After Dinner SpeakersDr Matt Todd is a keynote speaker and former hostage negotiator specialising in communication, negotiation, leadership and performing under pressure.
A former police hostage and crisis negotiator, Matt spent almost two decades working directly with people in acute crisis – where trust had broken down, emotion was high and lives were at risk.
Across a 30+ year policing career with the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) and Greater Manchester Police, he deployed to hundreds of incidents including suicide interventions, hostage and barricade sieges, kidnap, extortion, complex international cases and terrorist incidents.
He later led the UK National and International Hostage & Crisis Negotiation Programme, designing and delivering specialist training for police and military negotiators.
He completed the FBI Hostage Negotiator Programme at Quantico and undertook PhD research into negotiation during marauding terrorist attacks.
Matt Todd – Hostage Negotiator Speaker:
On stage, Matt Todd translates rare operational experience into practical ways to listen more accurately, understand behaviour, manage difficult conversations and create movement when pressure distorts communication.
His Behavioural Listening™ framework grew from years of working with people in crisis and helps audiences notice what is driving the person in front of them – not simply wait for their turn to speak.
Speaking Titles by Matt Todd:
WHEN EVERY WORD MATTERS
Communication Under Pressure:
Matt takes audiences inside real-life, at-risk conversations and shows what helps people think, listen and respond when emotion is high, and information is incomplete.
The session explores how pressure narrows judgement, why premature persuasion fails and how careful listening creates the conditions for movement.
BEHAVIOURAL LISTENING™
What we miss when we think we are listening:
Developed from years of operational negotiation, Behavioural Listening™ examines the filters, assumptions and internal noise that shape what we hear.
Matt gives audiences a practical way to look beneath a position, understand what may be driving behaviour and influence ethically without forcing.
THE SPACE BETWEEN PANIC AND HOPE
Difficult conversations when emotion is high:
Drawing on suicide interventions and complex crisis incidents, Matt explores what it takes to remain present when logic alone is not enough.
This is a thoughtful, humane session about language, patience, silence and the disciplined work of keeping a difficult conversation alive.
