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Our Keynote Speakers
Keynote Speaking Topics

cmi speaker management is a next-level global meeting industry leader.  We expertly represent an international roster of carefully selected speakers who positively impact millions of people through their keynote speeches, books, and thought leadership.

Doing business from the heart and having a service-forward mindset is the only way that works for us. We treat people like family. Our goal is to ensure a connection between empowered senior executives, talented meeting professionals and the absolute best speakers in the business, with the right message for their audience. Our mission is to empower organizations to grow and create in new and extraordinary ways.

Our story

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Our founder, Karen Harris, is known worldwide for her high level of integrity in all her business dealings. She has worked tirelessly to advance ethical business practices in our industry by sitting on the Board of Governors of the International Association of Speakers Bureaus for numerous years and is a former Past President. She was recently awarded the coveted John Palmer Award in recognition of her exemplary service to the industry.

Our incomparable rock star team is comprised of individuals who want to make a difference. A big one. In the lives of those around us. And they do just that on a daily basis in our high integrity, family-oriented culture. Our fiercely entrepreneurial founder deeply cares about changing the world and the team works hard to elevate the lives and businesses of all our clients.  

Our team

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Karen Harris

Founder & CEO

Karen founded cmi in 2001, three months after the meetings industry was rocked by 911. Her focus has and always will be on creating a loving and caring environment for her employees and the speakers we represent. For the last 20 years, her leadership, dedication and integrity has elevated cmi to one of the best known and most respected agencies in the world. Previous to starting cmi, Karen promoted Alan Hobson and Jamie Clarke.

Favourite thing about cmi: our wonderful employees, our fantastic speakers and the opportunity to help everyone she touches to grow both personally and professionally.

Favourite keynote speaker: "how can I possibly choose just one?" Each of our speakers teach her something every day and she feels so blessed to have them in her life.

Interesting fact: her childhood dream was to be an actress which grew into being the director of plays in the theater. Now she gets to direct so much more!

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Rebecca Clark

Senior Vice President

Rebecca has been part of the cmi family since 2014! She has and is a large contributor to cmi's success and has evolved from an Event Coordinator to an Executive Assistant to Operations Manager (who oversees all of cmi’s technology and operations) to Vice President and Karen's right-hand woman. In addition, she works directly with customers when they inquire about one of our speakers. She previously worked in oil and gas, then started her own business when she was a new mom.

Favourite thing about working at cmi: helping a client connect with the right speaker, solve problems and make a difference

Favourite keynote speaker: over the years, each speaker has had an impact on her life, her career and her passions in different ways.

Interesting fact: she loves to quilt, hike, scrapbook and read classic literature or historical fiction!

 

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Adrienne Albrecht

Controller

Adrienne has worked with cmi since 2017.  She handles everything money related for cmi. Her passion for numbers started in her teens as she loved the satisfaction of balancing her checkbook and helping her high school classmates with their accounting assignments. She has her CPA/CMA designation; in addition to her work with cmi, she has worked in the oil and gas industry for the past twenty years.

 
Favourite thing about working at cmi: the people - she has enjoyed the connections she has made with both our speakers and team members over the past five years.
 
Favourite keynote speaker: she is currently loving Ty Bennett's Monday morning mantras as it is an inspiring way to start off the week. 
 
Interesting fact: when Adrienne ran her side business as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, she had the opportunity to do live paper crafting demonstrations on local television.

 

 

IASB : Committed and Celebrated

 

 

In the dynamic world of professional speaking, keynote speakers hold the power to inspire, educate, and captivate audiences. Behind the scenes, the International Association of Speakers Bureaus (IASB) has been a driving force, uniting speakers, lecture agencies, and speaker management companies worldwide since its establishment in 1986. cmi’s involvement in IASB started 20+ years ago and our CEO and Vice President continue to be an integral part of the organization. 

 

cmi's Key Contributions:

For seven years, our CEO, Karen Harris, served as a member of the Board of Governors, playing an essential role in steering the organization toward greater heights. Her leadership has been instrumental in fostering excellence within the speakers' bureau industry.

Over the span of more than two decades, Karen and our VP, Rebecca Clark, have been actively engaged in various IASB committees. Their long-standing commitment has added immense value to the industry, contributing insights, experience, and expertise that have helped shape the IASB's mission.

 

Celebrating Karen's Awards:

Karen's remarkable contributions have not gone unnoticed by the IASB community. She has been honored with two prestigious awards: The Dottie Walters Helping Hands Award and The John Palmer Award.

The Dottie Walters Award symbolizes Karen's spirit of support and camaraderie, while The John Palmer Award recognizes her leadership and efforts to elevate industry standards.

 

The IASB continues to be a shining beacon for speakers bureaus, lecture agencies, and speaker management companies, thanks to the unwavering commitment of professionals. cmi is honored to be a longstanding part of the organization and we look forward to empowering the industry for many years to come. 

Our values

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cmi is a dedicated team of women who are advocates for knowledge experts who speak. We strive to make the world a better place through our speakers' keynotes, training and consulting, while conducting business from the heart and exemplifying a growth mindset.

What We Value at cmi

  • Integrity matters.
  • Honesty is essential.
  • Accountability is the only way to solve problems.
  • Speed is everything.
  • Accuracy is tantamount to speed.
  • We take care of people...our employees, our clients, our customers.

Giving back

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In 2001, our President, Karen Harris, traveled to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. She thought she was going to ‘just climb a mountain’. It turned out to be much more life-changing. She saw abject poverty, children living in cardboard shacks, young men carrying 100 lbs. on their heads up the mountain for $2.00 a day. The thing she discovered?  Regardless of these conditions, she heard the guides and the cooks happily singing while they worked. She was awestruck by how happy they were and witnessed a closeness of community and family that truly touched her heart. When she got home, she vowed to support the people in third world countries who have so much less than we do and yet so much more.

On behalf of each of our speakers, we sponsor a child through various organizations chosen by our Founder, Karen Harris: World Vision, Compassion Canada and Christian Children’s Fund of Canada.

In addition, each of our team members give back in their own way to a wide variety of organizations and causes. Watch the video below to learn about that.

Sponsored Children with World Vision and Compassion Canada:

  • Anisha
  • Steve
  • Denou
  • Patrick F 
  • Rodela Akter
  • Ashwet Prince 
  • Isabella N 
  • Amie Fiesta
  • Isamar Belen 
  • Andy Obed 
  • Liza
  • Francisco Angkas
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Testimonials

Inspired Clients

We decided to add a keynote to our event less than one month out and CMI was a pleasure to work with throughout the process from Sales to Execution.

"We would love to work with them again, nothing comes to mind for what they could have done better."

-Fidelity

I so appreciate your attention to every detail.

"I want to thank you both for working with me….you are such professionals and wonderful representatives for Clint and no doubt many others.  I so appreciate your attention to every detail….and thank you for putting up with me and all my questions!!!!  You have patience!!!!!"

-Teri Schmidt, CEO, Experience Sioux Falls

 

This was our first time booking a speaker at this level and we appreciate your patience and assistance as we navigated our own internal requirements.

"You provided amazing communication leading up to the event, especially from my team’s perspective – this was our first time booking a speaker at this level and we appreciate your patience and assistance as we navigated our own internal requirements. We loved working with Karen and Samantha and would love to work with you again." 

-Mekala Ravichandran, Deloitte

I used cmi speaker management to book Tim Sanders as the Keynote Speaker and I was really impressed - and thankful - for the service they provided me.

Obviously launching a new conference is anxiety-inducing, even in the best of times, but working with Karen and had her team put me at ease, as they helped me predict and plan costs and provided round the clock assistance to make sure Tim knew exactly where to be, at what time, and was prepared to kick off the show. The audience absolutely loved Tim's presentation, which was customized and adapted to our chosen topics, and our first event really made an impact. I'm getting ready to do the next one now and will work with cmi again."

-Jonathan Allen, Entrepreneur Quarterly

 

cmi was thorough, prompt, professional, and friendly – which made them so easy to work with!
Looking forward to working with them on future bookings."
 
- Valinda Washington, Asset Marketing

 

I want to tell you how happy I am to have found cmi.

From the beginning, you developed a relationship with me and worked so hard to help me find the perfect speakers. And you did. They were absolutely perfect and exactly what I was looking for. Once we settled on our speakers, then I was well taken care of by cmi staff.

I have worked with many speakers bureaus in the 25 years I have been putting on conferences. cmi stands out as being exceptional. Your selection of speakers, attention to detail, professionalism and willingness to always go the extra mile are what makes cmi my first choice. Thank you and your staff; you are clearly a fantastic team!"

-Jean Capon, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

 

Working with cmi speakers couldn’t have been easier. 

Karen and her team are very responsive and flexible! I highly recommend cmi speakers - they are fantastic to work with and deliver on their promises!"

- Jamie Thomas, American Equity

 

cmi speaker management was very easy to work with. 

They helped us negotiate a speaker fee that fit our budget and framed the presentation to our audience.  Overall, it was a great experience working with their team."

-Sean Tucker, Children's Mercy Hospital 

 

I sincerely appreciate all that you’ve done for me and our event over the past three years.

It’s really great to work with such a great partner in this planning and know that we can turn to your company for superb recommendations!"

- Lindsay LaNore, ICBA

 

The service and communication with the cmi organization was simply outstanding!

I look forward to working with the cmi Speakers team again in the future!"

-James Lenz, CUES

 

In my opinion Karen Harris is one of the best in the business at Speaker Management.

She is highly respected by speaker agents in the US, Canada and Internationally. When Karen calls a speaker’s agency like ours and says she has a great new speaker we sit up and pay full attention. Over the years she has brought us speakers we had never heard of and with Karen’s advice and coaching those speakers have become a major part of our business. cmi under Karen’s leadership has gone from being just a supplier to a great partner in our success.  Wonderful person to work with and brilliant at helping a speaker develop their brand.”

- Derek Sweeney, The Sweeney Agency

 

Happy Speakers

I could not have built my business without my partnership with cmi. They make my life easier, and most importantly, my client's lives easier."

-Mike Walsh

 

They make my life easier.

My business more profitable. My systems stronger. My client engagement higher. cmi is THE team and partner I could not do without!”

-Tim Sanders

 

I’ve been working with Karen for 2 years and I honestly believe that I have a speaking business because of her and her awesome team.

I’m a speaker from South Australia - Karen’s team helped me build such a great speaking career that I just recently relocated my entire family to Los Angeles. Now if that doesn’t speak to cmi’s brilliance I don’t know what will. They are A players. This year I set cmi a goal of 50 events and they far exceeded that. Aside from this what I love most about Karen and her team is that they treat me like family. They care about my well being, they care about my family and they care about my dreams. Thank you cmi for all that you do and thank you Karen for your leadership with your team and also your guidance in my career. Love ya!”

-Vinh Giang

 

Karen Harris and the entire team at CMI have been the perfect partners.

They have increased my bookings, built strong relationships with Bureaus, and helped me to shape my marketing and my message! True professionals!”

-Ty Bennett