Business Speakers

[warren cass]

I am currently working on 50+ events across the UK for 2009 and am interested in feedback regarding the type of speakers that would motivate you to attend.

What subjects float your boats?
Do you prefer 'known' speakers?
Who is the best speaker you have heard? and why?
Thanks in advance
Warren

[ServersandSpares]

I once attended an event for the large retail company I worked for, where Roger Black was the speaker. I was really quite impressed at the way he managed to tailor his talk to the business, adding in a mix of his own experience and current issues, to entertain the diverse mix of people attending. He had obviously done his homework on the business beforehand as well which made his speech a little more personal for everybody.
Julie

[Edward Moss]

I've covered lots of conferences where they have had keynote speakers.
Some of the best were specialists in there fields who knew there stuff and were relevant to the audience (sorry can't remember names)

Famous ones I've seen have been a bit mixed but the ones which stand out were Bobby Charlton, Jonathan Edwards and John Parrott, seems that top sportsmen make quite good speakers.

Depending on your budget have you thought of Chris Hoy or one of the olympians?

[Orange22]

I'd say in today's economic climate the following topics would be relevant for me:

How to drive more customers
How to further monetise my existing customer base
Presentation skills
How to effectively manage cashflow (this subject you'll be able to sell a space to an invoice finance speaker) ;-)

Hope this helps.

[scribe]

I would be more interestd in listening to the ordinary bloke of the the street the successful ones and the ones that lost it all . I don't want to listen to high profile people waffling on, most of the talks are scripted anyway .

[Findermonkey]

For me the most important aspect is that the speaker knows their stuff and presents it in an interesting way. I could listen to anyone talk on pretty much any topic (especially business issues) and get something out of it as long as they met that criteria. I don't get anymore out of it if they are famous as most like to talk about themselves.

[CarolineICE]

It would be well worth giving Stephen Berry ( a member on here) a call. He delivered a talk at a company launch meeting I arranged which was incredibly inspiring, motivating and with the right amount of humour! He talks about business strategy for survival which would be particularly pertinent in today's climate. He pitched his talk to everyone in the room making it relevant to all employees/ business owners at every level. His presentations are definitley NOT scripted for him!

He's very approachable and I'm sure would be happy to talk to you.

Hope this helps,

Caroline