Conn Bertish

Using creativity to overcome brain cancer, is a feat of achievement cultivated by Conn Bertish through personal experiences. Creating a radical new approach to tackling one of the world’s biggest killers sets Conn aside as a thought leader in innovative healthcare and has allowed him to educate others on his practices leading to global results. As the Founder of Cancer DoJo, Conn is committed to instilling resilience in both humans and brands, for futureproofed success. At speaking engagements, Conn offers implementable advice for audiences requiring a creative perspective relating resilience to productivity, a truly transformational speaker.

A successful leader in the corporate world, Conn enjoyed a prominent career as the Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi amongst other senior roles. However, when diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer, Conn was faced with a decision, to let it beat him or for him to beat it. Choosing the latter, Conn committed to a creative approach to curing his cancer, infusing innovative strategies that allowed him to be active in his recovery. Through developing such unwavering resilience, Conn cured his cancer and amazed oncologists around the world, a testament to the power of his approach.

Determined to cure others with his methods, Conn founded Cancer DoJo, a social enterprise that supports people through an app. The app aims to empower individuals to play an active role in their recovery and change their perspective from helpless to healed and is completely free to increase the reach and impact of the platform. Since succeeding in his own health journey, Conn has contributed to global health discussions including as a keynote speaker at the biggest Oncology conference in Africa in 2015. In his own life, Conn continues to tackle challenges, as a Red Bull ‘big wave’ surfer, winning South Africa’s first ‘Fear Factor’.

Named amongst the Top 10 Global Impact for Start-Ups list in 2018, Conn’s innovative methods, combining creativity, reliance and technology to overcome cancer, are having an international impact. Currently, he is the Creative Director for the World Design Capital and dedicates much of his time to providing keynote talks. Empowering his audiences with the skills to become resilient, Conn’s key message is that resilience can be learned and is the vital component for personal and professional success.