Corporate event host · Compere · Seminars, conventions, awards nights
A seminar is not remembered for its slides but for the energy that links them. Hugo Marceau hosts your day as a compere and a mentalist: he opens the programme, introduces the speakers, holds the timing and the room between sessions, and closes with a prediction written in front of everyone that morning. In English and French.
In one paragraph
A corporate event host is the person who turns a sequence of presentations into one event, one day with a shape. He welcomes the delegates, launches the programme, introduces the speakers, manages the transitions, keeps the clock and carries the theme from the first word to the last. Hosting a seminar means holding a room of fifty to several hundred people for hours, absorbing what goes wrong without the room noticing, and giving a professional event a rhythm and a warmth no slide deck produces. Hugo Marceau does that job as a mentalist, which means he reads the energy of the room the way he reads a thought, and adjusts.
How the day is hosted
01 · Opening
The room is full, cold and checking its phones. Hugo opens with a short piece of mentalism on the delegates themselves, states the theme of the day and writes a prediction that is sealed in front of everyone. The promise is simple: today, something is going to happen. People put the phones down.
02 · Through the day
Each speaker is introduced with the right energy and the right facts. Transitions between plenary, workshops, breaks and networking are written, not improvised. A speaker overruns: the host recovers the minutes elsewhere. The after-lunch slump arrives on schedule: a two-minute interactive moment wakes the room without touching anyone's slot.
03 · Closing
Where an ordinary compere says "that's the end of the day, safe travels", the mentalist opens the morning's envelope. What the room said, chose and decided during the day is already written inside, and it echoes the message your leadership wanted remembered. That is the moment people talk about at the office on Monday.
Host, compere, keynote speaker
Why a mentalist as host
The energy of a room is a curve. High but cold in the morning, the dip after lunch, fatigue at the end of the day. Hugo's trade is reading and directing attention, so he knows when to lift the room, when to let a silence work, when to trigger a shared laugh before a key announcement. The interactive moments are real mentalism, written around your theme: a prediction that echoes the strategy, a demonstration with the managers on stage, an effect that carries the figure of the year.
A conventional presenter gets through the programme. A mentalist host gives it a shape people remember. The delegates leave with the content and with an experience, and the hosting becomes the part of the day the company talks about for months.
Which events need a host
A full day, sometimes two: opening, speakers, workshops, breaks, closing. The host carries the theme of the event, holds the clock and keeps the room awake. For the evening, the same performer can give the after-dinner show: one brief, one contact, one thread from nine in the morning to midnight.
Categories, nominees, envelopes and a room that wants to dance. A compere who keeps the ceremony moving, respects every winner and adds a sealed prediction about the evening that is opened at the end. The pace of a ceremony is the host's job; the emotion is the winners'.
The message is the point: targets, a new organisation, a product. The host makes it land by weaving it into the moments of the day, so that the figure the board wanted remembered is the one the mentalist reveals at the close. See the conference entertainment page for the plenary, break and dinner slots.
International delegations: hosted in English and French, switching on stage. Agencies and production companies will find the formats, technical needs and logistics on the page for event planners.
Where
Hugo is based in Lyon, two hours by train from Paris, an hour from Geneva, Lausanne and Montreux, and an hour by air from Nice, Cannes and Monaco, where many international conventions and incentive seminars are held. Corporate events elsewhere in Europe are hosted on request; everything needed fits in cabin luggage. The wider offer is on the corporate event entertainment page; for the strategy behind it, see experiential marketing.
Tailor-made for your programme
Fees on request. Every proposal is tailored to the length of the programme, the preparation, the languages and the travel involved.
Prefer to talk first? +33 6 88 61 29 00, WhatsApp welcome, English and French.
Before you enquire
The host is the one voice the room hears all day. He welcomes the delegates, opens the programme, introduces each speaker, manages the transitions between plenary sessions, workshops, breaks and networking, keeps the timing in real time and brings the energy back after lunch and at the end of the afternoon. Done well, the job is almost invisible: people simply remember that the event flowed. Done badly, or not at all, they remember the gaps.
A keynote speaker delivers expert content in one slot, then leaves the stage. A compere links the sequences and introduces the people who speak. A corporate event host does what the compere does and takes responsibility for the collective energy across the whole programme: the thread, the timing, the room. In practice the roles combine: expert speakers for the content, one host to carry the day.
Yes. Hugo hosts in English and French and switches between the two on stage, which suits international seminars and conventions with mixed delegations. The mentalism moments need no language at all: a thought read on stage is understood by everyone in the room.
From your programme. A call to understand the objective of the day, the theme and the tone of the company, then a running order written together: who speaks when, which transitions need lifting, where the breaks fall, which message has to be remembered. Hugo arrives early on the day for the technical check and a word with each speaker before they go on.
No. The interactive moments live inside the transitions, where the room would otherwise be waiting: an opening effect that sets the promise of the day, short moments between sessions, and a prediction written in front of everyone in the morning and revealed at the close. The speakers keep every minute of their slots.
Fees are quoted on request and depend on the length of the programme, the preparation it needs, the languages and the travel involved. One tailored proposal within one business day, with a single all-inclusive figure and the running order built around your day.
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