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Sir Ken Robinson Cutting-edge thinking, first-class entertainment

Recent Engagements

Specialist Education Services:

A sincere thank you for the 18th of November 2011 event. The response from attendees both unsolicited and on the evaluation forms has been overwhelming. The ultimate positive impact for the children of having the whole staff team present is unquestionable. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you in person.

Liverpool City Council:

Sir Ken was brilliant as ever. Everything went to perfection.

Agora Talentia:

Sir Ken was great, everybody loved his speech. He was really nice, easygoing and really collaborative.

Leadership South West:

Sir Ken was a huge hit, he was the best and most inspiring presenter we have had. The day was not long enough, and the feedback has been very praiseworthy.

Temple Bar Cultural Trust:

Not surprisingly everyone was hugely impressed with Sir Ken's presentation; it was completely engaging and inspiring. He was an absolute pleasure to deal with.

Infineum:

It was an absolute pleasure to hear Ken's exceptional talk it really was one of the major talking points of the conference and two hours just flew by. Ken really opened my eyes to a whole new perspective on organisational excellence . I had never explicitly considered the 'imagination' element of the innovation process before. He is a genuinely inspiring speaker with a personal style which was perfect for the role, I was so impressed with his humility for such a deep thinker. His talk had a very material impact on the meeting.

McKinsey & Company:

Thank you again for such a wonderful presentation at our Partners Conference in Singapore last week. We have had wonderful feedback and I personally found your presentation extremely thought-provoking and entertaining! It was also a delight to work with you.

ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation, Queensland University of Technology:

We are very happy – corporately and personally – with your contribution to the success of our symposium. The feedback has been very positive and you did an excellent “Heineken” job – enabling us to reach the parts other symposia cannot reach. We’ve had follow-up from government, media, organizations and individuals that will be very helpful to our ongoing endeavours. Thank you too for an inspiring and impressive performance at the symposium. I know we worked you rather hard: the keynote address, round-table, ministerial lunch, CCi launch … and Stuart’s belly-dancing! It’s more than the ordinary mortal should have to endure; so “respect” to you.

ICP Convention:

Thank you very much for your Keynote address at the ICP Convention in Auckland New Zealand. We were indeed privileged to have the opportunity to listen to speakers of such calibre as yourself, to be inspired and to learn from a presentation filled with wisdom, presented with humour and passion. We have had many favourable comments from delegates who were inspired by your words. We know that your presence added so much to the success of the convention.

Belgacom:

The way Sir Ken got the attention of the audience was remarkable, and once he had their attention, he said what he had to say (and what we wanted to hear).

Microsoft:

Very humorous and great ability to link speech subject directly to the theme of our conference. Thoroughly enjoyable speech and a delight to work with.

Flanders District of Creativity (very late replacement for John Cleese):

A superb combination of content and style - dynamic and very witty. The presentation was excellent.

National Centre for Partnership & Performance:

Sir Ken is not only an expert in his field, well able to manage (with style) an audience but he is also a pleasure to work with - professionally and personally. His knowledge and how he related it to the aims of our masterclass and Ireland's national workplace strategy exceeded our expectations.

American Bankers Association:

We were so excited with Sir Ken Robinson's presentation - he wa a great find and added just the right combination of humor and practice to the program.

Tourism Management Institute:

Everyone who attended our Convention was very impressed by your talk. Every single delegate scored you top marks for style! Your presentation was a key part of a Convention that marked a major turning point for many people - putting the turmoil behind them and facing the future with renewed confidence. You also provided us with a timely reminder that we are actually supposed to enjoy our work - if we are going to enjoy our lives. Your inspirational talk will remain with us for years to come.

Director of Communications , FranklinCovey:

I just wanted to drop you a line to thank you properly for speaking at our Symposium in May at the NEC. Your presentation was a superb start to the day and I feel made a massive contribution to the success of the event, putting people in a good mood from the outset but also leaving minds stimulated. I know I really enjoyed it. You went down really well with our delegates; in terms of feedback you were the highest rated speaker of the day, with an average of 9.34 out of 10. In fact, 114 of the 169 respondents gave you a maximum rating. No doubt both the humour and the content had a part to play.

The World Bank, Global Human Resources Conference, Washington:

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The best speaker we have ever had.

British American Business Council, Manufacturing Conference, Long Beach, CA.:

As usual you captured the audience with you great humor and brilliant delivery. You were a major contributor in making this event such a huge success.

World Entrepreneurs Organization, St. Louis:

You were fantastic! Your insights into creativity in business are “spot on” for what we do. It will be remembered as one of the great WEO events.

National Association of Music Merchants:

On behalf of the International Music Products Association, I am writing to express our appreciation for your presentation at the Fifth Global Economic. Your passion is apparent, and your preparation and research were exemplary, establishing your presentation as a perfect complement to the Summit agenda.

CEO & President, SMN Healthcare Inc.:

The event was a wonderful success with you as the primary reason. Many people told me later that were the best YPO speaker they have ever heard. I respectfully disagree, because I think you are the best speaker I have heard period.

Richmond Events, New York NY:

Thank you so much for making our closing address one of our most outstanding presentations ever! I can’t say enough about your fantastic content and your humorous style and the range and depth of your portfolio topics. Thank you for a first class address. We couldn’t have asked for anyone better!

COBISEC:

Sir Ken was very enjoyable and stimulating, we liked his lack of notes and ability to really engage the audience.

Brisbane:

Thnk you for your amazing contribution to our Forum - so many people have commented on how much they enjoyed and how inspired they felt by your presentation.

EMAP Education:

Easy presentation style

Durham Education:

Warmth, engaing personality, humour and inspirational.

Egg plc:

Great message and humour.

Secondary Heads Association:

Wonderful content and style of delivery

Milton Keynes LEA:

Inspiring with so many humorous anecdotes.

Creative Partnerships Kent:

Sir Ken ahs a brutal wit - a great speaker.

Stockton on Tees Borough Council:

Humour and ability to relate positively to the audience. Sir Ken was a high quality speaker who was able to initiate discussions around an extremely important subject for schools over the coming decade.

Victoria & Albert Museum:

Sir Ken tailored his talk to suit museums and the creative industries, he was very inspiring.

BDP Lifelong Learning Partnership:

Ken's delivery style captures and engages the audience. The feedback from our delegates has been bery positive, they are very motivated.

Crichton University:

Sir ken was probably one of the best, if not the best and most motivational speaker for the purpose. He was quite superb. A great motivational speaker.

Wandsworth Council:

What was best about Sir Ken was his relevance and entertainment value. An amazing experience and one which all will treasure. Motivation like this happens all too rarely. Sir Ken's contribution was superb, realistic and inspiring, the evaluations are extremely positive. We will need to create a new superlatives dictionary for Sir Ken.

Reed Exhibitions UK:

What we liked best about Sir Ken was his gentle humour and brilliant ability to paint pictures with words. After Professor Richard Scase and Ken Robinson where do I go?

City of York Annual Lecture:

It will come as no surprise to you to know that Sir Ken Robinson was wonderful. He left the whole of York buzzing with excitement and recalling things he had said (it's a bit like Python fans recalling the dead parrot sketch). Sir Ken's lecture was quite brilliant and he has done a huge amount to lift morale and make everybody feel enthused again about education whether they are teachers, headteachers or advisers.

Innovation in Action, PSBS Meeting:

I thought I would take this opportunity to e-mail you and say I thoroughly enjoyed your session at the London College of Fashion yesterday. I don't think I've ever said that about a similar sort of event, usually they are worthwhile or relevant but never enjoyable!! I cannot remember ever laughing so much while discussing such a serious and thought provoking issue. I hope I will be able to attend another of your events soon (and bring along my Board members!). Transforming HR, Defra

British American Business Council Los Angeles:

Thank you for speaking at our inaugural manufacturing conference, as usual you captured the audience with your great humour and brilliant delivery; you were a major contributor in making this event a huge success.

Department for Education & Skills:

What was best about Ken was his spontaneity and informality. The vast majority of evaluation forms rated Ken Robinson as excellent and/or 'the highlight' of the conference.

Red Cell Network, New York:

As ever, Sir Ken's speech touched the hearts of everyone who was there, both for its humour and wit, but more importantly for the strength and quality of the message. I had many comments over the course of our event referring to his speech and they can be summed up as an 'inspired choice'.

Coleg Gwent:

The talk Sir Ken gave was stimulating and brilliant and was hugely appreciated by all who attended. The message he gave about the need to encourage creativity in the curriculum has been noted and I am sure will influence the way we work in the future. Sir Ken's talk was very entertaining with a serious message.

Arts Council England:

What we liked best about Sir Ken was his relevance to our audience, but also he had such a motivating and inspirational effect and provided sheer entertainment value.

Herefordshire Education Directorate:

Sir Ken surpassed our expectations, he was superb and our feedback said everyone enjoyed every minute with him! Ken gave a fabulous, riveting talk to our heads. Sir Ken's transcendent ideas have resonated with us and have given us much to consider. Moreover, thanks to Ken's special gift of humour, we have been left with a profound and unique 'afterglow'. I know that delegates will be talking about his address for years to come. We laughed until we cried!

Hertfordshire School Improvement & Advisory Service:

Sincere thanks for your excellent contribution to our conferences. You gave us an entertaining and inspirational address and provided the touchstone for the rest of the conference. The audience were fully in tune with your amusing but passionate approach and the the evaluations were extremely positive.

Human Resources Manager, The World Bank:

The feedback I have gotten has been overwhelmingly positive.

President, British American Business Council, Los Angeles:

The wit and the substance of your remarks were so stimulating that my telephone message system is full of inquiries about how to have you speak at other gatherings. Thank you so much for taking on the project as such short notice, and for the delivering a thoughtful and entertaining session.

Chair, New York City: Arts in Education Roundtable:

You were a magnificent keynote speaker. As I'm sure you could tell from the response in the hall, your words resonated deeply with your audience. Your combination of insight, ancedote, historical perspective, and humor was absolutely perfect for the occasion.

President, International Council of Fine Arts Deans (ICAFD):

I heard from many people that your keynote was the finest, most informative and enjoyable of any they've experienced in ICFAD...Your wit and humor is infectious and yet the message comes through so clearly - a real talent.

Developmental Adviser, Department of Transport, Local Government & The Regions:

Very Entertaining. Had a room full of civil servants laughing within 2 minutes!

Marketing & Development Director, Savannah:

The feedback and discussion generated by the Friday paper was excellent, and I am sure some people will be changing their ideas on how to develop the people in their businesses, and subsequently, how they do things.

Marketing & Commercial Development Manager, Chamber Business Enterprises.:

Very funny, but intelligent and thought provoking at the same time...I've heard him before, and would listen to him again and again.

Managing Director, 3Sixty:

Last night's KPMG event was quite the most remarkable piece of public speaking I have ever been privileged to witness. Not only did you have me in stitches practically the whole way through, your line of argument was coherent and extremely powerful.

European PR Director, McCann-Erickson Europe:

One of the most important roles of conferences such as these, is to inspire people to change. One of your great gifts is doing just that. Following your speech...there was a great will to change, and a belief that change was possible.

Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce:

We received a huge amount of comments on the day as to how fantastic your presentations were. I have also had a quick review of the evaluation forms that we had returned and a number of people had crossed out the top score of 5 and had marked 6 or above. In almost ten years of running this type of event I have never seen this done once, never mind half a dozen times!!!!...I can not thank you enough for the energy that you put in and were very impressed by the way in which you managed to tailor your presentation to each of the separate audiences.

Director of Further Education Development, Association of Colleges:

Your opening address provided exactly that start to the conference we had been looking for, with the subtle interplay of humour, wit and serious professional comment. As you will have appreciated, the audience were delighted with your contribution, and stimulated by the important educational issues you raised, which blended into the further sessions which followed.

Scottish Enterprise Council International Masterclasses:

A thought-provoking and inspirational speaker. I could have listened to him all day! Most interesting and entertaining speaker I have ever heard. Few people can make such interesting presentations without notes and without losing the audience's interests. I loved it!

The J Paul Getty Centre, Los Angeles:

Thank you seems completely insufficient to express our appreciation of your contributions to our conference. Your singular ability to raises important and complex issues in a clear manner, combined with your incredible warmth and humour helped to make the meeting the success that we keep hearing it was.

Ministry of Defence:

You hardly need me to tell you how well you will talk went down. You have that rare gift of being able to draw people along on a current of laughter and than pull them up short with powerful messages about the human condition.

Society of Chief Inspectors and Advisers:

The feedback was so good that nobody scored you less than excellent and many rated your speech as off the scale. It was the most powerful combination of humour and intellectual challenge that I have ever heard and I want to thank you most sincerely for your brilliant contribution to our conference.

West London Alliance:

Thank you again for doing such a magnificent job yesterday. Your lightness of touch and skill at reading an audience kept the whole show on the road from start to finish. It really did mean the difference between a 'worthy' conference and an exciting one.

Secondary Heads Association:

The standing ovation said it all. We were delighted with your humour, your presentation and the very sound philosophy you propounded. Thank you.

Time Magazine:

Superb - serious points delivered in a professional and extremely humorous way.

Theatrical Management Association:

Thank you for your inspiring contribution to our conference. It was clear that your brilliant presentation kicking off the event was a major part of our overall success. We felt privileged to have our conference opened in such an inspiring manner.

The Stage:

Ken Robinson is that rarest of species - a genuinely entertaining and very funny speaker saying something worth listening to.

Oracle EMEA:

Excellent speaker on a subject we should all worry about.

British Airways:

A brilliant speaker. Very funny but absolutely spot on with everything he said.