Kim Davis
Most brands lose attention before they get to the argument. Audiences, customers and investors decide in seconds whether a story is worth their time, and the difference between a moment that lands and one that drifts is rarely the content; it is the craft of presenting it. Senior teams that can write a strategy often cannot perform one on stage, on camera or in front of a room.
Kim Davis is a BBC and CNN broadcaster, marketing founder and keynote host who helps organisations communicate with the precision of a journalist and the timing of a stage performer.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Kim Davis
- Live broadcast experience that translates directly into stage presence: she presents The Travel Show on BBC News and writes regularly for CNN Travel, CNN Underscored and The Telegraph, so a panel or conference plenary in her hands feels editorially produced rather than improvised.
- A working marketer’s view of communication, not a theorist’s. Sarsaparilla, the consultancy she founded after moving from New York to London in 2004, operates inside campaigns, brand work and go-to-market decisions for commercial clients.
- Range across the unlovable formats. After-dinner, awards-night emcee, panel moderation, fireside interview and keynote, performed without the tonal mismatch that normally appears when speakers cross between them.
- A keynote thesis on arts-led achievement, given on the TEDxLukelyBrook stage in 2022, that gives leadership and culture audiences a route into creativity without the usual self-help register.
Biography highlights
- Presenter, The Travel Show on BBC News.
- Contributing writer, CNN Travel, CNN Underscored and The Telegraph.
- Founder and CEO, Sarsaparilla Marketing, London.
- TEDxLukelyBrook speaker, “How The Arts Can Help You Achieve Anything”, 2022.
- New York native, London-based for over two decades; works across UK, US and EU markets.
- Stage and broadcast credits include Carnegie Hall, the O2 Arena and the TED platform (per speaker representation).
Biography
A live audience makes decisions about a speaker inside the first sentence. Davis was trained for that. Her day job is presenting The Travel Show on BBC News and writing for CNN Travel, CNN Underscored and The Telegraph, work that depends on getting a viewer or reader to lean in before a single fact has been delivered.
That broadcast craft is what organisations are buying when they put her on stage. As a host and moderator she structures conversations the way an editor structures a segment: a clear thread, time discipline, and the ability to draw a usable answer out of an executive who would otherwise read from notes.
The substantive content sits behind that. In 2004 she moved from New York to London and founded Sarsaparilla, a marketing and communications consultancy that runs campaign, brand and go-to-market work for commercial clients. Her keynote material draws from this practice and from her own performing background, including the TEDxLukelyBrook talk on arts and achievement she delivered in 2022.
The combination is unusual. Most marketing speakers cannot present. Most broadcasters cannot speak credibly about commercial growth. Davis is booked when an event needs both in the same person.
Key speaking topics
- Hosting, moderation and emcee craft
- Media and broadcast communication for executives
- Marketing and brand building
- Customer and audience engagement
- Arts-led approaches to creativity and achievement
- Female leadership in media, business and culture
- After-dinner speaking and awards-night presenting
Ideal for
- CMOs, brand directors and marketing leadership teams looking for a working practitioner rather than a marketing academic
- Conference organisers and internal event leads who need a host or moderator with broadcast credibility
- Awards nights, gala dinners and customer events that need a confident emcee with editorial range
- Leadership and culture programmes wanting a session on creativity, communication and presence
Audience outcomes
- A clearer view of how a journalist structures a story, and how to apply that discipline to a board narrative or all-hands talk
- Specific techniques drawn from broadcast and stage performance for holding attention in high-stakes settings
- A working framework for using arts and creative practice as a tool for executive communication
- For events: a tightly run room, a coherent through-line across sessions, and interviews that produce usable quotes rather than safe ones
Talks
A keynote drawn from her TEDxLukelyBrook talk arguing that artistic practice is a practical tool for achievement, not the preserve of creative professionals.
Key takeaways:
- Why arts disciplines build the same habits leaders need under pressure
- How to apply performance technique to executive communication
- A route into creativity for audiences who do not see themselves as creative
A session on how working journalists structure information and what executives can take from that practice.
Key takeaways:
- How to open a message so an audience stays
- What broadcast editors cut and why
- Practical habits for communicating under time pressure
A keynote on female leadership drawing on figures from entertainment, commerce and public life.
Key takeaways:
- Recurring patterns in how women have built authority across very different industries
- What contemporary leaders can take from their decision-making
- Where the lessons translate and where they do not
A working marketer’s session on what actually moves commercial outcomes in brand and campaign work.
Key takeaways:
- Where most marketing budgets quietly underperform
- The disciplines that separate campaign work that compounds from work that does not
- How to brief, measure and defend marketing inside a sceptical executive team