Volkswagen Group Enlist Jez to Help Surprise and Delight

When Volkswagen Group UK (VWG) were planning a significant company-wide event that needed to look and feel different to other past conferences; deliver key information in an engaging way and to energise their delegates, they knew they needed to find a conference host who could meet specific requirements, and maintain the high demands of a respectable group of brands.

They also understood the importance of finishing such an important internal business conference on the right note, with an impactful keynote presentation.

Working with any external suppliers, especially keynote speakers and conference hosts, can be a leap of faith for organisations, but when the content, or event, or purpose of the conference, is significant or especially important, it can be even more daunting.

Working alongside production company RacingLine, VWG needed someone to tie the event together and help link elements of the conference and movement of delegates to various breakout sessions. After a briefing meeting via Zoom, Jez wrote a script for various “voice of God” announcements for him to deliver throughout the day with humour and energy, and an interactive competition for the closing session. Both were met with laughter and smiles to help ensure maximum engagement and energy throughout the day held at Silverstone for 800 colleagues from across the business.

Fortunately Jez has worked with both Volkswagen and Audi in the UK and USA on many occasions over the last ten years, and as such internal recommendations for a speaker or host that might be suitable continued to repeat Jez’s name. We find this a common theme as Jez very often works with clients repeatedly over many years in various roles across different areas of the business.

VWG were keen to include Jez in the day’s content and address a key theme of the conference: handling change. Delivering an impactful 60 minute keynote presentation as one of two motivational speakers for the day (alongside the brilliant speaker Mandy Hickson), Jez closed the conference and subsequently created a real buzz as delegates took to social media platforms to praise the success of the event and usefulness of its content.

Head of PR and Comms for VWG, Juliet Kellman, had this to say:

“Your involvement went a huge way to surprising and delighting our audience; set the tone throughout the day and your keynote was high energy, evocative and thought-provoking. There’s certainly more buzz around the office today than we’ve experienced in some time! And that certainly wouldn’t have happened had you not been there.”