Posts Tagged ‘Everest Speakers’

“And the envelope please..”: Three Blockbuster Speakers (and Movies) to Watch this Fall

Posted: September 1, 2015 in Speaker Ideas
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In our posting last year, Top Ten Films That Have Influenced The Speaker Circuit, we discussed the symbiotic relationship between the success on Hollywood’s big screen and the speaking demand created for the protagonist of the film. Captain Jim Lovell from Apollo 13, Mike Eruzione for Miracle, and Frank Abagnale from Catch Me if You Can are just a few examples. While their life lessons and stories are timeless and well-known, the release of these films was a critical catalyst to market demand and success on the speaking circuit. When you combine a compelling story with savvy podium skills and a major picture, you create a perfect storm of excitement on the speaking circuit.

September 1st marks the opening of the fall movie season and The Speaker Experts have identified three that will have an impact on the speaking circuit over the next six months and beyond:

A Walk In The Woods
A-Walk-in-the-Woods
AWalkintheWoodsmoviePoster























Robert Redford and Nick Nolte hit the Appalachian trail for laughs in the film adaptation of the best-selling book by Bill Bryson. A consistently sought-after speaker in the humorist/author space, this film will greatly increase Bryson’s name value among a broad swath of interested conference planners and attendees. Also, though Bryson lives in the UK, he will be speaking to groups in the United States in March 2016.



Everest
left for dead
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Josh Brolin portrays Dr. Beck Weathers and Robin Wright plays his wife, Peach, in one of the most anticipated films of the year. Weathers has been a highly sought-after inspirational speaker for years, and this film will surely add to demand. Another prominent figure and proven speaker featured in this movie is world class climber and IMAX filmmaker David Breashears. Portrayed in the film by Micah Huptman, Breashears also serves as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Leadership.



Concussion
Game Brain
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Will Smith takes on the NFL through his portrayal of Dr. Bennet Omalu in a true David vs. Goliath story. Dr. Omalu is relatively new to the commercial speaking circuit but his compelling story should create high market demand from organizations with both clinical and inspirational interests within the commercial speaking market (Dr. Omalu is represented by the Greater Talent Network).


A word of caution: much like the stock market, past performance is no guarantee of future success when it comes to a speaker bureau predicting a speaker’s increased market demand based on the release of a motion picture. The Speaker Experts feel that the risk is low and the upside is high with the speakers related to these films. However, you should discuss the benefits and risks with your trusted IASB bureau partner to determine if one of these speakers is a potential fit for your next event.

Final Note: Washington Speakers Bureau announced a blog featuring “insights and resources for event professionals” and can be accessed here. WSB has been a leader in the speaker bureau industry for three decades and The Speaker Experts look forward to their industry observations and suggestions.

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

Solving the Successful Speaker Paradox

Posted: August 18, 2015 in Speaker Ideas
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In his bestselling book, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Daniel James Brown examines the conundrum of competitive rowing with this quote:

Another paradox lies in the physics of the sport. The object of the endeavor is, of course, to make the boat move through the water as quickly as possible. But the faster the boat goes, the harder it is to row well. The enormously complicated sequence of movements, each of which an oarsman must execute with exquisite precision, becomes exponentially more difficult to perform as the stroke rate increases.

A correlation can be found in the challenges facing competitive rowers and a meeting professional who has scheduled motivational speakers for years. Many times during the speaker needs analysis phase of the scheduling process, The Speaker Experts hear “….we have had tremendous success with astronauts, Everest Speakers, and professional athletes and want a high impact inspirational speaker but we need to draw from new topic areas….” So where do you take your audience when they have been to the top of the world, the bottom of the ocean, the surface of the moon and to the Super Bowl in search of stories of accountability, overcoming adversity, toughness and achievement? Like the challenges faced by The Boys in the Boat, the meeting professional’s speaker selection job becomes tougher when trying to top past podium success while faced with a smaller pool of thematic topic areas from which to choose.

One oft-overlooked genre of speakers in the motivational and inspirational space is that of extreme sports and adventure. There are many neat speaker options and topics in this area that can help the meeting professional leap over the high attendee expectation bar set by past speakers. Here are ten popular “Extreme Sports” general session speakers who will share the secrets of sustained peak performance, achievement and overcoming the toughest of odds with your audience.

Diana Nyad
nyad-blog
Record Breaking Endurance Swimmer


Ben Saunders
saunders-blog
World Record-Breaking Polar Explorer

Robyn Benincasa
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World Champion Eco-Challenge Adventurer

Shaun Tomson
tomson-blog
World Champion Surfer

Mark Allen
allen-blog
Six Time Ironman Triathlon World Champion
Amy Purdy
purdy-blog
Paralympic Snowboarder & Dancing with the Stars Finalist

Stephen Koch
koch-blog
Extreme Snowboarder

Mark Schultz
schultz-blog
Mixed Martial Arts Champion

Felix Baumgartner
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Record-Breaking Skydiver & BASE Jumper

David Breashears
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High-Altitude Filmmaker
















































































What these speakers have attempted and achieved is not for the faint of heart, and neither is selecting and scheduling a speaker from this genre. These types of speakers are tremendously popular but finding the right style, story and fit for your audience and meeting theme can be tricky as it is a high risk, high reward subject area. You can contact these speakers directly or through their exclusive representatives by clicking on the provided hyperlinks above, but we strongly suggest you discuss your desired session outcome with a trusted IASB-member speaker bureau before scheduling one of these world class athletes.

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

10 Speakers to Watch in 2015

Posted: July 14, 2015 in Speaker Ideas
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This week the Washington DC area will play host to one of the year’s most important events to the speaking industry: the National Speakers Association Annual Meeting, Influence 2015. NSA is a professional speaker organization that supports the pursuit of the commercial public speaking industry. The organization is relevant to our conversation as many of the speakers highlighted on this site jump-started their careers with the help and guidance of the NSA. Our posting last week covered the 10 most booked corporate and association speakers. While not everyone agreed with our selections, it is tough to argue that the 10 speakers listed are not among the most popular on the speaking circuit. Of course it is easy to look back at a 12 month period and analyze what happened but the real challenge is to look down the road and predict what will happen over the course of the next 12 months. The great hockey player Wayne Gretzky calls this “….skating to where the puck is going to be…”

Listed below are 10 speakers you should have your eye on over the next 12 months. These speakers are already some of the most popular on the circuit – based on market inertia, their work with the NSA and other industry happenings, we feel they are all candidates to make the list of the 10 most booked next year:

corcoran

henderson

knight

payton

stratten

waldo

williams

cook

Our final speaker to look out for over the next 12 months is a symbolic selection that just will not look good on a baseball card: Mt. Everest.

everest-poster


While speakers who use the mountain as a metaphor for success in business and life have always been popular on the professional speaking circuit, we feel the interest in Everest-related speakers will peak with the September 25th release of “Everest”. The film stars Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, and Josh Brolin, and is based on Jon Krakauer’s best selling book Into Thin Air. Look for speakers who share their experience on Everest to be in high demand over the next year.

Closing Thoughts:
No one goes from being a fresh face on the circuit to speaking at 100 meetings during the course of a year – the speakers listed above are already among the most popular and on the circuit. The Speaker Experts feel that based on the previously listed criteria, they are the names to watch out for on next year’s 10 most booked speakers list.

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin