Founded in January 1999, the Professional Speakers Association (PSA) represents experts based in the UK who speak for a living.

On November 3rd, 2007, I received the honour of being elected as their 9th President, an office I will hold until November 2008. It is a privilege to be allowed to serve fellow professionals, and I am fully committed to doing as much as I can to raise both the standing and the standard of professional speaking in the UK. I'd like to pay tribute to the team who organised a great event, and look forward to next year's event in the Birmingham area.

We are fortunate to have some of the greatest speakers in the world, here in the UK. Over the coming year, I will be travelling all over the UK, meeting as many of them as I can.

I have also made a committment to travel Internationally, visiting the Annual Conventions of speaking organisations in every other country that has a professional body dedicated to the speaking profession. Currently, there are around ten of these (more are being formed all the time), - USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands.

There are several purposes of this blog:

1. To let members of the PSA know what I am doing (Presidents must be accountable)
2. To give members a chance to comment and ask me questions (see above)
3. To raise the profile of professional speaking
4. Some others I haven't thought of yet

I'll be posting as often as I can (though don't expect a daily update, since I'm really a speaker, not a blogger)

I encourage you to post comments and questions. I'll respond as soon as I can.

My next stop is Manchester, to attend the meeting of the PSA Chapter in the North West.

I hope to see some of you there.

Best wishes

Alan