Details for Presenters (WBECS)

A look back at how WBECS helped pioneer virtual coaching education:

A Look Back: When Virtual Coaching Events Changed the Industry

Well over a dozen years ago, the coaching industry reached an important turning point.

At a time when most professional development happened in hotel conference rooms, the World Business and Executive Coach Summit (WBECS) demonstrated that world-class coaching education could be delivered online to a global audience.

Hosted by Sherrie Rose, author of The Webinar Way, the event showcased how emerging webinar technology could be used to bring together internationally respected business and executive coaching experts while making professional development accessible to participants around the world.

Rather than asking coaches to travel across countries or continents, WBECS brought many of the world's leading business thinkers together in a single virtual event. It was an early example of large-scale online learning, long before virtual summits became commonplace.

One of the innovations introduced at the time was a pre-summit taster series. Instead of waiting for the main event, attendees could access a collection of short, practical presentations designed to deliver immediate value. These sessions followed a concise, presentation-focused format, emphasizing ideas and implementation rather than sales pitches.

The speaker lineup reflected the ambition of the event, featuring internationally recognized experts including:

• Verne Harnish, one of Fortune magazine's "Top 10 Minds in Small Business."
• Sir John Whitmore, a pioneer in leadership development and organizational change.
• Professor Vijay Govindarajan, recognized by Harvard Business Review as one of the world's leading strategic thinkers.
• Marshall Goldsmith, widely regarded as one of the most influential leadership thinkers of his generation.
• Alongside numerous respected business and executive coaching professionals from around the world.

The summit's mission was straightforward: to help business and executive coaches become more effective, create greater value for clients, and build stronger coaching businesses.

Looking back today, the event represents an important chapter in the evolution of professional education. It helped demonstrate that high-quality virtual learning could match—and in many cases exceed—the value of traditional conferences by making world-class expertise accessible regardless of geography or time zone.

Participant feedback consistently highlighted several themes:

• Exceptional caliber of speakers.
• Practical strategies that could be implemented immediately.
• Outstanding organization and delivery.
• Excellent value compared with traditional live conferences.
• Access to recordings that allowed learning to continue long after the event.

Many attendees reported that the ideas they learned directly improved both their coaching skills and their businesses, while others praised the ability to participate from anywhere in the world without the expense and inconvenience of travel.

The success of WBECS also helped validate webinars and virtual summits as legitimate platforms for professional education. What was once considered an experiment became a blueprint that countless industries would later adopt for conferences, training, certification programs, and global collaboration.

Long before virtual events became mainstream, Sherrie Rose authored The Webinar Way and became a sought-after Webinar Coach (webinarcoach.com). She was recognized for helping experts, organizations, and entrepreneurs create engaging, content-rich webinars that audiences genuinely valued while building profitable online education businesses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as Zoom and other video platforms rapidly expanded, Sherrie helped numerous nonprofit organizations launch and deliver effective webinar programs. As webinar technology became increasingly commoditized, with inexpensive platforms, AI-generated presentations, and automated production tools making it easier than ever to host online events, she chose to step away from webinar coaching. Her focus had always been on connection (Relationship Riches) strategy, audience engagement, and creating meaningful learning experiences rather than simply teaching the mechanics of webinar software.

Today, virtual conferences, online summits, and global coaching communities are an accepted part of professional development. Looking back, WBECS stands as one of the pioneering events that helped shape the future of online learning and the coaching profession.

In later years, the World Business and Executive Coach Summit (WBECS) was acquired by Coaching.com, formerly known as CoachLogix, a privately held company founded and led by Alex Pascal. The acquisition preserved one of the coaching industry's landmark virtual events and integrated its legacy into a platform dedicated to advancing coaching through technology, education, and professional development.

More than a decade later, WBECS remains an important milestone in the history of executive and business coaching. It demonstrated that geography no longer had to limit access to world-class expertise, opening the door to a new era of global learning that continues to influence coaches, consultants, leaders, and educators today.

Featured WBECS Presenters

• A. Drayton Boylston
• Ago Cluytens
• Aileen Gibb
• Andrea Lages
• Andrew Neitlich
• Ann Betz
• Barry Posner
• Brendon Burchard
• Brian Underhill
• Damian Goldvarg
• Daniel Pink
• Darren Hardy
• Darren Robson
• David Allen
• David Horsager
• David Rock
• Dave Ulrich
• Donna Steinhorn
• Dorothy E. Siminovitch
• Doug McKinley
• Frances Hesselbein
• Gary Henson
• Georgia Kartsanis
• Grant Soosalu
• Hendre Coetzee
• Howard Morgan
• Ian Brodie
• Ian Day
• James Flaherty
• Jane Creswell
• Janet Harvey
• Jayne Warrilow
• Jennifer Wallace
• Jeremy Ridge
• Jim Kouzes
• Joelle K Jay
• John Bennett
• John Blakey
• John Leary Joyce
• John Maxwell
• Joseph O'Connor
• Judith Glaser
• Julie Maloney
• Karen Kimsey-House
• Karl Corbett
• Katherine Tulpa
• Krishna Kumar
• Laura Belsten
• Lisa Anne Edwards
• Lisa Bloom
• Lise Lewis
• Marshall Goldsmith
• Marvin Oka
• Mary Beth O'Neill
• Michael Bungay Stanier
• Myles Downey
• Natalie Tucker Miller
• Pamela McLean
• Patrick Williams
• Peter Hawkins
• Philippe Rosinski
• Priscilla Gill
• Renee Freedman
• Richard Barrett
• Shirzad Chamine
• Susan Meyer
• Taki Moore
• Verne Harnish
• Vishen Lakhiani
• Wayne Hammond

← Back to Sherrie Rose Coaching Summit