Self Leadership and
The New Leadership Playbook
Blog by Andrew Bryant

Event Professionals and Conference Organizers are some of the most self-disciplined people on the planet. Unfortunately, that focus can also cost self-care.

Choosing the right Keynote Speaker for an event can be a headache, but it doesn’t have to be.

Conference audiences want to be inspired, informed, and have a laugh.
Companies need their target audience to learn, change, and take action. 

🌎 For 25 years, I have spoken on stages about driving results with self-leadership in 35 countries on 5 continents.

🌎 If you need a Global Speaker for one of your events, I promise I am a true professional and ridiculously easy to work with.

Please view the 2-minute showreel and visit the meeting professional resources page. I am happy to take your call at any time.

As a professional speaker, I've worked closely with event planners, coordinators, and managers. I've seen first-hand the lengths they go to ensure that each event, be it a small corporate meeting or a large conference, runs smoothly and provides value to all participants.

Even before the pandemic, these individuals were unsung heroes, but their resilience, adaptability, and dedication have been nothing short of awe-inspiring during these challenging times. 

Things are opening up but there are still challenges for these professionals. Today, I want to shine a spotlight on these challenges, to foster understanding and empathy for those in the trenches, navigating the 'new normal'. 

The Rise of Hybrid Events

In the wake of the pandemic, we've seen the birth of hybrid events, One of the toughest aspects of a hybrid event is catering to two fundamentally different audiences: in-person attendees and virtual participants. Each group has distinct needs and expectations that event professio...

A great speech is memorable, think Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream", or Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you?" but if you are not a King or a Kennedy, what can you do to make a great speech?

"Not everyone wants to be a professional speaker,
but everyone needs to speak professionally."

 The opportunity to speak and share with an audience is a great honor, regardless of whether you are paid or not, and in my opinion, should be approached with reverence.

Having been speaking on stages around the world for nearly 25 years and being the President of two professional speaking associations, Singapore, and Spain, let me share some insights from the client's perspective.

Being a Great Speaker from the Client's Perspective

Every speech has an audience, and most speeches have a client. The client varies depending on the context, it might be a senior executive who wants you to land a message, or it's the company that booked you, but if you are paid to speak, it's definit...

Dubai, the thriving cosmopolitan city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has become a top destination for hosting conferences and conventions. Boasting state-of-the-art infrastructure, a vibrant business environment, and a unique blend of culture and modernity, Dubai offers an ideal setting for event organizers and attendees alike.

Dubai's World-class Venues and Infrastructure

Dubai is home to a multitude of world-class venues designed to accommodate conferences and conventions of various sizes. The Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), for instance, is a prominent facility that offers over 1.3 million square feet of exhibition space and is equipped with the latest technology. Other notable venues include the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Atlantis Hotel, and the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, which provide state-of-the-art facilities and flexible event spaces. 

Dubai is served by the award-winning Dubai International Airport (DXB), which is the world's busiest airport ...

If you are organizing an event, conference, or convention in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, then you will be focused on the venue, attendees, catering, and industry speakers, so looking for a motivational speaker might be low on your list. In this post, we will share reasons to include the right kind of motivational speaker in your line-up but first, let’s talk about Amsterdam as a conference venue.

Amsterdam as a Conference Location

Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is an ideal location for your conference for many reasons, here are the top three.

1. Amsterdam is one of the most innovative cities in Europe. Rich in creative industries including technology, life sciences, artificial intelligence, finance, and sustainability.
2. Amsterdam is an international air hub with excellent physical and digital connectivity. High-speed train services to London, Paris, and Berlin provide fast and comfortable connections within Europe.
3. Amsterdam has over 500 conference venues and the Amsterd
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I recently returned from Finland, where I gave a keynote speech at a management conference. Since this was my first time speaking in Finland, I did extra research to ensure that my message was well-received by the audience of senior leaders.

Finland is the Happiest Country in the World

As of March 2023, Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world six times in a row. The World Happiness Report is based on ratings of self-reporting of their quality of life in various dimensions. I was curious to see whether Finns felt happy and so interviewed as many as I could about their ranking.

From taxi drivers to event planners and executives, I was curious how a country with a short summer and long winter could score so, highly.  

The taxi driver was incredulous about the results and showed me a foggy weather forecast to make his point, but then he was originally from Estonia so perhaps I should exclude his data!

The answer lies in what Finns don’t do rather than the weather i

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Since the Ancient Greeks, oratory, public speaking, and debates, have shown the power of the spoken word to influence and make an impact.

Not everyone wants to be a Professional Speaker, but everyone can become more professional when speaking to an audience.

Public Speaking and Leadership

Effective communication is a vital skill that every successful leader must possess. Leaders can inspire, influence, and direct their teams to achieve organizational goals through communication.

Whether it is the company kickoff, a team meeting, or presenting to the board, leadership requires confident and effective public speaking skills. 

Leadership requires courage and so regardless of your level of comfort with public speaking, this is a pill you will have to learn to swallow if want to be successful. Having been a professional speaker for nearly 25 years and coached hundreds of people to speak with confidence and gravitas, this blog is designed to sugar-coat that pill. 

It Starts with Listen...

When you're looking for a global motivational speaker for your company's event or conference, you want to make sure you find someone who can really make an impact. A top motivational speaker can give your audience the insights and boost they need to reach their goals in a complex global environment.

So, what should you look for when choosing a global motivational speaker? Here are the top 12 things to consider when selecting a top speaker for your event.

1. Knowledge and Experience: It’s important to find a speaker who has a deep understanding of the subject matter and can provide insight and knowledge about their topic. Look for someone with years of experience across multiple cultures with engaging stories that reinforce their points.
2. Passion and Enthusiasm: It should go without saying that a top global speaker should be passionate about their message and be able to captivate a diverse audience with their enthusiasm. They should be able to make the audience feel empowered to take...

Technology companies love to be ‘market leading’ and be featured in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant but despite cutting-edge technological advancements, unless the leadership of these companies addresses the people issues, growth will be short-lived.

Employee Burnout

In a recent research report “The State of Burnout in Tech”, 30,000 IT professionals were surveyed across 33 countries:

• 56% of men and 69% of women can’t relax once their workday is over
• 43% feel disengaged from their work, and 27% don’t see the value in it
• 51% feel they are achieving less than they should

Tech burnout is caused by unrelenting stress and manifests as exhaustion, cynicism, and negative self-evaluation. The burnout problem stems from the early days of Silicon Valley, where working until you drop was a badge of honor.

The 'burn and churn' attitude of leadership has an actual human cost, with two out of five tech professionals, and 50% of IT security employees, suffering from burnout.

Toxic Culture

A toxi...

Getting the right keynote speaker on the right topic is key to a successful conference or event. Booking an Astronaut, TV Star, or Gold Medal Winner to speak, will almost certainly be inspirational, but will be expensive and not necessarily address some of the issues facing your company or your audience.

Mindset matters and so do insights and practical strategies that the audience can execute to make a tangible difference. The following list of topics and speakers was compiled to provide a balance of motivation, mission, and methodology. While no such list can be fully comprehensive and inclusive, we hope it triggers your critical thinking about selecting the right speaker and topic for your event.

1. Business Creativity, Change, and Innovation

Creativity is a critical business skill that will help us move forward. To manage change and be innovative we need ideas. Almost everyone agrees that creativity is important, but not everyone is confident that they are creative, and organizat...