We love working with speakers who are great before, during and after an event!  Speakers who are fully engaged and love really connecting with our clients and our audiences.   They are easy to deal with and passionate about how they approach their audience. They are low maintenance and they deliver high value!   And they have the audience hooked and off their phones during their sessions!  Sound like a speaker you want on your agenda?

Speakers who routinely plan to arrive the day before they speak are golden.  It gives them a chance to take in content, meet delegates, laugh, ‘hang’ and network with the group so they really ‘get’ who they are speaking to.  Pre-event conference calls take place with every speaker and the client weeks before an engagement.  The purpose is to discuss event objectives, the audience and content.  But being on-site early, attending receptions, or popping in on breakouts goes such a along way in making the speaker even more RELEVANT to the audience.

Great speakers find out people’s names and stories, and start building connections with them. It’s incredibly powerful when they mention people by name in the presentation and use them as examples.  When a speaker gives the audience their time it’s a special touch. It breaks down that barrier of speaker and audience and they become people with a shared interest. Speakers  spend a lot of time travelling and so it’s not always possible to do this, but it really adds to the power of the keynote!  Leveraging social media is another  huge opportunity at events, and yet we still don’t see as many organizations asking speakers to engage with their audience prior to their sessions. It’s another way to extend the ROI on your speaker.

When you are considering your next speaker- ask your speaker how they like to connect with their audiences!

Speaker Shoutout:  These folks are masters at adding value:  Michelle Ray, Meg Soper, & Sarah McVanel