We’d been using the same format for our annual awards dinner for four years running — a respectable political journalist, polite applause, people checking their phones by 10pm. This year we decided to take a risk and call The After Dinner Speakers Agency.
Our brief was specific: we needed someone who could hold a room of 900 senior banking professionals, ranging from graduate trainees to board-level executives, without putting anyone offside. That’s a harder ask than it sounds in our industry. The agent we spoke to understood immediately.
She didn’t pitch us anyone straight away. She asked about the tone of the evening, what we’d had before and why it hadn’t quite worked, who the keynote speakers earlier in the day had been. The shortlist she came back with 24 hours later was three names, each with a note on why they’d work for our specific room. One name we hadn’t heard of. That was James Whitmore.
The briefing call with James was revelatory. Within twenty minutes he’d identified three things about our firm that were genuinely funny and that our audience would recognise immediately. He asked the right questions and he listened. When he walked on stage, it felt less like a speaker we’d hired and more like someone who’d been at the company for a year.
By the end of his set the room was on its feet. The following morning our CEO forwarded me an email he’d received from one of our biggest clients calling it the best corporate dinner they’d attended in a decade. We’ve already confirmed James for next year.
