10 Inspirational Speakers For Your 2021 Kick Off Event

It’s around this time of year we start to field requests from businesses looking for a keynote speaker to motivate and inspire their teams during their January kick off event. These meetings act as a crucial starting point for the business to outline its core aims and objectives, uniting the team to take the same path and push on.

For SME businesses, a kick-off meeting in January 2021 is the perfect way to bring the team together. This could be helping them to understand everyone has an equal, but important, role to play in the success of their business, or using an external speaker to facilitate new ideas that can drive the business forwards.

Meanwhile large businesses, both national and global, face a unique set of complex challenges across every function. This starts with teamwork and culture as white-collar workers continue to work from home, but extends into diversity & inclusion, sustainability, customer service, sales & marketing to name but a few.

Whether it's via a virtual event platform, or an in-person event at a COVID-19 secure venue should local authorities allow gatherings, an inspirational keynote speaker who can lift the spirits, motivate the team and spark the creative juices inside all of us is the perfect way to kick off January 2021. As a start we’ve pulled together a shortlist of 10 inspirational speakers to consider for your January 2021 Kick Off Event.

Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson isn't your ordinary rock star! As the lead singer of Iron Maiden, Bruce would regularly perform in-front of 50,000 screaming fans one night and the next morning negotiating complex leasing agreements with aircraft providers. Bruce is also a commercial pilot, business angel, entrepreneur and creative business thinker, who shares the challenges of operating in the world of rock music and commercial aviation with those in the business world; from teamwork, forward planning and the ability to learn from setbacks and move on successfully. If you're looking for the A-list star who has the business acumen and experience to inspire your team in 2021, Bruce is the speaker for you!

Tara Westover

Tara Westover was born to survivalists in the Idaho mountains, sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills" bag by her side. Tara never saw a doctor or nurse, nor the inside of a classroom until she was seventeen. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society there was no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Seeking an escape Tara began to educate herself and reached the required standard to be admitted to Brigham Young University, studying history and learning about the world for the first time. Tara returned to the family to confront the violence and discovered that by speaking out, she risked losing her place in her own family. Tara's inspirational story and core message is the perfect uplifiting message to welcome in the New Year.

Rohit Talwar

Rohit Talwar is currently advising on how to respond to the COVID-19 disruption, prepare for a range of possible future scenarios, and develop greater resilience and anticipatory capabilities in our lives, our organizations, and our countries. A frequent advisor to leaders in global businesses, government, and NGOs around the world, Rohit speaks to audiences on how to anticipate and respond to disruptive change with his unique 'how to' messages which are full of valuable and practical take-aways.

Rohit leads Fast Future Publishing - delivering a series of multi-contributor books exploring the emerging future. His new book Aftershocks and Opportunities – Scenarios for a Post-Pandemic Future published on June 1st, 2020 draws on contributions from 25 thought leaders around the world to explore the emerging possibilities and risks and the resulting critical actions required to navigate our way out of the current health crisis and economic disruption.

Liselotte Lyngso

Liselotte Lyngso is probably one of the most inspirational and enthusiastic persons you will ever meet. As Managing Partner of the innovation and futurist company Future Navigator, is concerned with how people change their ways of thinking, feeling and acting over time.

We met Liselotte in a virtual meeting back in June, and her ability to paint mental pictures and inspire people to align towards shared goals certainly gave us the wow factor. We were left with a range of possibilities we never knew existed. If you're looking for an inspirational speaker who will captivate your team to consider the unknown, then Liselotte is a perfect choice!

Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson became the best 200m/400m sprinter the world had ever seen during his career. The US athlete won 4 Olympic & 8 World Championships gold medals, and takes the lessons he learned on the track to share with audiences, explaining how to turn defeats and setbacks into successes.

Michael has also founded the Michael Johnson Young Leaders – a programme designed to assist young people who have overcome adversity to achieve a better future for themselves and their communities, and Michael Johnson Performance Training, working with top athletes and successful NFL football players. A well known TV personality via his work covering athletics on BBC, Michael is perfect to show your team how success can be achieved regardless of the circumstances.

Tessa Clarke

It was when moving country on her 2nd maternity leave that Tessa Clarke had the ‘lightbulb’ moment for OLIO. The moving men had told her to throw away all her food, and unwilling to do this, she had set out onto the streets to find someone to share it with, and failed. Thus the idea for OLIO was born – a food sharing app that connects users with food they don’t want or need, with neighbours living nearby who would like it.

As Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO, Tessa has overseen the growth of the app to include over 1 million users, 30,000+ OLIO Ambassadors and 4,000 Food Waste Heroes responsible for sharing over 1.5 millon portions of unused food. With a distinguished career already behind her, including a period at Dyson as their first C-level director responsible for taking the business digital, Tessa is perfect to discuss the entrepreneurial journey, alongside 'tech for good', sustainability and diversity.

Amar Latif

Even though he had lost 95% of his sight by the age of 18, Amar Latif has become an inspiration to millions of people. Best known for his grounbreaking BBC 2 reality series, Beyond Boundaries, and Celebrity Masterchef constestant, Amar founded Traveleyes in 2004, leaving behind the safety blanket of corporate life where he was a successful finance professional, to open the holiday travel industry to millions of blind and partially sighted people around the world, giving them the opportunity to walk with lions in Africa, sail the Ionian Sea and ski down Europe’s highest mountains.

We recently met Amar via a Zoom and he was an inspiration to hear from, sharing his journey with candour and humour. Amar is a wonderful keynote speaker to kick off any company event in 2021, providing an inspiring tale and key business messages wrapped in his personable manner, to help your team meet the challenges the new year will bring.

Katie Piper

Katie Piper was in her early twenties, embarking on a career in modelling and TV presenting with the social life and celebrity status that came with it. However in 2008 a brutal sulphuric acid attack destroyed all the skin on her face, neck and hands, and left her blind in one eye.

Katie spent two years away from the spotlight before speaking about her attack in a Channel 4 documentary 'My Beautiful Face', sharing her story of survival and recovery. Since that moment Katie has become a best-selling best-selling international author, inspirational speaker, TV presenter and charity campaigner who can both share her inspirational story and motivate others with her moving path to recovery.

Tim Peake

Tim Peake was the first British ESA astronaut to visit the International Space Station, where his work during mission Principia captured the hearts and minds of millions, engaging with over 2 million schoolchildren across Europe and delivering a New Year's message to celebrate 2016. Tim even ran the London Marathon from the ISS treadmill becoming the first man to run a marathon in space!

Tim shares his extensive experience as an Army pilot and astronaut, mixed with his receipes for mission success and Peak(e) Performance, to cover topics including leadership, motivation and collaboration. It's this unique blend which allows us to highly recommend Tim as a guest keynote speaker!

Linda Zeilina

Linda Zeilina is the Director of RE-DEFINE, a boutique think tank based in London, where she focuses on ways how to drive transformational change, and how to develop, implement and execute sustainability initiatives.

We met Linda just before lockdown in our London office, and we were blown away by her ability to break down complex demographic and geopolitcal perspectives discussion points to help us think through the challenges we face today. Whether it's a broad overview or deep-dive, Linda is the expert to help your team understand where the direction of change is and how to get there.

For further information or to book a speaker, call us on +44 (0)20 7607 7070 or email  info@speakerscorner.co.uk

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