What Clients Say About Roy’s Work

“Roy was the backbone of our successful customer forum. His sharp understanding of key issues in the moment, facilitation skills and lively personality are crucial ingredients to any successful event”. 

Ian Martin, Head of Marketing, BT Fleet

“As a producer, knowing your presenter can handle any problem that arises is deeply reassuring. Roy’s skills are most obvious in a “live” situation where things can go wrong at any time. Most presenters can hold it together when things are going well – Roy can hold it together when things are falling apart.”

Mark Killick, former Senior Producer, Panorama, BBC1 TV.

“As a presenter of both live and recorded news and features, Roy conveyed an authority and versatility on camera which put him in a class of his own … Roy was equally at home with lighter presentation, and his sharp news sense did not mask an open, cheerful and lively personality. His versatility as a broadcaster with a commanding presence on-camera and a strong voice, meant that he was capable of complicated studio work, outside broadcasts, and interviews  -from the probing to the frivolous. His editorial skills made him an easy and understanding presenter to work with, and he was able to contribute significantly to the editorial shape and structure of the programmes. Roy could carry off a crisis better than anyone, despite the many live, on-camera dramas he had to cope with, because his most significant talent is his determined professionalism.” 

Mark McDonald, former Producer, BBC TV News

“We engaged Roy for a major 3 day event in Barcelona attended by over 500 customers, press and staff from across the globe. Roy provided the role of host and facilitator for the Keynote Presentations and I can attest that Roy fulfilled this task with the utmost of professionalism and good humour. Roy’s energy and ability to bring the best out of the speakers ensured the audience remained attentive and entertained making our job of delivering the business message so much easier. I have no hesitation in recommending Roy to other businesses for their events.” 

Terry Laidlaw,
 Managing Director, OKI Europe Ltd

“Thank you for the fantastic job in managing the world’s leading retail real estate professionals. You really did help them look and present better. Your focused and entertaining stewardship of the World Summit made all of us at ICSC look good as the event exceeded expectations. I hope we have a chance to work together soon. Please feel free to use my name as a reference; it would be a pleasure to recommend you most highly.

Scott Harris, ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) New York, USA

“…a big thank you for your active, professional and most of all helpful participation in the Advisory Board meeting in Paris. Your capacity to absorb information, monitor and control the albeit small audience was truly impressive. As an initial meeting of the group, we were all pleased with the outcome, and actively look forward to the next meeting to more firmly cement the relationships”.

(Roy was subsequently booked to moderate the same meeting with 15 of Europe’s most senior Orthopaedic Surgeons in Warsaw, Indiana, USA, London, Martinique in the Caribbean and Rome, Italy).

John Cresser-Brown, European VP Director, ZimmerBiomet Institute

“We have just concluded our Hewlett-Packard Computer Products Europe KICK-OFF event for approximately 700 sales and marketing staff in Berlin. The feedback from the participants has been extraordinarily positive and is due to a large extent to Roy Sheppard who was very visible throughout the three day event as News Presenter, Interviewer, Master of Ceremonies and Raconteur. Many of the delegates were amazed at his ability as an outsider to grasp the HP culture quickly as well as understand our products/reseller/end user focus in a very short period of time. This was well illustrated when one of our attendees asked Roy “if he was an HP employee or a professional” – there is no doubt whatsoever that he is the consummate professional! I can unreservedly recommend Roy Sheppard for any event (large or small) which requires that the above and other skills be utilised in a live or video tape manner to thoroughly motivate an audience”. 

David McDonald, Event Co-ordinator, HP

“Roy displayed a high level of flexibility, professionalism and humour, a trio of attributes not easy to replicate in my experience. He was able to keep the program lively and relevant, and his enthusiasm helped make the affair successful. Much of his effectiveness stems from his interest in and knowledge of much of the subject material, and I can recommend him for other events where this would be true”.

The late Joel S. Birnbaum, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, HP

“…thank you for your invaluable input to our kick off event this year. It was without question, the most successful event of its type that we have produced to date. The overall feedback was phenomenal on all counts. We exceeded all expectations in terms of communicating our messages, motivating our team and setting the agenda for the year ahead. It was more than evident that your work leading up to and indeed during the event, with some of our senior speakers had a dramatic impact on the way they presented both themselves and their messages. The feedback demonstrates that your skills in terms of interviewing and linking not only entertained a potentially difficult audience, but added a level of professionalism very rarely seen at events of this nature. We are now discussing the follow up event…. I am sure we will be contacting you soon to see how you can help make this event a similar success.” 

Owen Ashby, Marketing Communications Manager, Unisys Computer Systems

“I just wanted to thank you personally for all your valuable input to the Liberty Life conference recently. The feedback from the client has been very positive and reinforces my feeling that our efforts helped them in no small way to achieve their event objectives handsomely. It was obvious during the event and confirmed by the many comments afterwards that the audience was impressed by your in-depth knowledge of their business and firm grasp of the key issues. Both I and the speakers appreciate not only your skill in this, but also the amount of sheer hard work you put into achieving it. I was particularly impressed by the way you were able to put the presenters at their ease and gain their confidence so early in the pre-production process. Even the sceptics became early ‘converts’ when they realised that they could trust you and that you really were going to make their task a lot easier. From a production company perspective this is especially important. In short you more than lived up to your promises and in doing so enabled us to deliver ours in turn to the client. It was a real pleasure to work with you on this project and I certainly hope that we get the opportunity to do it again in the near future. Many thanks once again, Roy.”

Ian Johnston, Conference Director, Motivational Meetings Ltd.

“Now the dust has (quite literally) settled on Connect, I thought I’d take this opportunity to say a huge thank you for all your hard work last week. The event really wouldn’t have been the same without you (or your jackets!) Despite the fairly punishing event schedule, at no point did you offer me anything other than 100% professionalism and genuine creativity. More importantly, you were great fun to have as part of the crew. The feedback I’ve had from the client has been almost embarrassing – I think they want to adopt the entire production team! Once again, a huge thank-you for last week, you took a lot of the pressure off me and the client, and for that I’m eternally grateful”. 

Iain Liddiard, Presentations Director

“I would urge you to book Roy as a facilitator or a guest speaker or simply to motivate your staff! His energy for his topics is superb, he is so enthusiastic it is infectious and I have always left his presentations feeling motivated and ready to implement new ideas or strategies! Always professional, always on time, always within the event brief and always exceeding expectations!” 

Amanda Davey, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries UK.

“Having worked with Roy on several occasions I have no hesitation in recommending Roy as both a facilitator and guest speaker. His ability to grasp the objectives, devise a customised approach to match the needs of his clients is second to none. Likewise his professionalism is second to none. He has always proved to be a great asset in focussing the audience to consider, focus and take on board new ideas and recognise the values and returns from Networking. I never have any reservations in recommending Roy as I can always guarantee he will deliver. He is a pleasure to work with as he has the ability and persona to recognise what everyone is aiming to achieve. A true Gentleman, a true Professional and an individual I feel honoured to have met and worked with on several occasions.” 

Nigel Greaves, Owner at NGA

“I have had the pleasure of working with Roy on a number of occasions and his help and assistance during my time as Chair of the International Council of Shopping Centers World Summit which hosted over 1000 delegates was outstanding. He contributed to the success of that event beyond the expected role for which he was retained.” 

Ian Watt, Managing Director, Old Mutual Properties, South Africa

“Roy is a great performer & makes events special! He makes the difference!” 

Frank Schwab, Director for Architecture & Business Development at Deutsche Bank

“…As always, your contribution made an enormous difference, from help with the scripts through to the personal coaching which enabled our speakers to relax and give of their best. Your role as dealers’ representative built nicely on last year and satisfied the audience that they had a voice in the proceedings. We have had excellent feedback from our dealers and I confidently predict we will reap the benefit in the next Dealer Attitude Survey! Many thanks Roy, and I hope we have the opportunity of working with you again in the future.” 

Lesley Milne, Internal Communications Manager, Volvo Car UK

“I’ve worked with Roy on several occasions in his capacity as a Conference Moderator and have enjoyed his books and seminars; I can’t recommend him highly enough. Excellent at what he does, Roy has the uncanny knack of making what he does look easy (it isn’t)… whilst making the client look great; a true professional and a pleasure to work with.” 

Andrew Key, Freelance conference producer

“Roy has worked as a moderator for large events and smaller executive events. Roy works well with an international audience demonstrating professionalism, enthusiasm and respect. He is particularly good at encouraging full involvement and engagement from all.” 

Neil Pringle, NonStop Director EMEA at HP

“I hired Roy to facilitate a EuCan Brand Launch conference for a major pharmaceutical company client that I had been working with on brand strategy development and key launch programmes and activities. I can honestly say that Roy is a true master at his craft. The international audience was completely engaged for two days and the energy levels remained high from beginning to end. Roy didn’t just turn-up on the day of the event, he worked closely with me and the internal team in the run-up to the event to ensure that the conference was professional and yet authentic and real. Feedback from the audience was superb and it generated plenty of great conversations in the days and weeks afterwards. I would definitely recommend Roy and I would not hesitate to hire him again.” 

Claire Taylor, consultant

“My most recent engagement with Roy was as the conference moderator for Symantec’s EMEA User conference. With over 1,600 attendees, Roy co-ordinated the interaction between various levels of speakers from CEO, keynote sessions (Senior Vice President, Marketing Directors and Chief Information officers) ensuring that each attendee had the opportunity to realise maximum benefit from the event. Succinct, factual and always willing to push the boundaries, Roy made the event the success that we hoped it would be. Having worked with Roy for over 7 years he continues to act as ‘the conscience’ of the audience. A different approach to others, although once you have worked with Roy you realise why his approach has your audience acknowledging the real benefit in attending events that Roy moderates for you. Roy has a great ability to make people feel positive about themselves and try new things, that work !!” 

Kevin Bailey, former Director, Product Marketing EMEA at Symantec

“This letter is to offer my own endorsement to anyone considering using Roy Sheppard as a moderator or facilitator at a conference. Prior to a recent conference held by British American Tobacco, I had real reservations about using an external facilitator. I was principally concerned as to whether he would try to “hog the show” or whether he could be in tune with the audience. I need have had no doubts, Roy quickly grasped the mood of the audience, mixed well with them and drew out of them the issues they really wanted to put on the table. He did it in an easy, entertaining, but understated manner and proved to be a great hit with the delegates. His style of questioning made it clear to the delegates that they need not hold back. I would have no hesitation in recommending him or indeed using him again”. 

Martin Broughton, Chairman, British American Tobacco

“I would like to thank you sincerely for your contribution at our Global Sustainability Summit and for helping to make it such an interesting event. We felt that the Summit was enormously worthwhile and, from the feedback so far, many of the guests agreed that it was a thoroughly enjoyable and productive two days. Please accept my thanks once again for your participation, which contributed immensely to making the gathering a success.” 

Paul Adams, Chief Executive, British American Tobacco

“I would like to sincerely thank you for all you did to make our European Management Conference such a success. As you know, we were keen to involve the delegates as much as possible, and make it a very participatory meeting. Your role was key in achieving this – both in the planning of the Conference and significantly during the Conference itself. The Q & A sessions led by you were as usual a great success – the only criticism being that some of the delegates wanted them to go on longer! A few thought that the questions were not as tough as in the previous two conferences, and that you must be mellowing. These people have obviously not had to answer your questions! Roy, thanks for your professionalism and energy. I enjoyed working with you.”

Paul Adams, as Managing Director, British American Tobacco

“From the moment you walked into our preparation meeting and helped us re-focus our conference agenda to better achieve our aims, through coaching some of the team on their presentations and the actual conference facilitation itself, you have done a first rate job. Indeed, your desire to help us achieve our aims outside the sole facilitation role is notable, especially in relation to the production of the video snippets. The value these added to our conference is immeasurable. Once again, thank you for a first class effort.” 

Neil Withington, Director, Legal & Security and General Counsel, British American Tobacco

“I hope you are OK because you did look weary on Monday night and that, of course, was because you gave everything of yourself for an intense 30+ hour period – from Sunday evening at the welcome reception when you warmly engaged with the host and international speakers, all the time preparing your mind for the next day’s conference, through Monday’s proceedings so professionally, appropriately and seamlessly knitted together and then on to the evening dinner where you entertained, engaged, moved and inspired. The verbal feedback received so far has, from delegates and speakers alike, been unanimous in recognising the enormous contribution you made to individual speakers and indeed the whole event achieving positive and effective outcomes. Thank you so much for everything – I really enjoyed working with you and sincerely hope that I will have the opportunity again.” 

Rose Padmore, Professional Conference Organiser, OPENING DOORS & VENUES

“Roy came highly recommended and once I met him it was no great surprise. Roy gets it, by that I mean he deploys a level of listening that means he gets under the skin of your business and the needs of your team. Knowing that Roy wants to understand your business means you can really share what you are trying to achieve, and because Roy is very bright and very experienced you know he is going to understand your business. You couldn’t ask for a better starting point for developing your event from there Roy’s creativity and an eye for detail means your event will always run smoothly. Once you’ve tried him you’ll not look back.” 

Liz Brandt (nee Brown), UK Sales and Marketing, Logica

“I had the pleasure of working with Roy for a keynote at our user conference, Vision. The keynote had lots of parts to it and Roy’s professionalism to help us make it run smoothly was fantastic. I was a little sceptical of the ‘conscience of the audience’ but it worked really well – Roy has a talent for listening and then being able to ask questions which evidently other people were also thinking.” 

Guy Bunker, Senior Director / Chief Architect / Distinguished Engineer at Symantec Corporation

“Throughout a long career as a communications and marketing executive, Roy Sheppard has been my “go-to” business consultant. His insights are always well ahead of conventional wisdom. Roy doesn’t tell you what you want to hear. It can be painful, but Roy has the charm to overcome ego and get your organisation back on the right track.” 

Peter Dykhuis, Executive Director, IDC Group

“I have hired Roy as a conference moderator on a number of occasions and would have no hesitation in recommending him to anyone. Roy is highly professional in his approach to any event, does his research very thoroughly and always makes the other conference speakers (my clients) look good on stage. Working with Roy on your team is a pleasure, he has a flexible attitude and is a major contributor to the overall outcome of an event – in short an asset – and I hope we will do it again soon.” 

Matthew Brockman, Founder at Ideal Projects Limited

“Roy is a dynamic and incredibly captivating consultant/speaker who connects at both the technology and business level. I would not hesitate to engage Roy one second to put my clients at ease and validate credibility. A terrific asset to any organization; engage Roy with confidence.” 

Jon Harms , NonStop Product Specialist, HP