This blog was originally published on The Boston Globe, and has been republished here with permission from the author.
Click here to read the original article.

The most interesting man at Davos was not He Who Must Not Be Named. (In the style of the Harry Potter books, I’m going to omit the name of the Dark Lord, otherwise known as the president of the United States. To be frank, I’m bored of him.) No, the most interesting man at this year’s World Economic Forum was a rather scrawny 53-year-old former English teacher from Hangzhou in eastern China whose business is poised to take over the world economy: Jack Ma, the founder and chairman of Alibaba.

Meetings are as diverse in their purpose and structure as the speakers who are on the platform at these meetings. They can be international, national, or regional. They can be internal meetings, external meetings, sales meetings, client conferences, annual conferences or leadership retreats.

Once you have determined the purpose, theme, and structure of your meeting, then comes selecting and hiring the perfect speakers for your event.

Whether it be a small start-up or Fortune 500 company, every business faces a period in need of inspiration. It could be to drive sales, increase productivity or creativity, or to maybe just find meaning in your teams’ jobs and work. Some companies turn to incentives, higher pay or great products, but many are now turning to hiring powerful leadership and business motivational speakers to help inspire employees to work harder and find meaning in passion in what they do.

There is now a growing number of businesses that recognize the significant value of hiring motivational speakers. They offer more than just inspiration, they provide invaluable advice based on firsthand successes that help drive growth to businesses and help employees find meaning in the things they do.

If you’re looking to maximize employee potential to increase sales and profitability in your business, here are a few of Worldwide Speakers Group’s top motivational business speakers.

The following blog was authored by Sanjay Gupta on CNN.com, and has been republished here
with permission from the author. Read the original article here.

When he first sees me, Sandy Halperin always gives a surprised snort and then a cackle of delight. Before I know it, I'm enveloped in a bear hug, snuggled close and patted heartily on the back. If I'm lucky and Sandy remembers that he really likes me, I'll get a back scratch too, a true Halperin hug.

"What a treat," Sandy says to me with a huge smile each time I visit, throwing his arm across my shoulders and inviting me for a stroll. His ready answer to my question "How are you feeling?" is, unfortunately, heartbreakingly familiar as well.

"I feel my decline more rapidly right now," Sandy has said many times. "Just like a confusion as the day goes on or times when I don't even have thoughts -- I'm awake, but ... what was the question?"

In 2010, at the tragically young age of 60, Alexander "Sandy" Halperin, a former dentist and Harvard assistant professor, father of two and grandfather of three, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. For the past five years, at Sandy's request, my CNN crew and I have been documenting his mental journey into twilight. His goal: to erase the stigma and shame that come with a diagnosis of dementia and to educate the world on how to best care for the growing numbers of people living with cognitive decline.

The heart of a company’s success lies in its marketing. Without successful marketing campaigns, the business may offer the best products or services in the industry, but potential customers would not know. Needless to say, one of marketing’s most integral roles is getting the word out.

In terms of a Speaker Bureau like Worldwide Speakers Group, there is a lot of marketing fluidity. Due to the dual faces of the business, the marketing team must be well equipped and informed in order to be successful. In this cottage industry, our products are the speakers and the services provided include: access to our library of knowledgeable thought leaders and our first-class event management teams. It is the marketing team’s priority to sell the business and ultimately perform as a middleman at all times, proving to both sides a true understanding of WWSG partnership.

This article was originally published on the Boston Globe, and has been republished
with permission from the author. You can read the original article here.

An emperor who is a dotard. A population in the grip of opium addiction. An economy held back by bureaucracy and crumbling infrastructure. A culture fixated on past greatness but in fact hopelessly decadent. This was how Westerners in the 18th and 19th centuries regarded China. It is how the Chinese (not to mention most Europeans) now regard the United States.

Trumpery, the opioid epidemic, the administrative state, storm-ravaged cities, and the fantasy of making America great again — this is how the United States appears whether you watch CCTV (Chinese state television) or the BBC. Compare and contrast with the way China is portrayed nowadays in most Western media.

With tragedy and violence dominating international headlines, it is important to highlight those who are working towards creating a better and brighter future. Many of WWSG’s Exclusive Speakers are pushing for change in our tumultuous world and making a positive impact.

After events involving dangerous and fatal situations, security and safety are at the forefront when planning a major event. One of your most important roles in event management is to ensure that all people are safe at your event. The well-being and ensuring the safety of both your keynote speaker and conference attendees is of the upmost importance.

This article was orginally published by Evan A. Feigenbaum on MacroPolo.org, and has been republished here with permission from the author.

Does China Inc. have a bottomless appetite for risk?

The question seems preposterous on its face because anyone who invests money should, self-evidently, be concerned with what happens to it once it changes hands. But so much of what’s being written these days about China’s growing global activism argues, at least implicitly, that Chinese government agencies and national champion firms are, at minimum, risk tolerant and, in some cases, perhaps even risk oblivious.