Viviane Forest

Viviane Forest

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Edmonton, Alberta

Gold Medalist, Paralympic Athlete and Overcoming Adversity Expert

Viviane Forest is one of Canada’s most decorated Paralympic athletes and an inspiring public speaker on topics of corporate, education & community events. Viviane Forest shares her real story of overcoming adversity to earn success, in a genuine, strong manner that motivate people to be active and reach for their goals and dreams.

VIVIANE FOREST BIOGRAPHY

Known as “The Falcon”, Viviane Forest is an inspiring public speaker at corporate, education and community events. Her presentations are genuine, strong, and they motivate people to be active and reach for their goals and dreams. In the past ten years, she has spoken to approximately 10,000 people in Quebec and Alberta. She is frequent presenter to corporate gatherings and often accepts speaking engagements for public events or fundraisers. She has experience speaking to small groups like a classroom or large conference gatherings as a keynote. Viviane’s keynote address, Failure is Not an Option appeals to many organizations because of her charm and ability to speak authoritatively in both French and English.

Viviane Forest can also facilitate team building sessions. Viviane Forest is a Triple Gold Medal Paralympian of 2000, 2004 and 2010. Viviane is one of Canada’s most decorated Paralympic athletes. After a nine-year career as a member of the national Goalball team, she now competes for Canada in Para-Alpine skiing. Viviane Forest has seven Paralympic medals from three different Paralympic Games. Viviane was born in Montreal but now calls Edmonton home. She has been in competitive sports since the age of four. Viviane played hockey and ringette, participated in karate, judo, track and field, cycling and provincial level swimming.

The one thing that differentiates Viviane from other athletes is that she has only 4% of normal vision. Yet she excels at the highest possible levels. Viviane Forest races down the ski slopes, with her guide, at speeds over 100 km/hr. They use a two-way radio system, trust and confidence to prevail on the slopes of the world. At the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, Viviane won medals in all five alpine race disciplines: a Gold in the prestigious Downhill, three Silvers in Super-G, Slalom and Super Combined and a Bronze in Giant Slalom. With two Paralympic gold medals won in Goalball at the Sydney 2000 and the Athens 2004 Paralympic Summer Games.

Viviane has become one of a few female high performance athletes in the world to win gold medals in both summer and winter Paralympic or Olympic Games. Recently Viviane Forest has national recognition for her sporting accomplishments: Canadian Paralympic Committee inaugural Debut Award, and Alpine Canada TELUS Award of Excellence Breakthrough Athlete of the Year. In addition to her sport accomplishments, the community also is lucky to Viviane as a leader and role model. She is the recipient of the Edmonton’s Salute to Excellence (October 2010), and The Global Woman of Vision (May 2010).

Viviane’s story is stunning and captivating. Her five-medal podium finish at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games had her collecting over 25% of Canada’s medals while injured. Her tenacious determination and commitment to her dreams create a humourous and intense story, sure to inspire. Between training and competing, Viviane is an inspiring public speaker at corporate and community events. Her presentations are genuine, strong, and they motivate people to be active and reach for their goals and dreams. In the past ten years, she has spoken to approximately 10,000 people across Canada.

She frequently speaks at corporate gatherings and often accepts speaking engagements for public events or fundraisers. Forest has experience speaking to small groups like a classroom or board meeting and large conference gatherings in convention centres.

Videos

Podcasts

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Viviane Forest Topic Presentations

failure is not an option

  • Keynote Presentation
  • Viviane Forest’s keynote address, Failure is Not an Option will leave a positive impact on your audience. Every audience members will take home a message of personal growth and the dream to aspire to excellence. She will motivate each audience member to set personal and professional goals. Join Viviane Forest to explore her journey to greatness. Many of us will never visit an Olympic podium, yet Viviane has conquered the podium seven times. You can conquer your own podium too!

    Although Viviane was born visually impaired with less than 5% of her vision, her story shares many moments of defeat and a lifetime of triumph. Diagnosed with Albinism, RP, and a learning disability, Viviane will joke with you how she, “hit the jackpot!”. Share in the journey of one who truly overcomes all odds. Her self-awareness, dogged determination, and ability to charm with her humour win her audiences over every time.

    Viviane delivers a sincere portrayal of everyone’s true human potential. Through Viviane’s story feel inspired to fulfill your own dreams and believe in yourself no matter what. Viviane will truly touch participants with a message of building a team through communication, active listening and trust. Her message is universal; it applies to everyone regardless of past failures, shortcomings and current ability levels.

     

Viviane Forest travels from Edmonton, Alberta & delivers customized and tailored keynote speeches, presentations, workshops and training sessions. on the topics enlisted below. These services are designed for a variety of audiences, industries, and event types and event formats.

Testimonials

What a Standing Ovation looks like: Thank you for joining us at our 2010 Annual Conference as a keynote presenter. Your presentation was engaging and entertaining, and I know that our members will truly benefit from your inspirational story.

Megan Archibald

Manager
Communications & Stakeholder Engagement, Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia

Viviane, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to share your incredible experiences with our athletes and many of your teammates – it really hit home for a lot of them and we look forward to working with you in future initiatives! The sport system would surely benefit from more athletes like you!

AthletesCAN

Athlete Forum 2010 Committee

J’ai eu le plaisir de travailler avec Viviane Forest au sein du Conseil d’administration de l’Association sportive des aveugles du Québec (ASAQ). J’attire votre attention sur l’engagement de Madame Forest. Elle a été conférencière-initiatrice dans la communauté ainsi que dans des écoles à l’intention de groupes d’élèves de niveaux primaire et secondaire. Elle a fait de la représentation lors d’événements tels que «Vision Extrême », la semaine de la canne blanche et le Congrès de la Fédération des éducateurs et éducatrices physiques enseignants du Québec (FÉÉPEQ). L’École Jacques-Ouellette lui a décerné un prix en juin 2001, lors de son retour des...

Robert Deschênes

Président
Association Sportive des Aveugles du Québec

It has also been my experience that Viviane is driven to experience excellence, not only in her sport but also in her personal life. I believe she is unstoppable when she decides what she wants. It is for these reasons that I have asked Viviane to address a large group of my colleagues on what it takes to achieve such a high level of success in a relatively short period. As a Canadian, I am extremely proud to know her based on the quality of her character, her stellar attitude and her strength & determination. She is a great example of being Canadian.

Deborah Cantin

Marketing Director
World Financial Group

Edmonton West has had Viviane Forest out to speak to our club in November 2010. She is an amazing speaker considering she has only been speaking English for a couple of years. Her presentation is touching and humourous, definitely worthwhile.

Edmonton West Rotary Club

Articles & Media

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Books

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How to book Viviane Forest for an event?

Viviane Forest keynote speaker is an expert presenter and has a wide range of experience speaking to a wide variety of audiences and organizations. Viviane Forest delivers keynotes, workshops & training sessions. They may also host or emcee events. Hire Viviane Forest from Edmonton, Alberta for your event to inspire the audience to take action and make change in their work and their lives. Your workplace will benefit from our keynote speaker and their keynote talks and speeches will shift the mindsets or behaviours for the audience members in Canada. 

Interested in booking Viviane Forest for an event?

Are you looking to hire Viviane Forest for your event? Viviane Forest Edmonton, Alberta is a dynamic and engaging speaker that offers audiences researched content paired with expertise and a dynamic speaking ability. Viviane Forest is also a Canadian corporate consultant and coach and facilitates workshops and training sessions for a corporate audience. Viviane Forest is an expert keynote presenter and speaks on wide variety of topics. Hiring a great speaker for your event is important and working with a thought leader like Viviane Forest from Speakers Canada's roster will engage audiences into the content of the presentation to bring awareness and a fresh perspective for their approach to their work and their lives. Book Viviane Forest to educate, motivate and activate the audience through an interactive and entertaining presentation at corporate meetings and gatherings.

Known as a popular key note speaker in Canada, Viviane Forest creates life changing experiences for the participants with practical insights and strategic advice they can implement right after the session. Working with a one our leading expert speaker like Viviane Forest from Edmonton, Alberta offers organizations a fresh perspective to assist the people of the organization. No matter if it is a government, association, or business crowd, Viviane Forest is a perfect speaker for your event. Through unique practical insights for trending topics and years experience speaking to different organizations, Viviane Forest focuses on changing individuals to make better decisions at work and their lives. No matter if you are holding an in person or virtual event, having an influential speaker such as Viviane Forest will engage, motivate, and activate the audience to make a change in their lives and inspire action for results to meet organizational goals. Your workforce will benefit from Viviane Forest's presentations and speeches, with measurable results set to shift the people of the organization and core direction of the company. Book Viviane Forest speaker for your annual general meeting, conference, summit, or convention in Canada.

How much does it cost to hire Viviane Forest for a keynote presentation or virtual event?

Viviane Forest is an expert professional key note speaker with a lot of experience speaking and delivering engaging talks to organizations and audiences in Canada. Each of Speaker Bureau Canada's talent have different ways to assess their fees, and Viviane Forest speaker fee ranges depending on the size of the audience, event format (in person or virtual), event location, and if the organization booking them is a non profit, association, government department/government agency or business/corporation. The speakers we work with are flexible with their fees, and it is important for us to learn more about your event before we approach them, as it is our role to work for you, and to help you find a speaker within budget. 

Please contact Speakers Bureau of Canada and provide us with your event details so that we can contact Viviane Forest to check availability or confirm the pricing and associated costs to hire a great speaker like Viviane Forest for your event. As Viviane Forest's agent and as a Canadian top speaker bureau and talent agency for speakers, we are able to propose each event opportunity from each host organization's behalf to try to help you get in touch with Viviane Forest and confirm them for your in person or online meeting/event. We can also provide and advise on the booking process and potentially negotiate their fee. Speakers Canada is a client focused speaker agency, and we work for you in finding good speakers for your team meetings and booking processes.

Viviane Forest Disclaimer

Speakers Bureau Canada assists companies and event planning teams seeking to hire talent like Viviane Forest for speaking engagements, virtual meetings, conference appearances, training sessions and workshops facilitations. Our Canadian speakers bureau does not claim to exclusively represent Viviane Forest, however they are represented by Speakers Canada, and we work with them closely for their Canadian speaking opportunities and bookings. As Canada's top speaker bureau, we represent Canadian motivational keynote speakers and professional guest speakers that will be available on your upcoming events date and location that are withing the budget. Our talented bureau speaker booking agency can help find business speakers or celebrity speakers that aligns with each organization, audience, event theme and the topic themes you hope for the speaker to address in their presentation. 

When SBC receives a request to book Viviane Forest we provide you with their speaker fees, travel costs and check their schedules. We work closely with the host organization's event planning team and the speaker to handle the logistics and to relay or negotiate associated costs. Our talented team members then will work with our talent directly or their agent/manager/assistant to confirm the Canadian speaker fee and travel expenses, so that event planning teams can receive an official quote for the speaker appearing at the event. Speaker fees and travel costs vary per speaker and our role is to contact Viviane Forest about your event, after we have connected with the event organizers to learn all the event details and/or conference program. Each booking request is unique since session durations and audience sizes can vary which may affect the speaker's fees. If you are looking to hire Viviane Forest, we recommend filling out the booking request form so a booking agent from Speakers Bureau Canada can get in touch with our talent to help you coordinate with your team to engage the speaker for a successful event.