Ken & Karen
FOUNDERS
Event Filler was created by us, Karen Corban and Ken Wood, to share what we’ve learned about running successful live events with people who want to do the same.
Is that YOU?
We ran our own event promotion business for 22 years, producing 1,208 live events in 7 countries and generating $94 million in total sales at those events.
During that time we worked with 110 different speakers from around the world.
In some cases they were new to speaking when we met them and weren't yet well known. We raised their profiles and built a following for them as we filled their events.
We helped them to get their brand and positioning right, showed them how to tune up their presentation and we coached them on their sales offer to produce strong & consistent results from the stage.
At the end of 2014, we were ready for a change and decided to retire from running our own live events.
And we wanted to continue with the part of our previous business that we enjoy the most:
Helping speakers, coaches and business people to be successful in this industry.
We want you to use our successes and failures to reach your own business and event goals. This is also why we publish our blog posts and guides, so that you see what has actually worked for us.
This is the result. Here you’ll find information and resources to help you plan and produce your own live events, as well as get the opportunity to WORK WITH US.
Running an event where you speak and sell from the stage, allows you to reach more people, make an impact and is a hugely profitable strategy when done well.
You can quickly build trust, confidence and authority with new clients when you have them in a room with you, and are able to engage with them in person. It’s easier to make large ticket sales, such as masterminds or high-end coaching, at live events, compared to online or over the phone, because of the power social proof provides.
We want to help you get in the game and master it - fast. So take a look around, read some posts and contact us if you have questions.
Our history in LIVE EVENTS
Here are some facts & figures on our former event promotions business.
Speakers who we've WORKED WITH
This is a partial list of the speakers who've been on our stage at some point over the years. Some of them got their start with us and have gone on to even greater success.
From the USA
From Australia
From the UK
Mike Koenigs
Brad Fallon
Jay Conrad Levinson
Alex Mandossian
Jay Abraham
Joe Sugarman
Keith Cunningham
Chet Holmes
Scott Hallman
Christopher Guerriero
Cameron Johnson
Armand Morin
Tad James
Christine Commerford
Lorel Langmeyer
Stephen Pierce
Dave Lakhani
Joel Comm
Chris Howard
John Carlton
Tom Wheelwright
Joel Roberts
Robert Dilts
Robert McDonald
Tim Hallbom
Suzi Smith
Bob Bodenhamer
Dean Hynes
David Fagan
Scott Rewick
Saen Higgins
Bill Walsh
Melanie Benson Strick
Michelle Masters
Carl Buchheit
Siimon Reynolds
Michelle Duval
Kerwin Rae
James Schramko
Nik Halik
Andrew Barnett
Mark Rowland
Clinton Swaine
Justin Herald
Andrew McCauley
Brendan Nichols
Brett McFall
Phil Anderson
Cherie Barber
Stephen Tolle
Travis Bell
George Lee Sye
Joanna Martin
Ben Harvey
Mal Emery
Johnnie Cass
Duane Alley
Annette Huygens-Tholen
Terianne Palmer
Sue Papadoulos
Emily Gowor
Alan Furlong
John Dwyer
Darren Stevens
Sean Rasmussen
Ari Galper
Jeff Slayter
Heather Porter
Paul Holland
Alexi Neocleous
Leah Barton
Julio De Laffitte
Shaune Clarke
Phillipa Bond
Simon Coulson
Marcus De Maria
Sue Knight
Daniel Wagner
Julian Treasure
Rohan Weerasinghe
John Lee
Glenn Armstrong
Rob Moore
Paul Avins
Juswant Rai
Sylvia Rai
Simon Zutshi
New Zealand
Sam Bakker
Our VISION
To unleash the potential of business owners globally, through the integration of success mindset strategies and live events.
Our Personal STORY
Karen's dream as a teenager, was to travel the world and to help people.
Born into an entrepreneurial family, she observed her parents build and operate a series of retail businesses and later a resort hotel. Discussions around the family dinner table were often about business and it was anticipated that the kids would grow up to be entrepreneurs themselves.
Karen went from university to opening her own retail clothing store at age 22, and other fashion businesses followed.
Her first business wasn't plain sailing. There were ups and downs, years of profits and years of losses. Her youthfulness had it's own set of challenges and yet, luckily she had a mentor to guide her which made a huge difference.
Eventually, Karen's passion for personal development led her to take a year off and attend seminars all over the world.
At an event in Hawaii, she approached the American speaker, Tad James, and invited him to come to Australia.
Having committed to fill a room of 400 people (her first event), she flew home and started learning about the seminar and events industry.
Within a couple of years, Karen was attracting more attendees to her events for Tad James, than he was seeing anywhere else in the world.
Ken met Karen when he attended one of her first live events, in 1994.
It was a training on Ericksonian hypnosis; a fact which caused much amusement to their friends once they started dating. The rumours that Karen may have hypnotised Ken at our first meeting were finally put to rest when we married in 2001.
In 2004, Ken sold out of his IT business and joined Karen in Universal Stars. Together they grew the business, expanded to the UK and travelled the world.
For 27 years we've had the honour of helping men, women and teenagers to grow by transforming their lives and businesses—to dare to dream, live their passion and make it a reality.
It’s been a wild ride, and a mission we love.
There were times that were scary, times we felt burnt out, times we wanted to give up.
And yet, we hung in there, received coaching, enlisted the help of wonderful mentors, kept learning and worked hard.
We made many costly mistakes and we also celebrated wonderful wins, travelled a lot and had tons of fun. Our passion and mission kept us going through the challenging times.
Fast forward to 2014, and we were both ready for a change.
After a few years of running 4 businesses simultaneously, we definitely needed a break and a new challenge. So, it was time to change our business model, package up our combined decades of expertise, and continue to help business owners all over the world to reach their goals.
Without an office that we needed to be near, Karen could finally achieve a long-term dream of avoiding cold Sydney winters. The tropical north beckoned and now here we are.
What OTHERS Say
If you are even thinking of running an event then you need to become part of Karen's community today. With expertise in both smaller intimate events and events with several thousands of people and all the logistics that entails, Karen knows more about events than anyone I know. Her generosity and charm combined with real world strategies will help you get results fast.
Pauline Martin-Brooks
Founder JV School
As I transitioned from working for someone else to successfully launching my own training company, coaching business and events management company, it was only possible because of the skills I learnt, that I was mentored in, taught and coached by Karen and Ken.
Duane Alley
Personal Development Speaker
I'd like to thank you personally, because way back in the beginning you shared some advice with me and you always had time for me when I wanted to run something by you. Some of that advice that has got me here today: you guys have been the platform that's allowed me to go out and do what I love.
I know I'm just one of many people who can tell a very similar story.
Terriane Palmer
Personal Development Speaker