Sisters look to create a buzz with new speakers agency

Speaker Buzz is the brainchild of Debbie Byers and Carol Graham. Picture: Mike Wilkinson

Speaker Buzz, which aims to promote speakers who have “genuine human-interest stories that inspire and motivate others”, is the brainchild of Debbie Byers, who has worked in the communications industry for more than two decades, and Carol Graham, who enjoyed an almost 20-year career with global technology titan IBM.

Located in Edinburgh, the venture will work across the UK and internationally. It hopes to differentiate itself from other speaker agencies by only promoting people who want to make a “positive social, culture or behavioural change in society, while also focusing on health and wellbeing”.

Director Byers said: “Having been fortunate enough to have listened to hundreds of motivational speakers during my PR career, I was more and more conscious of the difference between the truly inspirational speakers, who motivated me to take action and change things around me, and those who are often just going through the motions to pick up their fee.

“Carol and I wanted to create a place that is exclusively for those in the former category, which is why we have launched Speaker Buzz to showcase the passion and talent of some truly extraordinary people.”

Speaker Buzz has already signed up a number of clients to be ready for its launch, including Mollie Hughes, who in May 2017 became the youngest woman in the world to summit Mount Everest from both the south and north sides; Craig Mathieson, the founder of The Polar Academy charity – seen as being the toughest youth programme in Europe; Kylie Reid, the founder of EGG (formerly Edinburgh Gossip Girls), a female community supporting individuals and local businesses; Alister Gray, the founder of Mindful Talent – a global leadership coaching organisation using mindfulness and meditation to cause a positive behavioural change; and Stuart Sandeman, a coach at Mindful Talent.

Byers will continue to run her Edinburgh-based PR agency, Beeline PR, while Graham has chosen to leave the industry to focus exclusively on launching and growing Speaker Buzz with her sister.