Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Helen Skelton A working BBC presenter on Countryfile, Morning Live and Radio 5 Live who hosts, moderates and interviews at broadcast standard, not as a side line. Two Guinness World Records set for Sport Relief, including the longest solo kayak journey down the Amazon, give her a specific credibility on endurance, preparation and fear that rehearsed speakers cannot match. Her 2023 memoir In My Stride, published by Headline, gives audiences a coherent account of resilience drawn from lived experience rather than a framework borrowed from academia. Known across a broad UK audience from Blue Peter, Countryfile and a Strictly Come Dancing final, which makes her a reliable draw for internal conferences, awards nights and customer events. Biography highlights Presenter on BBC One’s Countryfile since 2014 and regular host of BBC Morning Live. Blue Peter presenter from 2008 to 2013, the 33rd in the programme’s history. Two Guinness World Records from the 2,010-mile solo kayak down the Amazon for Sport Relief in 2010. Guinness World Record for the fastest 100 km by kite ski, set on the 2012 South Pole expedition. Runner-up on Strictly Come Dancing series 20 in 2022 with Gorka Marquez. Author of In My Stride: Lessons Learned Through Life and Adventure, Headline, 2023. Biography The Amazon is not a training ground. Helen Skelton kayaked 2,010 miles of it, alone, in 2010 for Sport Relief, taking two Guinness World Records in the process. Two years later she reached the South Pole by a mix of bicycle, skis and kite ski, setting a further record along the way. These are the facts that tend to open any introduction of her, and they are the right place to start, because the speaking work sits on them. The broadcast career gives the speaking a second foundation. She joined Blue Peter in 2008, became the programme’s 33rd presenter, and stayed until 2013. Since 2014 she has presented Countryfile on BBC One, with regular slots on BBC Morning Live and a Sunday show on BBC Radio 5 Live. The polish audiences see on those programmes is what clients hire when she hosts conferences, moderates panels or presents awards. The speaking content draws on all of it. Her 2023 memoir In My Stride, published by Headline, sets out what endurance, preparation and public scrutiny have taught her about resilience, confidence, and the value of time spent outside. She speaks to audiences about the mental work behind physical challenges, the realities of being a working mother in broadcasting, and the mental health benefits of the natural world, a subject she supports through her work with Mind. She reached a Strictly Come Dancing final in 2022 with Gorka Marquez, which brought her to a wider corporate audience and confirmed the profile clients buy when they book her for a room of several hundred people. Key speaking topics Resilience and mental strength Performance under pressure Working motherhood and life-balance Nature, wellbeing and mental health Broadcasting and media craft Adventure and endurance Awards hosting and conference moderation Ideal for Internal conferences, leadership offsites and awards evenings seeking a credible host plus a keynote in one booking. HR, wellbeing and employee engagement programmes focused on resilience, mental health and working parents. Customer and partner events looking for a recognisable broadcaster with a story that travels beyond a single industry. Audience outcomes A direct account of what preparation, fear and repeated setbacks look like at the edges of physical endurance. Practical reflections on resilience and recovery that avoid platitudes, drawn from first-hand experience. A clearer sense of how time outdoors and small daily habits support mental health, grounded in her work with Mind. Confident chairing or hosting that keeps a programme moving and lifts audience energy across a long day.

Why organisations work with Helen Czerski She is an active research physicist inside the climate system, not a commentator on it. Her UCL work on bubbles at the ocean surface sits at the heart of how the atmosphere and ocean exchange heat and carbon, which gives her climate framing a physical basis that reads differently to a board than general sustainability narrative. Blue Machine gives her a defensible thesis audiences can hold onto: the ocean as a single connected engine that drives weather, food, trade and energy. That framing turns abstract climate discussion into something leaders can map to their own exposure. The Institute of Physics awarded her the 2018 Kelvin Medal specifically for translating physics to a mass audience. Few speakers pair that level of academic recognition with a track record on primetime BBC science. She has reached general business and policy audiences as the Wall Street Journal’s “Everyday Physics” columnist and as co-host of BBC Radio 4’s Rare Earth, which means she is used to explaining physics to readers and listeners who did not choose the subject. She treats curiosity as a leadership input. Her Storm in a Teacup thesis, that the rules governing the universe are visible in ordinary objects, lands as a practical argument for how technical organisations should see, question and investigate. Biography highlights Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, leading research on oceanic bubble physics, air-sea gas transfer and bubble acoustics. Natural Sciences (Physics) at Churchill College, Cambridge, followed by a PhD in experimental explosives physics; postdoctoral work at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Author of Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life and Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World (Penguin / W.W. Norton). 2024 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation for Blue Machine. 2018 William Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics for public communication of physics. BBC science presenter across Orbit, Operation Iceberg, Super Senses, Colour: The Spectrum of Science and Sound Waves; co-host of Rare Earth on BBC Radio 4; former “Everyday Physics” columnist at The Wall Street Journal. Biography The ocean is a physical engine that routes most of the planet’s heat, carbon and weather, and it is almost entirely absent from the way boards discuss climate. Helen Czerski’s work at University College London, where she leads research on breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface, sits precisely at the interface where that engine does its work. The research is technical. The implications are strategic. Blue Machine, her 2024 Wainwright Prize-winning book, is the public form of that argument. It treats the ocean as one connected system that moves nutrients, ships, storms and carbon, and explains why every industry with a coastline, a fleet or a climate commitment is already inside it. For leaders wrestling with transition plans, physical risk disclosures or supply chain exposure, Czerski offers a vocabulary that is physical rather than political. Her earlier book, Storm in a Teacup, established the method: start with something visible, coffee stains, popcorn, a magnet on a fridge, and work outward to the physics that governs how the world operates. That method earned her the 2018 Kelvin Medal from the Institute of Physics for public communication, and it carried through ten years of primetime BBC science including Orbit, Operation Iceberg and Super Senses, alongside her “Everyday Physics” column at The Wall Street Journal and co-hosting Rare Earth on BBC Radio 4. What she brings into a room is the rare combination of a working research scientist and a public explainer who has spent a decade translating physics for audiences that did not sign up to hear it. For an organisation trying to move from sustainability language to physical reality, that translation is the point. Key speaking topics Ocean physics and the climate system The ocean economy and physical risk Science of the energy transition Everyday physics for decision-makers Curiosity and scientific thinking in organisations Communicating technical complexity to non-technical audiences Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting climate, sustainability or transition strategy Energy, shipping, insurance and infrastructure leaders exposed to ocean and weather systems CTOs, heads of R&D and engineering leaders investing in technical capability Conferences where a serious science keynote needs to land with a mixed commercial audience Audience outcomes A working mental model of the ocean as a single physical system that connects weather, carbon, food and trade A sharper read on where climate and transition narratives rest on solid physics and where they do not Language for talking about physical risk and scientific uncertainty without defaulting to jargon or slogans A renewed case for curiosity as a disciplined practice inside technical and commercial teams

Why organisations work with Georgie Barrat Seven years fronting The Gadget Show built a specific skill, making complex technology feel usable to a general audience, and she brings that directly into boardroom and all-hands settings where AI adoption is stalling. She runs The AI Method, her own programme for helping non-technical users integrate AI into their work, so the keynote is informed by what actually lands with finance, HR and operations staff rather than with engineers. She has hosted on-stage for Google, IBM, Sony, Huawei, Mastercard and BAFTA, which means the moderating craft is tested at the level of audience and panellist that senior events require. Her keynote circuit includes Web Summit, Mobile World Congress and Smart City Expo, the venues where the AI and future-of-work conversation is actually being shaped. She is a credible voice on women in technology and STEM inclusion through sustained work with Stemettes, the IET, Girls in ICT and Childnet, which makes her a natural fit for diversity-led tech events rather than a bolt-on. Biography highlights Presenter of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show for seven years from 2017. Regular contributor to BBC Morning Live and stand-in host for Jeremy Vine on 5. Founder of The AI Method, an AI adoption programme for non-technical users and solopreneurs. Keynote speaker at Web Summit, Mobile World Congress and Smart City Expo. Host and moderator for Google, IBM, Sony, Huawei, Mastercard and BAFTA. First-class degree in English Literature from King’s College London. Biography Most organisations have an AI strategy. Far fewer have a workforce that knows what to do with it. That translation problem, between a tool a leadership team has bought and the person on the payroll expected to use it, is the ground Georgie Barrat has worked for more than a decade. Her training is broadcast. Seven years as a presenter of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show taught her to make complex consumer and enterprise technology legible to a general audience without losing the point. That discipline now runs through her keynotes on AI, digital transformation and the future of work, delivered at Web Summit, Mobile World Congress and Smart City Expo, and at corporate audiences for Google, IBM, Sony, Huawei, Mastercard and BAFTA. Barrat founded The AI Method, a programme designed for women and solopreneurs using AI without a technical background. It gives her keynote material an unusual grounding. She is not theorising about adoption; she is testing what actually moves a non-engineer from curiosity to use. That edge matters for any leader whose AI rollout depends on marketing, finance, HR and operations staff, not data scientists. She is also a sustained advocate for women in tech and STEM inclusion, working with Stemettes, the IET, Girls in ICT and Childnet. On stage she hosts, moderates and keynotes. Off stage she still reports, with regular slots on BBC Morning Live and Jeremy Vine on 5, which keeps the material current rather than curated. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and workforce adoption Future of work in an AI-powered organisation Digital transformation and culture change Consumer and enterprise technology trends Women in technology and STEM inclusion Event hosting, moderation and on-stage interviewing Ideal for Leadership teams and all-hands audiences grappling with AI rollout across non-technical functions. CHROs, L&D leads and transformation directors planning workforce upskilling around AI. Tech, telecoms and consumer brands needing a broadcast-grade host or moderator for flagship events. Employee networks and diversity councils building credible women-in-tech programmes. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of where AI creates real productivity gains inside the business versus where the hype is running ahead of the use case. Practical language for leaders to use with non-technical staff so adoption feels less threatening and more achievable. A sharper view of which emerging technologies, from generative AI to spatial computing, warrant attention on a three-year horizon. Evidence-backed framing for women-in-tech and STEM inclusion work that goes beyond celebration days.

Why organisations work with Francesca Martinez She fronted the WOW petition that crossed 100,000 signatures and forced a main-chamber debate in the House of Commons in 2014, which is a concrete democratic outcome rather than an inclusion talking point. Her debut play All Of Us opened at the National Theatre’s Dorfman in 2022 under Ian Rickson, putting disability and welfare politics in front of a mainstream theatre audience, with Francesca shortlisted for the George Devine Award. What the **** Is Normal?! (Virgin Books, Penguin Random House) gives the room a single shared reference point on identity and difference that holds up outside the corporate inclusion vocabulary. She speaks from inside the experience, not about it, which removes the discomfort senior audiences often feel when an external consultant lectures them on disability. She works the room as a stand-up first, which means the message lands in audiences that are sceptical of conventional DEI keynotes. Biography highlights First and only female winner of the Open Mic Award at the Edinburgh Festival (2000), and winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Media Network Award (2011). Author of What the **** Is Normal?! (Virgin Books, Penguin Random House, 2014); Bread and Roses Award runner-up and Chortle Best Comedy Book nominee. Wrote and starred in All of Us, National Theatre (Dorfman), 2022, directed by Ian Rickson; shortlisted for the George Devine Award. Her June 2019 Question Time appearance was called the show’s “best ever moment”, reaching 11 million views in its first week. The first disabled woman to perform on BBC Two’s Live at the Apollo, opening Series 11 in 2015; later featured in the BBC’s Access All Areas special. Fronted the WOW petition and secured a House of Commons main-chamber debate, February 2014. TEDxHousesOfParliament speaker (“Being Happy is a Political Act”) and performer at the World Economic Forum in Davos alongside Emma Thompson. Named to the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Power List (2014) and awarded two honorary doctorates for work on equality and inclusion. Biography Most inclusion programmes are written in a language that the people they are meant to help do not use. Francesca Martinez calls herself “wobbly”, refuses the medical vocabulary around cerebral palsy, and has spent twenty years showing what happens when someone with a disability narrates their own experience rather than being narrated about. The reframing sounds small. The downstream effect on a room of senior leaders is not. The credentials sit in unusual places for a speaker on this topic. She was the first and only woman to win the Open Mic Award at the Edinburgh Festival, in 2000, and went on to write What the **** Is Normal?!, published by Virgin Books, which was a runner-up for the Bread and Roses Award and a Chortle Best Comedy Book nominee. Her debut play All Of Us, directed by Ian Rickson, opened in the Dorfman at the National Theatre in 2022, and Francesca was shortlisted for the George Devine Award for it. The activism is the part most relevant to senior buyers thinking about substance over messaging. As the public face of the WOW (War on Welfare) campaign, she drove a petition past 100,000 signatures and forced a debate in the main chamber of the House of Commons in 2014, the first time disabled people had secured a main-chamber debate on an agenda of their own choosing. That is a measurable political result, not an inclusion narrative. For an organisation, the value of booking her is specific. Senior audiences hear a writer and performer with mainstream theatrical and broadcast credentials make an argument about identity and belonging that has already been tested in Parliament and at the National Theatre. The conversation that follows tends to be about whether the company’s own inclusion work would survive that kind of scrutiny. Key speaking topics Disability and inclusion at work Identity, difference and self-acceptance Resilience and lived experience Advocacy and the politics of welfare Storytelling as a tool for cultural change Mental health and wellbeing Ideal for CHROs, heads of DEI and ERG sponsors building inclusion programmes that engage sceptical audiences. Leadership offsites and culture events where the goal is to move beyond inclusion language into behaviour change. International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Mental Health Awareness Week and similar moments where credibility of the speaker matters more than topic coverage. Audience outcomes A sharper sense of how disabled and neurodivergent colleagues actually experience the workplace, narrated from the inside. A reference point (the book, the play, the WOW campaign) the audience can carry back into their own inclusion conversations. Permission to question the corporate vocabulary of inclusion without abandoning the work. A break from the standard motivational register; the room laughs first and then commits.

Why organisations work with Fiona Armstrong Forty years of live broadcast experience means autocue, running-order changes and long awards formats hold no surprise. Organisers typically notice that reliability only after being burned by the alternative. Former ITN newscaster on News at Ten and News at 5:40, giving her automatic standing in front of senior business audiences who still recognise a national news face. As His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Dumfries, the King’s personal representative in the region, she brings genuine ceremonial weight to awards evenings, civic occasions and royal-linked events. Former foreign correspondent who has reported from Uganda on AIDS orphans, Cambodia on landmine clearance and West Africa with the Mercy Ships, able to moderate panels on international development from direct field experience rather than briefing notes. Holds a history doctorate from the University of Strathclyde and an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow, which suits academic, cultural and heritage hosting roles where a celebrity presenter would feel out of place. Biography highlights Former ITN national newscaster, presenter of News at Ten and News at 5:45/5:40; launch team on GMTV. Presenter on the BBC News Channel from 2010; current presenter of Border Life and Lookaround for ITV Border. Outstanding Contribution award, Royal Television Society North East and Border Awards, 2017. His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Dumfries since 2016; royal representative across Nithsdale, Annandale and Eskdale. Honorary Doctorate, University of Glasgow; Honorary Fellowship, University of Cumbria; board member, University of Central Lancashire. Past President of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland; Chairwoman of the Clan Armstrong Trust; author of two fishing books and two cookbooks. Biography A long awards ceremony is one of the least forgiving stages in corporate life. Twenty prizes, tight timings, a room that cooled off an hour ago, and a single person at the lectern expected to keep it moving. Fiona Armstrong has hosted enough of them to know why organisers come back. She spent the late 1980s and early 1990s at ITN, presenting News at Ten and the 5:40 bulletin when those programmes still set the national news agenda. She covered the Lockerbie air disaster and filed a series on AIDS orphans from Uganda. Later assignments took her to Cambodia for landmine clearance and to West Africa with the Mercy Ships. The BBC News Channel brought her back as a network presenter in 2010; ITV Border has retained her in current affairs through Lookaround and Border Life. The Royal Television Society North East and Border gave her its Outstanding Contribution award in 2017, recognising a career closely associated with Border Television. The University of Glasgow has granted her an honorary doctorate; the University of Cumbria elected her an honorary fellow in 2018. She has served as His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Dumfries since 2016, representing the Crown across Nithsdale, Annandale and Eskdale. Alongside the newsroom work, she has written two fishing books, two cookbooks, and more than twenty films on Scottish clan history. She chairs the Clan Armstrong Trust, was President of the Royal Highland Show in 2020, and sits on the board of the University of Central Lancashire. Corporate clients typically book her to host awards evenings or moderate senior panels. Specialist subject matter, from international reporting to Scottish heritage and rural affairs, is available when a brief calls for it. Key speaking topics Event hosting and awards presentation Panel moderation and conference chairing Broadcast journalism and live news presentation International humanitarian and field reporting Scottish clan history and Borders heritage Civic leadership and royal representation Fly-fishing and rural life Ideal for Corporate awards organisers and event leads booking an experienced on-stage host Conference chairs and event directors are hiring a senior-panel moderator Civic, heritage and ceremonial occasions requiring a royal representative or recognised public service figure Cultural, agricultural and rural-sector organisations in Scotland and the Borders region Audience outcomes An evening kept on schedule, with prize categories moved at pace and all sponsors and winners given their due on stage. Panel conversations that stay on the brief, with questions that push participants past prepared answers without derailing the session. Inside accounts of covering major international stories, including Lockerbie, AIDS orphans in Africa and landmine clearance in Cambodia. Context on Scottish cultural life and clan history delivered with the specificity of a working historian, not a celebrity interest.

Why organisations work with Fatima Bhutto New Kings of the World (Columbia Global Reports, 2019) is a named, published, field-reported analysis of how non-Western cultural industries are displacing American soft power globally, giving leaders a specific, documented argument rather than a trend observation, backed by original reporting across three continents. Her personal biography; granddaughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first democratically elected prime minister, and daughter of parliamentarian Murtaza Bhutto, who was killed by police in 1996, means her analysis of democratic fragility, political violence, and state power comes from inside those systems, not from a research library. As host of Reframe on Al Jazeera, she has conducted on-record interviews with heads of state and senior political figures, including former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, placing her among interlocutors of consequence rather than commentators at a remove. Her track record across the Financial Times, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Foreign Policy, and Granta, as well as her current column at Zeteo gives her geopolitical analysis a verifiable, editorially scrutinised body of work that self-published commentary cannot replicate. Selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2012 (one of 192 from 59 countries), she holds credibility simultaneously in Global South contexts and at the international forums where Western business leaders set agendas; a pairing that is genuinely rare on the geopolitics circuit. Biography highlights Author of seven books published by Oxford University Press, Jonathan Cape, Penguin, Columbia Global Reports, and Simon & Schuster, spanning poetry, memoir, fiction, and narrative reportage New Kings of the World (Columbia Global Reports, 2019) received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews and was reviewed by the Financial Times as «razor sharp»; described by Shelf Awareness as a «starred» account of a fundamental shift in global pop culture The Shadow of the Crescent Moon (Penguin, 2013) longlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction; Songs of Blood and Sword (Jonathan Cape, 2010) a critically acclaimed memoir of Pakistani politics and political violence Host of Reframe on Al Jazeera (2024-2025), interviewing senior political figures including former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2012), one of 192 from 59 countries Writing published in the Financial Times, The Guardian, Granta, The New Statesman, and Foreign Policy; current columnist for Zeteo; BA from Barnard/Columbia University, MA in South Asian Government and Politics from SOAS Biography Bollywood is the world’s largest film industry by output. Turkish dizi, a form of serialised drama, reaches 200 million viewers across 43 countries. South Korean K-pop commands fan communities on six continents. Fatima Bhutto’s New Kings of the World (Columbia Global Reports, 2019) was among the first serious analyses to document what this redistribution of cultural power means for the assumptions that sit beneath most global business strategy. Her argument is specific: American soft power was not dismantled by geopolitical rivals, but outpaced by cultural industries that offered billions of consumers something Hollywood could not; familiarity, traditional values inside modern formats, and aspirational content that matched their actual self-image. The book drew on original reporting, exclusive interviews with figures including Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, and field research across India, Turkey, and South Korea. The Financial Times called it «razor sharp.» Kirkus gave it a starred review. Fatima came to this argument through a life lived inside the geographies that Western strategy tends to flatten into abstractions. Born in Kabul and raised between Damascus and Karachi, she holds an MA in South Asian Government and Politics from SOAS and has reported from Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Cuba, and Israel. Her personal biography also gives her analysis of political risk a dimension that institutional research rarely carries. She is the granddaughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first democratically elected prime minister, executed in 1979. Her father, Murtaza Bhutto, was an elected parliamentarian killed by police in Karachi in 1996. Her memoir Songs of Blood and Sword (Jonathan Cape, 2010) is as much a document of democratic fragility and state violence as it is a personal narrative. Her recent work has widened the frame. As host of Reframe on Al Jazeera (2024-2025), she has interviewed heads of state and senior political figures on record, including former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. Her writing appears in the Financial Times, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Granta, and Foreign Policy; she is a current columnist for Zeteo. Her 2026 memoir The Hour of the Wolf, published by Simon & Schuster, extends her work on power, coercion, and resilience into the personal register. Key speaking topics Western soft power and the rise of non-Western cultural industries Geopolitics of the Global South Democracy, political violence, and state fragility Women’s leadership in contested political environments Cultural identity in a multipolar world Press freedom and the politics of narrative South Asia and the Middle East Ideal for Senior leadership teams and boards navigating global market expansion in South Asia, the Middle East, and emerging economies Risk and strategy functions managing political instability, fragile democracies, and governance uncertainty in developing markets CHROs and DEI leads seeking perspectives on women’s leadership and voice from outside the Western corporate tradition International relations, communications, and policy teams at multinationals with significant exposure to the Global South Audience outcomes A specific, field-reported framework for understanding how cultural power has redistributed away from the West and what this means for where aspiration and consumer loyalty are actually formed A sharper reading of identity, aspiration, and brand relevance in South Asian, Middle Eastern, and emerging market contexts A more precise vocabulary for assessing political risk in environments where Western governance assumptions do not apply A first-hand account of navigating political violence, state failure, and democratic collapse that reframes organisational resilience beyond its corporate usage A challenge to the premise that Western cultural norms remain the universal benchmark for influence in global markets

Why organisations work with Dame Evelyn Glennie A first-hand demonstration of how attention works when sound is felt rather than heard, drawn from a 40-year career as the first full-time solo percussionist in musical history. A leadership argument grounded in lived practice: composure, recovery and attention as trainable behaviours, not personality traits. Author of “Listen World!” and Founder of The Evelyn Glennie Foundation, whose mission is to teach the world to listen across business, education, healthcare and the arts. Three GRAMMY recognitions, the Polar Music Prize (2015), the Leonie Sonning Music Prize (2023), Companion of Honour (2017) and DBE; credentials that earn the room before she opens it. Workshop and keynote formats road-tested with corporate teams on internal communication, customer responsiveness and team cohesion. Biography highlights First person in history to build and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist. Three-time GRAMMY recipient, including the 1989 award with Sir Georg Solti and Murray Perahia and a 2002 win with Bela Fleck. Companion of Honour (2017), DBE (2007), OBE (1993). First percussionist to receive a DBE. Polar Music Prize laureate, 2015. First percussionist to receive the Leonie Sonning Music Prize, 2023. Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen; President of Help Musicians. TED speaker (“How to truly listen”), author of “Listen World!”, and Founder of The Evelyn Glennie Foundation. Biography Most leaders treat listening as a courtesy. For Glennie it is a working method, developed across four decades of performing music she could not hear in the conventional sense. Profoundly deaf from childhood, she trained herself to read vibration through her hands, feet and body, and built a career as the first full-time solo percussionist in musical history. That practice is what corporate audiences engage with. The Royal Academy of Music graduate has performed in more than 60 countries, commissioned over 200 new works, and led 1,000 drummers in the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony directed by Danny Boyle. The technical achievement is unusual. The transferable insight is the discipline behind it: attention as a whole-body act, repeatable under pressure. Her authority on the subject is institutionally backed. Three GRAMMY recognitions, the Polar Music Prize, the Leonie Sonning Music Prize, a Damehood and the Companion of Honour sit alongside the Chancellorship of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and the Presidency of Help Musicians. The book “Listen World!” and The Evelyn Glennie Foundation, established in 2023, take the same argument into schools, hospitals, sport and business. In a leadership keynote she translates this directly. How a team senses what is happening before it can be measured. How a leader steadies a room. How sustained attention, not louder communication, is what shifts behaviour at scale. Key speaking topics Listening as a leadership discipline Attention and presence under pressure Resilience and reinvention after personal shock Communication and team cohesion Inclusive leadership and difference as capability Creativity, craft and sustained excellence Ideal for Boards and executive committees defining their own communication standards CHROs and culture leaders rebuilding internal listening practices Senior leadership offsites focused on composure, attention and decision-making Customer experience and frontline leadership audiences working on responsiveness Audience outcomes A working definition of listening as an active leadership behaviour, not a soft skill A more honest read of how attention is spent in their own meetings and decisions Specific cues from a non-verbal craft they can apply to communication with teams and customers A reframing of personal adversity and reinvention as repeatable practice A clearer view of how presence and composure shape what a team will follow

Why organisations work with Erica Dhawan She has a named thesis built for the AI moment. Use Your Brain, her forthcoming book, gives executive teams a method for the problem they now all face: moving fast with AI without sliding into cognitive autopilot. Her argument is that speed has become the commodity and judgment the real differentiator. She owns two further published frameworks, Connectional Intelligence and Digital Body Language, each with its own book, research base and Fortune 500 application record. Few speakers in this space operate from a body of work this specific. Thinkers50 recognition and a Wall Street Journal bestseller give her credibility with boards and executive committees that are sceptical of soft-skill keynotes. The work has been pressure-tested across unusually wide terrain: World Economic Forum, US Army, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Walmart and Cisco. The frameworks travel across sector, hierarchy and culture. Biography highlights Author of the forthcoming Use Your Brain: How to Think Deeper in a World on Autopilot, on rebuilding judgment as AI accelerates everyday work. Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance. Co-author of Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence with Saj-nicole Joni. Named to Thinkers50; shortlisted for the Thinkers50 RADAR award for emerging management thinkers. Founder and CEO of Cotential, advising global organisations on 21st-century collaboration. TED speaker; talk on connection across distance has surpassed 2 million views. Contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal. Education: Wharton (BS), MIT Sloan (MBA), Harvard Kennedy School (MPA). Biography Most organisations are racing to adopt AI. Far fewer are asking what it is quietly doing to the way their people think. When a tool can draft, summarise and recommend in seconds, the path of least resistance is to accept the output and move on. The real risk of the AI era, Erica Dhawan argues, is that people stop thinking for themselves while the machine does it for them. Her forthcoming book, Use Your Brain, is built for that problem. It gives leaders and teams a practical method for staying in the driver’s seat: catching the moment a team slips into cognitive autopilot, interrogating what AI hands them, and protecting the judgment no model can supply. The message lands because it is practical rather than alarmist. Speed is now the commodity, and judgment is the edge. That argument sits on more than a decade of work on how people connect and perform. Her Wall Street Journal bestseller Digital Body Language decoded the cues that replace tone, posture and eye contact when teams work across distance, channel and generation. Her earlier book with Saj-nicole Joni, Get Big Things Done, introduced Connectional Intelligence, the practical capability to combine networks, knowledge and ambition into outsized results. Thinkers50 has recognised her on this body of work, and her writing appears regularly in Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. The work has been stress-tested in unusually varied rooms. She has briefed the World Economic Forum, the US Army, and global teams at Coca-Cola, FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Walmart and Cisco. Her TED Talk on connection across distance has been watched more than two million times, rare reach for a topic most speakers struggle to make concrete. Key speaking topics Use Your Brain: judgment and human thinking in the age of AI High-performing teams in the age of AI Connectional Intelligence and cross-silo collaboration Digital Body Language and hybrid communication Trust and engagement across distributed workforces Multigenerational and cross-cultural communication Connectional Intelligence for sales and client relationships (optional, reinstated) Ideal for CEOs and executive teams setting the tone for how AI is adopted across the organisation. CHROs and heads of culture building human capability alongside AI rollout. Learning and leadership development heads building judgment and collaboration at scale. Cross-functional and cross-geography teams that need to think and decide together, faster. Sales and client-facing leaders translating Connectional Intelligence into stronger customer relationships. (optional, reinstated) Audience outcomes A shared language for using AI as an amplifier of human judgment rather than a substitute for it. Practical tools for recognising cognitive autopilot and interrogating what AI hands you. The Four Laws of Digital Body Language for cutting ambiguity and building trust across distance, channel and generation. A clearer read on where speed without judgment is quietly costing the organisation in decision quality. A sharper understanding of how AI changes, but does not replace, the work of human connection.

Why organisations work with Emma Willis Two decades of live presenting across every major UK broadcaster, plus Netflix, develops a capacity to read a room under pressure and adapt in real time that most available hosts simply do not have. That composure is the product. Her six-series run on Big Brother (2013-2018) required managing emotionally unpredictable situations live, on camera, with no preparation time. Her skill set (firm pacing, genuine empathy, zero visible panic) is directly transferable to panel discussions, live Q&As, or award presentations that do not go to plan. The W Channel’s “Delivering Babies,” for which she trained and qualified as a Maternity Care Assistant, won the Broadcast Digital Award for Best Popular Factual for three consecutive years. It is evidence that when she commits to a subject, the result is award-winning rather than merely competent. Her appointment to BBC Radio 2’s Saturday lunchtime slot from January 2026, taking over from Zoe Ball, reflects the institutional trust that comes with consistently delivering at the highest level of British broadcasting, a validation that is straightforward for senior buyers to cite. As a Prince’s Trust ambassador, she brings an existing, public relationship with purpose-driven work to occasions where charitable giving or social commitments are part of the event’s agenda. Biography highlights Broadcast presenter since 2002; major credits across the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Netflix Main host of Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother, Channel 5 (2013-2018) Presenter of The Voice UK (2014-present), initially BBC One then ITV; also hosted The Voice Kids UK Co-host of Love Is Blind: UK alongside Matt Willis, Netflix (2024) BBC Radio 2 Saturday lunchtime presenter from January 2026 Broadcast Digital Award for Best Popular Factual, three consecutive years (Delivering Babies, W Channel) Prince’s Trust ambassador Former fashion model; campaigns for Gap, Chanel, and Samsung; editorial work for Marie Claire, Elle, and Vogue Biography Live occasions are unforgiving. A host who is technically capable but emotionally disconnected leaves the room cold; one who is warm but underprepared leaves it chaotic. Emma Willis has spent more than two decades navigating both risks: across reality television, talent competitions, factual documentary, entertainment, and radio, formats as different from each other as any two occasions a programme director might need to anchor. Her television career began at MTV in 2002 and expanded through Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother (Channel 5, 2013-2018), The Voice UK (BBC One then ITV, 2014-present), The Circle (Channel 4), and Love Is Blind: UK (Netflix, 2024, with her husband Matt Willis). Each format demanded a different register: firm management of contestants under pressure, warmth with young singers, curiosity about social dynamics, empathy in emotionally complex moments. The consistency across all of them is not a personality trait, it is a professional discipline. In 2019, Willis trained and qualified as a Maternity Care Assistant for the W Channel’s “Delivering Babies” series, working real shifts in a real maternity ward, not observing as a celebrity. The series won the Broadcast Digital Award for Best Popular Factual for three consecutive years. The project illustrated something her broadcast career had long implied: a genuine capacity to be present on the subject’s terms, not her own. From January 2026, she presents BBC Radio 2’s Saturday lunchtime slot, one of the most scrutinised appointments in British broadcasting. She is a Prince’s Trust ambassador. Her early career as a fashion model, with campaigns for Gap, Chanel, and Samsung and editorial work for Marie Claire, Elle, and Vogue gives her a credible platform to speak on fashion, personal style, and media at occasions where those subjects are part of the agenda. Key speaking topics Live broadcast presenting and audience connection Fashion, personal style, and public image Resilience and personal reinvention Authenticity in public and professional life Charitable work and purpose-driven engagement Career development and life transitions Ideal for Awards ceremonies, gala dinners, and internal celebration events Brand launches and consumer-facing occasions Charity fundraisers and purpose-led events Fashion, lifestyle, and consumer industry conferences Audience outcomes An occasion that is paced, emotionally responsive, and memorable rather than merely completed A sense that the room was hosted for the people in it, not managed at them Consistent energy and composure across a full live programme, including unscripted moments Confidence in the platform from the moment the event begins Where relevant, personal insight on resilience, authenticity, and life in the public eye that participants can apply beyond the occasion itself

Why organisations work with Emma Louise A working BBC presenter on Newsround and Radio 1, not a former broadcaster trading on past credits. The on-camera and on-mic discipline is current. Hosting range that crosses formats few presenters cover credibly: literary (#Merky Festival), industry (Series Mania Forum main auditorium, Radio Academy Festival), arts (Arts Council Awards) and corporate stages. Editorial production background at BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra. She can shape a run of show and rewrite a script under pressure, not only read what is in front of her. Comfortable with technical and policy content for non-specialist audiences, evidenced by presenting work on AI literacy for BBC Bitesize and climate and ocean science films for WWF, The Eden Project and the National Oceanography Centre. Brand-side hosting and content credibility with Samsung, HSBC, Nokia, KFC and Save the Children, which translates into a host who understands the commercial brief, not only the editorial one. Biography highlights Presenter, BBC CBBC Newsround Presenter, BBC Radio 1, including a four-series run of “Radio 1 Relax in Love” and regular cover on the Early Breakfast show Weekend presenter, Fun Kids Radio Radio Academy 30 Under 30 alumna Host credits include #Merky Festival, Series Mania Forum main auditorium, Arts Council Awards, and Radio Academy Festival Branded content and on-camera work for Samsung, HSBC, Nokia, KFC, Save the Children and WWF; BBC Bitesize Guide to AI; long-form environmental films for WWF, The Eden Project and the National Oceanography Centre Biography A live event lives or dies in the hands of its host. Emma Louise is a working BBC presenter, not a hired voice, and she runs a stage with the editorial instinct of a journalist who has produced as much as she has presented. She is on screen as a presenter on CBBC Newsround, broadcasting live from the BBC’s Salford studio and reporting across the UK. On Radio 1 she has fronted “Radio 1 Relax in Love” for four series and covers the Early Breakfast show on rotation. Her weekends sit on Fun Kids Radio. The Radio Academy named her in its 30 Under 30 cohort, the industry’s primary signal of presenters and producers on a serious trajectory. Her hosting roster is unusually wide. She has held the main auditorium at Series Mania Forum, anchored panels at the Radio Academy Festival, hosted #Merky Festival for Stormzy’s literary platform, and fronted the Arts Council Awards. The same host moves between literary, broadcasting industry, arts and corporate stages without changing register. That portability matters when a programme needs one presenter across a varied agenda. Subject range is the second differentiator. She has presented the BBC Bitesize Guide to AI for younger audiences and long-form environmental and ocean science content for WWF, The Eden Project and the National Oceanography Centre. Branded work for Samsung, HSBC, Nokia, KFC and Save the Children gives her a working understanding of how a commercial client wants its content shaped. A buyer is hiring a host who can interview a CEO, a scientist and a creative on the same stage and make all three sound their best. Key speaking topics Live event hosting and main-stage MC Awards ceremony hosting Panel moderation and on-stage interviews Conference and summit anchoring Broadcast journalism and on-camera presenting Environment, climate and ocean science communication AI literacy and technology storytelling for non-specialist audiences Ideal for Corporate conferences and internal summits looking for a senior, BBC-credentialed host Awards ceremonies and gala dinners Industry festivals and panel programmes needing a moderator who can carry technical content CMOs, comms directors and event leads briefing for a host who handles brand-side and editorial sensitivity in the same room Audience outcomes A confidently anchored programme that lands its key messages on schedule Panel conversations that surface specific points rather than drift Technical and policy material made accessible to a mixed audience without losing precision A host who absorbs late changes to the run of show without visible cost to the audience

Why organisations work with Emily Rose Adams A working newsroom presenter, not a hire-by-day MC. Adams anchors live international news for TRT World and was a main presenter at TalkTV, which means she handles live unscripted moments the way a news desk handles breaking stories. NCTJ-qualified journalism training, which shows up in how she prepares: script, story selection, research, and interview lines done in-house rather than handed to a producer. Comfortable across registers. The same presenter who fronts a hard news bulletin has compered Canary Wharf Fashion Weekend, the Asian Banking Awards and the National Wedding Show Style Stage. Founder of Presenterly, an online platform, and host of The Health Review podcast. Useful when a brief needs a host who has been on the production side, not only the talent side. Biography highlights News anchor, TRT World, fronting international news programmes and live interviews. Former main news presenter, TalkTV (News UK). Newsreader, Virgin Radio (The Chris Evans Breakfast Show) and talkRADIO. Co-presenter, Capital FM South Coast breakfast show, 2018 to 2019. NCTJ-qualified journalist; enrolled in International Relations at the London School of Economics. Founder of Presenterly and host of The Health Review podcast. Biography A live news bulletin and a corporate awards night look nothing alike from the audience, but they share one variable: the person at the front has to keep time, hold tone, and recover instantly when something goes wrong. Emily Rose Adams works in both formats, which is unusual. Her primary work is news. She anchors international programmes for TRT World and was a main presenter on TalkTV after the channel launched under News UK. Before that came talkRADIO, Virgin Radio’s Chris Evans Breakfast Show, and the Capital FM South Coast breakfast slot. The training behind it is NCTJ, the standard route for working UK broadcast journalists, and she is studying International Relations at the London School of Economics. The hosting work runs in parallel. She has compered Canary Wharf Fashion Weekend, the Asian Banking Awards and the National Wedding Show Style Stage, and works regularly as an awards-ceremony host and panel moderator. The Health Review, her interview podcast, gives her a third register: long-form, subject-led conversation with specialists in medicine and wellbeing. Most bureau hosts come from one of these worlds. Adams comes from all three, which is why a brief that needs a host who can also conduct a credible on-stage interview tends to find its way to her. Key speaking topics Conference and awards hosting Panel moderation On-stage interviews Brand and corporate emceeing Virtual event hosting Red carpet and live reporting Voiceover and presentation Ideal for Heads of communications and marketing commissioning awards nights, brand launches and customer conferences Internal events teams running town halls, leadership summits and ceremony evenings Programme directors who need a moderator who can hold a panel of senior or technical guests Audience outcomes A room that stays on time and on tone for the full agenda Panels and interviews that produce usable lines rather than filler Sensitive or unscripted moments handled with newsroom composure A consistent host voice across pre-event, on-stage and post-event content

Why organisations work with Emily Maitlis She holds power to account live, on the record. The 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, winner of RTS Interview of the Year and Scoop of the Year, is the reference point clients book against when they want a real interviewer in the room rather than a host. She reads Westminster and Washington in the same conversation. Fifteen-plus years on Newsnight and the daily discipline of The News Agents give her a working map of the political operators, donors and advisors shaping policy on both sides of the Atlantic. She is an operator on stage, not a presence. Moderating panels, running fireside interviews with CEOs and ministers, chairing leadership offsites: the craft is the product, and it is the craft that sold out the 2022 MacTaggart Lecture and her speaking diary. She brings a named argument about media and democracy. Her MacTaggart Lecture, “Boiling Frog: Why We Have To Stop Normalising The Absurd,” sets out a specific thesis on populism and impartiality that leadership audiences can engage with rather than nod along to. Biography highlights Lead anchor of BBC Newsnight, 2018 to 2021; a Newsnight presenter from 2006. Co-host of The News Agents, the daily Global podcast launched in August 2022 with Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall; Gold winner for Best News and Current Affairs Podcast at the British Podcast Awards. Delivered the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, 2022. Author of Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News (Penguin, 2019). RTS Network Presenter of the Year, 2019 and 2020; RTS Interview of the Year and Scoop of the Year, 2020, for the Prince Andrew interview; London Press Club Broadcast Journalist of the Year, 2017. Queens’ College, Cambridge; earlier career with NBC Asia in Hong Kong and Sky News as a business correspondent. Biography The Prince Andrew interview was broadcast on Newsnight in November 2019. Emily Maitlis asked the questions that became the public record of that story, and it remains the case study most often cited when organisations talk about what a real interview looks like. The RTS named it Interview of the Year and Scoop of the Year. That night sits inside a longer body of work. Maitlis spent roughly fifteen years on Newsnight, becoming lead anchor in 2018, after building the craft at NBC Asia, Sky News as a business correspondent, and earlier BBC roles. The output is a consistent habit of pressing political and financial power for specifics rather than positioning. Since leaving the BBC in 2022 she has co-hosted The News Agents with Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall, a Global podcast that took a Gold British Podcast Award for Best News and Current Affairs. Her 2022 MacTaggart Lecture, “Boiling Frog: Why We Have To Stop Normalising The Absurd,” laid out a specific argument about how mainstream media coverage normalises populist politics, and how that reshapes the job of a public broadcaster. For leadership audiences, the value is practical. She reads political risk and media dynamics for a living, she moderates and interviews on stage the way she does on screen, and she has a thesis about the information environment that serious rooms engage with. Her 2019 book Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News is the written version of that working method. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster analysis US elections and transatlantic political risk Geopolitical flashpoints and their business implications Media, populism and the information environment Interviewing power: the craft of holding leaders to account Conference moderation, fireside interviews and awards hosting Ideal for Leadership offsites, CEO summits and partner conferences needing a host or on-stage interviewer with real political and business range. Annual client conferences and investor events where a keynote on geopolitics, elections or the media environment sets the agenda. Boards and executive committees using an off-the-record session to pressure-test political and regulatory scenarios. Audience outcomes A working read on the political and geopolitical stories most likely to affect the business over the next twelve months. A sharper view of how media narratives form, harden and reach decision-makers, and where that process is being gamed. Specific reference points from two decades of interviewing politicians, regulators and CEOs, used to illustrate rather than decorate the argument. A different quality of on-stage conversation when Maitlis is moderating: leaders pushed past talking points to the substance.