Conferences and events – picking business speakers

Choosing the right business speaker for an event or conference can be a daunting task, particularly when you are organising an event for hundreds, if not thousands of people. The event or conference will often be successul based on picking the right speaker.

Matching the business speaker to your audience.

It is of the utmost important that your business speaker matches your audience. If you are targeting a business audience, its important to purvey a professional message and image. Which means the speaker's speech must be tailored accordingly. Beneficial to both event organiser and audience, a targeted speech is vital for the success of an event. A business speaker that specialises in sales speeches is going to be very beneficial for your sales team. A technical support team on the other hand, won't find a sales speaker of much use to their skillset.

Keep your audience interested

Most audiences wont walk out half way through a speech out of politeness. The audience will sit and suffer during a boring speech. And at half time, they will be escaping through the bathroom windows! It's very important therefore to keep your audience's interest. Your guests might be nodding their heads and keeping eyecontact during a boring speech, but are they really listening. Keeping concentration is particularly important when trying to sell a product, or if you are trying to motivate your staff. Keeping them interested with a good speech and good visual aids will keep their concentration levels up. The question as to whether to involve the audience is a tricky one. How many speeches have you been to where you have had to participate, and have been terrified of being called on stage. However audience participation if done properly will keep the audience on their toes.

Do your research on the speaker

Keeping audience captivated is the skill of a good keynote speaker. There are different types of business speakers from entrepreneurs, to sales and marketing gurus. A lot of speakers will have published a book to compliment their work. Why not read their book and find out all about them? Approach a professional speakers agency like Speakers Associates for help and advice.

Broadcast your message and profit from it

Since business speakers don't come cheap its very important to at least cover your expenses. Visual and written materials will help get your message across if you are training staff. What have your staff learnt from the event? Ask them. Following on from the speech, setting action plans- three points or more with deadlines on acting them can positively help employees. Progress only will be made if deadlines are set. If you are using the event to sell to businesses, follow up and call them. Ask for their honest feedback.

Get feedback on the business speaker

Compiling feedback on a business speaker is absolutely vital. If you are putting on a series of events or conferences, do you want to repeat the same mistakes? Find out what parts of the speech went down well. Which bits of the speech bored your guests to sleep? You’ll be surprised the honest feedback you can find on a speaker when surveys are anonymous too!

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