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Conor Woodman
Conor Woodman, star of Around the World in 80 Trades will be speaking at Destinations - don't miss him on
TV star of Around the World in 80 Trades worked in finance for Ernst & Young but now invests in property and bonds at home
Conor Woodman is a former City analyst who gave it all up to travel the world and make money by trading goods. He sold his property and used £25,000 of the proceeds to kick-start his journey through 13 countries, filmed by Channel 4.
Economist Conor Woodman decided to test his negotiating skills, charm and eye for a bargain against some of the world's oldest trading cultures. He sold his house to finance the trip, but were his hunches right - trading Sudanese camels for Zambian coffee, coffee for South African red wine and then off to China to buy jade with the proceeds – did he, as he originally believed return six months later with a lot of money, some new friends and a whole raft of brilliant tall tales?
Whether trading teak or tea, surfboards or seafood, Conor went head-to-head with the best operators in the world's most hotly-contested markets. But did years of experience as a business analyst mean anything when he was suspected of being a spy? And did London's financial bear pit prepare him for a horde of vodka-fuelled horse traders on the plains of central Asia? Part undercover economist, part apprentice challenge, Around the World in 80 Trades offered an exciting insight into the human story behind the money in our pockets, and reminded us that making a living is about exactly that - living.
The Adventure Capitalist
Conor finds that the world is not dominated by big business in the way he believed and millions of people are busy maintaining livelihoods through personal connections, local knowledge and by enjoying extensive and often very satisfying bouts of haggling. Face-to-face with real goods in the world's oldest markets he must utilize his charm and an eye for an opening to see if he can make a profit against the odds, honing his skills for sales and negotiation in some pretty alien situations for a City economist.
In our credit crunched times we can all use some reminding of the key rules of negotiation:
• Discover the dark arts of haggling from the carpet merchants of Marrakech
• Learn what the ancient camel markets of Sudan can teach us about the current banking crisis
• Find out how to be a tough negotiator from the horse traders of central Asia
• Knowledge is everything when it comes to selling South African hot chilli sauce to India
• How a personal endorsement from Mexico’s ‘The Masked Surfer’ helped ensure a big profit on inflatable boogie boards in Acapulco
