We're just looking at options for our for a client conference in October and the boss has asked me to vet.
Initial options are Matt Dawson, Eddie Jones, Ian Botham, Kelly Holmes (the comment from the agency is that she is a sincere and wonderful speaker, but also that she is "getting really good at speaking"), Ben Fogle, John Barnes or Denise Lewis. All come well inside the £20k budget.
Depends on what you are looking for and whether there is a theme to the event. If it is a formal client event, probably something linked to leadership, teamwork etc, which ours is, then these would be the sort of people we'd use.
In the past, we have had Clive Woodward and I'd agree with B that he was really good. A very nice guy and spoke really well, with a great presentation for an hour and then mingled with the clients afterwards as well.
We've also had Steve Backley & Roger Black, who were great. Had their own property investment business as well, but some great stories from their times as Olympians. Professor Steve Peters, who worked with the likes of Chris Hoy (who I saw at another event last year and he was excellent) and wrote The Chimp Paradox. Last year, we had Mandy Hickson who is a former Tornado GR4 jet pilot with the RAF and flew a lot of tours over Iraq (blue as f**k and a speech that no bloke could get away with these days, but very entertaining).
All of them spoke for an hour and took loads of questions. Roger Black was inundated with requests for selfies from the ladies in the audience,,,Woodward didn't have that problem!
My wife was at a conference recently where Roger Black was one of the speakers. She said he was superb (and fit)
Roger and Steve were actually a great double act. Fair bit of "filler" in that they use little videos of their career, but they were obviously very comfortable speaking and very natural.
@Sillybilly I actually recommended we went with Kelly. The rest of the commentary we were given was that she speaks very honestly about performing at the highest level, whilst managing her depression. May not seem the brightest subject matter, but our audience are people in high pressure jobs and wellbeing is high on the agenda for all of them.
I had my own opinion of Woodward, which was he was a bit full of himself, but he covered off the time he went into football with Southampton and was pretty self-deprecating and came across really well.
I also said alternatively, Barnesy, but mainly because of the Chralton connection...and the fact that the lad can talk for days!!!!!
Kevin Keegan was excellent at a BTTV dinner, Kelly Holmes is just such a nice person it's untrue, saw Phil Tufnell and he was hysterical, ditto Graeme Swann. As for Bob "The Cat" Bevan, that would be a no from me and ideally the rest of the World.
Austin Healy is a good after dinner speaker. Thoroughly recommended
Another shout for Austen Healy. Not only were his rugby stories hilarious but he managed to slaughter our pompous senior management with some brilliant observations. The crowd went wild.
Kevin Keegan was excellent at a BTTV dinner, Kelly Holmes is just such a nice person it's untrue, saw Phil Tufnell and he was hysterical, ditto Graeme Swann. As for Bob "The Cat" Bevan, that would be a no from me and ideally the rest of the World.
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My wife was at a conference recently where Roger Black was one of the speakers. She said he was superb (and fit)
@Sillybilly I actually recommended we went with Kelly. The rest of the commentary we were given was that she speaks very honestly about performing at the highest level, whilst managing her depression. May not seem the brightest subject matter, but our audience are people in high pressure jobs and wellbeing is high on the agenda for all of them.
I had my own opinion of Woodward, which was he was a bit full of himself, but he covered off the time he went into football with Southampton and was pretty self-deprecating and came across really well.
I also said alternatively, Barnesy, but mainly because of the Chralton connection...and the fact that the lad can talk for days!!!!!