.svg)
The 2025 J Turner Research Summit – The Butterfly Effect
Malcolm Gladwell to Deliver Tipping Point Keynote
This year’s J Turner Research Summit promises to be a thought-provoking gathering of leaders and innovators, and we couldn’t be more excited to announce our headliner: renowned author and thinker Malcolm Gladwell! Known for his six New York Times bestsellers—The Tipping Point, Outliers, Blink, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath, and Talking to Strangers—Gladwell has a unique ability to unpack complex ideas in compelling and relatable ways—making him a perfect fit for an industry which is ever-evolving. You won’t want to miss learning from Malcolm at the 2025 summit held October 15-17 at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, California.
“We're excited about having Malcolm Gladwell as our keynote speaker. Gladwell is the most sought-after speaker in the world. A former writer for The New Yorker, he has written six New York Times Best Seller books, including The Tipping Point, What the Dog Saw, and David Goliath, as well as Revenge of the Tipping Point, Galdwell's most recent book. I heard him speak last summer in Austin, Texas, and my wife and I were spellbound by his stories.”
“You will leave his keynote with new ways to think of things. His subjects range from the reasons for the success of the Beatles to stories about the most successful bank robbers, to what the magic third is and what it means for racial harmony. At our summit, you’ll get an up-close, personal opportunity to interact with Malcolm Gladwell.”
Joseph Batdorf, President and Co-Founder, J Turner Research
Malcolm has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996, and he has been named one of the 100 most influential people by TIME magazine and one of the Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers. He has won a national magazine award and been honored by the American Psychological Society and the American Sociological Society. In addition to these accolades, Malcolm is also the host of a 10-part podcast, Revisionist History. In the weekly podcast, Malcolm re-examines an overlooked or misunderstood aspect of past events. He is an extraordinary speaker: always on target, aware of the context and the concerns of the audience, informative and practical, poised, eloquent, and warm and funny.
Malcolm’s unsurpassed ability to be both entertaining and challenging, combined with his insights into how ideas spread as explored in The Tipping Point, make him an ideal voice for this year’s summit theme: The Butterfly Effect: Navigating Multifamily’s Tipping Point. The apartment industry is increasingly focused on innovation, resident experience, and community-building—all the themes Malcolm has explored in his writing. His keynote is expected to challenge attendees to think differently about their roles and responsibilities in creating a living experience that meets the needs of the modern renter. Whether you’re a veteran operator or new to the multifamily industry, Malcolm’s presentation is one you won’t want to miss.
My Tipping Point—Biggest Learnings from Gladwell’s Book
Hear from our team members on how Revenge Of the Tipping Point influenced their thinking:
“I found the chapter on “The L.A. Survivors’ Club” to be particularly interesting. The club was formed by Holocaust survivors attending night class together at Hollywood High School. To my surprise, public knowledge of the Holocaust following the war was not as pervasive as one might think. Many people simply didn’t know that there was a Holocaust at all; and those who did know, largely did not wish to speak publicly about it. It was not until 1978 that there was a massive spike in the usage of the word Holocaust in printed media. Malcolm Gladwell credits a fair amount of this phenomenon to NBC’s production and airing of a miniseries titled Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss. Gladwell postures that Holocaust awareness did not happen on its own, but as a concerted effort by brave decisions by people with powerful media influence. This reiterates a central tenet of Tipping Points – we are responsible for the spread of information. While “superspreaders” like NBC executives can have disproportionately large influence in accelerating social phenomena, ordinary people like members of the Los Angeles Survivors Club can also have meaningful impact.”
-Kevin Guo, Research Coordinator, J Turner Research
“From the very first chapter explaining the rise of bank robberies in Los Angeles, I was instantly hooked on Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book, Revenge of the Tipping Point. I loved the way he took interesting topics like the opioid crisis or why Harvard has a women’s rugby team and interconnected them, getting at a larger point of why epidemics, whether social, cognitive, or viral, exist. My biggest takeaway was that we have control and influence on the environments we operate in. It may seem like things “just happen,” but Malcolm showcases that our influence, our opinions/behaviors, and our tolerance of other people’s actions matter. In my own life, I think this is most reflected in my workplace. What I do at work, the group proportions of our employees, and the environment we create on a day-to-day basis are incredibly important in determining the direction J Turner Research will go. Our theme for our summit this year is The Butterfly Effect, meaning that the small things matter immensely. I am so excited to see Malcolm find a creative way to bring this to life for our multifamily executives!”
-Turner Batdorf, Vice President, J Turner Research
For more information, visit J Turner Research Summit 2025.