CLIENT QUOTES

(download a .pdf file of our client quotes)

YAHOO!
“ You guys were FANTASTIC!! You really made the event. You have instantly gained a strong fan base across the Yahoo’s and clients at this summit.”
-Dick O’Hare, Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships

VISA USA
“ I knew the show was going to be good. I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was, however. Many, many thanks. Hopefully we can have you all back for Part Deux at a not-to-distant date.”
-Hank Martinson, Senior Vice President, Marketing

MICROSOFT
" I have worked one on one with both Stephen Covey and Tom Peters and I find John Sweeney's ideas to be as valuable. His message and methods are fantastic!"
-Phil Fawcett, Research Program Manager, Microsoft (Microsoft employee since 1985)

“ It is clear that the attendees found enormous value in the presentation that you made. Thank you for your ideas and the ideas you stimulated! There really was magic in the air.”
Alayne Reesberg , Director, Executive Program Development

THOMSON
“ We would like to thank you and extend our appreciation for your contributions to and support of the Innovation Institute Workshop. It has been a great privilege to work with you on the design of our approach to facilitating successful adoption of Innovation at WEG and at Thomson. Thank you all for your hard work in helping create such a successful, productive event. The feedback we received from the participants was very positive. The participant’s enthusiasm, engagement, and obvious commitment to this process was exciting to see.”
-Sandy Flynn, Vice President of Learning and Development

"The BNW has been instrumental within our Innovation efforts here in Thomson University. Their creative, professional approach instills great energy into individuals for not only learning how to behave more innovatively, but practicing the skills- which is how we adults learn best. They make it very easy to work with them because of their ability to work with diverse groups and complete flexibility and desire to customize to our business needs. The ratings after a session including them is always a 5 on a 1-5 scale. I would recommend the BNW to anyone looking for powerful, unique messages and/or approaches to innovation for individuals, teams and even entire organizations."
-Maggie Judge, Knowledge Sharing Manager

"BNW has proven that they are able to bridge the gap between a professional business environment and pure entertainment. They bring important and relevant lessons to corporations about creativity and innovation, but help individuals 'experience' the lessons in a humorous and memorable way that has been universally praised by the participants."
-Mike Suchsland, President and General Manager, West Education Group

ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS
“ I am a huge fan of your work. Your innovative approach combined with your energy, passion and humor is something we can all use!”
-Melinda Rogers, Vice President, Strategic Planning & Venture Investments, Rogers Communications
Owner, Toronto Blue Jays

CARLSON COMPANIES
" We all seek to employ the best minds in our businesses – but what good is it if we don’t encourage those minds to fly to new places and create new and better ways of seeing things? Innovation at the Speed of Laughter is a toolkit of techniques guaranteed to unleash new ideas, written by one of the most consistently creative teams in comedy theatre."
-Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Carlson Companies

ALTRIA GROUP, INC.
" John Sweeney gets to the heart of what makes people work together effectively and uses improv exercises to teach those behaviors. John's approach is fun, but powerful -- it highlights what your team is doing right and what it needs to do better. We enjoyed working with John and highly recommend his program."
-William Ohlemeyer, Vice President and Associate General Counsel

HEWLETT PACKARD
“ John – thank YOU so much. Everyone loved your exercises and I think you really helped get people connecting to each other. Someone mentioned Wednesday night that they used your “yes and” exercise during the breakout session, so I know they were paying attention.”
-Martha Ayres, Advertising Manager, HP Global Brand Advertising

ING
“He {John} was INCREDIBLE!! We received numerous compliments on his superlative presentation. I heard from a number of attendees that he was the best presenter they have ever witnessed. He’s incredibly engaging and was perfect for an audience of sales reps.”
-Scott Knowlton, Sales Training and Operational Effectiveness

ORACLE
“It was great meeting you and thank you for presenting at our executive HCM Forum in Vegas this week. Hope you enjoyed your stay in Vegas, we sure enjoyed your presentation and exercises. We would love to have a copy of your slides to share with attendee as we have gotten many requests onsite and from the surveys.
Thanks again for your motivational thoughts.”
-Linda Lui, Oracle Events Marketing

GAGE
"I think you both know how impressed I have been with your work and input during the various sessions we have had at Gage and with our clients. I've been in the marketing ideation field for pretty much my entire career because it always comes down to the big idea for our clients, no matter how smart or strategic you are. Your approach to ideating is unique and coupled with your background of Improv, its even kind of cool! We have been thoroughly impressed with your ability to help us bring out the best in our employees and our clients. After our last session, our client called to say that it was the best ideation session he has ever participated in and he was amazed at both the quantity and quality of the ideas generated as well as the participation / involvement of his entire marketing team. Some of his team members who were normally more reserved were laughing and generating ideas like there was no tomorrow! “
-Timothy J. Smith, former Vice President, Managing Director Strategic Development

NBA’s MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
“ The work that John Sweeney has done for us has benefited our entire organization. His unique approach and insight helped us to achieve a new level of productivity. I will tell anyone who asks that if they are looking for a different experience, a change of pace, something that is unique and that their staff will not forget, they should choose the Brave New Workshop. I know that you will absolutely "deliver" for them.”
-Chris Wright, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

MEDTRONIC
“ I am writing to tell you how thrilled we were with the Brave New Workshop presentation last week at our annual World Wide Human Resources Leadership Conference. The response has been off the charts. Everybody loved it
and filling the auditorium with laughter was the perfect way to cap off a successful conference. Your presentation was an absolute highlight of our week and this was reflected in the surveys we received from the attendees. On a 5 point scale, you were rated as a 4.8. Just outstanding!”
-Grace Gorringe, Director of Leadership Development

GALLUP
“ Thank you so much John. We are still feeling amazing energy from our time together. Thank you!!”
Vandana Allman, Global Practice Leader, Leadership & Talent Management, Gallup Consulting

UNITED PROPERTIES LLC
" John Sweeney helped us work through a very difficult session with one of our major customers. He led us (laughing) through several exercises that emphasized the message of accepting all styles. As the participants quickly grew to trust him they extended that trust to each other and allowed us to begin a new and productive dialogue."
-Jim Wadsworth, Director of Learning & Development

GENERAL MILLS
" The Brave New Workshop component of our Yoplait "off-site" was incredibly well-received. People thought it was really fun, and, more importantly, took away a lot from it. You guys definitely did a great job on all fronts. People thought it was great that you got a pulse on what was going on in the division, but also had some unique ways to bring the more academic organizational behavior things to life in a much more relevant way than they had seen before.”
-Steve Young, Promotions Manager, Yoplait/Colombo Division

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC
“ John's presentation was the highlight of the meeting! We are all back in the office today and talking what John presented.”
- Beth Beutell, Senior Meeting Planner

RBC DAIN
" It's ironic that I was the most skeptical one. I've been to a hundred training workshops, but this was one of the BEST ones I've ever been to. Definitely use me as a reference."
-Kimberly Washington, Senior Design and Production Specialist

3M PHARMACEUTICALS
“ A survey of attendees showed that John Sweeney was consistently one of the top things that people enjoyed, if not the highest. When people filled in their own info on the survey, many loved the concept of creative safety and
appreciated the concept of creating a safe environment in which ideas can be shared. I loved the interactive nature of your presentation and I was pleasantly surprised with the level of participation. A few people volunteered that surprised me in the fact that they took the risk to get up in front of their peers. This is a very positive phenomenon associated with your training.”
-Debra Kiehold, Director of Human Resources