Speaking
Topics
My list of happy clients include corporates, publishers, conferences, schools and NGOs. I offer training, keynote addresses and moderation across a range of topics at very competitive rates and offer pro bono work too.
- Current affairs and politics
- Combatting cyberbullying
- Hans Rosling's 'Factfulness' applied to SA
- Social media training
- Media training for executives
- Entrepreneur's media toolkit
- Gender and women advancement
- Transformation and racial reconcilation
- Faith and the church in society
Recommendations
Daniella Bergman: Communications manager, Allan Gray
We had the pleasure of Verashni Pillay joining us at our 2016 Leadership conference. Verashni contributed to and moderated a panel of high-calibre speakers tackling the challenging topic of “What we can do to fix South Africa.” Using her experiences as a journalist both as context and to inform her line of questioning, Verashni brought fresh perspectives to the conversation and expertly encouraged rich contributions from the other participants on the panel.
She is an insightful and dynamic speaker who connects and engages with her audience. It was a pleasure to work with Verashni both ahead of the event in preparation, and on the day. She had an easy rapport with the other guest speakers, our internal executives, conference attendees and the organising committee. I would highly recommend her as a speaker or moderator for anyone looking to add interesting content and deep insights to their event agenda.
William Bird: Director, Media Monitoring Africa
Verashni brings energy and charm to facilitation. These qualities coupled with the extensive preparation she does means that she is able to get the best out of panelists and ensure that the common threads are teased out and that the objectives of each session are achieved. In the sessions she facilitated we found Verashni to be professional, well-prepared and driven to ensure the panelists had equitable time but also flowed well.
Jono Smith: Teacher and house master, Michaelhouse School
Verashni is a fascinating individual, whose ideas, critical thought and unique perspectives make for riveting speeches in which tough issues are sensitively explored. She is a clear and confident speaker; she easily works her way through complex ideas and has an engaging and instructing voice which varies well in tone and pace.
She takes the time to thoroughly prepare her speeches and her wide-reading is evident in the sophisticated way in which she answers questions at the end of her talk, and in group discussions. She had added great value to the conferences when has shared with us, and as a keynote speaker she more than fulfilled her brief.