Matt Dickinson

Award-winning producer / director Matt Dickinson is one of the world's most experienced exploration and adventure documentary film-makers. His film credits include an Equinox special on avalanches, and Stratosfear, the story of Judy Leden's successful attempt to break the world hang-gliding altitude record of 40,000 feet. Altogether he has won more than 20 international awards, including the Grand Prix at the Graz Film Festival and the Premio Solidaretta at Trento.

In May 1996 Matt climbed the north face of Mount Everest as part of a British expedition and became the first British film-maker to shoot on the ultimate summit and return alive....

After six weeks of acclimatisation, a group of climbers were high on the mountain preparing for their summit push. They set out in perfect conditions on 10th May. Twenty four hours later, eight climbers were dead and a further four were to die later, victims of the most devastating storm ever to hit Everest. It was the worst day in the history of the peak. On the north face of the mountain, the British expedition found itself in the thick of the drama. Against all the odds, Matt Dickinson and professional climber Alan Hinkes managed to battle through hurricane-force winds to reach the summit. Matt tells the story in his best-selling book, The Death Zone.

2008 sees the release of Matt's first full-length feature film, Cloud Cuckoo Land, co-written by Matt and Steve Varden, an actor with cerebral palsy. The film tells the iinspirational story of a disabled man fulfilling his dream to fly.

In his presentation, Matt draws on ten years of film-making with the world's top expedition practitioners and asks: What is it that separates those who achieve their goals from those who will inevitably fail? He points out the mistakes which led to twelve deaths on Everest, and demonstrates how more effective leadership, better communications, strict attention to detail and more cohesive teams could have avoided one of the worst mountaineering tragedies ever.

The presentation is supremely relevant for any company seeking to meet new challenges - and new risks - in a rapidly changing business environment. Using dramatic footage and often humourous examples of success and failure, Matt Dickinson distills the human factors which have enabled leaders to plan effective strategies, cope with set-backs, build successful teams and achieve peak performance against the odds.

JLA Client Comments

'A brilliant and inspiring presentation' Microsoft