MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR EVENT

with a Great
Conference MC

No one ever went to a conference or event and said, “You know what? I wish I had a more boring time!”

Here’s the problem though: so many events, without even meaning to, can find themselves a little stuck in the quicksand of “low energy, snooze-worthy content and bored faces”. This leads to poor learning outcomes and a bad return on investment of time, money and energy.

If you want to make sure your conference, offsite or event is remembered for all the right reasons, you need a good MC.

Simon Banks on stage

Simon’s an offsite facilitator
who knows the ropes

When you’re organising an event, running from one to do item to the next, the last thing you want is to have to manage your event MC. With the ability to quickly grasp the ins and outs of what
you’re aiming to get out of your event, Simon hosts your audience with professionalism and humour.

Over the last twenty years,
Simon has delivered over 1400+ workshops, events, conferences and keynotes across the globe.

And as such, he’s developed an excellent understanding of how to
make an event memorable (for all the right reasons).

Here’s what some happy clients say
about having me as a keynote speaker

Dr Sonja Kukuljan PhD,
Group General Manager

Freedom Foods Group Nutritionals

Simon Banks hosted the noumi Executive Strategy Session Roadmap to 2025 recently. Simon was engaging, innovative and kept the two days of presentations and discussions on time and focused. Simon’s intelligent and witty summary of each session was topped only by his outstanding illustration of each session, which captured key points of each workshop and presentation in a picture. I would recommend Simon to anyone who values a friendly, flamboyant, creative and professional conference facilitator, who brings much more than organisation to your company’s professional event.

Jacqueline Brinkman,
Chief Executive Officer

Economic Development Australia

As MC for EDA’s flagship event, the National Economic Development Conference (NEDC21), Simon Banks steered us through this virtual 3-day event with expertise and creativity. Simon kept delegates engaged in the virtual world, reminding attendees to tap into their creative thinking and facilitating great discussion and thought. Simon’s attention to detail and professionalism is evident in the way he prepared for the conference, ensuring he had strong program content knowledge so he could engage with expert speakers and delegates successfully. We look forward to working with Simon again, hopefully to experience all he can offer in a face-to-face environment!

Leanne Mederios,
Senior Internal Comms and Events Specialist

REST Industry Super

What a cracking event yesterday. Everything was superb. Everyone’s still talking about it. The vibe in the office is charged, as it was at the event also. Absolutely nailed the brief and got everyone excited about our new brand. Thanks for keeping so cool under pressure and a huge thanks to your team for being so wonderful and helping us during the madness that was the room set up. YOU’RE AMAZING!!!

 Watch some audience interaction

Simon understands the rhythm and flow of a live event. He know the importance of creating those special moments where people can interact, smile and laugh which leads to much higher engagement across the day.

Simon Banks on stage

The right mix for a good MC

It’s natural It’s to worry about the event you’re running and want to make sure you get a conference facilitator who knows what they’re doing. But what’s the secret ingredient behind Simon’s track record of happy event hosts?

Whilst it may have something to do with his lifelong obsession with creativity, acting and his inability to sit still for longer than two minutes, it’s also his 20+ years of experience. This is the winning combo that makes Simon your idealMaster of Ceremonies.

It all ties in with Simon’s ‘big why’: to use his artist’s curiosity combined with his 20-year corporate career to build a more creative world and enable people and business to thrive in the modern age. His creative/corporate left-of-centre mix, along with his friendly style mean that the audience feel engaged immediately; the usual warm-up period is pretty much non-existent (you know what we’re talking about: conference hostage with crossed arms, hasn’t smiled since 1992, hoping to take a little nap in the back row after lunch)

What does Simon deliver
as a corporate mc and conference facilitator?

Audience interaction and your people highly engaged

We’ve all sat through a bunch of cheesy icebreakers (You can only turn to the person next to you and tell them something they don’t know about you so many times). However, movement and interaction are essential! Embracing the phrase, “You move, you improve”, and implementing the neuroscience of how our brain works, Simon makes sure everyone is in the best possible shape. Best of all, he does it with a smile, so the audience are in the room in every way, ready to be part of the day.

A good sense of humour and a calm head

Why a calm head? Events never go 100% to plan! Being calm and flexible throughout an event not going to plan in our post-lockdown world is an asset. Why a sense of humour? We spend enough time being way too serious and an offsite or conference doesn’t have to be the place to do that (well only if they run out of food, then a 1% seriousness quota is allowed).

Helps you design the conference you need

When you need fresh eyes to help you plan the event, Simon’s your wingman. Having delivered 1400+ events, Simon’s picked up a great bunch of ideas and will work with YOUR content and conference agenda to ensure the day flows beautifully.Included is his insider knowledge about things to do and things NOT to do including design and structure of your agenda, coaching on presentations and even ensuring the breaks are long enough to allow for the secret sauce: essential human interaction between your people.

A great on-stage energy

Once they’ve seen Simon in action, people always ask, “How do you do that?” Simon doesn’t really know how it happens, but he certainly fronts up a with a smile and a good vibe – and he promises it’s legal!

Provide insight and guidance on key topics

As an international keynote speaker, author and podcaster on creativity, innovation and design, Simon is constantly exploring new ideas and can lead discussion on a number of topics if required.

Breakout sessions and workshops

If your event needs some extra pizzazz, Simon can facilitate breakout sessions and workshops to help your audience build their creative confidence, reimagine what’s possible and become the innovation-ready powerhouse you just know is hiding in there somewhere.

Q and A Sessions

Need someone with their eye on the raised hands while your audience gets their questions answered? Simon makes sure that no-one’s left unanswered while you – or your speaker – gets on with the business of making things clear. And if there’s always that one person who gets all the airtime? Well, Simon’s had plenty of experience and can deal with that scenario too.

Ensure your audience are connecting with each other throughout

That’s the joy of a conference; making those informal connections that drive the formal connections when you’re back in the workplace. With a heap of fun exercises your audience will happily take part in – without realising they’re ‘connecting’ – Simon makes it look easy.

Bring key parts of the conference to life with his illustration skills

As a recovering professional artist (it’s a long story) Simon’s very handy with Sharpies and drawing on his iPad. He uses these skills when MC-ing in many ways: from teaching the audience to sketch note (yes, it’s true and everyone loves it!), bringing key messages to life, to fostering ideation and strategic thinking by creating a big picture with which everyone can connect. (Want to learn from Simon? You can now take his workshop!)

doesn’t take himself too seriously

Whilst Simon will take your conference seriously, he doesn’t take himself too seriously, which means the focus is squarely on your audience. It also makes him very easy to work with (which he wears as a badge of honour). He knows that you have enough on your plate already, and he doesn’t want to be another source of stress! It also means he’s happy to do a mad dash to the 7/11 to get Mentos if they run out and won’t even break an emotional sweat.

Ensures that everyone has a great time

Who said events had to be boring? Delegates can easily forget the third bullet point on the 27th slide (no, he won’t let you become the PowerPoint nightmare), they won’t forget how they felt at your event. That’s the crucial piece of the event jigsaw that means everyone keeps talking about your event and keeps the messaging alive, long after the conference is over.

Ready to have me at your next event? Drop me a message today!

Ready to have me at your next event? Drop me a message today!

Talk to Simon about your event
MC/Facilitation needs now

Great question. Often organisations will have an internal MC. If that works for you and they can keep the energy in the room, definitely think of taking that option. Where there is a greater level of conversation and collaboration required with specific business objectives, it can be a great idea to have a fresh set of eyes and ears (that’s your conference facilitator) or what we call a ‘naive expert’ who can lead and guide a conversation, keep everyone on track and keep everyone smiling as well.

Yes, they can! Often a keynote speaker will kick off the event and then stay and MC the event for the rest of the day (Hint, hint: Simon does this). From experience, it works best if your chosen speaker kicks off the event then MC’s rather than MC-ing the event and speaking at the end of the day.

Two things:

  1. Make your speakers practice and time out their presentation. Also tell them they have five minutes less than they actually have
  2. Always plan for some flexi time where you can move things slightly over the day to expand or shrink time slots as needed. What’s the worst thing that can happen? People have some more time to talk, or you wrap up ten minutes earlier. With his comprehensive event facilitation experience, Simon can help you manage all those flexi times as well.

Maybe not. If you just want your MC to introduce people before a presentation-led schedule, you can find someone to do that internally. If you have extra outcomes and objectives to achieve or want to create a different experience for your delegates and can spare some extra minutes here and there, this is where an MC or conference facilitator can bring their energy and expertise to your program.

The number one thing to remember is that everyone underestimates how long things actually take, and even with the best laid plans your day will most likely go over time. Internal speakers can ignore you waving madly from the back of the room to wrap up, people don’t make it back from lunch on time, and someone usually gets stuck in traffic or their plane gets cancelled. And fifteen minutes is never enough for morning tea, ever!

Simon has given keynote speeches and facilitated conferences and events across Europe, Asia, North America and Australia for companies that want to turn creative thinking up to 11/10 and bring innovation out of their teams.

Recent highlights include:

  • Innovation Leadership Program in London for Laing O’Rourke
  • MC and Keynote Speaker on the Gold Coast for Public Relations Institute of Australia
  • Storytelling Keynote and Workshop in Dubai for Synecron
  • MC on the Sunshine Coast for TAFE Queensland
  • Byron Bay MC for Arjo Huntleigh
  • Keynote Speaker and MC for National Festival of Design in Hobart
  • Sydney MC for The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects

If you’re thinking,
‘Hmmm, I’d like to know more’

Hands holding a bell and a butterfly