Billie Jordan

After surviving an abusive childhood and repeated trauma in the deadly Christchurch Earthquake in 2011, Billie Jordan used these experiences and leadership skills to bring a sense of purpose and joy to the lives of the senior citizens in her community on Waiheke Island - a small island off the East Coast of New Zealand. Billie established The Hip Op-eration Crew; a hip hop dance group consisting of 27 members aged 74 to 95 years old. As their leader, and with high expectations of her team, she gave her elderly dance group the audacious goal of being good enough, in just eight months time, to perform at the World Hip Hop Championships in Las Vegas. With no background in dance, hip hop or working with the elderly; and with a team of dancers whose average age was 80 (with many members who were blind, deaf, disabled or had dementia), she had her work cut out for her. In her presentation Billie discusses her personal story, leadership skills to achieve a change in a team's mindset, her belief in people of all ages reaching a seemingly impossible goal, the obstacles her group faced, and the tight relationship they formed with the only group of people who supported them on their journey - a group of young street dancers from Otara (the Bronx of New Zealand). Billie shares the leadership skills you can use to transform even the most challenging team. Against all odds and with strong leadership, togetherness and a belief that people can achieve peak performance at any age, they made it to the World Hip Hop Championships and into the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest dance crew on the planet. Billie's unique presentation is heart-warming and shows, with the right leadership skills, anything is possible for any team. Billie was awarded a Queens Honour in 2016, was New Zealand Woman of the Year in 2016/2017 and won the New Zealander of the Year award in the Local Hero category in 2015. She has spoken at prestigious events around the globe including Scotland, Canada and Australia and has delivered a Ted Talk to critical acclaim. She is the star of an award winning feature documentary film Hip Hop-eration, which has screened in cinemas all over the world, and now Hollywood plan on making her story into a block buster movie. Through her story telling Billie creates a strong connection to her audience through her authenticity, vulnerability, courage and great sense of humour. She's a keynote speaker no-one ever forgets!

If your audience don't give her a standing ovation at the end, they'll be the first audience not to do so!

Presentation Duration Billie prefers to speak for 45 minutes with another 10 minutes to teach the audience some fun hip hop dance moves from their seats and another 5-10 minutes for Questions and Answers (60 mins total). However, if you are pressed for time. Billie can speak for just 35 minutes.