Not many people experience failure on as grand a scale as John Cantor has time and again. In 2012 adventurer John Cantor achieved a six-year dream of traversing the Brooks Range solo, a 1,600 km expedition across Arctic Alaska. Considered one of the toughest solo expeditions on earth, John completed the traverse in just 31 days, 10 days faster than any previous attempt. John Cantor has inspired co ...

Inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a pioneer and advocate of the Internet age. Now with the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he directs the W3 Consortium, an open forum of companies and organisations whose objectives are to realise the full potential of the Web. Tim Berners-Lee graduated from Queen's College at Oxf ...

A boutique production company creating, producing & performing Music, Circus, Street-theatre, Roving & Variety-entertainment. With over 20 years experience, Fun Arts specialize in providing a range of traditional and alternative interactive entertainment for Conferences, Retail, Gala, Festivals, Libraries, Sporting, Schools, Promotional, Expos and Corporate events. Fun Arts create unique enterta ...

Recently described as one of this century's most foresightful corporate philosophers, and by Forbes Asia as one of the smartest people on the planet, Dr Richard Hames is one of the world's most influential intellectuals and strategic foresight practitioners. Founder of globally distributed think-tank The Hames Group, Richard works internationally as an adviser to governments and with many of the world's most innovative business corporations. Richard is currently Director of The Constellation, Founding Director of the Asian Foresight Institute, and a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts & Science.An Australian citizen, educated in Europe and domiciled in Thailand, he has been honored with numerous awards including a French Government Scholarship, a Leverhulme European Fellowship, the Mondadori Professorial Fellowship and the Lord Attlee Fellowship. He is personal mentor to heads of state and CEOs in UK, France, Switzerland, US, China, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.A celebrated speaker and writer, Richard is author of the best-selling books The Management Myth, Burying the 20th Century and The Five Literacies of Global Leadership.

 

 

 

 

Rasmus Ankersen is a bestselling author, a motivational speaker on performance development, and a trusted advisor to businesses and athletes around the world. He wrote his first book, The DNA of a Winner, at the age of just 22. A year later, he published his second book, Leader DNA, based on field studies of 25 high-profile leaders, including the Secretary of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and the C ...

Richard Laible is Corporate America's first choice for entertainment. He is widely sought after for his unique ability to improve tradeshows, sales meetings, promotions and other corporate events. Richard's reputation for using humor to increase audience participation and retention has earned him a long list of satisfied clients. An 18-year veteran of corporate entertainment, Richard began his car ...

Angie Wilcock is a highly regarded Australian expert and speaker on transitions in education and middle years adolescents, and has presented her work at state and national education and parent conferences. She presents to educators, educational professionals and parents on early adolescent development and its impact on behaviour and learning, transition to secondary school, boys and girls educatio ...

We LOVE hanging on on Facebook with our friends and colleagues! Why not join us?

Over the last 10 years, I have led numerous delegations, study tours and client visit programs to Asia, including China, India and Hong Kong, and observed at first hand some of the mistakes that are often made when attempting to engage with Asian business leaders, entrepreneurs and Government officials.

Once you have a clear understanding of why you want to do business in Asia (i.e. is it to grow your business? reduce costs? raise capital from Asian investors?) and have a strategy in place, here are my top 6 tips for foreigners looking to succeed in Asia:

 

Between the Olympics and the upcoming NRL and AFL Grand Finals, Australia is rarely happier than when we've got a sport to support - or a team to rally against! While we've got one eye on the (literal!) ball, it would be remiss of us not to highlight our greatest sports-star speakers! These are champions of the field who have parleyed the grit, determination and leadership shown throughout their career into valued advice and counsel to a different type of leader - those who do battle on the field of business!

By Penny Burke

Many organisations I work with want to be 'famous' with their customers. They want their customers to think of them first, to visit them always, to pay extra for them and them alone, to follow them on Facebook and Twitter – to LOVE them above all others.

But to be frank, many businesses don't deserve to be famous in the eyes of their customers! Some companies think they can just turn up and do the very barest of 'an OK job' – and in return, expect to build fame. Expect the customer to be loyal. Expect to get a pat on the back for frankly – doing their job!

The Wikipedia definition of FAME is 'the condition of being known or talked about by many people, especially on account of notable achievement'

It's that last bit that does it for me – the 'notable achievement' part. If you want to build fame amongst your customers, you need to first decide where your notable achievement is going to be. What will you do that is better? Different? Notable?

What do you really want to be famous for?

So here is my summary of the 7 Secrets to Building FAME – everything you need to know to build fame in your business. They are:

• Know what you're famous for
• It's not about you
• Build a lighthouse brand
• Deliver a business experience
• Deliver a business experience consistently
• Telling ain't selling
• LIVE your brand!

If you want the full ebook and explanation, then simply click here, download and enjoy! Or talk to me about my keynote on 'The 7 secrets to building FAME' which I have presented so far in 2012 in San Fransisco, Melbourne, Sydney, Vietnam and Dubai.

If you would like to know more about that please contact me via Ovations.

And you can win tickets for this Friday's breakfast seminar!

Sir Martin Sorrell is the CEO of WPP - a company that started out making shopping baskets and is now the largest communications and advertising group in the world, employing hundreds of thousands internationally.

This Friday, Sir Martin is speaking in Sydney as part of the Global Leadership Series, MC'd by our own Dan Gregory.

 

Ovations International are proud to be a part of the upcoming visit by Randi Zuckerberg who will be the headline speaker at the 21st Century Financial Education Summit.

The founder and creative director of Zuckerberg Media and also an early employee at Facebook, she created and ran the social media platform's marketing program. Randi also led the company's political strategy and crafted Facebook's livestreaming services during the 2008 Presidential Inauguration. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2011 for her integrated online and TV coverage.

Don't miss your opportunity to see such a dynamic speaker at this year's informative event. Tickets can be purchased via the 21st Century site. For corporate booking enquiries please contact Ovations International info@ovations.com.au or 1800 682 846

Tansel Ali is one of the leading trainers and memory coach in the world and has helped thousands of people from students to executives realise the massive potential of their brain. He has the title of Grandmaster of Memory for remembering a deck of unshuffled playing cards, won the Australian Memory Championships and has recently memorised 20,000 digits from the Sydney Yellow Pages and has been d. ...

Hamish MacDonald is no stranger to the front line, he is the Ten network Senior Foreign Correspondent and Presenter of Ten Late news. It's also safe to say there is no 'regular' day for Hamish. He could be jetting off to report from one of the world's most dangerous hot spots or putting on his suit for a corporate event or awards night. The team at Ovations have watched the career of Hamish McD ...

With both the NRL and AFL finals right around the corner, it's time to ask the team who they've picked to win their code's ultimate showdown!

 

Dr Fiona Wood was Australian of the Year for 2005; Western Australia's only female plastic surgeon; head of the Royal Perth Hospital's Burns Unit; Director of the Western Australia Burns Service, and co-founder of Clinical Cell Culture, a private company recognised in medical circles for its world-leading research in the treatment of burns. In addition, Dr Wood is a Clinical Professor with the S ...

Alistair runs 'Insight Works' and is one of the most highly respected futurist in Australia, his experience comes from a number of trend based roles around the world. He is also a successful authors of books such as 'The Second Coming of Capitalism - and the secret to business success in the third millennium'. On a recent trip to the US Alistair conducted research into how US companies are addressing their changing social obligations and and also explored new ways of doing business. This research is detailed in 'Engage - A Research Report into US trends in Corporate Social Responsbility'. Ping works with individuals and organisations to help free them from their fixed views of the world and to inspire them to create their bold Visions.

Dear clients and colleagues,

You asked... We Listened!

On the 25th Birthday of Ovations we announced that big changes were afoot, starting with the introduction of our O Exclusives model. We've since overturned every aspect of our brand, marketing and service, all led by a very special consulting group: our very own clients!

To all of you my deepest gratitude. Not only for your loyalty and support for so many years but for caring enough to let us know how we can serve you best. In phase one of our new "The Client is our Hero" programme, we have incorporated the top 25 hot ideas that you had asked for in our brand new website. There are another eight ideas to be released before the end of the year.

These changes are all about you: a new quick and easy search, more speaker videos prominently featured on the site, a quick contact option available on every page of the site and our personal favourite: "O Help Me!". We're also now available to chat 24/7 with our on-site Live Chat (Even our toughest Board of Clients didn't think we could do that!)

Welcome to the NEW Ovations, please look around and see for yourself.

The biggest compliment you could give would be to let us know if there's anything you love - or anything you really feel needs changing. Please email me with any suggestions you have on leanne@ovations.com.au

Best Wishes,

Leanne Christie

Chief of Everything O

Chat with us 24/7!

We know what it's like to run events, there are never enough hours in the day!

Ovations are here to help you create events to wow any audience and we have created the first Speakers Bureau LIVE CHAT open 24 hours 7 days a week.

Come chat to us any time at www.ovations.com.au - just look for the 'Chat With Us' bar at the bottom right of every page!

We'd love to Chat!

When The Growth Faculty approached Ovations to secure an MC for an upcoming session with Sir Martin Sorrell, we knew immediately who was the most obvious choice: Legendary Australian marketer and The Gruen Transfer regular, Dan Gregory.

Sir Martin is the CEO of WPP, originally a manufacturer of shopping baskets and now one of the world's largest communication services group. Speaking on The Importance of Digital and Emerging Markets, who better to understand Sir Martin's world than Dan Gregory? Further, Dan's firm The Impossible Institute is one of the few advertising agencies in Australia not owned by Sir Martin, allowing the choice of MC to bring an impartial perspective to the event.

Andrew Roe, Director of Golden Key International Honour Society won tickets to the event in last month's Special Promotions and had this to say about the breakfast event:

Thanks for the invitation to the event this morning. It was great to listen to Sir Martin Sorrell, I thought his perspective was fantastic, very international and relevant to anyone, not just advertisers!"

Tim Gard has been in Australia this past month, secured by Ovations for local clients. He also stopped by the office to keep us updated on his latest presentations and topics in person.

It wasn't just incredible product knowledge for the team to secure, or an invaluable resource to draw upon when trying to find exactly the right speaker for an event. It was a rare treat to watch him in action as he presented segments from "Developing a Comic Vision" and "The Tao of Humor" ably assisted by his plethora of custom-made props.

Absolutely hilarious, Tim always brings tears to the eye with so much laughter and fun!

Even the O Staff have their favourite speakers, those that touch our souls, make us laugh or inspire us to greatness.

This month the team give you the Sales Speakers We Love!

 

For a chance to WIN one of 5 copies of Amazon Besteller Intentionomics® by David Penglase, just click around Ovations new website and tell us what speaker do YOU think is hot right now? 

There is no wrong answer - we want to know YOUR thoughts!

Either Email info@ovations.com.au with your answer or jump on Facebook and let us know!

Road Show or Traveling Circus

Your choice of presenter can make the difference

1. Consistency vs Economy
One of the first considerations in booking speakers for a road show is whether to book a separate speaker from each area or state that your road show will be working, or to book one speaker that will travel to all areas. The issue here is deciding which is the most important: Having multiple presenters which will reduce travel and accommodation costs, or having one presenter which will provide a much more consist presentation and bring further advantages as the presenter becomes increasingly familiar with your target audience and their typical questions. This aspect alone and the fine tuning it allows can make a big impact on the overall success of your show.

2. As good to work with off stage…
Something that is often not considered when booking one presenter to cover the whole road show is the personality or temperament of the presenter.  You or your colleagues may have to live with this person for several weeks, so have a presenter with an agreeable personality will have a marked beneficial effect on the overall performance of the team. The last thing you want is to have a moody or inflexible presenter bringing the tone of your show down. So seek advice here from your consultant to ensure compatibility. We have a saying on the office, “Are they as good to work with off stage as they are when presenting on stage?”

3. Travel Partner
Not only will you have to live with your presenter for the period of your road show, but you will also have to accommodate them and pay for travel. So in choosing one presenter for the whole term of the show your Ovations consultant will also give consideration to whether the presenter is flexible in their travel arrangements are they happy with economy airfares, are they overly fussy about accommodation, do they have expensive demands.    

4. Local Considerations
In traveling the various countries and cities throughout Asia there is always local issues and local pride. In preparing your road show it is good to investigate some of the more dominant ones and incorporate these into your briefing with the presenter. This can make a considerable difference in how the audience relates to the presenter and therefore to the message you are endeavoring to impart.

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Les Brown's straight-from-the-heart, high-energy, passionate message motivates and engages all audiences to step into their greatness, providing them with the motivation to take the next step toward living their dream. Les Brown's charisma, warmth and sense of humor have impacted many lives. Labeled a slow learner in elementary and high school, Les Brown educated and motivated himself to shake of ...

Drawing from his POW experience from capture to ultimate release, Captain Coffee cites faith - in himself, his comrades and family, his country, and his God - as the key to turning an unbelievably difficult and potentially devastating experience into an opportunity for personal growth and triumph. With empathy and humour he shares a truly uplifting message. He plants the seeds of belief that act ...

Let Jazz Nouveau provide the soundtrack for your event. Sophisticated, sexy and stylish - Jazz with a twist. Jazz Nouveau is a groovy outfit doing sophisticated jazz and cocktail versions of pop and dance hits. Kylie and Madonna never sounded like this before! Whether it's the classic quartet comprising sultry female vocal, jazz guitar, double bass and drums providing the sonic backdrop for cha ...

Joanna Maxwell helps people flourish at work, using creative thinking for individual career development or to train teams to use their whole brains – so everyone can work in colour, not in black + white, everyday. After recovering from her first career as a lawyer, Joanna decided to use the rigour and analytical skills learned as a lawyer in a more creative and unstructured environment. She ...

Danny Green is the only boxer from Australia to win four professional boxing world titles in three weight divisions. One of the highest profile athletes in the country, greens laconic, affable laid back nature outside the ring belies his fierce and intense demeanour inside the ropes, his devastating power and aggressive instincts have earned him the well known moniker 'The Green Machine'.

Harley Breen has blown away audiences from the sugarcane fringes of Bundaberg to the sweaty stages of the Edinburgh Fringe. Regularly headlining around Australia, Harley has won over a legion of fans with his accessible and relatable comedy. Consistently unpredictable, Breen's sets seamlessly move from side-splitting material about the foibles of being a new-age dad to dodgy tales of his beloved o ...

Dannielle Miller, a thought leader and expert in girls' self-esteem and body image, started out her career as a teacher and then quickly became a major innovator in education and student welfare. She was responsible for the curriculum, staffing and quality of learning of the English faculty of a dual-campus high school. Dannielle was named NSW Entrepreneur of the Year and was deemed the country's number one Emerging Leader in Learning by The Australian newspaper and was listed as one of Sydney's Top 100 Influential People by the Sydney Morning Herald's Sydney Magazine. She was nominated for a Pride of Australia Medal, in the Inspiration category and was honoured with an Australian Leadership Award. Dannielle is the weekly Channel 9 Mornings contributor on parenting and women's issues and is regularly called upon by the media as an expert commentator. She released her book The Butterfly Effect, which offers a positive new approach to raising teen girls. After receiving many requests from parents and educators for a version especially for teen readers, she went on to write The Girl with the Butterfly Tattoo. Dannielle is an avid blogger and has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and sites such as Mamamia, The Hoopla and Feministing. She is featured in education journals, and she is a popular speaker at youth and education conferences and forums. A recent career highlight was speaking at The Sydney Opera House on a panel with Germaine Greer, Eva Cox and Tara Moss as part of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

The first of our National Speaker Showcase series for 2013 will be held on February 19 in the Ivy Ballroom.

We'll have an incredible lineup of inspirational speakers, the best Australia has to offer, accompanied by a luxurious breakfast in one of Sydney's premiere conference rooms.

It's always a sell-out event so we've opened registrations early to avoid disappointment!

For anyone booking a speaker for any event to be held in the next 12 months, now is the time to secure them: Book between now and Christmas 2012 and we'll send you a bottle of bubbly with our compliments.

Find out more about our Annual Christmas Bubbly Giveaway on the special promotions page of this ONews!

Best Wishes,

Leanne Christie

Chief of Everything O

2013 is fast approaching and we've rounded up the best and the brightest - up and coming young speakers about to make their mark on their world and some experienced presenters with new insights for their audiences!

These are the top 13 speakers we love for 2013!

This month we find out how Anh Do, Penny Burke and David Koutsoukis make their tough decisions.

It's nearly Christmas and we're giving away the presents!

If you're looking at booking a speaker for any event to be held in the coming year, get in before Christmas 2012 and we'll send you a bottle of bubbly on us!

Don't forget, Ovations has access to any speaker anywhere in the world and our incredible staff love nothing better than to match the perfect speaker to your event!

By Paul Wallbank

"Bringing a knife to a gunfight" describes showing up hopelessly ill-equipped for the task at hand.

Two recent conferences, the massive Dreamforce in San Francisco and the smaller, but still fascinating, Australian Xerocon in Melbourne illustrate just how radically the commercial world is changing and how many business leaders are poorly equipped for today's times. 

In July, the Melbourne Xero Convention bought together 400 Australian partners of the cloud accounting service which showed how how one New Zealand based company is building it's business through engaging other suppliers who add features to the basic service.

Vend, a Point Of Sale cloud service provider, was one of the companies exhibiting at XeroCon. In the past POS systems have been a pain for retail businesses with most suppliers' business models being about locking customers into expensive contracts.

Ovations 'don' their community hat once again!

Jane Rowland Smith at Ovations secured Craig Ruecassel for this year's 2012 Human Rights Awards coming up on the 10th December at the Hilton, Sydney

Craig Reucassel was a founding member of the satirical multi-media group The Chaser team, and worked to produce their satirical newspaper, as well as television shows on ABC TV including 'The Election Chaser', 'CNNNN', 'The Chaser Decides' and 'The Chaser's War on Everything'. He has been one of the main presenters on The War since the pilot episode. He and his wife Keisha have three children together, and their son Ollie has appeared on some of the sketches on The War. Reucassel is presently a Patron of the Left Right Think-Tank, Australia's first independent and non-partisan youth think-tank. 

 

Entrepreneur and CEO of virtual assistant startup, MyCyberTwin, Liesl Capper was recently featured in ARN magazine following her presentation "Machines to replace humans completely?" at the Australian Computer Society's Youth IT Conference.

Her presentation highlighted that in many cases virtual humans offer a superior value proposition to both business and consumers, with a growing body of evidence to support the statement that many people prefer interacting with computers over real humans.

Liesl accounted for this burgeoning acceptance as part of the proliferation of mobile technology - its integration into our daily lives is proving in this case to be the doorway to widespread acceptance of virtual humans. 

It's that time of the year again where we start casting our gaze forward, planning for the successes of the year to come.

No doubt, you've already started planning for the first round of events and conferences for next year - all that's left is to find the perfect speaker.

We can help make that decision easier, not only with our incredible staff standing ready to find the perfect speaker for you, but because when you book a speaker, trainer or entertainer before December 24th 2012, for any event in 2013, we'll give you a bottle of bubbly on us!

Why not get in touch now and make sure this Christmas is a merry one?

Michael Crossland is an extraordinary young man who has endured almost seven years of his life in hospitals. He has defied the overwhelming odds of life threatening cancer, 3rd degree burns to nearly his entire body and a severe heart attack all before his 13th birthday. An accomplished businessman and an elite baseball player, he's built a life of exceptional achievements. His inspirational story ...