I am planning an Annual General Meeting for 30 plus members of our organisation and looking for a guest speaker who will be amusing, light hearted and motivational - I work in child care field - any ideas please?

Gervais Phinn, a local author & ex school head of English at Brinsworth. I hear he is fantastic & has hundreds of anecdotal kid-type stories form his years in teaching.
You could try a google search on the name & see if it comes up with an agent, publisher or something.
Or even try Rotherham Council Education Dept;
he's ex Rotherham so they'll probably have his whereabouts.

Gordon Poole is his agent. He (Gervais) was speaker of the year in 2004.

http://www.gordonpoole.com/speak_ent.htm

(I guess he's pretty expensive??)

My favourite speaker lately has been Steve McDermott (although he might not be right if you need someone involved in Child Care). But he is an excellent motivational speaker (and very funny too)

http://www.sfb.co.uk/cgi-bin/profile.cgi?s=42

We have a couple of hundred speakers on our books from all walks of life. PM me with your e-mail address and I'll send it over to you.

Mike

Hi paul hope you find a speaker to attend your meeting, if you do and they need loudspeakers give us a call cause thats what we do, conferences, cabaret and after dinner events are our speciality, relaible equipment fair prices delivered, set up, operated and removed.

Thanks everybody - great help - keep em coming - we also need a venue, thought Id be able to sort this one out myself but as youve all come up with such good ideas thought you might have some more

Public Speaking

There used to be a society for public speaking in Sheffield and they could always provide anyone with a good after dinner speaker without costing a fortune.

Pi may be worth getting in touch with the information burea at the central library to get their secretary's telephone number.

Hope this helps you.