Speaker Crisis Management

Eric O’Neill’s presentation on “An Insider's Look into the Robert Hanssen Investigation: How the FBI Caught the Worst Spy in American History” is a breathtaking insight into one of the worst spies in United States history. Eric presented on never before heard facts that wowed the audience and left everyone wanting more. His professional approach and mild-mannered attitude were spot on for an engaging delivery. Everyone was so focused on Eric for the full hour that you could have heard a pin drop in a room of 1,000+ attendees. Eric is truly a once in a lifetime speaker that everyone should see and hear in person!

Eric was the perfect guest speaker for our event. With an audience of IT Security folks, he not only captivated the room with his thrilling espionage story, but also incorporated our latest cyber-security report and other cyber-security themes into his talk. Eric has a long list of interesting topics he can speak on, and we hope that we can bring him back to speak again in the future.

“In a challenging time period during the COVID-19 pandemic, DeepOcean wanted to bring in a key note speaker from our industry that had a fascinating story to tell, could draw parallels between their own experiences and the global pandemic lock-down and who could connect and resonate with our onshore and offshore communities. Boy did Chris deliver! His presentation was funny, engaging and deeply touching.”

“Chris joined us in Kuala Lumpur for our annual conference designed to bring together OPITO’s global network of training centres, industry partners and colleagues. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on Chris’ presentation and ability to translate the importance of safety training into the real-life emergency situation he experienced while diving in the North Sea back in 2012. His humble delivery, sense of humour and lived experience of the challenges of working in a remote and hazardous environment really resonated with our audience and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him.”

“Chris is a very friendly, down to earth and engaging speaker whose story is hard to believe. He took the audience of ~160 through the story of that fateful night in a clear manner, using clips from the Netflix documentary to emphasise the story at certain points. Prior to the event, we had discussed with Chris the themes we wanted him to focus on in his talk and he was very accommodating with this request. We received great feedback from the audience who found the talk incredibly interesting - many went on to watch the Netflix documentary after.”

“I’ve had the honour of hearing Chris’ story on several occasions now, each time with a fresh angle or nuance. Articulate, knowledgeable and surprisingly dispassionate (given his subject matter), he is able to spin a riveting yarn which will have the audience gripped. It’s an incredible story of survival, told with genuine flair by its humble protagonist in true edge-of-your-seat style. Hear him if you dare!”

I collaborated with René Smits for 6 years when he chaired and co-produced a seminar for legal experts from central banks (one of a range of a dozen annual seminars I helped to produce at Central Banking Publications). René's chairmanship was consistently rated as outstanding in feedback (average satisfaction scores of 9/10 or greater). When we did a multi-year analysis he was the overall second highest-rated speaker or chairmen over a five-year period out of more than 100 internationally-eminent chairmen and presenters. On a more statistically robust analysis I think he would have been the top rated.. He chairs meetings with energy and diplomacy (as well of course as deep expertise in the subject area) and went far beyond the call of duty to ensure delegates had a good experience. He is particularly skilled at bringing together disparate groups. I recommend him without hesitation as a meeting chairman.

"I knew Rüdiger was good, but he took us to a new level in a ½ days workshop. An authentic person with a wonderful gift to motivate and focus people on goals. Enormous what he achieved with us. 1000 thanks for that!"