Posts Tagged ‘Jim Knight’

Well, as many of our readers may have guessed, there is no Commodore 64,  no slide rule, and no complex algorithm that we use to identify the 10 most booked corporate and association speakers. The list is developed over the course of the year, as a result of our interactions with thousands of meeting planners, executives, and speakers. While there is no real “science” behind our selections, there is one common denominator: all of these speakers give at least 100 commercial presentations during the course of the year. On the intangible side, they tend to be asked for by name, are rarely available when we check their speaking schedules, and their speaking fees are continuously on the rise.

A couple of notes before we begin:

  • These are all popular world-class speakers, but it does not mean that they are the right fit for every meeting or organization. Consult with a Speaker Bureau you trust before scheduling one of these speakers to make sure they can achieve your goals and desired outcomes
  • Charlie Cook is exclusive with Leading Authorities International.  They are your best source to schedule Mr. Cook.
  • The reader can gather more detailed background, contact, and booking information for these speakers by clicking on the links provided.
It gives us great pleasure to present our followers with the 2016 List of the 10 Most Booked Corporate and Association Speakers:
Linkner J-Photo

Josh Linkner – “Last year’s ASAE Keynote List. This year’s Most Booked List”

start

Magic Johnson – “Triple-double on the court and on stage”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robbins M-Photo

Mel Robbins – “A recognized authority on leadership development, employee engagement, and motivation

Knight

Jim Knight – “Hard Rock energy comes to the corporate stage”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cook

Charlie Cook – “Iconic Political forecaster in high demand during election year”

Scott Kelly

Captain Scott Kelly – “Back on Earth and at the podium”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daymond John

Daymond John – “Shark Week is not just for Discovery TV”

Levine A-Photo

Alison Levine – “Top of the Everest Speaking Mountain”

 

 

 

Abrashoff

Mike Abrashoff – “Third year in a row on ‘The List.”

Wahl

Erik Wahl – “The 3 E’s: Energy, Entertainment and Education”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion: 

Of course, it is impossible to identify the 10 most booked speakers on the speaking circuit, but you would have a hard time arguing with any one of the aforementioned speakers. The real trick is to target who will be on this list next year before it happens.

 

One speaker we feel to be a strong candidate is visionary corporate social entrepreneur Derreck Kayongo. In addition to being a compelling, engaging, and high-impact speaker, he will give the closing keynote session at the 2016 ASAE Annual Meeting this August in Salt Lake City. If past performance of ASAE speakers is an indicator of future corporate and association speaking demand, look for Derreck Kayongo to make this prestigious list next year.

 

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

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

In our inaugural post “Speaker Recovery Options in First Tier Markets”, we pointed out that despite the most careful and detail-oriented preparations and planning, speakers do get sick, or have family emergencies or travel problems that can cause them cancel. The Speaker Experts strongly recommend you have a speaker recovery plan in place before traveling to your meeting. While the resources in “Second Tier Convention Markets” can be scarcer than their larger counterparts, they are out there and available to the forward-thinking event planner. Here are 3 pre-event precautionary procedures you can undertake to help deal with a last-minute speaker cancellation:

  • Mine the local universities and television networks for talent. Often you will find a well-known, local celebrity who knows their way around the speaker stage. (A local or regional speaker bureau might be worth a call as they typically have a handle on this type of talent).
  • Hire a speaker to attend your event and be on stand-by. We recently worked with a major insurance company who was concerned about the logistics of getting their speakers to an obscure location. The solution was to hire a well-known NBA broadcaster to attend the entire meeting and be there on stand-by. While his skills were never needed, his presence provided a nice insurance policy for the event planning team.
  • Have a handle on professional speakers who live in the area or are a short drive away. Below is a list of popular second tier convention cities and a selection of high impact speakers who reside nearby:
SECOND TIER CONVENTION CITIES
Mobile, AL
Fred Haise
Apollo 13 Astronaut

Mesa, AZ
Captain Mark Kelly
Commander of Space Shuttle Endeavour

Vail, CO
Aron Ralston
subject of 127 Hours

West Palm Beach,FL
Jim Knight
frmr. Director of Training at Hard Rock Int.
Mike Abrashoff
frmr. Commander of the USS Benfold

Shreveport, LA
General Russel L. Honore
Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina

Baltimore, MD
Commander Kirk Lippold
Commander of the USS Cole

Jackson, MS
General Russel L. Honore
Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina

Indianapolis, IN
Derek Daly
Author and international racing champion
Scott McKain
customer experience expert, best-selling business author
Wildwood, NJ
Stuart Varney
FOX Business News Host of Varney & Co.

Albuquerque, NM
Mike Mullane
career NASA astronaut and author

Cleveland, OH
Jim Gilmore
author and sought-after consultant

Pittsburgh, PA
Rocky Bleier
frmr. Super Bowl champion

Columbia, SC
Frank Abagnale
subject of the film Catch Me If You Can

Salt Lake City, UT
Adrian Gostick
best-selling author of The Carrot Principle

Virginia Beach, VA
You are on your own!

Milwaukee, WI
Dan Burrus
best-selling author, business strategist and technology futurist

Providence, RI
Michelle Stacy
frmr. Green Mountain Keurig President
Mike Eruzione
Captain of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team and subject of Miracle

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

These preparations can be initiated with just a few hours of internet research or by reaching out to the IASB-member speaker bureau of your choice. On a closing note, congratulations to Elaine Howard of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Her name was drawn from over 100 entries for the signed Billie Jean King tennis racquet!

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

The word “culture” took its place as the 2014 Merriam-Webster Dictionary word of the year, nosing out “nostalgia” for the honor (if you did have nostalgia and the “points”, you won!). This came as good news to The Speaker Experts, as orators on the topic of corporate culture continue to be in high demand on the circuit. And, after 30 plus years in the industry, we have never been asked for a speaker on the topic of nostalgia. The Speaker Experts spend a great deal of time listening to clients when they articulate their speaker needs and desired outcome for a session. When a client asks for a “culture” speaker, the request often comes in the form of one of the needs listed below – all fall under the Merriam-Webster 2014 Word of the Year, “culture”:

  • We are looking for a speaker on employee engagement
  • We want a speaker who will energize our workforce and increase productivity
  • We want to develop managers who create an environment of fierce company loyalty and emotional commitment
  • We want to create a customer experience that our competition is unwilling or unable to match

The Speaker Experts can’t tell you if the four speakers listed below are trending, or the most-booked or most-popular. BUT, we can tell you that they are four of the best in the business on the topics of corporate and organizational culture:

Jim Knight
Knight J-PhotoThe former Director of Training at Hard
Rock helps you amp up your culture

Stan Slap
stan slap

Chester Elton
Elton C-PhotoOrange may be the new black, but it is also
a management strategy

Kevin Kruse
kevin kruse CEO, Association Executive and
NYT best-selling author

On a side note, the Oxford Dictionary word of the year was “vape.” The Speaker Experts would be blowing vape at you if we said we got asked about speakers on this topic!

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

One nightmare scenario and almost rite of passage for any meeting planner is dealing with a last minute speaker cancellation. No matter how many precautions are taken, disruptions happen (e.g. acts of god, sickness, family issues, airline strike, etc.). You have experienced them all and so have we but the show must go on.

While this is a situation nobody wants to go through, it is one of the value propositions of working with a dependable, knowledgeable and experienced speaker bureau. They can explore and find a solution to the challenge while you continue juggling the many other responsibilities that come with your role.

One solution we generally turn to (along with looking at speakers we may already have “booked” in the meeting city or surrounding area during that time) is finding reliable and proven speaker options who live in the area and can arrive at a venue within minutes.

Here are a few options to consider for some of the major meeting markets:

Las Vegas

Chef Jeff Henderson – Celebrity Chef and Inspiration behind NYT best-selling memoir Cooked

JB Bernstein – Sports Marketing Expert and Inspiration behind Disney’s major motion picture Million Dollar Arm 

Tim Sanders – Former Yahoo executive, and NYT best-selling business author

Orlando

Jim Knight – Former Senior Director of Training & Development for Hard Rock International

Pat Williams – Senior Vice President of the Orlando Magic

Dennis Snow – Former Disney Leadership Executive, Customer Service Expert

New Orleans

General Russel Honoré – Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, Leadership & Preparedness Expert

Archie Manning – NFL Icon and father Super Bowl Winning Quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning

Peter Ricchiuti – Finance Professor and nationally sought after Economic Expert

Phoenix & Scottsdale

Captain Mark Kelly – beloved husband of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, retired NASA astronaut and naval aviator

Larry Winget – The Pitbull of Personal Development

Dr. Barry Asmus – Economic Policy Expert

San Francisco

Alison Levine – NYT best-selling author of On The Edge, leadership expert and extreme adventurer

Peter Leyden – Future Trends & Technologies Expert

Jeff Ma – Inspiration behind Ben Mezrich’s best-selling book Bringing Down The House, Expert on Data and Analytics

Jason Jennings – Business Leadership & Productivity Expert, NYT best-selling business author

 

If you are interested, we would be happy to provide you with a list of “local” speakers in the first, second and even third tier meeting destinations.

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin