Deliver amazing presentations

What would you do if you had one opportunity in your life to talk at TED?

This is the question that one of our clients faced in 2009, the world famous photographer and eco activist Yann Arthus-Bertrand. He was only the second French speaker invited since TED became a public conference, the other being Philippe Starck. At the time nobody knew about TED in France. Except us. Yann was incredibly happy to find a company that not only knew TED but could help him prepare his talk and his slides in English. We worked together and, despite the stress of the day and immense pressure on his shoulders, he did a brilliant job on stage. His talk helped create awareness for his upcoming movie “Home”, a beautiful tale about fragile Earth and its inhabitants, us.

Ideas on Stage has coached more than 300 speakers for TED and TEDx events across Europe and North America.
TED and TEDx are the gold standard of conferences. They have revolutionized the way we think of what great presentations should be. From scientists to artists, from entrepreneurs to inspirers, we’ve helped them turn their knowledge into amazing presentations. We have also helped many companies organize internal events inspired by the TED format to spread their knowledge and ideas.

Strategic Presentations and Coaching

What happens when you are sitting on a wealth of know-how and knowledge and it isn’t being shared? The answer: nothing! This is one of the challenges we faced with the World Bank’s sixty-year treasure trove of development experience. We created the roadmap to help launch an Open Learning Campus where not only is knowledge shared and disseminated, practitioners are also able to find each other. This effort was so successful that we were invited back to give a master class in Strategic Storytelling to the Bank’s most senior management. Result: those senior managers are sharing the tools within their divisions and crucial world-changing knowledge is once again flowing!

Startup Pitch Coaching

Ideas on Stage has been coaching startup CEOs in the Microsoft Accelerator Paris program since it began in 2013. Our pitch masterclasses and personal coaching have helped dozens of startups to raise over $50 million from investors as well as to win clients and speak to the media. Our value to startups at Microsoft Accelerator - and many other startup structures like France Digitale and Business France - is particularly strong because we coach in both English and French, and because we help them on the content of their pitches as well as the design of their slides and the quality of their speaking.

Inspiring Keynote

Consultants are often known for being the worst, most boring presenters. PriceWaterhouseCoopers France decided to do something about it, and asked Ideas on Stage to deliver a Presentation Zen keynote during one of their regular team meetings. This was so popular that we were asked back for a second keynote going into more depth on storytelling. As the official training provider for Presentation Zen, the world’s most popular presentation book by Garr Reynolds, we are the only people apart from Garr authorised to deliver official Presentation Zen keynotes.

Event Design & Animation

Most international businesses bring their top managers together at least once a year, but instead of making best use of this time to achieve clear objectives, most companies just sit them in an auditorium for several days and make them listen to increasingly boring presentations. The pharma arm of Pierre Fabre wanted to do something different. Ideas on Stage helped them to set clear objectives, create an interesting and interactive agenda, build a memorable theme, and work with session leaders to ensure every part of their annual management retreat was an event in itself. We also produced high-quality slides, coached speakers, and animated the event with one of our experienced on-stage MCs. The result? Participants loved the event, the organisers met their objectives - and we’re now working with them for the third year running.

Strategic Presentations

Even the most technical subjects can greatly benefit from storytelling. We helped Google deliver a persuasive talk about the Java language and its future. We started by preparing a script to make the speaker’s knowledge accessible and explain delicate issues. Then we created great, inspiring and surprising visuals to reinforce the message. We then helped the speaker master the delivery of his presentation, helping him rehearse and become familiar with the environment of the stage.

Executive Education Teaching

HEC Paris Executive Education is consistently rated #1 in Europe - and sometimes #1 worldwide - by the Financial Times. Ideas on Stage co-founder Phil Waknell has been teaching presentation skills there since 2010, both in the HEC Executive MBA course and in private courses for HEC Le Château, in English and French, consistently achieving some of the top participant evaluations. More recently, Ideas on Stage colleagues Marion Chapsal and Michael Rickwood have also begun to deliver courses for HEC Paris Executive Education, including courses in Qatar.

Speaker Coaching

International Marketing Officers at L’Oréal are gathering every year for a global conference in Paris. L’Oréal asked Ideas on Stage to help them prepare and deliver TEDx like talks for an innovative and memorable event. Ideas on Stage has been coaching for 3 years the same Marketing Team of women executives. Each one has gained confidence, visibility and influence, thanks to this women executives coaching.

Presentation Training

IFF is a global leader in the creation of scents and tastes for many of the products we all use every day; it has a 125 year history of innovation, with a presence in 35 countries, and generates $3 billion in annual sales. When IFF needed help in tuning up their communication capacity, they turned to Ideas on Stage. We designed a tailored training program consisting of several hands-on workshops for some of their top managers to help them to identify their core messages and to present them in a convincing and memorable way. Thanks to our training, if you’d never heard of IFF before, perhaps you soon will again!

Speaker Coaching

EDF is one of the largest energy producers and distributors in Europe. We helped them coach the speakers for their highly visible Pulse awards, a ceremony that rewards the best internal innovations from the employees of the company.

Presentation Training

Ideas on Stage runs three-day presentation training courses for small groups of partners, managers and senior consultants at Colombus Consulting, the leading Paris-based firm. Over the last three years we have trained every partner and most senior managers, helping Colombus Consulting to sell more effectively and fueling their strong growth. Our course is consistently the most highly-rated across their whole curriculum.

Conference Speaker Coaching

Ideas on Stage regularly partners with Biogen France, the French division of one of the world’s largest innovators and manufacturers in treatments for serious neurological, autoimmune and rare diseases. Yearly symposium events and interventions at renowned conferences are organized with leading experts and professional speakers invited to share ideas on research and related themes. Ideas on Stage accompanies each of these speakers to help them prepare and deliver a clear and powerful presentation, resulting in high quality and unforgettable events