Sabrina Chevannes Keynote Speaker

International Chess Master
Highest ever ranked black player in the UK and the only black female master
Entrepreneur and Founder of N0BS - a members’ club for fellow entrepreneurs

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Sabrina Chevannes's Biography

Sabrina Chevannes is an International Chess Master and holds 10 British chess titles to her name. She’s the highest ever ranked black player in the UK and the only black female master.

She has represented England in multiple chess Olympiads and European Team Championships and is often a chess consultant for TV shows. She coaches chess all over the world with many previous students going on to become chess masters themselves.

Sabrina’s book – “The Batsford Book of Chess for Children” is a bestselling children’s book and is published in over twenty different languages all over the world. She also hosts “Chess for Business” strategy workshops.

Alongside her chess ventures, Sabrina is a serial entrepreneur who is ambitiously always trying to achieve greatness. She currently runs 4 companies, all with the goal to help small business owners and other entrepreneurs. She runs N0BS – a members’ club for highly ambitious entrepreneurs, which also has an in-house creative agency – the No Bullsh*t Agency. Over the last decade she has had the privilege to work with high profile clients such as NATO, Sony and the NHS.

Sabrina runs TEDxShoreditch and is an international public speaker herself, gracing the stage in 12 different countries. She is also the self-development leader at Forbes, a podcaster and an MBA lecturer.

Dealing with everyday sexism and racism

As a black woman in business, I sadly experience a lot of sexism and racism and it’s still not easy to handle. When do you call it out? When do you just ignore it? Will it ever stop if you ignore it? How do you deal with unfair rejections and mistreatment? I explain how I’ve navigated my way through a minefield of negativity to get to where I am today and how others can do so without it affecting their mental health, their confidence and sabotaging their careers.

Using chess and poker strategy in business

Chess is often thought of as THE strategy game and in business, there are so many comparisons to chess. However, poker is actually more like life than chess and has incredible, transferable skills in business. As an International Chess Master and international poker player, I show you how you can use skills from these games and apply them in different scenarios. I challenge people to solve business problems as if they were a chess puzzle and open up their eyes to the possibilities of thinking about things in a different way.

The importance of DEI and not just tokenism

While DEI seems to be on every company’s agenda these days, very few actually take it seriously. Many are not aware of just how important it actually is and how detrimental to a company it can be if there isn’t enough diversity. I am currently doing a doctorate research on this topic and share stories of companies who have made serious mistakes or who have benefitted from diversity. As someone who is black, female and neurodiverse, I can talk about what is needed to be truly inclusive.

Digital Sustainability

Sustainability is a buzzword at the moment and many companies have ESG goals that they want to achieve. However, people are neglecting digital sustainability. There are so many ways that we can be reducing our carbon footprint through digital activities. While the carbon saved may seem small in comparison to other things, when you add them up, they’re huge! I highlight what businesses and individuals can do to make a big difference and explain the importance of low-carbon websites and how our agency wrote the guide on how to build low-carbon websites that is being used by website developers all over the world.

Going from homeless to homeowner in 18 months

I once reached rock bottom and found myself with nowhere to live, hiding out in my storage unit. I had to work so hard on my mindset in order to get myself out of this hole and turned it around so that I bought my dream home within 18 months. I did this during a pandemic and while on crutches, unable to walk for most of the time.