Book James Marr to speak
Speaking
Book James to speak
Fourteen years of teaching people to build things with their own hands — in workshops, in schools, and inside prisons. James speaks about materials, making, and what actually changes behaviour.
He is an engineer first, a founder second, and still teaches every cohort himself. Talks are built on the actual programme — its evidence, its failures and what it cost to learn — not on a slide about purpose.
Talks he gives
Four things worth an hour
Sustainability & materials
Grown, not mined
Why a fast-growing grass that regrows from root stock and can be worked with hand tools beats a lighter spec sheet — and how choosing a material changes who is allowed to build.
Justice & second chances
If it works inside a prison, it works anywhere
What Build to Bond taught us about engagement, dropout and dignity: 90%+ course completion, accredited outcomes, and why the programme calls its learners Makers.
Business model
A social enterprise that pays for itself
Selling the craft rather than the product. How public kit sales in 45 countries and corporate team builds fund accredited skills places in schools and prisons.
Design & education
Teaching people to make, not to buy
Fourteen years of workshop design, 180+ classes, and what it takes to get someone with no experience to finish a bicycle frame they trust enough to ride.
Formats
However it fits your programme
The ground it stands on
Evidence, not assertion
James has given talks and joined panel discussions in museums, guest-lectured at universities, and co-ordinated projects with UCL. Bamboo Bicycle Club work has been exhibited at the Design Museum in London and at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, and the prison programme was featured by the Financial Times in September 2025.
“Innovative projects, such as Build to Bond, support rehabilitation and help people leave prison as better citizens, boosting the economy and keeping our streets safe.”
Lord Timpson · UK Prisons Minister, 2024–2026
Enquire
Tell us the audience, the date and the format you have in mind. If a hands-on build would land better than a talk, say so — that is often the stronger option.