Dr Peter Gamwell

Author | Keynote Speaker | Consultant | Adjunct Professor, University of Ottawa

Peter Gamwell has spent more than four decades exploring a deceptively simple question: what kinds of conditions allow people and organisations to flourish?

A former Superintendent of Leadership and Creativity with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in Canada, Peter works internationally with schools, school systems, universities, professional associations and organisations seeking to create cultures in which curiosity, creativity, agency, belonging and human potential can thrive.

He is co-author, with Jane Daly, of The Wonder Wall and Thinker, Learner, Dreamer, Doer, and is currently co-authoring The Programming Glitch™: Why Our Systems Keep Crashing — and How a New Story Is Already Taking Root, exploring the assumptions about people, learning and human potential that underpin our organisations.

Peter’s approach is deliberately reciprocal. Rather than arriving with a prescribed programme or formula, he works alongside educators, leaders, students and communities — listening, interviewing, documenting and learning from what is already emerging within their contexts.

This approach has taken him into classrooms, schools and organisations across Canada and internationally. Recent work has included engagements in Canada, Taiwan, Brazil and the United States, ranging from keynotes and professional learning to multi-day events and sustained inquiry projects.

His Cultivating Innovation project has also developed into an extensive video archive documenting conversations, classroom practice and examples of innovation and possibility from around the world.

Services for 2026–27

• Keynote presentations on creativity, curiosity, leadership, belonging, agency, human potential and creating the conditions for people to flourish.
• Full- and half-day workshops and professional learning connecting big ideas with practical implications for classrooms, schools and leadership.
• Leadership development focused on culture, trust, professional agency and recognising and mobilising the strengths within an organisation.
• School and system inquiry projects including sustained partnerships that identify, document and amplify promising practice.
• Student and community engagement bringing student voice and the perspectives of the wider community directly into conversations about learning and organisational change.
• Action research, facilitation and documentation helping organisations learn from what is already emerging within their own environments.

Peter’s work can be tailored to individual schools, leadership teams, districts, professional associations and conferences. Engagements can range from a single keynote or workshop to multi-day events and longer-term partnerships.

Current areas of exploration

What kinds of conditions allow people to flourish?

How do we create schools in which curiosity, creativity, belonging and agency are part of the everyday experience of learning?

What changes when we begin with people’s strengths and possibilities rather than their perceived deficits?

How might leadership change when trust, professional judgement and distributed expertise become starting points?

What assumptions about learning and human potential might we need to reconsider as we prepare young people for an increasingly complex and unpredictable world?

Fees

Fees vary according to the nature and duration of the engagement, location, travel requirements and whether the work involves a single presentation or a more sustained partnership. Specific rates are available for keynote presentations, workshops and longer-term consultancy.