You need to make sure you know what you want to achieve when booking a professional speaker.
To find motivational, inspirational, and professional business speakers in Australia, click here to search our database of speakers.
You need to make sure you know what you want to achieve when booking a professional speaker.
You must have your end results in mind so that you don’t unnecessarily engage a speaker. If you are part of a team, get everyone together for a brainstorming session. You may find an in-house speaker will suffice or you may realise you don’t require a speaker whatsoever.
Don’t allow yourself or your team to lean towards someone who may not suit the engagement just because you or someone else has a personal liking of the speaker. Don’t fall into the trap of going for the big draw card when you may simply require a business speaker with a lower profile, but who can deliver results. You don’t want your delegates to later comment that the speaker was very interesting, but what relevance did the speaker have to their industry?
Here is just a small list of different types of public speakers and topics they may address:
- Motivational keynote speakers
- Inspirational speakers
- Finance speakers
- After dinner speakers
- Management speakers
- Current Events speakers
- Health speakers
- Entertainment speakers
- Compere
- MC
- Celebrity
- Draw card
- Economics speakers
- Customer Service speakers
- Marketing speakers
- Conference speakers
- Personal Development speakers
- Corporate speakers
- Teamwork speakers
- Sales speakers
- Future Trends speakers
- Stress Management speakers
- Comedian
- Workshop Facilitator
- Sport speakers
- Leadership speakers
- Lifestyle speakers
- Change Management speakers
Know your audience!
Your company or association has particular challenges it faces in its industry. Pick a speaker who can add value and give you tangible solutions for your delegates to take away and implement. The old days of generic, motivational speakers is passé. An inspirational speaker is one who can inspire and give your delegates something new to think about.
Delegates are savvy and have great expectations. Remember, you are asking your delegates to invest their most precious resource, their time. Treat your delegates with respect and keep their individual and group goals in mind when organising a speaker.
Keep your budget in mind
Make sure you don’t skimp on the speaker fees in comparison to the food and wine budget. Years after your event, most people will still be talking about a certain speaker who really moved and inspired them and not what they had for lunch on the second day.
On the other hand, you don’t want people years from the event talking about how the speaker bombed. If you have too small a budget, you may want to think about skipping the speaker all together as a speaker who performs terribly will have much more impact (negatively) than if you simply did not have a speaker at that particular event.
Brief the speaker
Make sure the speaker is thoroughly briefed by yourself or your team. Professional speakers expect a certain level of professionalism from you and your team. This includes clear travel instructions, explaining the layout of the room, telling the speaker who will introduce them (always read the introduction as supplied by the speaker verbatim as there is nothing worse than a poor introduction) and supplying smooth logistics in case the speaker needs to go from a keynote to a break out session.
Follow up
You must follow up with the speaker to get their feelings on how the event unfolded. Take note of any feedback the speaker gives as this could help you avoid costly mistakes in the future.
You must also follow up with your delegates. Again, they are the ones who spent their time and in many case their money at your event. You must take on board any constructive criticism so that your future events are remembered not only for the great venue, food and wine, and comradeship but also for the remarkable professional speakers.
Of course a speakers bureau, speakers broker or a speakers agency can all assist with the above. At Australian Speakers Bureau, we would appreciate the opportunity to assist with any of your events.
To find motivational, inspirational, and professional business speakers in Australia search our speakers database
