MC & Speaker

IAN COVER is a founding member of the ABC Radio team, the Coodabeen Champions. In 2012, the Coodabeens are broadcasting the 32nd season of their ever-popular Aussie Rules footy program, surely a record for Australian radio.

As well as his role with the Coodabeens, Ian is renowned for his professional and entertaining work as an MC at corporate, charity and sporting events. His radio background assists him to get the best out of guests in interview situations while his experience in the media, sport and entertainment industries has provided Ian with a wealth of stories of his own which he can share with audiences as a guest/keynote speaker. His anecdotes and observations are delivered with his trademark bright and humorous style.

Ian has forged strong relationships with many businesses and organisations who engage his services on a regular basis. Heading the list is Cricket Victoria where he has been in-house MC for two decades and played a key role in establishing the Lindsay Hassett Club as Melbourne's premier corporate sports luncheon. He has also acted as resident compere of the Pivots coterie at the Geelong Football Club for more than 20 years and has hosted many of the Cats' major functions.

It’s all part of a career which started for Ian as a cadet journalist at the Geelong Advertiser where he worked for five years before he moving to the Herald and Weekly Times as a show business reporter. He went on to write for all Melbourne's daily and weekend papers as well as writing columns for sports magazines.

As an author, Ian has written two books with the Coodabeens and a best seller about the 1993 Ashes series with former Australian Test cricket star Merv Hughes. Apart from his radio work with the Coodabeens, Ian has worked in breakfast radio in tandem with John Blackman on 3UZ and with John "Sam" Newman and Darren James on 3AW.

Ian's television credits are headed by hosting Footy Focus on Optus-TV and appearing as a regular guest on Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton.

A long-time unofficial ambassador for his hometown Geelong, Ian formalised that role in 1996 when he was elected as the Member for Geelong Province in the Victorian Parliament. Following his defeat in the November 2002 election, Ian returned to media and public speaking work.

He was quickly in demand again as an MC and speaker at lunches, dinners, sports nights, corporate events and charity functions. His charity work extends to ambassadorial roles with the EJ Whitten Foundation, the Women’s Cancer Foundation and SecondBite Food Recovery.

A sample of Ian's corporate clients include: Shell, Mobil, Telstra, Ford, Holden, Honda, Nissan, Herald-Sun, NAB, ANZ Private Bank, Macquarie Bank, Price Waterhouse Coopers, PPB Advisory, KPMG, Skandia, BMW, Mitre 10, National Foods, CUB, Nestle, British Airways, Gillette, Powercor, Henri Lloyd and many more.

Away from work, Ian spends time with his wife Lydia and two daughters Coco (20) and Olympia (16), plays golf and the occasional social cricket match. He has also run three marathons with a PB of 3.05:16

Presentation Topics Include

• Media, sport and entertainment
• Comedic musical performance
• Radio and broadcast

Testimonials

Excellent. Ian was terrific. Professional, and easy to work with. He ensured the evening ran smoothly.
Master Locksmiths Association of Australasia

"Ian was great, so many funny stories to share with the audience and covering so many different topics. The audience were loving every minute of Ian and his tall tales! Ian was extremely generous with his time with all of guests which was very kind of him".
- Narelle Paige, Atelstan Villa Maria

“Ian is a great MC - very entertaining and enjoyable. Ian has the ability to throw in the occasional comment in relation to whatever topic/subject is being discussed at the time and manages to generate humour and entertainment from it. During the course of the presentations, Ian also found ways to throw in references to previous comments made on the night also adding humour to the evening and various presentations. Ian is very personable and easy to get along with - he even helped me rip out raffle tickets for our raffle! - not many people hired for such a function would do such a thing. I found Ian to be a complete delight. We will definitely be wanting to secure Ian for our next year’s Annual Dinner and Awards Night as soon as we confirm a date.”
A.G. Coombs

“Ian has worked as our MC for two years and we have found him to be extremely professional and helpful to work with - we appreciate the way he handled the crowd which can get very noisy at time."
National Electrical Contractors Association

“Excellent. Very professional, and easy to work with. Made a great MC and teamed up together with Greg Champion for a very entertaining act.”
Property Council of Australia

“Excellent. Ian Cover did a great job and entertained/mingled with clients.”
ANZ Private Bank

‘There was much laughter both during Ian's presentation and during question time. Our clients enjoyed themselves.”
PWC Services

“Excellent. Ian was just fantastic. We could not have wished for a better MC.”
ADAPS Pty Ltd

“Excellent. Ian was a pleasure to deal with, very friendly and approachable with nothing being too much trouble. He efficiently and professionally anchored our feature event on the day, contributing significantly to its success.”
Country Racing Victoria

Ian is always professional and a pleasure to work with.
Property Council of Australia (Vic Division)

“We really enjoy having Ian Cover as our MC – he is very professional and handles the noisy crow extremely well.”
NECA

“Ian is very easy to work with and does a brilliant job ! We've already booked him again for next year !!”
A.G. Coombs

“Excellent - as always Ian has the wonderful ability to read his audience and MC accordingly.He always does a perfect job with great wit and humour.”
Minter Ellison

“Ian was very entertaining and kept our audience laughing throughout the evening. He was very flexible, easy to deal with and cleverly interacted with our other speaker Brendan McCartney by presenting “interview style” questions to Brendan about the Geelong Football Club.”
Patrick Rowan & Associates

“Excellent. Very professional and worked to the audience with great professionalism.”
Municipal Works Officers Association 

Ian made a real effort to understand and relate to the audience. He personalized his performance to the group and made sure everything ran on-time. An excellent MC.
-Galvanizers Association of Australia