International Speaker

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“Francesca went down a storm! She got the first standing ovation for a speaker at the REaSoN Conference!!” - Reason Neonatal Conference

“Francesca walked on and changed the atmosphere. She made them more courageous from that moment. It was like a euphoria - it took them a while to come down.’ -Unilever

“Francesca was the perfect host for the evening, handling everything like a real pro.” - National Fundraising Awards

“In all our years Of annual conferences, Francesca is the first speaker to receive a standing ovation!” - Inner Wheel of Great Britain

Francesca delivers key-note speeches, after-dinner speeches and motivational speeches all over the globe…

A highly-experienced speaker, Francesca regularly addresses a diverse range of audiences - global companies, universities, healthcare professionals, unions, charities, local authorities, policy makers and media organisations - at live and online events. Her stage confidence and quick wit also means she’s a much in-demand host of award ceremonies and events.

Francesca was nominated for the UK Motivator Of The Year Award alongside Olympic Gold Medallist, Matthew Pincent, and Sir Bob Geldof. In 2008, she co-hosted the first-ever session on disability at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Using her award-winning humour and sharing her own personal experiences, Francesca’s speeches are compelling, powerful, and unique - guaranteed to inspire, entertain and motivate audiences of all ages.

Passionate and engaging, Francesca shares valuable insights into defying expectations, turning challenges into successes, developing resilience and tenacity through adversity, and overcoming physical and psychological barriers.

One of Francesca’s key messages is to change the way we view our challenges - so that we begin to view them as opportunities for personal growth and deeper understanding. This helps us to stop fearing difference - both in ourselves and others - and to embrace the beauty of human diversity.

Francesca truly believes that, whatever body we are born into, we all face similar life lessons, and this means her speeches are universally powerful. Ultimately, she defines herself by what she can do and not by what she can’t do – and this is what makes her a moving, uplifting and unforgettable speaker.

TESTIMONIALS

“Francesca was fantastic. The laughter was non-stop for the full hour. She expertly mixed the comedy with the motivational. I will definitely be recommending her in the future.”

ORACLE (DUBLIN)

“Francesca was a host worth waiting for. After several false starts due to Covid, she presented our annual awards ceremony in Newcastle and was a huge hit with all of our attendees. She was funny, warm, engaging and genuinely seemed to enjoy herself while presenting too. She was an absolute professional, and had obviously taken the time in advance to get to know our organisation and her role on the evening. A real pleasure to work with!”

— HOME STAR AWARDS 2022

“When I was at Unilever I organised an event around the theme of creative courage. All artists display varying degrees of courage but Francesca walked on stage and changed the atmosphere. She made them more courageous from that moment. It was like a euphoria - it took them a while to come down.”

— UNILEVER

"Francesca Martinez was a fantastic host for the Diversity in Finance Awards. Her engagement with the audience during her welcome speech was faultless and focused around the main topic of diversity. Francesca created humour around each award category which helped with the entertainment… Francesca was on hand for photos and chats after she had presented the awards which was appreciated by all of the delegates. Thank you Francesca for making our first diversity in finance awards one to remember!" 

— HANNAH, FINANCIAL TIMES

"The Comedy event was excellent...top notch. Francesca is an inspired comedienne and speaks with an eloquence rarely seen in stand-up comics. As well as being simply genuinely funny, her honest answers during the Q&A reflected a depth of thinking and sincerity that is seldom seen in responses from performers in such circumstances.” 

— BNP PARIBAS

“Francesca, as the headline event at Gibraltar Pride 2014, not only punctured glass ceilings, but warmed and lovingly bruised our hearts, too. In so doing, she successfully demonstrated that human solidarity not only knows no bounds, but can actively transcend them, whilst allowing us all to militantly fall in love with each other! In short, Gibraltar and its LGBTI, disabled and many other communities love Ms.Martinez. And, as a personal level, I am no exception, either. My fondness and respect for her humanity and many evident talents are impossible to conceal!”

— FELIX ALVARIZ OBE, EQUALITY RIGHTS GROUP

“Francesca was incredible – like we knew she would be. There was some amazing feedback, mainly about her positivity, energy and passion. Everyone loved it.”

HOME GROUP - Online Event

“Francesca’s speech was the hit of the evening – funny, personal and very inspirational. Everyone singled her out and said what a great speaker she was. Her impact was amazing and we’d love her to come back next year.”

— WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM - DAVOS 2008

“Francesca was laugh out loud funny. She was definitely a star of the show and, along with Alan Carr, she had the audience in stitches.” 

— CHANNEL 4

"Francesca was brilliant last week… The attendees all really enjoyed her talk."

— ERNST & YOUNG – Online Event

“Thank you again so much to Francesca for hosting our London Book Fair event. We knew she would be good, but had no idea quite how powerful and engaging (not to mention almost painfully funny) her contribution would be - it was just incredible. I don’t know how to express how spot-on it was - everything we wanted and more....”

— BOOKTRUST

“Francesca is one of the most inspiring women I have met and her approach to her life and work is one that is well worth sharing with others. Our delegates were enthralled with her performance, and I shall always remember her phrase “perfectly me” which we should all strive to adopt as our personal motto. And the bonus is that she is incredibly funny!” 

— ASSOCIATION OF GRADUATE RECRUITERS

“Francesca’s session was absolutely INCREDIBLE and my personal favourite from the day! The feedback we had from her session was amazing. It touched so many people and I don’t think it could have gone any better.”

— SHE HAS NO LIMITS CONFERENCE – Online Event

“Francesca brought the house down. We had lots of disabled young people in the audience and they were all cracking up. The crowd even managed to bend her arm for a little more time than planned! Please do thank her again from us. It was a great start to the festival and totally along the awareness-raising but fun vibe we wanted!”

— DISABILITY FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE FILM FESTIVAL

“It was an absolute honour to meet with, and listen to, Francesca in Dublin… She received a standing ovation - deservedly so. Not only is Francesca approachable, friendly and intelligent, but she is someone one that can interact with any audience, delivering amazingly sharp humour. Her expert presentation is valuable for health and all other professionals to hear, and so hilarious and entertaining. I am a long-standing and great fan - even more so now that I have met her and witnessed such an amazing performance!”

— BABY LIFELINE

“Our thanks to Francesca for doing such a wonderful hosting job. Her charm, skill, and brilliant irreverence really made the evening go with a swing and set exactly the tone and spirit I was hoping for.”

— BBC

“It is very seldom in life that as a sensitive and spiritual person I am moved to stopping in my tracks and reassessing my life. In the 20 minutes Francesca spoke to us, she looked into my heart, my subconscious, my brightest and darkest being - and she gave me a shake, a slap and the heartiest laugh I’ve had in months. She’s the most confident, assertive, unassuming, apolitical, pragmatic, honest, hilarious person I’ve ever had the opportunity to be in a room with. I take my hat off to her. She’s an inspiration - who wears fabulous boots!”

— HEAD OF HEALTHCARE, BEAUCHAMP SOLICITORS

“In all our years of annual conferences, Francesca is the first speaker to receive a standing ovation! Francesca had told us Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - this young woman has it in abundance! Pearls of wisdom flowed from her mouth and her act was both hilarious and inspirational. A refreshingly different take on comedy, she wise-cracks her way through prejudice and disability. A big-hearted lady with a zest for life, from whom everyone could learn a lesson.”

— INNER WHEEL OF GREAT BRITAIN

“Francesca was a great success and I have received very good feedback from our staff.”

— ACCENTURE

“It was a real pleasure to have Francesca perform at UBS last night. Her approach to life is very refreshing and her humour is absolutely hilarious. The impact she had on everyone was powerful and unforgettable. The event sold out all of its 600 tickets in just 27 seconds which is a record - we are already planning on having her back.”

— UBS

“Francesca presented a powerfully articulate, inspirational, refreshingly honest and politically incorrect, highly humourous, frank, sensitive self-portrait, that challenged, educated and entertained a captivated audience of delegates.”

— COOMBE WOMEN AND INFANTS UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, DUBLIN

“When I invited Francesca Martinez to speak to a group of second year undergraduates as part of a communications module, I was hoping for a different approach to the topic. I was not disappointed. The session was well received by the students, thoroughly enjoyed by all and fulfilled all the learning objectives. The session also reinforced my belief that humour enhances learning. Any effect will be long lasting and influence the students long after leaving the theatre. It was an education in itself.”

— ST. GEORGE'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

“The seminar was a success - thanks in no small way to Francesca’s fantastic performance; on which we got great feedback.”

— HOLOHAN LEISURE GROUP

“Francesca went down a storm! She got the first standing ovation for a speaker at the REaSoN Conference!!”

— REaSoN NEONATAL CONFERENCE

“We were delighted to invite Francesca to perform her Comedy as part of our Diversity Week activities, this being the 3rd year we have had a comedy night during the week. Francesca gave us a really entertaining night with her insight and made people really think about the person rather than the disability. We laughed along with her and came out all the better for being more disability aware. Employees are still talking about her - weeks after her performance!”

CITI GROUP

“Thank you so much to Francesca. She was just perfect for the event - she pitched it all just right and seemed so lovely. She was very inspirational, SO naturally funny (and VERY beautiful!).”

— GENERATE

“It was fantastic to have Francesca at today’s event. Her speech was brilliant and perfectly pitched for the audience and the cast. She had some truly inspiring words. It was a real honour to have her.”

— FULL HOUSE THEATRE

“It was sensational! Francesca is a brilliant speaker- very inspiring and funny... Even as she was leaving, students were coming up to her to say how much they enjoyed the talk.”

— THE KING'S HOSPITAL (SCHOOL), DUBLIN

“Francesca’s talk was absolutely fantastic, a massive hit with the delegates. She was most certainly the topic of conversation and left everyone with food for thought!”

— BRITISH ASSOCIATION OF PROSTHETISTS AND ORTHOTISTS

“Francesca was the perfect host for the evening, handling everything like a real pro. Guests were thrilled to have her there and the feedback has been really good.”

— NATIONAL FUNDRAISING AWARDS

“Francesca was amazing and the perfect end to the conference. Everyone loved her. I think she was a very important voice for an audience of Paediatricians to hear.”

— LONDON SCHOOL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

“Francesca was an incredible speaker and our staff were really impacted by her presentation. She is the perfect speaker for medical professionals and her message will have a deep effect on the way we approach difference.”

— PRINCESS ELIZABETH HOSPITAL - GUERNSEY

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“human diversity is beautiful... It’s what makes us grow and learn and adapt. progress is fuelled by difference.”

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