Policy.

7.7 Acceptable Use of the Scorecard

In addition to the general prohibitions in clause 4.3, when using the Scorecard you must not: (a) submit personal information about any identifiable third party without a lawful basis for doing so; (b) upload sensitive personal information (including health data, biometric data, or information about children under 16) into the assessment fields; (c) use the assessment in bad faith or in a manner designed to corrupt benchmark data; or (d) use the report to make any decision that would significantly affect an individual (for example, an employment or performance decision about a specific person) without independent human review and appropriate professional advice.

8. Masterclasses, Partner Program, and Trade Association Program

Access to masterclasses, Partner Program materials, and Trade Association Program benefits is granted on receipt of payment and for the subscription period purchased. Digital materials are licensed to you personally for internal, non-commercial use within your organization. Group viewing is permitted within the licensed organization; external broadcast is not. Subscriptions do not auto-renew unless this is expressly stated at the point of purchase. Refunds for digital course content are governed by the principles set out in clause 7.5.

9. Newsletter and Marketing Communications

The Synthetic Minds newsletter, and any other marketing communication we send, is sent on the basis of your opt-in consent (for EU/UK recipients) or under our legitimate interest in marketing our own similar services to existing and prospective clients (elsewhere), in each case in accordance with applicable law, including the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). Every marketing email includes a functional one-click unsubscribe link; you may also email privacy@thedigitalspeaker.com to be removed from all marketing lists. Transactional and service emails (for example, Scorecard delivery, keynote logistics, receipts) are not marketing and will continue while you have an active engagement with us.

10. Intellectual Property

10.1 Our Intellectual Property

All rights in the Services, including all text, graphics, logos, icons, images, audio, video, software, diagnostic models, benchmark data, assessment logic, report templates, presentations, speaking content, and the WAVE framework (Watch, Adapt, Verify, Empower), are owned by Futurity Ventures Pty Ltd or our licensors (including Dr Mark van Rijmenam where he has licensed content to the Company) and are protected by Australian and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property laws. “The Digital Speaker,” “Intelligence Age Scorecard,” “Synthetic Minds,” and “WAVE” (Watch, Adapt, Verify, Empower) are trademarks of Futurity Ventures Pty Ltd or Dr Mark van Rijmenam, whether registered or unregistered.

Except as expressly permitted by these Terms or by applicable law (including the fair-dealing exceptions in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)), you must not copy, reproduce, republish, adapt, translate, broadcast, transmit, distribute, sell, sublicense, or create derivative works from any part of our Services without our prior written consent.

10.2 Your Content

You retain ownership of any content you submit through the Services, including Scorecard responses, feedback, open-ended reflections, testimonials, and correspondence (“Your Content”). You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable licence to use, reproduce, modify, publish, and create derivative works from Your Content for the purposes of: (a) delivering the Services; (b) producing your Scorecard report and any associated executive publication; (c) generating aggregated, de-identified benchmarks and research; and (d) improving our products and marketing our services, in each case subject to the Privacy Policy.

You warrant that Your Content is your own or that you have all rights necessary to grant the above licence, that it does not infringe any third-party right, and that it is not unlawful, deceptive, or misleading.

Where you have provided an individual testimonial, quote, or post-keynote feedback, we may publish it in anonymized or attributed form (using the name, title, and organization you supplied) in our marketing materials, unless you tell us otherwise.

10.3 Feedback

If you provide us with suggestions, ideas, or feedback about the Services, we may use those suggestions without restriction and without obligation to you.

10.4 AI Training Opt-Out

Except for the internal model-improvement, benchmarking, and research uses described above (which are always performed on de-identified aggregate data), we do not sell Your Content to third parties for the purpose of training external AI models. Third-party AI crawlers are asked to respect our robots.txt and machine-readable opt-out signals.

11. Copyright Complaints

We respect the intellectual property of others. If you believe that material on the Services infringes your copyright, please notify us at privacy@thedigitalspeaker.com with: (i) a description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed; (ii) the URL or description of the allegedly infringing material; (iii) your contact details; (iv) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized; and (v) a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the rights-holder or are authorized to act on their behalf. This process is intended to satisfy the takedown procedures under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and comparable processes under the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

12. AI and Automated Processing

Parts of our Services use automated processing, including large language models, to produce assessment scores, reports, benchmarks, and briefing materials. We describe this processing, and the safeguards we apply, in the Privacy Policy. Our automated processing does not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on you. You can contact us at privacy@thedigitalspeaker.com to obtain meaningful information about the logic and consequences of the automated processing that applies to you.

13. Australian Consumer Law and Consumer Guarantees

If you are a “consumer” as defined in the Australian Consumer Law, you may be entitled to certain non-excludable guarantees about the Services — including that they will be supplied with due care and skill, that they will be reasonably fit for any purpose disclosed to us, and that they will be supplied within a reasonable time. Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, or modifies those guarantees. Where we are permitted to do so, our liability for breach of a consumer guarantee is limited, at our option, to re-supplying the Services or refunding the price paid.

14. Limitation of Liability

Subject to clause 13 and any other non-excludable law:

• the Services, and all content, reports, and recommendations delivered through them, are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis;
• we do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free, free from viruses, or that any forecast, recommendation, benchmark, or report will be accurate, current, or fit for a particular purpose;
• to the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude all liability for indirect, special, incidental, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of goodwill, loss of business opportunity, loss of data, or loss of anticipated savings, whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence), under statute, or otherwise;
• our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising from or in connection with the Services, in any twelve-month period, is limited to the greater of: (i) the total amounts paid by you to us in that period; and (ii) AUD $1,000;
• nothing in these Terms excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

15. Indemnity

You will indemnify us against all reasonable losses, damages, costs (including reasonable legal costs on an indemnity basis), and expenses we suffer or incur arising out of or in connection with: (i) your breach of these Terms; (ii) Your Content; (iii) your misuse of any report, benchmark, or output of the Services; or (iv) your breach of any applicable law or the rights of any third party. Our right to be indemnified is reduced to the extent we or our representatives contributed to the loss.

16. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the Services if: (a) you breach these Terms; (b) any amount you owe us is overdue; (c) we reasonably suspect fraud, abuse, or unlawful use; or (d) we are required to do so by law. We will give you reasonable notice where practical. On termination, clauses that by their nature are intended to survive — including Intellectual Property, Confidentiality, Limitation of Liability, Indemnity, and Governing Law — will continue in force.

You may close your account at any time as described in clause 7.6. Closing an account does not entitle you to a refund of any fees already paid, other than as required by the Australian Consumer Law or any other non-excludable law.

17. General

17.1 Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. The parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the courts competent to hear appeals from them. Where you are a consumer ordinarily resident in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you retain the benefit of any mandatory consumer-protection rules of the law of your country of residence.

17.2 Dispute Resolution

If a dispute arises, the parties will first attempt to resolve it in good faith by direct written correspondence for at least 30 days before commencing any legal proceeding (other than urgent interlocutory relief). For Scorecard-related disputes, please contact privacy@thedigitalspeaker.com; for keynote-related disputes, enquiries@thedigitalspeaker.com.

17.3 Severability, Waiver, and Assignment

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of that right. You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our written consent; we may assign our rights and obligations to any successor of our business.

17.4 Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any signed engagement contract or order form for a specific Service, constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to the Services and supersede any prior representations, understandings, or agreements.

17.5 Limitation Period

Any claim you may have against us in connection with the Services must be commenced within twelve (12) months of the date the claim first arose. Claims not commenced within that period are permanently waived, except to the extent a longer limitation period is required by applicable law.

18. Contact

---

These Terms were last updated on 17 April 2026 and supersede all prior versions.