Caspar's presentation stimulated a great deal of very productive discussion about all our attitudes to risk taking and really helped crystallise some of the critical decisions we need to make across the business. It helped us understand each other as individuals and will be talked about and referenced for a long time to come. We would highly recommend it to any executive team in business.
Caspar Berry
Experienced Motivational Speaker and Former Professional Poker Player
Featured Topics
Fee Range
$12,000
Caspar Berry
Biography
Caspar started his working life at the age of 16 as an actor in the first two series of BBC drama Byker Grove with “Ant and Dec”. They went on to become two of the most famous people in the UK and Caspar went on to study economics at Cambridge where he had early commercial success directing award-winning short films and TV commercials from the age of 18. He went on to write two feature films which were produced by Film Four and Columbia Tri Star before he had graduated. He did not get a very good degree.
He went on to write and direct in the film and television industry for much of the next four years before deciding that he was heading towards the age of 30 without having lived much of life outside of that crazy and unreal world. So aged 26, he decided to take a risk and move to Las Vegas with his life savings in his pocket.
Playing poker was disciplining, testing and demanding but also incredibly emotionally rewarding as he conquered the challenges it posed and made a living as a professional poker player at the tables of Las Vegas.
After three years, however, he decided that his future lay away from the poker table and he returned to the UK and set up Twenty First Century Media which he built to a team of 40 before selling to Bob Geldof’s Ten Alps plc.
At around this time, in 2005, the poker boom happened, and Caspar had already started speaking professionally so he moved to London to create a portfolio career as a trainer for the Mind Gym by day (delivering over 400 sessions to 100 companies) and a TV poker commentator by night (doing over 2000 hours of live broadcasting on poker channels and Sky Sports).In 2006 he was asked to be one of the two poker advisors on the James Bond movie “Casino Royale”, tasked with training the actors up to look like professional poker players for the key scenes.
In the last 14 years Caspar has delivered over 2,000 speeches and training sessions in more than 30 countries for nearly 500 organisations including the biggest companies in the world.
He now mentors young speakers and brings together all the otherwise disparate skills he’s learnt over his career – writing, directing, training, economics – to help young speakers craft messages culled from their own life that are focused on helping people and businesses make profound changes in all manner of ways.
Caspar Berry
Featured Keynote Programs
Leadership & Change
Using fascinating historical examples to illustrate his principles, former professional poker player Caspar Berry asks how great leaders think & overcome opposition to rise to the top. Leadership requires the courage to make decisions, the process of which lasts only a few seconds, but the impact of which can be enormous. Drawing on management theory as well as psychology and even Darwinian evolution, this speech empowers audiences from any background to step up and take charge. Works in 30/45/60 minute forms.
Risk & Decision Making
Former professional poker player Caspar Berry uses his expertise to shed light on the decision making process, applying to business as well as all aspects of life. This fast-paced, funny and thought-provoking speech has been performed over 800 times to audiences all over the world. Caspar uses poker as the basis of an analysis of risk-taking and decision making, coaxing you out of your comfort zone in order to demonstrate how maximising our return on investment, we can do more with fewer resources. Works in 30/45/60/90 minute and workshop/seminar forms
Luck & Uncertainty
Caspar Berry guides the audience on a stimulating and uplifting journey, using examples ranging from the financial crisis to the Holocaust via sporting stars, to demonstrate the advantages of embracing uncertainty and the fundamentally uncertain nature of life. In this emotionally engaging and rousing speech, Caspar draws on his experiences as a former professional poker player to show how we can empower ourselves in life and increase our success in business by accepting that there are aspects of both that we cannot control. Works in 30/45/60 minute and longer seminar forms.
Innovation
Caspar Berry uses his unique viewpoint as a former poker professional to illuminate the creative process, showing how celebrated, successful trendsetters from history overcame opposition and failure to emerge triumphant. Using Caspar’s poker experience as a base, this exciting and challenging speech shows how embracing calculated risk can enable and encourage creative success. By motivating and enabling the audience to see the potential through the reality, this funny presentation allows them maximise their potential creativity. Works in 30/45/60/90 minute and seminar forms.