Professional Speakers

Meeting and event planning publications contain helpful information for planning your next meeting, conference, or event. Check out these resources below and call us for the best service in helping to hire a speaker or entertainment for your next meeting or event.

1.) Meetings Net – http://meetingsnet.com/
Meetings Net is the meeting industry’s portal for information and resources related to planning meetings and events.
2.) Meetings & Conventions Magazine – http://www.meetings-conventions.com/
Meetings & Conventions magazine helps meeting and event planners in corporations, associations, incentive houses and independent planning companies excel at their jobs and effectively manage their careers.
3.) BizBash Magazine – http://www.bizbash.com
BizBash is the where professional event planners turn when looking for the news, ideas, and inspiration they need to grow their business, and excel at their craft.
4.) Trade Show News Network (TSNN) – http://www.tsnn.com/
The Trade Show News Network (TSNN) is the world’s leading online resource for the trade show, exhibition and event industry
5.) Event Marketer Magazine – http://www.eventmarketer.com/
Meeting the information needs of strategic brand-side event marketers and agency executives across the spectrum of face-to-face marketing–including mobile marketing, mall marketing, street events, trade shows, corporate events, proprietary events, virtual events, buzz marketing, p.r. campaigns, sponsorships, business-to-business events and press events
6.) Exhibitor Online – http://www.exhibitoronline.com/
Exhibitor Online is the resource for trade show and corporate event marketers.
7.) Special Events Magazine – http://specialevents.com/
The International Resource for special event designers, producers and suppliers.
8.) Event Solutions – http://www.event-solutions.com/
Event Solutions magazine is the news leader for the events industry around the world.
9.) EXPO Magazine – http://www.expoweb.com/
EXPO is published 10 times a year and includes sales and marketing focused features about destinations, case studies and revenue-generating ideas , as well as coverage of new products and services for its audience: show organizers and their managers.
10.) Successful Meetings -http://www.successfulmeetings.com/
A complete online source for news and information for the meeting, convention, incentive and trade show professionals
11.) Smart Meetings – http://www.smartmeetings.com/
Smart Meetings is the Web’s leading free resource for event and meeting planning professionals.
12.) Business Travel News – http://www.businesstraveller.com/
The latest business travel news, including hotel reviews, destination information, airline reports and the latest travel discount offers

There is no doubt that hiring an event planner can help save time, money and a lot of stress when planning any type of meeting, party or event. We want to help event planners in any way that we can and we want them to know that we can help with one aspect of their planning that we specialize in. Let us help find the perfect speaker or entertainment for any event; we have been doing it for over 25 years. After you call Brooks International to help with this aspect of your event you can consider it done and cross it off your list, we will take care of all the logistics.
As far as the rest of the details… here is a list of resources that may help but please feel free to call us for anything, we are happy to help.

1) American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) – http://www.asaecenter.org/
ASAE is a membership organization that represents more than 21,000 association executives and industry partners representing 10,000 organizations.
2) International Association of Speakers Bureaus (IASB)- http://www.iasbweb.org/
The International Association of Speakers Bureaus (IASB) is a 501c6 nonprofit trade organization representing speakers bureaus and agencies worldwide.
3) GCG Event Partners – http://gcgeventpartners.com/
GCG Event Partners is a network of over 1000 independent event planning industry professionals spanning the United States.
4) Convention Industry Council(CIC) – http://www.conventionindustry.org/index.aspx
The Convention Industry Council’s 31 member organizations represent over 103,500 individuals and 19,500 firms and properties involved in the meetings, conventions, and exhibitions industry.
5) Meeting Professionals International (MPI) – http://www.mpiweb.org/Home
MPI is a strong and diverse community of meeting and business event professionals, providing content, research and business connections enhancing the performance of its members.
6) International Association of Conference Centers (IACC) – http://www.iacconline.org/
IACC is the global home for IACC approved conference centers. Corporate meeting planners, event organizers, and businesses select IACC meeting venues for corporate training sessions, sales meetings etc.
7) Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) – http://www.pcma.org/
PCMA is a leading organization for meeting and event professionals. It is the multi-channel professional resource and premier educator for leaders in the meetings, conventions, events and trade show industries.
8 )International Special Events Society (IFEA)- http://www.ifea.com/
International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) today is The Premiere Association Supporting and Enabling Festival & Event Professionals Worldwide.
9) Society of Government Meeting Professionals (SGMP)- http://www.sgmp.org/
SGMP is a national association for individuals involved in planning government meetings and for the companies who provide facilities or services to those planners.
10) National Speakers Association (NSA) – http://www.nsaspeaker.org/
NSA is a premier organization for professional speakers. It provides the most comprehensive resources and education designed to advance the skills, integrity and value of its members and the speaking profession.

Think about the last event that you attended that had a keynote speaker. Do you remember the food, the décor, the theme… the speaker? Some of the seemingly important details of an event might not have much staying power in the minds of the attendees. The keynote speaker, however, is usually not forgotten… especially if he or she was really good. The take home message from your speaker is something that you want your attendees to remember long after they get home. The best way to ensure this is to make sure that you get a speaker that is the best fit for the whole event, a speaker that customizes their presentation and a speaker that will captivate the audience.

If you want to be sure to hire the best speaker for your unique and important event you should call us to help. We can match the perfect speaker with your audience and make sure that they don’t soon forget the message.

Carly Fiorina has an ability to explain complicated business and political concepts with ease and influence. Her credibility has been largely earned by her impressive background and is strengthened by her calm, rational and insightful style of presentation. Carly’s eminent biography is sure to have her upcoming audience of 700 executives, directors and managers of local, regional and national corporations excited and ready to absorb all that they hear.

The event that Carly is scheduled to speak at in March is an Annual Growth Conference that is focusing on helping middle-market companies achieve growth in the face of an ever changing and challenging marketplace.

Carly Fiorina worked her way through undergraduate and graduate school and began her business career as a secretary for a small business. She became the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, serving as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005. She was named Fortune’s Most powerful Woman in Business for six consecutive years.

During her tenure at HP, Carly led the reinvention of this legendary company, tripling its rate of innovation, achieving market leadership, transforming its cost structure and accelerating growth. Despite controversy and opposition, she successfully acquired and integrated Compaq Computer, in what is now seen as the most successful high-tech merger in history. Under her leadership, HP doubled in revenues to $88 Billion and generated 11 patents a day, with significantly improved profitability and cash flow. HP became a leader in every product category and market segment in which it competed.

Carly is politically active. In her own first-time candidacy, she ran against four-term Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer in California in 2010. She currently serves as the Vice-Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She served as Republican Victory Chair for John McCain’s presidential run.

Carly is one of the most recognized business leaders in the world and an opinion leader who champions innovation, competitiveness and job creation. She also is actively engaged in policy formulation and philanthropy. Among her many activities, she serves on the Advisory Board of the Foundation for Health Coverage Education. She is a Co-Chair of the US Leadership in Development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as well as on the Leadership Council of the Initiative for Global Development. She is a founding supporter of the African Leadership Academy and a founder of the One Woman Initiative. She has also served on the Defense Business Board, as the Chairman of the CIA’s External Advisory Board and on the Advisory Group for Transformational Diplomacy for the Department of State. She has been a member of the Boards of Kellogg Company, Cisco Systems, Merck and Taiwan Semiconductor. She is a cancer survivor who openly tells her story, acting as a Global Envoy for Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG organization.

Carly earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, an MBA from the University of Maryland and a Masters of Science in Business from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She and her husband Frank live in Virginia and California. They have a daughter and two granddaughters.

When planning an annual event do you find it hard to come up with a new and creative idea- each and every year? Want to try something different this year? Need some fresh ideas instead of the standard keynote address at your meeting and you also want it to have substance? That isn’t too much to ask- we can help!

When you plan “the same event” year after year but you don’t want it to seem like “the same old event” every year, it can be hard to think outside the box. If you want to try something new, we can help with many different ideas that will leave your audience engaged, entertained and educated.

Maybe you know that you want something different but you have no idea what you want. That’s not a problem. We can give you suggestions and work together to find the perfect fit for your unique event.

Pat Conroy will speak at a campus lecture series in February and the audience is sure to be mesmerized by his use of words and stories. Pat Conroy has been called a “Master of Language” and is often praised and honored for his beautiful narratives and compelling characters. The audience of more than 600 college students will likely be able to hear a pin drop during Pat Conroy’s speech.

Pat Conroy was born on October 26, 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia, to a young career military officer from Chicago and a Southern beauty from Alabama, whom Pat often credits for his love of language. He was the first of seven children.

His father was a violent and abusive man, a man whose biggest mistake, Conroy once said, was allowing a novelist to grow up in his home. Since his family had to move many times to different military bases around the South, Conroy changed schools frequently, finally attending the Citadel Military Academy in Charleston, South Carolina, upon his father’s insistence. While still a student, he wrote and then published his first book, The Boo, a tribute to a beloved teacher.

After graduation, Conroy taught English in Beaufort, where he met and married a young woman with two children, a widow of the Vietnam War. He then accepted a job teaching underprivileged children in a one-room schoolhouse on Daufuskie Island off the South Carolina shore. After a year, Conroy was fired for his unconventional teaching practices – such as his refusal to allow corporal punishment of his students – and for his personal differences with the school’s administration. Conroy evened the score by exposing the racism and appalling conditions his students endured with the publication of The Water is Wide in 1972. The book won Conroy a humanitarian award from the National Education Association and was made into the feature film Conrack, starring Jon Voight.

Following the birth of a daughter, the Conroys moved to Atlanta, where Pat wrote his novel, The Great Santini, published in 1976. This autobiographical work, later made into a film starring Robert Duvall, explored the conflicts of the author’s childhood, particularly his ambivalent love for an abusive and often dangerous father.

The publication of a book that so painfully exposed his family’s secret brought Conroy a period of tremendous personal desolation. This crisis resulted not only in his divorce, but the divorce of his parents; his mother presented a copy of The Great Santini to the judge as “evidence” in divorce proceedings against his father.

The Citadel became the subject of his next novel, The Lords of Discipline, published in 1980. The novel exposed the school’s harsh military discipline, racism, and sexism. This book, too, was made into a feature film.

Conroy remarried and moved from Atlanta to Rome, where he began The Prince of Tides, which, when published in 1986, became his most successful book. Reviewers immediately acknowledged Conroy as a master storyteller and a poetic and gifted prose stylist. This novel has become one of the most beloved novels of modern time; with over five million copies in print, it has earned Conroy an international reputation. The Prince of Tides was made into a highly successful feature film directed by and starring Barbra Streisand, as well as actor Nick Nolte, whose brilliant performance won him an Oscar nomination.

Beach Music (1995), Conroy’s sixth book, was the story of Jack McCall, an American who moves to Rome to escape the trauma and painful memory of his young wife’s suicidal leap off a bridge in South Carolina. This book, too, has been a tremendous international bestseller.

While Conroy was on tour for Beach Music, members of his Citadel basketball team began appearing, one by one, at his book signings around the country. When his then-wife served him divorce papers while he was still on the road, Conroy realized that his team members had come back into his life just when he needed them most. He began reconstructing his senior year, his last year as an athlete, and the 21 basketball games that changed his life. The result of these recollections, along with flashbacks of his childhood and insights into his early aspirations as a writer, became My Losing Season, Conroy’s seventh book and his first work of nonfiction since The Water is Wide.

South of Broad, Conroy’s fifth novel and ninth book, presents readers with a Conroy first: a totally lovable father for Leo Bloom King, the story’s central figure. The book is not only a love letter to the city of Charleston; it is a celebration of lifelong friendship.

Conroy currently lives in Beaufort, South Carolina with his wife, the novelist Cassandra King.

An annual event scheduled for February 7, 2012 has secured Archie Manning to be the keynote speaker. The Annual Key Client Summit will host an audience of approximately 50 business executives that will certainly enjoy Archie Manning’s primarily motivational speech.

From his standout career as a college quarterback, to his 15 years in the NFL, to his current activities for charities, Archie Manning has been recognized for his successes. His speeches often focus on inspiration, success and motivation and are integrated with many great stories of his amazing career and life as father of NFL players Peyton and Eli Manning.

Archie was born May 19, 1949, in Drew, Mississippi. He attended the University of Mississippi where he was named an All-American Quarterback and is the only Ole Miss player to have his number retired. He was voted Mississippi’s Greatest All-Time Athlete in 1992, and recently named Mississippi’s Most Popular Athlete of the Century. He was elected to the 50-Year All-South Team (1940-1990), named one of the Top 25 Athletes of the Century in Louisiana and he and his son Peyton were named among the 100 All-Time Greatest College Football Players. Archie was inducted into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame and is a member of other Halls of Fame including Louisiana and Mississippi. In 1971, Archie was the second player chosen in the NFL draft – the number one draft choice of the New Orleans Saints. He set Saints passing records, played in two Pro Bowls and was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Year in 1978. He was the first player in Saints history to be inducted into the Louisiana Superdome Wall of Fame. He concluded his 15-year career in 1985. He was also drafted four times by major league baseball.

While in pro football, he received the Byron “Whizzer” White Humanitarian Award, the Bart Starr Humanitarian Award, the Spirit of Good Sports Award from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and the U.S. Jaycees named him one of 10 Outstanding Young Americans. In 2005 Manning received the Legends award from the Davey O’Brien Foundation and the Aspire award, a tribute to life’s coaches, from the Cal Ripken Foundation. Manning was honored by the United States Sports Academy with the 2006 Distinguished Service Award. Also, he recently received the Silver Buffalo, the Boy Scouts of America’s highest award. Manning and his wife Olivia were recipients of the National Pathfinder Award for their work in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

When people think of Archie Manning, they think football. But Archie’s appeal transcends his athletic achievements. People far and wide have been inspired by his warm personality, his drive and sense of humor. He was recently selected as one of 10 outstanding New Orleanians by Family Service of Greater New Orleans and named Hornblower of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America (New Orleans Chapter). He currently serves in public relations and consulting capacities for several local, regional and national companies. He hosts four Archie Manning Cystic Fibrosis benefit golf tournaments in Louisiana and Mississippi and is active in a wide variety of charitable and civic causes.

His community activities include Louisiana Special Olympics, the New Orleans Area Boy Scout Council, the Salvation Army, United Way Speakers Bureau, NOKIA Sugar Bowl Committee, New Orleans Sports Foundation, and National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Board of Directors.

In honor of the Mannings’ college football accomplishments, the Sugar Bowl has created the Manning Award to go to the nation’s best college quarterback.

In the past 6 months Brooks International Speakers Bureau has booked an abundance of celebrities and sports speakers for various conferences, meetings and events. Athletes have been particularly popular for many different types of clients and in several different areas of sports. We have had speakers deliver crowd pleasing presentations from sports including tennis, ice skating, football and women’s basketball. Some of the speakers that wowed our client’s audiences were Andre Agassi, Martina Navratilova, Mike Ditka, Dick Vermeil, Maya Moore, Urban Meyer, Scott Hamilton and Emmitt Smith.

The sports category was just one of the areas that our celebrities came from, however. We also had clients go in a different direction; choosing speakers like Dean Kamen, Steve Forbes, Cokie Roberts and Nancy O’Dell.

Brooks International does not exclusively represent any speaker; rather we work for the client in order to always find the best fit for each different event. Our clients are our number one priority and we pride ourselves on always finding the best fit for each and every event.

Brooks International can help to hire any sports figure or celebrity that you can imagine, so think big and we will help you make it happen!

Typically when a client holds an annual event, they try to find a different speaker each year. On top of that- they try to get an “even better” speaker each subsequent year. However, in this particular instance, Joel Zeff was such a tough act to follow last year that the client decided to bring him back again this year.

Since the audience had seen him the year prior, you might expect that they would have a rather flat response to his presentation this year. This was not the case; in fact people from the audience have said that they hope to have Joel back again next year, to make it 3 years in a row. The Facebook comments say it all; check out the comments that the attendees of Joel’s recent presentation are saying.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joel-Zeff/46988215196

My favorite comments are those that talk about how hilarious Joel was while conveying a powerful message at the same time. If you have an event that you think Joel would be a good fit for, now is a great time to book him. Through the end of the year, if you book Joel Zeff for a speaking engagement that is to take place in 2012 you can get a great low price of only $7,500 plus travel expenses for a keynote presentation. Please contact us for all the details.

Joel Zeff is known to create energy. His spontaneous humor and vital messages have thrilled audiences for years. As a national speaker and humorist, Joel captivates audiences with a unique blend of hilarious improvisational comedy and essential ideas about work and life. Corporations and organizations nationwide seek him out to motivate and energize their employees on such topics as creativity, communication, teamwork, passion and fun.

Bestselling author and business guru, Harvey Mackay, shares his timeless sales advice in his newest book, The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World. The book became his seventh New York Times bestselling book after only one week of release.

Brief Description:
Harvey Mackay, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, has written what he believes to be his best work. This book is filled with stories, ideas, cartoons and the famous Mackay’s Moral, to help everyone reinvigorate their sales effort. But don’t take his word for it:

“Now a book that can guide you to be more and have more. If you don’t have the success that you want in your life right now, this book is for you.”
-Suze Orman

“Harvey Mackay’s new book is his best yet – and that’s saying a lot. it is relevant, easy to apply and an absolute must read. Miss it at your own peril. A genius work in practical terms.”
- Larry King

Click below to read a Harvey Mackay book interview.
http://www.daviddalka.com/createvalue/2011/11/29/harvey-mackay-book-interview-the-mackay-mba-of-selling-in-the-real-world/