Introducing RDO8 keynote speaker, Chris Baréz-Brown
RDO is delighted to confirm that Chris Baréz-Brown will be giving the opening keynote at this year’s RDO8 “Together Towards Tomorrow” Conference which is taking place at the Don Carlos Leisure Resort & Spa located in Marbella, between the 10th-12th September 2017. Chris is the perfect person to kick off proceedings at another exciting and informative RDO Conference. His lively personality, interesting background and fascinating new project will keep RDO attendees entertained, motivated and inspired. As an idea of what to expect, Chris was described recently by The Guardian as a long haired twinkly eyed cross between Richard Branson and a wizard. From this description you know his talk will definitely not be boring!
Like many of the speakers we invite to present to RDO Conference attendees, Chris’ journey to his current position in life has been anything but ordinary. It is often the diverse lives that our keynote speakers have lead up until now that adds to the highly engaging nature of their talks. Chris is no exception to this, having followed a number of different career paths.
Believe it or not, Chris began his career in the army which could hardly be more different from his work now. He then decided to take a complete u-turn in life into brand management and subsequently innovation and leadership development. In 2010, he established Upping Your Elvis, a Creative Leadership Consultancy, working with his partner Jim Lusty on their mission of unlocking the innate creative genius in individuals. Chris and Jim have worked with a number of high profile clients including Nike, Unilever, Britvic, Diageo, The Guardian, Mediacom and ITV. It was the U2 lead singer Bono’s signature question “who’s Elvis around here?”, i.e. who is going to be different by breaking the rules to get stuff done, that inspired the name Upping Your Elvis.
It is this mentality of doing things differently and not sticking to the rules, that has propelled Chris to success. Considering life in the army is often about following rules and orders, it is clear how much Chris has changed his path in life since then. Now he wants to help other individuals and businesses break free of the shackles of convention and do things differently in order to succeed. So many successful businesses such as Airbnb, Google, Apple and Snapchat have gone against the norm and succeeded even when so many believed they would fail, so the wisdom that Chris hopes to imbue in others is highly relevant.
As well as his innovative and successful consultancy business, Chris is also an author who has written the best-selling books “How to Have Kick-Ass Ideas”, “Shine: How to survive and thrive at work” and “Free: love your work, love your life.”
His latest mission, The Great Wake Up which he launched in 2016, could be his most ambitious yet! His latest book entitled “Wake Up! Escaping a life on autopilot” was published in January 2017 and accompanies his new project. Chris’s aim with The Great Wake Up is strongly connected to his life mission which is to “re-awaken our minds, take people off auto-pilot and engage them in their everyday working lives.” Throughout much of our lives, many of us are running on auto-pilot, simply drifting through life and missing all the important and amazing things around us. Chris believes very strongly that all of us can break out of this uninspired state to reach a more enlightened and happier way of thinking and living. He has released an app to accompany this project that can be downloaded for Android or Apple phones, encouraging us to notice the things that make us most happy and alive and sharing these with others.
Chris is in high demand as a motivational speaker across the globe and has spoken to audiences in every continent and at a huge range of events, from intimate conferences to large scale events. His presentations are human, simple, entertaining yet also provocative, meaning you will be guaranteed to be left feeling inspired and buzzing with positive energy. His interactive session at RDO8 will give you ideas of simple things that you can do everyday to add more magic to the work you do and the people you work with. You will feel more inspired, insightful and excited afterwards regarding things you can do differently to improve your life and work.
In this video, Chris introduces to you what you can expect from his keynote speech at the RDO8 conference in which he will be talking about Upping Your Elvis.
As well as his mission to help individuals lead happier and more fulfilling lives, and to help businesses achieve greater success. Chris also has a strong social conscience having worked with The Nike Foundation to help teenage girls escape the cycle of poverty in Africa. His other philanthropic venture is as a co-founder of the social enterprise Street Wisdom, that explores the concept that urban environments are full of wisdom and answers which people can learn to tune into.
To find out more about Chris and his many projects, take a look at his website here: https://www.barez-brown.com/. You can also connect with Chris via social media on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, and you can subscribe to his YouTube channel for more videos.
