▶Ep. 45 / July 2026A long answer
Who’sSethDechtman?
01 / MovementThe tennis player.
02 / Long SundaysThe man in the kitchen.
03 / Paying attentionThe photographer.
04 / Somewhere elseThe adventurer.
A curator. A reader. A cook. A traveller.And more.
Scroll down to find out
The Master Curator
A career spent matching
the message to the moment.
This is the quieter half. The working half lives at thekeynotecurators.com. Everything else lives here.
I read more fiction than is strictly useful. I cook on Sundays when I’m home, which is fewer Sundays than I’d like. I take photographs at every event I attend, mostly of empty chairs and the back-of-house things nobody was meant to look at. I play tennis badly at a court I love. My wife is from Buenos Aires; we go back every year, and the pages I write there are different from the pages I write anywhere else.
I came up reading books I probably shouldn’t have understood yet, sitting in green rooms long before I belonged in them, and learning that the rooms always say more than the slides. That belief still runs the work.
Off the Clock
Adventures in between.
Tennis. The long walk. The longer flight. The places that keep the work honest. The best ideas come from somewhere else, so these are the somewhere-elses.
Long Sundays
In the kitchen.
A recipe a month, written the way a curator writes a brief. What to do, why it matters, and what I learned trying it the wrong way first.
This month, May 2026
A short braise, on the long Sunday.
I make this on the Sundays I’m home, which is fewer than I’d like. Lamb shoulder, onions, anchovies, a fistful of olives, twelve cloves of garlic that smell offensive going in and taste honest coming out.
It’s mostly waiting. You sear, you stew, you read a book while it cooks.
A real Sunday needs four hours of oven time and a book you’ve been meaning to finish. The recipe is in the waiting.
I learned this version from a chef in Buenos Aires who refused to write it down. I’ve since written it down. He has not forgiven me.
Seth’s kitchen, CharlestonBackstage
20+ years, backstage.
The Photographer
Collections.
Things I keep, sorted into stacks. A curator’s habit of putting like with like.
18 frames · ongoing
Empty Rooms
Things worth keeping, written down before they disappear.
18 frames · ongoing
Hotel Coffee
Things worth keeping, written down before they disappear.
18 frames · ongoing
The Sunday Pan
Things worth keeping, written down before they disappear.
18 frames · ongoing
The Long Walks
Things worth keeping, written down before they disappear.
18 frames · ongoing
Books I’d Mail You
Things worth keeping, written down before they disappear.
18 frames · ongoing
The Saturday Court
Things worth keeping, written down before they disappear.
The TKC Podcast
On air, every week.
▶Ep. 45 / July 2026▶Ep. 44 / July 2026A year in the green rooms, what I learned
▶Ep. 43 / July 2026From Stage to Strategy
▶Ep. 42 / July 2026On saying no to clients I would otherwise want
▶Ep. 47 / July 2026Curating Impact: What Premium Really Means in 2026
▶Ep. 46 / July 2026On picking speakers the way I pick books
Featured In
Words on the shelf.
Ch. 11
The Modern Keynote
Hayes & Ng, 2024
Anthology
Voices & Venues
Wiley, 2023
Ch. 4
The Bureau Business
Penguin, 2022
Foreword
Stage Right
Self-published, 2021
M. HouselSame as Ever2023
What I’m Reading This Month
Same as Ever
by Morgan Housel
I picked this up because every keynote planner I talk to keeps asking the same nervous question: what changes next, and how do we get ahead of it? Housel’s answer is the opposite of every futurist on my roster, and that’s exactly why I keep going back to it.
His thesis: stop chasing what’s new. Pay closer attention to what never changes. Greed, fear, envy, the way stories beat statistics, the way good news arrives slowly and bad news arrives all at once.
I’m giving this to every speaker I sign in 2026. You should read it before your next event brief.
SethGet the book →My Brands
Five brands. One master curator.
The Bureau · Est. 2014 · 20+ Years
The Keynote Curators
A boutique bureau. Twenty years of curating voices for conferences, associations, and corporate stages worldwide.
thekeynotecurators.com →The LabKeynote Speaker Lab
Where emerging speakers sharpen the craft. Coaching, content development, and stage strategy.
keynotespeakerlab.com →VerticalHealthcare Keynotes
Speakers for healthcare and life-sciences events.
healthcareeventkeynotes.com →VerticalEnergy Keynotes
Speakers for the energy transition and oil and gas sectors.
energyeventkeynotes.com →VerticalFS Speakers
Speakers for banking, asset management, and fintech events.
financialservicesspeakers.com →Trusted By
Audiences from boardrooms to ballrooms.
JPMorganSalesforcePfizerMicrosoftMastercardGoldmanSHRMYPO
Get In Touch
Tell me about the room.
If you’re planning an event and you’d like a curator’s read on the right voice for your audience, send me a note. I read every one personally.