Graeme Bowman was put on this planet for two reasons: To stop people falling asleep during conferences and events and To inspire people to think more creatively

How does Graeme stop people falling asleep?

As a Corporate Comedian, Master of Ceremonies and Hoax Speaker, Graeme has many years of experience at turning ho-hum into ha-ha at conferences, product launches and awards presentations. An audience that is laughing is not sleeping:

At an awards evening or gala dinner, nothing brings the audience together like a good laugh.

Humour can help to launch a new product in a way that is quirky and memorable.

Laughter gives conference audiences a mental breather, when it is interspersed throughout the business sessions.

Humour can be used to address serious issues through interactive Devil’s Advocate Characters.

How does Graeme Bowman inspire people to think more creatively?

As a Lateral Thinking Trainer, accredited by the De Bono Institute, Graeme offers an entertaining keynote address that will motivate your people to challenge their current thinking style, then give them valuable tips on how to think more creatively, in order to kick-start the process of innovation. This keynote, ‘How to Suck Great Ideas Out of Your Head’, can also extend into a workshop.

Can Graeme mix and match these types of presentations?

Graeme's great advantage over other speakers, comedians and MCs lies in the versatility he brings to each event. For example, at a 2-3 day conference, he may appear at the welcome dinner as a hoax speaker, then next morning deliver his creativity keynote, and also MC the entire conference, sprinkling impressions, humorous songs and comic routines throughout.

Graeme Bowman can also combine his hoax and MC talents, to create a Hoax MC character – very popular at awards presentations. Or he can combine a hoax speech with a genuine creativity keynote – a truly unique conference presentation called ‘Uncork Your Creative Genie’.

1) Lateral Thinking Keynote Speech and Workshop

Graeme Bowman is a certified Lateral Thinking Trainer, accredited by the De Bono Institute, and his entertaining keynote, ‘How to Suck Great Ideas Out of Your Head’, hones in on the attitudes and skills needed to create innovative ideas – the sort of ideas that save money and make money.

This address will motivate your people to challenge their current thinking style, and show them how to escape from old ideas and generate new ones.

This humorous but informative presentation is designed to keep your audience laughing and learning, even during the ‘graveyard shift’ after lunch.

The key note address can also extend into a workshop, where participants get the chance to put creative thinking tools into practice. Such tools can be used to improve products, systems, processes and relationships. Importantly, the benefits gained by individuals can apply to their personal as well as professional lives.

2) Six Thinking Hats Workshop

What is the ‘Six Thinking Hats’?

The Six Thinking Hats is an ingenious yet easy-to-use tool that helps people think about any issue or idea in a focused way. It’s use enhances communication, creativity and productivity for both teams and individuals. A major use is to manage the thinking process during meetings, in order to improve problem solving and decision making. It’s a disciplined process that has been used to great effect by leading organisations around the world.

Why is there a need for the Six Thinking Hats?

One of the most wasteful aspects of meetings is argument. Often we become so pre-occupied with attacking and defending various viewpoints that we lose sight of the main objective: to achieve the best outcome for the organisation. Furthermore, we usually try to think about too much at once. We may be looking at information, forming ideas, and judging someone else's ideas all at the same time.

But what's the alternative? A great antidote to these problems is Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats framework. The Six Thinking Hats method separates different types of thinking – emotion from fact, positive from negative, critical from creative – allowing participants to pay full attention to each aspect in turn.

In traditional adversarial thinking, A and B are in conflict. Each side seeks to criticise the other point of view. But with the Six Hats method, both A and B wear each hat together as they explore all sides of an issue. Adversarial confrontation is replaced by a cooperative exploration of the subject.