In this episode Andrew Vine is in conversation with former CNBC TV anchor Mark Laudi.  Mark founded Hong Bao Media, a marketing and media firm based in Singapore and Malaysia, and advises companies on their media and communications strategies and is a personal coach to many senior business executives. 

In this conversation Andrew and Mark discuss 

• The role of moderators:  the power and magic that can be achieved from having meetings and events professionally moderated 
• What it takes to moderate events well: the skills you need to look out for when choosing a moderator 
• How COVID-19 and the present switch to virtual events is changing the game; for ever?  
• The future of real vs virtual events: and are hybrid events really the answer? 

In this episode, Andrew Vine gives in-depth answers to questions that were submitted in advance, specifically relating to the impact of the on-going Coronavirus pandemic:  

• Has this changed some of work and social norms? 
• Is this now the beginning of the end of physical events? 
• How well has  the meetings industry responded in terms of embracing virtual events?
• Just how damaging will this be? 
• Are hybrid events the new model to adopt?  
• And how optimistic are you about the speaking business? 

In this episode, Andrew Vine is in conversation with special guest, Fredrik Haren, one of the world's truly global conference speakers. 

• They firstly discuss together what it really takes to be successful speaker, and discuss the list of six key factors that featured in Honestly Speaking when it was published:  content, communication, pitch, being authentic, unique, and memorable.  
• And  then turning to what it really takes to get the best out of the professional speaker you've just hired