ANALYSIS / MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS Values II: The Next Generation, Doha GOALS Forum 2012
There is a mood to use people from the region and the standard motivational speech has defaulted to the local speaker since audiences can relate more to this. They feel less connection with international speakers. _ Tom Kenyon Slaney, London Speaker Bureau
GOING LOCAL While most professionals are united in the view that moti- vational speaking is a sector that crosses geographical boundaries, one element that comes in to play for clients in the Arabian Gulf is the distance-money equation. It is a fact of the conference life that the majority of
speakers are English speakers, tend to hail from the US or the UK and most likely male. The second fact adds in expense – airline flights, hotel
accommodation and the length of time required by the speaker to make a meaningful contribution to an event. “Travel can really increase the costs,” confirms Kirstie
Hepburn, “and the budget never goes as far as you think it will.” A solution comes with the inclusion of more local content, according to the London Speaker Bureau’s Tom Kenyon Slaney, who established the Middle East Speaker Bureau (MESB) two years ago as the region’s first inter- national set-up. “While we do still bring in more speakers from the
international markets, there are financial reasons to stay local in terms of costs, travel and accommodation,” he says. “There is no doubt the market is growing and there is a
need to be on the ground to capitalise on this potential,” he says. “Setting up in the region was a two-way thing, both to secure clients and bring in international speakers, but also to develop a portfolio of Gulf speakers.” Speakers on the books range from entrepreneur Mishal Kanoo to the first female Emirati film director Nayla Al Khaja and Kenyon Slaney says there is interest in these types of speakers both from the region and also overseas. “There is a mood to use people from the region and
the standard motivational speech has defaulted to the local speaker since audiences can relate more to this. They feel less connection with international speakers.” Overall, he reports a demand for ‘nuts and bolts’ rather
than the ‘frothy stuff’. 46 / Tom Kenyon Slaney CONTACTS:
www.londonspeakerbureau.com (Tom Kenyon Slaney)
www.jla.co.uk (Jeremy Lee)
www.techsavvyglobal.com (Scott Steinberg)
www.executiveoasis.com (Anne Thornley-Brown)
www.strategicsolutionsoline.com (Susan Furness)
www.ts-eventservices.com (Tina Schneidermann)
www.matrix-training.com (Carol Talbot)
www.richardattiasassociates.com (Kirstie Hepburn)
Above: Doha GOALS Forum
Below right: Brett Shuttleworth launched his services in the Middle East in 2012. His Corporate Training Portfolio includes a powerful one day event incorporating the Japanese martial art of Hojo (sword fighting) to potential the human element within organizations
“Previously the name was the game,
particularly in Dubai where big celebrities were routinely brought in for any event, but while audiences still do like a big guru and names such as global economists, there is more focus on training, standards and anything to do with developing a SME entrepreneurial culture.” Of interest as topics for discussion,
Kenyon Slaney says social media was ‘huge’ in the wake of the Arab Spring, while the top five subjects for MESB event content were economics (38 percent); motivation (16 percent); innovation (12 percent); sport and technology (10 percent each). Long-term, Kenyon Slaney says he
expects to see more locals in the meetings sector, both as speakers and organisers. “The market is huge and, while more than 40 percent of the events we worked on last year were in Dubai, other growth markets include Abu Dhabi, Doha and, of course, Saudi Arabia.”
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