Create the conference experience people are craving

Book me as your MC to inspire real connection and progress.

The Challenge

Let’s be straight up. Conferences can be a bit stuffy and awkward.

People pop on their lanyards and mill about, unsure what to do. They have the same conversation time and again: “Where do you work? What session are you going to?”

And they sit back to consume an agenda that's even more packed-out than their usual work day.

They leave with lots of useful information and some new business cards - but a bit overwhelmed.

I really enjoyed Paul's facilitation of the IAP2 Symposium held in Christchurch. He was an engaging and confident MC who brought a lot of authenticity to the role. He was quick to adapt to any issues and got more than a few laughs from the group. Would highly recommend Paul as your next MC!

Rachael Shiels

ChristchurchNZ

What makes an MC a "great" MC?

Sticking to time?
Funny anecdotes?
Nice clothes?
Pithy one-liners?
Sharp speaker intros and summaries?

All of that, sure.

But more than anything, an MC is a culture-setter. People take their cue from the MC about how to behave.

They are the lighthouse for your event.

You want your conference to have connection, authenticity and value, right?

An MC should shine their light so everybody else can see how to make that a reality.

Paul got the audience interacting and engaging right from the start. And he was able to share a complex message in a simple way that people could really grasp.

Marina Moroney

Granicus

Paul was an engaging and confident MC who brought a lot of authenticity to the role. He was quick to adapt to any issues and got more than a few laughs from the group. Would highly recommend Paul as your next MC!

Rachael Shiels

ChristchurchNZ

What a fantastic MC! His energy and charisma kept the energy consistently high, and he came across as his genuine self. He knocked it out of the park.

Nicky Astwood

Pl4tform

I'm the right MC if:

✅Feedback from your last conference indicated that people want more connection and engagement.

✅You're looking for professionalism with a personal touch.

✅You're keen on a tailored experience to suit your event's vibe, ensuring it's memorable and unique.

I'm not the right MC if:

❌You'd prefer a scripted MC so you can pre-approve all messages ahead of time

❌You're looking for an MC who fades into the background with little audience engagement.

What’s the investment?

My MC fees range from $1,700 to $5,000 per day depending on a few variables.

If this is outside your price range, please still feel free to get in touch as I also offer discounted rates in various situations.

My fees include:

Meeting with you to advise on conference design: I can help you with speaker selection and event design so you achieve your goals
All my preparation time: This includes me becoming familiar with all the speakers and the needs of your delegates, and preparing the welcome session and speaker intros.
Early arrival and late finish: I arrive early to help with tech and event setup and I stay until the end of each day (not leaving you to wrap things up on your own).

Ask about my availability>>

My clients include:

A case study

Below, Katie Healey, Event Manager from the International Association of Public Participation explains what it was like to work together for their New Zealand Symposium.

Preparation

"Paul recently MCed our 2-day New Zealand Symposium and he was just brilliant.

Right from our very first conversation, Paul added so much value to the conference. One of his unique strengths is facilitating interaction. Whenever he was on stage, you could just feel the energy increase. And that showed up even before the conference as we met to discuss the programme design.

He asked lots of great questions that made me rethink (and improve) aspects of the programme, including which speakers to use and how many sessions to include. I really valued this free and frank advice and it gave me so much confidence in what we were going to deliver."

On the day

"On the day, Paul set the right tone from the very start. He was engaging, nice, warm and approachable. He arrived early to help set up the room and check the AV was working. He mingled with the delegates and I could see he was making an effort especially with those who had come on their own.

He supported with the mihi whakatau and hosted the opening panel, which everybody just loved. He was able to show the panelists in their best light but also challenge them on their thinking. And when the tech had a hiccough, he just rolled with it until it was fixed.

You could tell that Paul had done the groundwork beforehand to make sure he knew what the sessions were about. He was able to tie the sessions together really well and pull out the key threads. At times he jumped in with the speakers to help them with Q&A even though nobody had asked him to do that. Basically, he just kept things running smoothly and this just made my job so much easier.

Being a New Zealand based conference, I really appreciated the tikanga Paul brought into the conference. It's really important that we get that right so it was hugely valuable that Paul was able to incorporate whakatauki and karakia throughout - even leading a spontaneous waiata at the end too.

Impact

"From an audience perspective, bringing the light-heartedness up in between sessions was so good.

It wasn't just "this is happening next"; he was listening and bringing things back to the conference theme, and really getting people excited about what was next.

There was one time when a speaker was running a bit late and Paul filled in that 10 minutes with an engaging activity that got people talking, reflecting and connecting.

Paul also ran our Open Space session (which I was a bit nervous about - I'll be honest.) Lots of people said in the feedback that they loved having that chance to go deeper into the topics they were most interested in. I think a large part of what worked was how Paul kept pulling topics out of people onto the whiteboard gradually over the two days.

We had so much positive feedback about Paul's MCing. If you are looking for an engaging MC who will take your conference to the next level, then look no further than Paul McGregor."