Speaker Profiles

LIZ CABLE, Managing Director, Reach Further, 15 March 2012 hosted by Reach Further & Weetwood Hall, Leeds

Liz Cable of Reach Further is passionate about helping others realise the benefits of the social web.  In a world where every testimonial or complaint is visible, searchable, and attributable, her firm belief is that “customer service is the new marketing”.  In this practical seminar, Liz will show how companies small and large are using social media to provide responsive, pertinent customer service to their clients, across a variety of social platforms.  She’ll also look at review sites and check-in applications, which provide the real-time search results that online customers rely on, and show how you can use them to reach further online. She’ll also touch on developing a social media policy within the bounds of UK employment law, and how to skill up your staff for this new era of customer service at the speed of light. About Reach Further

JOHN HOTOWKA -  Speaker   Humorist   Magician - 15 March 2012 - LEEDS - hosted by Reach Further & Weetwood Hall
 
Voted 'BEST SPEAKER' at the Professional Speaking Association convention 2011

John Hotowka – AKA The Laughter Dinner Speaker, is an after dinner and business speaker.  He’s a Bradford boy ‘done’ good but don’t hold the fact he comes from Bradford against him.  He cannot count among his achievements winning an Olympic gold medal, or climbing the south face of Mount Everest in a pedalo but he has run a successful one person business all on his lonesome since June 1989.
As he travelled the globe speaking and entertaining at corporate events he experienced the highs and lows of keeping himself motivated and at the top of his game.  But how?  Let’s face it, we all experience difficult times.  There are times when we might think the odds are against us, and insurmountable obstacles stand in the way along with doubt, a possibly even a crisis in confidence and failure; we need inspiration and John offers practical insights to find, keep and grow the strength to flourish. 
Using humour and magic to inspire action John’s presentation highlights the lessons learnt over the past 23 years.

HELEN HAMILTON, Owner of Helen Hamilton

With over 20 years experience in Customer Service, Training and Management, Helen has a passion for helping others learn and apply the best ideas and techniques in order to make service a worthwhile business difference.

She has worked with companies across a wide range of industries to help them reduce their complaint levels through root cause analysis, putting in processes and standards that in some cases have reduced complaint levels by over 50% within a 12 month period.

Now working as an associate for the Academy Of Service Excellence, Helen can deliver a full programme of Service Excellence courses for front line people, supervisors and managers.

Helen is a CIPD qualified trainer and is also experienced in Leadership and Management coaching. She is certified to use Hogan (Leadership psychometric tool) and TEIQue(Emotional Intelligence tool).

ELAINE HANZAK-GOTT, Teacher & Professional Speaker - 15 March 2012 - Leeds hosted by Reach Further & Weetwood Hall

Elaine Hanzak-Gott is a teacher by profession but after suffering from an extreme illness after the birth of her son, she shared her story through her book ‘Eyes without Sparkle – a journey through postnatal illness’ (Radcliffe, 2005). Since then she has spoken at events worldwide, including to the European Parliament and at the prestigious Marce Society conference in both the UK and Australia. She has appeared on national television such as BBC Breakfast and is regularly featured in the media. Elaine is trustee for the Joe (Joanne) Bingley Foundation set up in memory of a new mother who took her own life. As a now renowned ‘Expert by Experience’ she is one of the named Greatvine experts and as a Prima Mother and Baby Magazine consultant. She challenges the stereotypical view that depression is a weakness and offers suggestions to us all to promote positive mental health.

Through her speaking career, she met fellow inspirational speaker Clive Gott and they had aimed to become the ‘Posh and Becks’ of the speaking world! Their romance and relationship is now being read worldwide by thousands through Elaine’s blog as Clive suddenly died from a heart attack in February 2011 at the age of 52. Now determined to survive bereavement with a smile on her face, Elaine recognises and shares with others techniques that can help us all through any challenges we face in life.

Although she hasn’t been dealt the sexiest of topics Elaine delivers from the heart, with an amazing openness and with humour and passion which aims not to provoke sympathy but an air of inspiration for us all to play a part in improving our own lives and those around us.
www.hanzak.com

STEPHEN ORME, Customer Services Director – bpi.recycled products - 23 May 2012 - Bognor Regis, hosted by Butlins

After completing a degree in Economics at the University of Warwick, Stephen trained as a Management Accountant whilst working for Lyons Maid Ice Cream; at Lyons Maid he occupied a variety of finance roles, eventually rising to the position of Company Management Accountant supervising a number of teams involved in the analysis of manufacturing, sales and marketing performance.
Following a reorganisation of the business after it’s acquisition by Nestle in 1992 Stephen took his first step away from accounting, joining Sidlaw Packaging – HPC as Commercial Manager. Three years later this business was acquired by British Polythene Industries (BPI), Europe’s largest producer of Polythene Film.
Despite his stated intent at the time of this acquisition, ‘to look at options in all areas of the business bar sales’, he subsequently accepted the position of Sales Director for one of their operating businesses. After the rebranding of a number of smaller businesses as bpi.recycled products he then went on to assume a divisional Sales Director’s role with responsibility for all Public Sector activities.
When the refuse sack and construction film manufacturing divisions of BPI were combined in early 2008 he accepted the role of Customer Services Director for the enlarged business.
During his time in this position Stephen has overseen a transformation in the approach to Customer Service putting it at the centre of business thinking whilst focusing clearly on the costs of delivering such a service. On the back of these changes delivery performance has improved significantly, the number of complaints reduced and processing times improved; at the same savings in staffing costs have been achieved and more importantly these service levels improvements have been made against a background of a reduction in stock levels of more than a third.
Stephen clearly recognises however, that in the current economic climate customer demands and expectations are increasing all the time and that the real battle for BPI to maintain first class customer service levels is only just beginning. 

LYNNE COPP, Dip. In Business and Life Coaching, The Worklife Company - 23 May 2012 - Bognor Regis, hosted by Butlins

Lynne Copp (Dip. In Business and Life Coaching, NLP Practitioner & Certificate in Advanced Personal Development, Certificate in Counselling, member of the Association for Coaching, ILM, International Coaching Federation, UKCPD, Professional Speakers Association and Chartered Fellow of CIPD)

Business Leader: 12 years experience as Managing Director of Creative Training & Communication Limited and The Worklife Company. Worked with the Private, Public & Not-for-Profit sectors, including organisations like Ernst & Young, Google, Philips, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Birmingham City Council, the Police and the Armed Forces. She has recently launched Lipstick Leadership™, a research programme aimed at modelling excellence in female leadership. She will be publishing results later in 2011.

Developer of People: Over 25 years experience in learning & development.Coach, mentor, facilitator and development expert who works one-to-one and one-to-many. Qualified coach and counsellor, currently studying final year of Masters in Coaching. Extensive coaching & training experience at senior levels. Designed and developed L&D strategies and frameworks linked to business direction. Over 20 years experience in Leadership, Management and Employee training & development. Fully embraces a strengths-based approach to leadership development. Is empowering, creative and innovative in her approach to learning approaches. Strategic talent management experience across wide range of industries; linking development with business strategy and change.

Communicator: Well regarded and highly acclaimed Public Speaker and presenter. Regularly sought after to speak at business conferences
delivering keynote presentations on the future of work, worklife balance, women in leadership and culture change. Motivational and engaging communicator, who understands and inspires change at all levels. Appeared on TV and Radio and writes extensively for many publications, published ‘I’m glad I spent more Time at Work’ and about to publish ‘Dancing Round the Handbags’. Member of the ILM, AC (Association of Coaches) and ICF (International Coaching Federation), Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and member of the ICS (Institute of Customer Service).

Customer Focused: Passionate about creating excellent customer service through future-proofed leadership practices that respect customer uniqueness, employee diversity and business needs.

People Focused: Consultative and democratic leader who is behavioural, rewarding, developing, fun and respectful. Values difference and creating inclusion and dignity at work; she believes that leaders get the culture they behave, therefore leads with authenticity and by example. Passionate about creating the best working environment where people deliver to the best of their ability & service to clients because they are empowered, motivated, well trained, rewarded and inspired by their work and their contribution to the overall vision.

Values: Integrity, authenticity, respect and dignity. “Lynne, thank you for speaking at our International Conference. You are an
outstanding speaker; not only inspirational but with pragmatic messages that fit business trends and issues! Lynne, you were the highest scoring speaker at the conference again!” CEO, The Institute of Customer Service from the desk of LYNNE COPP. www.theworklifecompany.com

LIAM O'CONNELL, Business and culture change consultant, motivational speaker executive coach, author - 23 May 2012 - Bognor Regis, Hosted by Butlins

Liam O’Connell has over 25 years’ experience in business and culture change, inspiring people to create great organisations and deliver fantastic customer service.

He has implemented culture change programmes for many businesses, large and small
These initiatives have led to direct positive increase in customer satisfaction, employee motivation and business performance.

Liam has spoken to thousands of people and organisations, including the Institutes of Housing,
Customer Service, Sales & Marketing Management, Imperial College London and Cancer Research. UK.

He has created successful internal cultural brands and inspirational change events for business throughout the UK.

Liam is also an internationally published author of three successful books – ‘Don’t feed the ducks... Inspire your people’, ‘My fire’s gone out!’ and “The Fire Philosophy” – has won a prestigious national training award and writes regularly for business publications.

Just as importantly, Liam is real. He has worked on the customer service front line – he does achieve amazing results and he doesn’t just talk about positive business change... he makes it happen.

He can make a huge impact on your business culture and help you delight your customers.

www.liamoconnell.co.uk

RICHARD NEWMAN, Director & Advanced Body Language Specialist, UK Body Talk Ltd - 12 December 2012 - LONDON

Richard has worked with advanced communication techniques since 1995, training over 13,000 people from 45 countries. He will boost your success in business, with advanced sales, negotiation and presentation skills.

Clients include the McLaren Formula 1 Team, FTSE 100 Companies such as Barclays and BT, the UK Parliament and international celebrities.

His expertise has been featured on BBC Radio, SKY TV (a 15-minute special on how to read people), Channel 5 News, in More magazine, Esquire magazine, The Daily Express, The Daily Telegraph website and a special feature in the prestigious American edition of Forbes Magazine.

He has also been featured as a body language expert on radio in Washington DC, correctly predicting the results of the 2008 American Presidential elections, 15 months before the voting took place.

You can find out more at www.ukbodytalk.com

EMERITUS PROFESSOR MALCOLM H.B. MCDONALD MA(Oxon), MSc, PhD, D.Litt. FCIM FRSA - 12 December 2012 - LONDON

Until 2003, Malcolm was Professor of Marketing and Deputy Director of Cranfield University School of Management, with special responsibility for E-Business. He is a graduate in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, in Business Studies from Bradford University Management Centre, and has a PhD from Cranfield University. He also has a Doctorate from Bradford University. He has extensive industrial experience, including a number of years as Marketing Director of Canada Dry.He is Chairman of Brand Finance plc and five small companies, but also spends much of his time working with the operating boards of the world’s biggest multinational companies, such as IBM, Xerox, BP and the like, in most countries in the world, including Japan, USA, Europe, South America, ASEAN and Australasia.He has written forty three books, including the best seller "Marketing Plans; how to prepare them; how to use them" and many of his papers have been published.Apart from market segmentation, his current interests centre around the measurement of the financial impact of marketing expenditure and global best practice key account management.He is an Emeritus Professor at Cranfield and a Visiting Professor at Henley, Warwick, Aston and Bradford Business SchoolsEmail m.mcdonald@cranfield.ac.uk

PREVIOUS EVENTS

LESLEY EVERETT, Creator and Managing Director of Walking Tall - 7 December - Dominion Theatre, London

Lesley Everett is an internationally acclaimed professional keynote speaker and expert on personal branding and executive presence. She has presented her Walking TALL Methodology in 17 countries to date. She is a regular contributor to UK and US media, is a published author of 2 books and sought-after media personality/expert. Her clients include several FTSE 100 companies as well as The United Nations, Bank of America and GE Capital.

EILIDH MILNES, Conference Speaker, Writer & Coach - 7 December - Dominion Theatre, London

Eilidh Milnes is known as ‘Captain Positive!’ As a communications consultant, she has worked with clients on 3 continents. She is an international keynote speaker turned columnist and author. Eilidh is a highly sought after confidence coach working with people from Aberdeen to Adelaide. In the recent years, she has spoken to over 20,000 delegates in UK alone. She has just been invited by Morgan Stanley to join the steering group, “Women on the Wharf Steering Committee.”
For more than 20 years, she has been helping businesses convey strategic messages to their employees. Many have seen dramatic improvements as a result of Eilidh’s interventions, but culture change can take time and the benefits of a one-off campaign or keynote speech can be short-lived. Eilidh has developed a series of programmes, “Common Sense Communication,” for both individuals and organisations to tackle key behaviours at all levels.
Eilidh is married with two children. Her head office is in Cheshire, UK. 

GUY STEPHENS, Senior Consultant, Foviance - 7 December - Dominion Theatre, London

Guy is a social customer care consultant exploring how social is changing the way we work and communicate with each other. He is a senior consultant at Foviance, where he is helping organisations deliver customer service through social media and understand the impact social is having on the customer contact. He was previously the Customer Knowledge Manager at The Carphone Warehouse, where he was responsible for establishing their use of social media to provide customer service, alongside the traditional customer service channels.Guy has worked in the digital space for over twelve years, and is generally recognised as a thought leader for the work he has within the social customer care space. He is a founder of a LinkedIn group - where social media meets customer service, is a regular contributor to publications, conference speaker, member of the Founding Council for BestServiceOne.com, instructor for Econsultancy's digital marketing master's programme and WOMMA's social customer care certification programme. He is an avid Tweeter (@guy1067) and blogs on http://beingguy1067.wordpress.com

KARL JAMES, Conversation Expert and Director, The Dialogue Project - 13 October - Bracknell, hosted by Waitrose

As director and founder of The Dialogue Project, most of Karl’s time is spent helping people have conversations when the stakes are high. He’s widely recognised as the UK’s leading practitioner in the field of dialogue and his clients include No. 10, Unilever, Tesco Bank, TBWA, M&C Saatchi and most recently Pizza Express, where he’s been embedding customer focused conversations into the culture of the organisation from the Boardroom to restaurant floor.

Founded by Karl in 2001, The Dialogue Project has a reputation for enabling powerful and productive conversations when the stakes are high and his expertise lies in bringing together people with different points of view to help them co-create new ideas, understanding and solutions. The Dialogue Project works extensively with senior individuals in large-scale businesses large and small, facilitating, training and advising on making dialogue a tangible, practical and more productive way of putting high quality interpersonal communication at the heart of business culture. Karl’s first book is due to be published early in 2012.
Twitter: @2plus2makes5 Website: www.thedialogueproject.com Blog: www.understandingdifference.blogspot.com

JAMIE LYWOOD, Director, Compathy Limited - 13 October - Bracknell hosted by Waitrose

Throughout his career Jamie Lywood has displayed one very obvious and distinctive desire - that is to search out alternative solutions to age old problems.
During his five years in the Army he says ‘I found that my soldiers followed me not so much because of my leadership skills but more out of simple curiosity'. Jamie rarely does things the ‘normal’ way and, during his early career enjoyed success in the art world with a company whose motto was ‘no pre-conceived ideas' and displayed only blank canvasses on its walls!
In 1994, he joined Harding & Yorke - then a fledgling company with an idea that many current measures adopted by businesses were, at best, irrelevant and, at worst, irresponsible. Over the 17 years much of it spent as Managing Director and CEO of the business, he launched new initiatives including the consultancy and benchmarking services - all dealing with the measurement and development of Empathy in the corporate environment. Jamie has worked with over 100 companies from almost every sector and continues to act as an advisor to both the public and private sectors.
In early 2008, the data and findings from the Empathy Benchmarking™ Programme were declared as the world’s first service-related metric to directly correlate with profit and is now being expanded throughout the world through a series of licensees managed and supported by Jamie’s new company ‘Compathy Limited’.
Jamie now spends much of his time travelling the world promoting empathy and storytelling on behalf of Licensees and, in his spare time, enjoys ‘fair-weather’ flying helicopters in his native Shropshire and over the Welsh mountains and is in the process of finishing his first book which is due out early in 2012.

RICHARD BEEVERS, Director, Customer Plus - 13 October - Bracknell, hosted by Waitrose

Richard Beevers is the award winning founder of Customer Plus. Richard is one of the UK’s leading consultants and speakers on customer excellence, marketing and leadership advising household names such as Ford, Greene King and Rentokil. Previously Richard was Marketing & HR Director of Capita Symonds, the UK’s fastest growing property and engineering consultancy, with 3,500 people and annual revenues of £300m. Richard is the author of the Investors in People Handbook and Customer Service Excellence in the Public Sector. He is a visiting lecturer in Marketing at Nottingham Business School.

DEAN VAN LEEUWEN, Co-founder of TomorrowToday - 10 November, London, hosted by British Council

Dean is an intellectual adventurer, customer experience alchemist and scholar of the new world of work. He has an insatiable appetite for discovering how businesses can reinvent themselves, become more successful and increasingly contribute to society. His real gift is an ability to take complex information and present ideas in creative ways that makes them practical and palatable. He is a co-founder of TomorrowToday International and a sought after speaker and consultant. Dean's work experience includes 17 years in marketing, innovation and customer strategy departments for leading financial services companies and a big four consulting company. In 2003, Dean did something typical of someone from his generation (Dean is a Generation Xer), he went off in search of a new adventure. He bought an around the world plane ticket and volunteered as an underwater photographer for a team researching Minke whales off the Great Barrier Reef and later undertook the gruelling task of cycling around Madagascar raising money for charity. Dean now lives in leafy village of Barnes, London.
email: dean@tomorrowtoday.uk.com

MARK BRADLEY, Writer & Consultant, The Fan Experience Company - 10 November, London, hosted by British Council

Writer and consultant Mark Bradley will trace the impact of his work in football from 2006 to the present and how the experiences of ‘new fans’ have become a catalyst for change, growth and innovation, as well as a major lesson for any business sincere about developing real customer advocacy.

SALLY EARNSHAW, Client Services Director - Sales and Service, Blue Sky Performance Solutions - 10 November, London, hosted by British Council

Sally has over 20 years experience building, managing and leading teams to deliver exceptional customer service and sales results. Her passion for unlocking potential in people led her to the arena of learning and development, where she has held a number of senior positions developing and executing learning strategies across a number of corporate markets.At Blue Sky Sally’s role is to ensure the delivery of exceptional and inspiring solutions that add measurable value to clients through significantly impacting on the way people think, behave and perform. Her infectious optimism and energy makes her an inspiration to her clients and those who work with her. Sally combines leadership, creativity and many years of practical experience in customer management to create highly engaging, challenging and pragmatic learning solutions for companies including British Gas, Research Council, HSBC, Everything Everywhere, Royal Mail, Nationwide and Barclays.Sally’s Core Skills:

• Leadership and Performance Management
• Management Development Solutions
• Coaching and Mentoring
• NLP Practitioner
• Sales and Service Learning and Development Solutions
• Contact Centre Operational Management and Consultancy
• Cultural and Behavioural Change 

DARREN NORFOLK, Director, Rackspace Ltd - 22 September, Hayes, hosted by Rackspace

Darren joined Rackspace in 2006 and brought with him a range of strongly developed skills within Finance, Operations, Leadership and has a track record of transforming ailing teams and businesses into successful and prosperous enterprises. Darren is passionate about creating an engaging team environment where people are nurtured and their talents maximised.

As Director of Support Darren is responsible for over 5000 customers and revenue growth within the Enterprise and SMB markets. In addition to this he is also key member of the Executive Leadership Team. Darren believes firmly in creating engaged customers through deep and meaningful relationships and empowers his team to deliver service in a creative and entrepreneurial manner.
 

GEOFF LANGSTON, Managing Director, Arizion Ltd - 22 September, Hayes, hosted by Rackspace

Geoff Langston is the Managing Director of Arizion, a training and development company specialising in supporting organisations to deliver excellent customer service. Their approach is to develop leaders, managers, teams and individuals through tailored programmes that are designed to change and embed positive behaviours and attitudes.

Geoff is a member of the Customer Service Trainers Association, the Institute of Customer Service, a published author of numerous articles on customer service, a qualified coach, mentor, and an MBTI Step 1/  Step 2 Practitioner. He is also an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner, hypnotherapist and an Assessor for Investors in People. www.arizion.co.uk  

DALE SMITH, Managing Director, Bridge Training & Events - 22 September - Hayes, hosted by Rackspace

Born and formally educated in Canada, Dale Smith has been an active member of the business community in the UK for the past 15 years. He began his business learning with event companies such as IIR, Marketing Week / Centaur Publishing and was Director of Seminars for Euromoney Publishing. He later turned his keen interest to behavioural science and training.

He formed Bridge Training Events in 2005 after an extensive career in working with many organisations in both the UK and abroad, including GM, Royal Bank of Scotland, Cancer Research, MBNA, Bank of Tokyo, Lombard, Parcelforce, Abbot Pharmaceuticals, Natwest, Vodafone, National Grid, Scottish Water and Orange.

Dale created Bridge because he wants to make a positive difference in business. He knows that the Bridge thinking behind its courses in Customers Service, Sales, Contact Centres and Brand can truly inspire course delegates. His keen interest lies in behavioural science, branding and ensuring that customer service is met from all tiers within an organisation.
He is passionate about enriching the lives of business people and improving the customer service excellence with each organisation he works with. www.insidebridge.com

TIM ROBSON, Trainer and Life Coach, Coracle Learning - 22 September, Hayes, hosted by Rackspace

Coracle Learning is a creative development company specialising in engagement programmes that integrate brand, sales and customer service.  Since launching in 2008, Coracle has supported clients from a range of sectors including Marks & Spencer, HSBC, Nuffield Health and The British Heart Foundation.
Tim's operational background includes time leading Service Design for M&S, Service Change & Contact Centres for HBOS and UK Business Improvement for Prudential. www.coraclelearning.com

David started his career at Waitrose in 1990 as a weekend assistant in Andover, pushing trollies on a Friday night, whilst studying A'levels. He joined the A'Level training programme and progressed through all roles gaining appointments as Section Manager in all areas of the branch.
After an 18 month period in Waitrose Training he left the business for 18 months to work self employed in IT, completing a number of Microsoft qualifications to become a Microsoft Certified Professional.
A return to Waitrose as Department Manager in 2001 saw David move around numerous branches before gaining his first Branch Manager appointment in Hall Green in 2005, before opening our first shop in Scotland in Edinburgh in 2006.
Recently David has worked on the Small Town Format project in Store Development and introduced Waitrose.com into Central London before taking up his current role as Branch Manager in Cirencester"