European Speechwriters

Former speechwriter for Lord Ashdown and author of the definitive work on preparing speeches, Lend Me Your Ears, Max Atkinson pioneered academic research into effective political speechwriting. He was formerly a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and has held visiting professorships at the Henley Management College and other universities in Europe and the USA. He has estimated that poor PowerPoint presentations cost the UK £7.8 billion a year.

Former speechwriter for Lord Ashdown and author of the definitive work on preparing speeches, Lend Me Your Ears, Max Atkinson pioneered academic research into effective political speechwriting. He was formerly a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and has held visiting professorships at the Henley Management College and other universities in Europe and the USA. He has estimated that poor PowerPoint presentations cost the UK £7.8 billion a year.

A controversial talk by Christian Nicholas Eversbusch

Christian holds a MA in Rhetoric and German from The University of Copenhagen and works as a speechwriter at Rhetor, Copenhagen, DK, where he also teaches speechwriting to public servants, government officials and many others. His presentation is titled: Hitler's Rhetoric - pure evil or cunning craftsmanship?

Chris Witt is a speech consultant and coach based in San Diego, California. He has more than 25 years of professional speaking experience, working primarily with leaders – presidents, CEOs, and senior-level executives – who want to influence and inspire their audiences. He is the author of the international bestseller: Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint.

A conference organised by A Thousand Monkeys & UK Speechwriters' Guild. Hosted by Bournemouth University Media School, Thursday 18th & Friday 19th April 2013.

David is one of the UK's first full time, professional tweeters. He has used Twitter to help build record-breaking audiences for some of the biggest names in UK entertainment (BBC One's The Voice, Channel 4, Radio 1) and brands such as adidas, O2 and MoneySupermarket.

Fresh from 'Powered by Tweets', Twitter's official UK creative conference, David will talk about applying good writing to social media and how doing that can lead to paid work and adventures in will.i.am's dressing room...

A conference organised by A Thousand Monkeys & UK Speechwriters' Guild. Hosted by Bournemouth University Media School, Thursday 18th & Friday 19th April 2013.

Chris West’s award-winning copywriting career spans Saatchi’s to Mother, and he is one of the people claiming to have written the line “You never actually own a Patek Phillipe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” His company, Verbal Identity, creates language which creates value for his clients and uses Text Analytics for Marketing to discover unknown themes in consumer conversations. Chris also writes for the Sunday Times and wrote the Best Film at Barcelona Film Festival.

A conference organised by A Thousand Monkeys & UK Speechwriters' Guild. Hosted by Bournemouth University Media School, Thursday 18th & Friday 19th April 2013.

Ben is an Essex-based copywriter and co-founder (with Tom Albrighton) of the Professional Copywriters' Network, the association for all agency and freelance copywriters in the UK. Ben's an experienced speaker, trainer and teacher with a bit of an obsession for the history of copywriting and a deep hatred of PowerPoint.

A conference organised by A Thousand Monkeys & UK Speechwriters' Guild. Hosted by Bournemouth University Media School, Thursday 18th & Friday 19th April 2013.

Following a career as account director and strategist at some of London’s leading design agencies, Claire set up her own writing agency, Falcon Windsor, in 2004, to do what she enjoys most: help her clients communicate well through words.

Over the years she has written corporate reports and run projects for many FTSE and other companies including National Grid, BT Group, Balfour Beatty, and, most recently, Tate & Lyle, Unilever, Diageo and the BBC Trust.

Her breakout session will be titled, Why Bother If No One's Going To Read It?' - The truth behind annual reports - Why they really are worth the money you spend on them.

A conference organised by A Thousand Monkeys & UK Speechwriters' Guild. Hosted by Bournemouth University Media School, Thursday 18th & Friday 19th April 2013.

Tim is a BAFTA-nominee film director, winner of the Jerwood Film Prize and owner of Projector Films. He has scripted over 100 corporate videos as well as films and documentaries.

International Speechwriting - A conference organised by the UK Speechwriters' Guild in conjunction with the European Speechwriter Network, Thursday 16 May 2013, Institute for Government, London.