Type of Speaker: Economist, ITR Economics
Pros: I have the opportunity to see a lot of economists speak, as they are popular at corporate events. Often we will see the same economist “flavor of the month” at many conferences, but Brian Beaulieu was a new name to me, and I was very impressed with his presentation.
He spoke for 90 minutes, which included Q&A. Brian’s presentation included a lot of forecasting and tracking of key economic indicators and contained his company’s historical tracking of those indicators as well. There were a lot of charts and graphs—like usual—but he moved through them fairly quickly. He even included a little humor into the presentation (not something you see often from an economist).
During Brian’s presentation, the audience stayed engaged and interactive. I always think that you can tell that an audience is engaged when two things happen: very few people get up and leave the room and there are a lot of questions during the Q&A session.
Cons: The only concern I have is whether Brian’s presentation would resonate with a wide variety of audiences. The session I saw was targeted at executives at an association.
Producer’s Notes: I have only seen Brian once, but have already recommended him to a couple of clients.
For more information: Brian’s ITR Economics Page
Update
We worked with Brian again in April 2016 and he was just as good the second time. His humor is still sharp and engaging and his economic presentation was again thorough and easy to understand.