Australian Corporate MC - Andrew Coorey

Andrew Coorey has been busy as an MC in the corporate event market since 2001 and has worked for all sorts of clients in most Australian capital cities and in Britain and Asia.

He is especially strong in commanding a room, in keeping an event on pace, and using humour to keep an audience engaged. He is an excellent interviewer of VIP guests and has the ability to gauge the focus of the room and to edit accordingly.

Before making a living on a microphone Andrew spent ten years exploiting his economics degree, mostly working for Macquarie Bank, so he is in his element dealing with high-end corporate audiences. (He has worked with and for several CEOs of major listed corporations). Andrew left banking to complete several courses at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and has worked off and on for Radio 2UE since 1999 (including on-air and most recently writing for John Laws in his last year on air).

In the last several years Andrew has worked for many event managers, for several financial institutions especially his former employer Macquarie Bank, for stadiums like SCG/SFS and Telstra Stadium, and for charities such as Centacare, The Primary Club, Marist Youth Care and many others.

Andrew’s special ability as an interviewer and moderator has seen him hired in London and Hong Kong for events like the Ashes cricket and the Hong Kong 7s, and he has been hired by the organisers of Rugby World Cup to host events in both 2003 and 2007.

Knowing the questions

The key to interviewing someone is not in knowing the answers but in knowing the questions: anticipating what the audience are curious about.

While sporting related interviews are very prominent on Andrew’s CV this probably says more about the corporate entertainment market than it does about Andrew’s skills: as a sports interviewer he is an interviewer first and a sports fan second….as a result he has never said to a sporting personality “ You guys played a pretty hard one tonight….”.

Andrew has interviewed chefs, winemakers, musicians, artists and corporate figures as well as senior sports managers like the heads of all the major football codes in Australia and the head of the Australian Olympic Committee.

At all times Andrew distinguishes himself from his competitors by

listening to the answers to his questions
allowing the guest to be the star
listening to the room and gauging their attention span
having humour constantly available to maximise the entertainment
having the ability to improvise where needed
not accepting engagements where he cannot make a real difference