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Terry Williams (CSP) – Humorous & Engaging Conference Speaker & MC
Insightful. Entertaining. Actionable.
Looking for an entertaining New Zealand conference speaker or MC who will keep your audience engaged, entertained, and inspired? Terry Williams brings a unique blend of business insights, workplace psychology, and humour to every event—ensuring your audience not only enjoys the experience but also walks away with practical, actionable takeaways.
With decades of experience as a motivational and inspirational business speaker, leadership trainer, and MC, Terry knows how to connect with diverse audiences, making complex ideas accessible, relevant, and fun.
Popular Speaking Topics
- 2 Dangerous Things A Year - Why should we change? Why don't we change? How can we change?
- Getting Better Buy-In - How to move your people to move with you
- The 3 Elements in Building a Winning Team - Develop a plan based on the team you think you want but starting from where you actually are
- Leadership in a Changing World – How leaders can motivate, engage, and inspire performance across different generations.
- The Psychology of Workplace Success – Practical tools to improve motivation, resilience, and performance in today’s fast-paced work environment.
- The Power of Humour in Business – How to use laughter strategically to build trust, boost engagement, and create a more connected workplace.
Video: '2 Dangerous Things A Year' (Change & Resilience)
Why Book Terry as Your Conference Speaker or MC?
- Humorous & Engaging – Blending business insights with laughter to captivate and energise audiences.
- Custom-Tailored Content – Presentations and hosting designed specifically for your industry and event goals.
- Proven Expertise – Trusted by leading event organisers companies across New Zealand and beyond to deliver engaging, high-impact sessions.
- Professional & Flexible – Whether it’s a high-energy keynote, a panel discussion, or full event MC duties, Terry adapts seamlessly to your needs.
Make Your Next Event Unforgettable
From corporate conferences to leadership retreats and industry summits, Terry adds value to any event by delivering inspiring keynotes and seamless event hosting that ensure your audience is engaged from start to finish.
Need a Dynamic MC?
A great MC does more than introduce speakers—they set the tone, keep the energy high, and ensure everything runs smoothly. Terry Williams is an experienced MC who brings the right mix of humour, professionalism, and audience engagement to keep your event on track and be memorable.
Book Terry for Your Next Event
Availability: Limited dates available—secure your booking now.
Location: An Auckland speaker but available for events across New Zealand & internationally.
Click here to enquire now learn more
Terry delivers an entertaining and interesting set of practical tools to takeaway and put into practice. He's a trainer originally by trade and his comedy is a means to an end. Terry is an expert, author & motivational speaker on engaging people. He's a trainer and facilitator for over 25 years, and also a columnist in 'Employment Today' magazine. His books, including 'The Brain-Based Boss', take psychological research and makes it interesting and useful for people wanting to engage the people they work with or influence. He's also a comedian, performing in several New Zealand International Comedy Festivals.
As a point of difference, Terry has a combination of a leadership training background, coupled with a sideline as a professional stand-up comedian. Those two elements create content that is practical and relevant delivered in a way that is provocative and memorable. They also often convince event bookers to utilise him as both a keynote speaker, facilitator of a breakout workshop, and/or an MC.
As an example, his presentation on change and resilience got great reviews recently from a wide range of business event audiences such as McDonalds, Robert Half, LIC, Contact Centre Institute, NZ Certified Builders, Cambridge Homes, TSB Bank, RNZAF, and Southern Cross Healthcare.
Terry is a CSP - a Certified Speaking Professional. This is the speaking profession’s highest earned international measure of professional platform competence. With this designation, meeting professionals looking to hire the best of the best see a commitment to the profession, be assured of a top-notch speaking ability, and a track record of professionalism and success. Less than 15 percent of NSA members worldwide have achieved the CSP designation and only 8 other kiwis.
He presents slices of his new book ‘Getting Better Buy-In’ offering practical things that frontline leaders and individuals can actually do to make a difference.
Unforgettable, entertaining, fun, interactive and full of takeaway 'How to's.'
Presentation Topics
2 Dangerous Things A Year: Take charge of change before it takes charge of you
Why should we change? Why don't we change? How can we change? Work out your 'Change Muscles' now so you're ready when you need them later. Should you be worried that you or your team are not prepared for change? Change is inevitable and the rate of change is accelerating. You will learn why most people are unprepared for change. You will learn tools to get past those obstacles, build momentum & muscle through when it's tough. Engaging & entertaining, this distinctive session starts with my own story of doing 2 dangerous things a year, including becoming a stand-up comedian. It flows interactively into a series of practical takeaway tools for anyone to better handle change at work & in life. You'll realise which of the 4 stages of 'change evolution' you're at. Are you stuck in a state of 'change sloth' or 'change strain'? How can I help you move towards being 'change-fit'?
Getting Better Buy-In – Proven Tools To Build A Workplace Culture That Attracts & Retains Talent.
Have you ever tried to scope the sheer scale of the cost of your staff churn, disengaged employees and turnover? Never mind the recruitment costs, what about all the indirect effects on productivity and morale as people depart, arrive, learn, remake mistakes & institutional knowledge walks out the door with their stapler. It’s a spiral. You do not want a reputation as a poor employer as you know that’ll drive away talented people and, soon after, drive away customers. You want to be running a workplace of choice. If ever a vacancy occurs, it’ll be for the right reasons and talent will beat a path to your door and that’ll magnetically attract more talent. That’s the kind of spiral you do want. But how? You’d like to know what drives these engaged employees. You’d like to know the specific actions you can take to influence the choice of talent to choose you. Tools for managing change and influencing behaviour based on an extensive collection of workplace and psychology research - all told in an engaging style not an academic lecture.
The 3 Elements To Build A Winning Team
Very rarely do we get the chance of a workplace leader to start from scratch and build the team we think we want. More often, we get dropped into a leadership role with a pre-existing team and all their good and bad goings-on. In this hour-long presentation that is chock full of informational tips, engaging interactions, and inspiring provocation, Terry helps you develop a plan based on the team you think you want but starting from where you actually are.
You already know a lot of the things you should be doing but you actually doing them?
Engaging Your People Through Change And Uncertainty
A key with change and adversity is proactivity, doing something, even when the environment is such that you feel powerless. That feeling of powerlessness can drive anxiety and stress. Do something. Be proactive. Take some steps.
- Are change and uncertainty the new normal?
- Why should we assist our people through change and uncertainty?
- How can we help ourselves and our people through change and uncertainty?
The dictionary's first definition of resilience is not about people. It's about manufacturing materials and how quickly they could bounce back from being dropped or damaged. Only later did psychologists tweak the definition to make it about people. Because people were seen as units of production as well.
How can people bounce back to their ability to recover from adversity? That dictionary definition of "bouncing back" is obsolete because if you assume that we are going back to the way things were before but there isn’t a 'before' anymore.
How can we and our people not just survive adversity, but learn from it and come out better prepared for the next inevitable adversity?
Who Would Benefit?
- Senior executives,
- Employers,
- Employer associations,
- Owner / operators of small to medium enterprises
- Team leaders
