Motivational keynote speakers have long been an institution when organising event. Whilst the term may seem to have gone out of fashion of late, the need to motivate and inspire an audience remains.

The individuals below are some of the best motivational keynote speakers, each with unique experiences to tell and delivered in a way to ensure that the audience is left enthused by what they’ve heard. From artists to adventurers to sports coaches, these motivational speakers come from a wide variety of experiences and expertise, each with the ability to motivate those whose professions seem totally removed from the speaker’s background.

So here is a run-down of London Speaker Bureau’s top 10 motivational keynote speakers for 2017:

James Kerr – Keynote Speaker

James Kerr is an expert in high performance, having authored the best-selling book, Legacy, which unpicks the elements of the world’s most successful sports team, the All Blacks. In the book, Kerr draws out the secret of all winning teams to the same key high performance principles.

He then explains how these principles can be applied to teams outside the sporting world. He also addresses specific modern challenges faced by large, diverse organisations: female leaders in formerly male-dominated environments, engaging millennials, transformative leadership, ethics, integrity and more.

Bear Grylls – Keynote Speaker

As one of the world’s most recognised faces of survival and adventure, Bear Grylls’ infectious, inspiring passion has the potential to inspire any audience.

As a young man he spent three years as a solider in the British Special Forces, serving with 21 SAS. His TV Emmy nominated show Man Vs Wild / Born Survivor became one of the most watched programmes on the planet with an estimated audience of 1.2 billion.

Grylls co-owns and hosts the BAFTA award winning The Island with Bear Grylls on Channel 4, which has sold as a format all around the world. In addition Grylls co-owns and hosts ITV & CITV’s Bear Grylls Survival School as well Absolute Wild for Chinese TV.

Usain Bolt – Keynote Speaker

As the first man in Olympic history to win both the 100m and 200m races in world record times, Usain Bolt is unquestionably one of the greatest and most famous sportsmen of the modern era.

Bolt’s journey to worldwide stardom started at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing where he won the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, all in world record times. He followed this up with three gold medals in the same events at the 2012 Olympic Games in London to write his name in the history books as the world’s fastest man. Then he completed the same triple at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio to cement his legacy as a legend in world sport.

Liz Earle – Keynote Speaker

Liz Earle is a well-being champion and beauty entrepreneur, famous for her eponymous organic beauty brand: Liz Earle.

She is the bestselling author of 35 books, an established TV presenter, an entrepreneur and a farmer.

She is an ambassador and advocate for The Soil Association, The Sustainable Food Trust, Love British Food, The National Eczema Society, The National Osteoporosis Society, The Prince’s Trust, The Centre for Social Justice and Restart Africa, as well as a Patron of ACE Africa.

Her latest business ventures include Liz Earle Wellbeing (lizearlewellbeing.com), a high-quality quarterly magazine focused on food and living well, and Liz Earle Fair and Fine, an award-winning range of ethically sourced, Fairtrade gold and silver botanical jewellery.

Idris Jala – Keynote Speaker

Bloomberg placed Idris Jala among the top 10 most influential policy makers in the world. He is the CEO of PEMANDU (Performance Management and Delivery Unit) where he was tasked with spearheading the Malaysian Government’s transition towards high income status by 2020.

Prior to his role in Government, Jala was CEO at Malaysia Airlines (MAS) for three years. He was brought on board to turn around the airline which was in crisis brought about by a prolonged bout of losses from operational inefficiencies. Before MAS, he spent 23 years at Shell, rising up to hold senior positions including Vice President, Shell Retail International.

Tony Fernandes – Keynote Speaker

Tony Fernandes is the founder of Air Asia. He founded Tune Air Sdn Bhd in 2001, with a vision to make air travel more affordable to Malaysians. With that in mind, Tony and his three partners bought over AirAsia from its owner DRB-Hicom.

In less than 3 years, AirAsia grew from 2 modest Boeing 737-300 to 30 and is now operating over 100 domestic and international daily flights from hubs in KLIA, Johor Bahru , Bangkok and Jakarta.

His entrepreneurial and leadership experience makes Fernandes an authoritative voice on the growing business market in South East Asia and India as well as the innovation and creativity necessary in business and entrepreneurship.

Red Hong Yi – Keynote Speaker

‘Red’ Hong Yi is a Malaysian artist-architect who is known as “the artist who likes to paint, but not with paint brushes.” Her first ‘unconventional’ art work, the portrait of artist Ai Weiwei using hundreds of thousands of sunflower seeds, was done in an old residential Shanghainese alleyway where she lived with her 90 year-old grandaunt.

One day in January 2012, Red dribbled a basketball in red paint into a giant portrait of basketballer Yao Ming, and the process was captured in video by a friend and uploaded onto the internet. The video became viral around the world.

Since then, Red has been inspiring others with her alternative take on art and design, motivating people by showing that even the most mundane, everyday objects have potential.

Jon Duschinsky – Keynote Speaker

Jon Duschinsky is one of the world’s leading social innovators and entrepreneurs.

“There is a new business reality in our post-digital, watched-and-watcher world: you need to give people something to belong it, own, align with, share and get excited about. You can have the best products in the world, but if people don’t care then you are doomed to failure”.

Duschinsky is the founder of The Conversation Farm, a unique communications agency based in London and Toronto, helping companies move from function to purpose, He believes passionately that today’s consumers are most likely to support organisations who stand for something they care about.

Hans-Dieter Hermann – Keynote Speaker

Dr Hans-Dieter Hermann is the first sports psychologist for the German national soccer team, a role which he assumed in 2004.

Hermann work surrounds the optimisation of performance, goal setting, building teams, self-confidence and motivation. Aside from competitive sportsmen and coaches his clients include politicians and top performers in the German economy also.

Azran Osman-Rani – Keynote Speaker

As the CEO of AirAsia X, which he founded at the age of 36, Azran Osman-Rani is an expert in revolutionising ‘old economy’ industries using break-through business models and innovative products and services.

Osman-Rani has built and continues to build ‘attacker’ businesses, leading teams from start-up to IPO, focusing on creativity and motivating growing businesses that cause disruptive innovation.