Nigel Barlow

Conference Facilitators
Conference Speakers

Topics:

Business
Leadership
Motivation & Teamwork
Sales/Customer Service
Technology & Futurology

Nigel Barlow is one of the world’s most dynamic and innovative business speakers. His unique gift is to convey vital messages with humour, insight and passion. As one client remarked, Nigel invokes an alchemy of change in his audience.

Nigel Barlow's Background

An Oxford educated barrister, he has run his own enterprises for over 20 years. In the 1980s he was a founding director of the European Tom Peters Company. He has worked on every continent with groups as diverse as Korean engineers, Swedish bankers, American beer retailers, British civil servants and Irish oilmen. Working with multicultural groups is something he does particularly well.

Nigel inspires self-belief, provokes creative insight, and challenges mindsets. Innovation, Creative Change, Leadership, Legendary Customer service and Shaping the Future are the themes most sought after by clients.

What makes Nigel Barlow events so successful …

Enthusiasm and energy

‘Nigel Barlow’s energy and enthusiasm are quite simply astonishing. He manages to capture the attention of an audience and sustain their interest for long periods whilst at the same time getting to the heart of the business issue. Not only is Nigel a gifted speaker, he works bloody hard at what he does too! I can ’t recommend him highly enough!’
Director, Lexus GB

Fun and preparation

‘How absolutely delighted we were with your presentation. Everyone found it stimulating, thought-provoking, relevant, informative, and fun ! Your pre-conference background work showed throughout – you were very impressive. I can’t thank you enough for helping to make our conference a huge success .
conference organizer, Merck Generics UK

Fresh thinking and substance

‘Many thanks for your presentation yesterday. The feedback has been fantastic. Your vibrancy, challenge of mindsets and use of real life examples really brought the whole topic to life for them.’
Change Project Manager, Trinity Mirror Regional

Inspiration and innovation

‘Great shared knowledge. Fantastic ideas. Nigel is an innovative and uplifting facilitator who generated much discussion and deep thinking which has and is still having an impact on our organization.’
Manager, Global Sales Capability, Eli Lilly

Conference speaking

Nigel Barlow’s inspirational keynote presentations are typically used at conferences, briefings, launches or customer events to:

Kick-start the session
Enliven it
Complement your themes with an external view
Close with an uplifting message

The Guru Has Left The Building …

Have you experienced speakers who come and go having said their piece with little or no connection to your business messages? Nigel is passionate about tailoring his inputs to the tone, content, and real aims of your conference …

‘A big personal thank you for your contribution to my half-year event. You managed to set exactly the right tone and linked in with the themes that I was pushing. I have had a number of comments back about how well integrated it was (as well as being inspirational).’
Director, BT Retail

He is often involved in the planning of an event, and as well as keynotes gives split presentations – shorter, dynamic inputs on, for example, Mindset, Living the Change, Customers – that reinforce the themes put over by your in-house speakers.High energy, interaction and excitement are the hallmarks of his sessions. He’s even foolhardy enough to favour the after lunch spot.

Coaching team events

Does your team – board, functional, cross-functional, or project-based – need to:

Deliver projects more creatively – and faster
Appreciate mutual strengths
Develop greater trust
Stand back and see the bigger picture
Experience a different kind of away-day?

These are exactly the experiences teams have on Nigel Barlow’s off-site events, which combine learning and insight with decision-making on pressing business issues. The events focus on getting the team to gell and spark as well as deliver hard targets.

He gets to know you, your people and business and then works in a ‘hands on, minds on’ way in a variety of roles: Coach, facilitator, Presenter, Consultant. A step change in performance often results.

‘Nigel’s sessions for Frigoscandia’s directors and senior executives are an experience never to be forgotten. We recommend him highly.’
Managing Director, Frigoscandia

Chairing and facilitating

Does your next conference or meeting need Chairing or Facilitating by someone gifted at compèring other speakers and delivering a powerful message that supports your theme? Nigel Barlow has many years of international experience in bringing events to
life. He’s a world-class facilitator who draws the best out of your home - grown speakers as well as delivering knock-theirsocks-off inputs himself. He’s also skilled at facilitating group work, even with several hundred delegates.

‘Nigel played a key rôle in our Lisbon conference – he kept the red thread through all the presentations, helping us give a coherent message. His lively links between presenters kept a high level of attention in the audience – not always easy in a big conference. A major benefit compared to other moderators was his ability, in a structured but lighthearted way, to add his management learnings from many companies to our message.’
President and CEO, SKF

He can also coach your speakers to ensure there is a coherence of message and style. In his facilitator role, he adds the creative spark, banishes narcolepsy, and plays devil’s advocate when necessary. His particular skill is to ensure that messages are received, understood and translated into action. The human brain fills easily – most presenters forget this.

Speaking Topics

Re-think: How To Think Differently
Mind Set - Mind Free
Why Attitudes Make Or Break Organizations
Winning Ways – Learning From Others How To Choose Success
Shaping The Future – How Creative Storytelling Can Transform Your Life And Business
Creating Legendary Customer Experiences – How To Become Famous For Service Legends
Fanatical About Talent – The All-time Top Seven Of People Development
What Innovation Really Means – A New Language For Business Creativity
Business Rocks – What’s Your Real Company Song?

Clients include:

AGA, Agilent Technologies, Anheuser-Busch, Barclays, BBC, BP, BT, Cabinet Office, Carnegie, Clifford Chance, Eli Lilly, Ericsson, First Choice, GKN, ICI Paints, John Lewis Partnership, J P Morgan, Lexus, Lloyds TSB, L’ Oreál, Merck Generics, Nestlé, Rockwool, J Sainsbury, SAP, S-E-B, Shell, SKF, Trinity Mirror, Unilever.

He has spoken around the world including Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Seoul, Sydney, London, Boston and Johannesburg

Nigel's best selling books

Batteries Included! – Cre a t i n g Legendary Customer Service (Random House) is Nigel’s ground-breaking book on Creativity, Change and Customers. Tom Peters says of it, ‘Nigel Barlow’s book is simply brilliant! Is there anything left to say about superior customer service? The answer is obviously a resounding yes. This book proves it!’

In 200 Nigel released his second best selling book 'Rethink - How to Think Differently'

Testimonials

‘You were the star of the show.’
Conference Manager, Carlsberg Senior Executive Event

‘I just wanted to say thank you again for doing such a great job for us yesterday. You covered the topic in a way which was engaging and thought-provoking whilst at the same time being real fun.’
Managing Partner, Lovells International Partners’ Conference

‘THANK YOU once again for flying across the pond to Indianapolis and challenging our marketers to think differently. Many of the marketers came up to me to express their positive feedback. We could not have had the impact without you getting everyone going at the beginning of the week.’
Director, Lilly Marketing Institute, Lilly USA Marketing Conference

‘A perfect job. You picked everyone up at the end of a long day at Cannes and left them thoroughly inspired. Thank you!’
Executive Client Services Director, Grey International, Grey International Advertising Agency

"We have now used Nigel two times over the last year at large team events for my Team HR. Both times Nigel was the highlight of the conference and received enormously high scores form participants. He took the time to work closely with me to tailor his presentation, and it showed! I would whole-heartedly recommend Nigel to anyone. "
Head of Team HR, Nestle UK Conferences

‘Thank you for your excellent presentation during our recent Amer Sports Management Meeting in Helsinki. Your mix of humor and hard facts kept our people focused throughout your presentation and really provided the launching pad for an excellent meeting.’
Senior Vice President, Communications, Amer Sports Management Meeting