Speakers
Our first event attracted some of the UK’s leading business thinkers. We choose our speakers on the strengths of their stories. We believe that when entrepreneurs talk honestly about their trials and tribulations in business, they can communicate profound lessons about how difficult and how rewarding it can be to do something new and different.
If you would like to be considered as a speaker at our event in 2012, please send an email to: enquiry AT thespeechwriter.co DOT uk.
We endeavour to deliver all workshops and speakers as advertised. However, we cannot accept any liability for any changes to the programme or speakers.
Margaret Heffernan
Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, Chief Executive and author. She is Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College in Boston. Margaret blogs for the Huffington Post and BNET and writes for Fast Company, Real Business, MORE, and other magazines around the world. Her latest book is Wilful Blindness, Why we ignore the obvious at our peril.
Nigel Cutts
Nigel ran his own substantial design business and latterly set up the UK office of an international firm of architects. He now works as a coach and mentor in Cutts & Cons. He is the author of Love at Work.
Sue Bradley
Sue Bradley is a regional director of Creative Partnerships and an international performer, teacher and musician with a punk attitude. She helps creative people deal with the world of measures, money and business, while persuading those in the traditional work environment to understand the creative mindset.
Dr Dave Richards
Dr Dave is a globally recognised thought leader, practitioner, advisor, author and speaker on strategic innovation leadership. As a senior executive with multinational leaders including Oracle and Nortel Networks, he led initiatives and business units that helped create and exploit the full potential of the Internet.
Chris Croft
Chris Croft has come from an Operations background, having started with an Engineering Degree from Cambridge, qualifying as a Chartered Engineer, and working as a senior manager in manufacturing for 10 years. He gained an MBA and worked as a university lecturer for four years before starting his own training company fifteen years ago. His book called Time Management is available from Amazon and most book shops and he has nine other “mini-books” at www.lulu.com and on Kindle. Chris has become a much sought-after local speaker due to his unusual presentation style – a mixture of a structured practical approach illustrated by bizarre stories. He guarantees that his session will be interesting, useful, and make you laugh.
Monica Adams
Monica Adams will speak on How To Start Your Own Restaurant. Monica is a mum, who lived the dream of setting up her own café by the sea.
With the wit of Jo Brand, and the charm of Sarah Beeny, she tells the story of how she built Bournemouth’s most popular organic café, and then how it all went horribly wrong.
Mindy Gibbins-Klein
Mindy Gibbins-Klein is founder and director of REAL Thought Leaders, The Book Midwife™ and Ecademy Press business publishing house. Mindy has helped over 300 business people to write and publish their books and the Ecademy Press is just about to publish its 100th book. She has an MBA in International Business from University of Bridgeport, USA and has taught the post-graduate diploma course for the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK. Mindy will have her own room where she will be hosting her authors. Find out more here http://www.bookmidwife.com.
Tobias Ellwood MP
Tobias has been the MP for Bournemouth East since 2005. He has an MBA from the Cass Business School at City University. He was the Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, with specific responsibilities for gambling, licensing and tourism. He sees Bournemouth as a place with great potential for economic growth, and he will give a short speech explaining why.
Mark Cribb
Mark Cribb established, owns and manages the Urban Beach Hotel and Urban Reef Restaurant in Boscombe, Bournemouth. Transforming a run down old B&B into an award winning boutique hotel, cocktail bar and bistro whilst getting married, having two children and designing and building the Urban Reef restaurant has all led to a busy four years for Mark. Owing the bank over £1 million and having sailed as close to the bankruptcy wind as is possible, Mark has a passion for ethics, sustainability, local life, the sea, blue skies and working hard to create something that does not exist. Find out more here: http://www.urbanreef.com.
If you see a business book you want that’s in any way related to your area or function, if there’s even a chance it can help you do your job better, buy it. – Tim Berry, Entrepreneur
Guy Browning
Guy Browning’s business books include Innervation: Rewire Yourself for the New Economy and Grass Roots Management. He has also written humorous columns for the Guardian. These columns have been anthologised as: Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade and Never Push When it Says Pull, and both were bestsellers. His latest book is The Pocket Guru, Priceless nuggets of business wisdom.
Tom Butler-Bowdon
Tom Butler-Bowdon is the author of 50 Self-Help Classics: 50 Inspirational Books to Transform Your Life and 50 Prosperity Classics: Attract It, Create It, Manage It, Share It: Wisdom From the Most Valuable Books on Wealth Creation and Abundance.
He has also provided critical introductions to business classics including Think and Grow Rich, The Science of Getting Rich, Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Machiavelli’s The Prince and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.
David Drysdale
David Drysdale (aka the Yak) is the ‘Editor, etc, etc.’ at Whatify and claims an award winning career spanning over twenty-five years in marketing, public relations, journalism and corporate communications. He works alone or collaboratively with others, including in-house teams, covering everything from strategy development to media relations, copywriting to special events. He’s been an active member of various industry organisations including the Chartered Institute of Public Relations; the Chartered Institute of Marketing; the National Union of Journalists; the International Visual Communications Association; Association of Integrated Media (H&I); and Innovative Onions.
Alex Pratt
Alex Pratt is the founder of thriving small business Serious Readers and an adviser to the UK government on innovation and skills. He is the author of Austerity Business.
John Purkiss
John Purkiss is a headhunter and board advisor. He is the co-author of How to be Headhunted, and Brand You. He studied Economics at Cambridge University and has an MBA from INSEAD. He became a partner with Heidrick & Struggles prior to co-founding Purkiss & Company, which specialises in recruiting chairmen, chief executives and finance directors.
Heather Townsend
Heather Townsend is the UK’s foremost expert on how business people can build meaningful and profitable relationships via social media. She has been commissioned to write on key business topics by the Financial Times. Her latest book is FT Guide to Business Networking: How to Use the Power of Online and Offline Networking for Business Success.
Robert Ashton
Robert is the Barefoot Entrepreneur. He has written 12 books, started three businesses, a Community Foundation and a mental health campaign. He’s much in demand as a columnist and speaker. Hear him describe today’s enterprise opportunity as he sees it. He guarantees you’ll go away with fresh ideas that will actually work for you! www.robertashton.co.uk
Jack Romero
Jack Romero will speak on How To Start Your Own Airline. Jack has had an astonishing life as an entrepreneur, stretching from rock bottom to the top of the industry. Founder of British Mediterranean Airways (BMED), Jack raised £6m to start the airline which was sold later to BMI for £30m. He employed 750 staff and won the prestigious Queen’s award for Enterprise in 2004. You can read his story in more detail on the BBC website. See here: http://bit.ly/blvI7o
Lucy Whittington
Lucy combined her passion for travel with her love of marketing (especially online) to pack the Hotel Success Handbook with actions and tips that are both researched and practical. Her Hotel Success Handbook was written for seasoned hoteliers and those new to running a hotel alike, de-mystifying and explaining good sales, marketing, operations and training practices. Ranked no1 on Amazon (UK & US) for ‘Hotel Marketing’ the Hotel Success Handbook is a no-nonsense action-focused business book.
More about Lucy’s marketing for hotels here http://www.inspiredhotelmarketing.com and more about the Hotel Success Handbook here http://www.hotelsuccesshandbook.com.
God has mercifully withheld from humanity a foreknowledge of what will sell. – Bernard Miles, British actor