One of the most important questions to ask before you book a guest speaker for your event is:
What message do you want the speaker to convey to your audience?
Using a speaker can add value in communicating your key message and get more people to actually take notice. Your message might be influenced by a number of factors, mainly the target audience – their age, experience, position within your organisation, etc. Usually there is a motivational message of sorts to be delivered, but choosing who best to deliver it is another matter altogether. Once you have identified your message, you then have to try and find the most suitable speaker to deliver the message to your audience. This itself can be a very difficult task, so where do you start?
First of all, talk to colleagues and people you trust to see if they can recommend somebody from personal experience. You could also contact two or three specialist speaker bureaus and discuss with them your requirements. Broadly speaking there are three types of speaker:
The Entertaining speaker – typically they will be motivational, amusing and make the audience feel good.
The Celebrity speaker – somebody with a recognisable name for something which they have achieved in their life.
Entertaining and Celebrity speakers can often be seen at award dinners, charity days, hospitality functions – where people have specifically paid to attend the event and hear them speak about their experiences.
The Specialist speaker – this is somebody who has actual useful information to share with the audience. They will have specialist knowledge or experience that people can learn from and will make them more interesting to the audience. Specialist speakers tend to speak at business or industry events to a more targeted audience.
Some speakers fall into two of the above categories as they are able to adapt to clients needs.
Once you have identified some potential speakers there are some additional important questions to ask before making your decision:
- What specific experience do they have working within your sector and being able to deliver your message?
- How prepared is the speaker to customise their presentation to meet your requirements?
- How interactive and entertaining is the message?
- What is their fee and what does this actually include?
- Finally, don’t forget to check if they are available on the date you require!
- If you are looking for a speaker to present at your next event, we have worked with a number of very successful business entrepreneurs and gurus, professional speakers specialising in marketing, online business strategies, dealing with the media, negotiation techniques, networking, presentation techniques, customer service and many more topics, plus we have connections with the speaker bureaus themselves.
Follow some of these simple guidelines and booking a guest speaker could be the best investment you make for your event!