5 Ways A Convention Speaker Should Be Helping You & Your Organization

by Joe Pici | Oct 30, 2018 | Nail the Sale

Business conventions and conferences are designed to increase employee engagement, productivity, skills, knowledge, and loyalty. It’s important to discern if you are you getting your money’s worth out of your convention speaker. Hire a presenter who is skilled to deliver the following.

1. Everyone with the mic should reinforce your message.

Professional speakers are revered by audiences. This is based primarily on their occupation of ‘holding the mic’. Remember, public speaking is one of man kinds greatest fears. Therefore, what they say carries a lot of weight. Their influence is capital leaders can exploit. Essentially, your convention speaker should become your mouth piece.

Consider this: Leaders set the mission and work to get everyone on board and in the correct seat. They provide advice, direction, and guidance. However, “familiarity breeds contempt”. Therefore, those in command, who are always in front of their organization, may gradually become ineffective. This situation can be rectified by allowing someone else to bring the message. Especially if this message is one you have been sharing for months but hasn’t been widely accepted or understood.

The person from out of town, carrying a lap top, is always the expert.

A professional speaker, who is an expert in the topic areas you need to address, is the perfect channel for getting your message across. They represent a fresh voice and perspective.

Ensure the success of your event:

Your event will generate better results when you:

1.Create a guide line of specific objectives for your event.

2. Develop core messaging concepts to support desired outcomes.

3. Select a convention speaker who will ‘parrot’ your message.

Regardless of how ‘big time’ a speaker may be, they should always we willing to acquiesce to the needs of the client. We ask the client the results they are looking to accomplish with the event. Furthermore, we also inquire of any message, information, or mission they wish us to reinforce. Find professional speakers who are willing to do the same.

2. A convention speaker should help you be competitive in the market place.

Keeping individuals in your organization current with the latest advances in you field is critical for remaining competitive. Unfortunately, workers spend up to 50% of their day shifting through and managing information. Therefore, staying on the leading edge, can result in ending up on the ‘bleeding edge’ of information overload.

Consider this. Just one Sunday edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person had access to their entire lives long in the 18th century. According to business psychologist, Dionne McHaffey, “Companies that can out produce competitors will reach the forefront of the industry and remain there. Many employees, however, suffer from information overload, which causes their productivity to suffer.”

Effective convention speakers are information brokers who do your homework for you.

Ensure the success of your event:

Your audience will be more highly engaged if you:

Hire a professional speaker who is current with information your organization needs.
Select a speaker who specializes in being an ‘information broker’.
It is important to discriminate between speakers who are polished presenters with those who are polished presenters but also have invested the time or have the expertise to sort through the lastest information and research in your needed topic area.

Please note: Hiring a speaker to simply entertain your audience is fine if you need someone to liven up the crowd between sessions containing heavy, dry data. But make sure you hire a topic expert who is a polished presenter. This is important if you desire someone to bring information to effect change in your organization.

3. Your presenter should validate you, your company, and your audience.

You or your company is the true ‘star’ of the show. Therefore, those on stage should celebrate your company on its accomplishments, growth, community involvement, future plans, etc. Their verbal praise can go far in helping you to retain top talent. Let’s face it. There are always those in the audience that are considering their options. Your speaker should help you keep them on your team.

You convention speaker should not engage in the following:

ignores mentioning those in leadership
makes your stage their soap box – This happens a lot during election years.
offends your audience
promotes a competitor

Ensure the success of your event:

Avoid embarrassing moments on stage when you:

Interview past clients. When vetting any speaker, find out from past clients if they made any of the above mistakes.
Provide guidance. Give your speaker specific instructions on what to say about you, your staff, and your company.

4. They should address the issues you cannot.

Sometimes leadership finds it’s self in a ‘no win’ position. Perhaps the message may be one that might ruffle too many feathers if delivered by you. Yet when introduced by a ‘foreigner’, the audience is often less defensive. Your ideas become more palatable when they appear to be the ideas of an outside expert. A few of the questions I ask clients are, “What do you need ms to say that you cannot?” and “Are there any challenges of which I need to be aware?”

Ensure the success of your event:

Make the most of your messaging when you:

Select a speaker who is willing to customize their program to meet your needs and adapt to any challenges your organization may be facing.
Be open with them about issues you need addressed and how you would like them to handle them.
Ask for suggestions. An experienced, professional speaker has helped other organizations with similar issues and can give advice and guidance to ensure the achieving the results you desire.

5. Your conference speaker should be easy to work with and never give you a headache.

You have a lot on your mind when you’re running a convention. Therefore, your convention speaker should not cause you any distress. To ease your mind, make a few additional requests of them. Inquire if they were easy to work with from their past clients.

Ensure the success of your next event:

First, consider asking your presenter to agree to the following:

Request they arrive a day early rather than flying in a few hours before the event. Airline travel is more unpredictable today than ever. You don’t need to add extra worry about delays, weather, or missed flights. Although this will cost you an extra hotel night and a few meals, your ‘peace of mind’ makes it very worth while.
They should call you as soon as they are on the show site. You don’t need to worry if the ‘star of the show’ has made it or missed their plane.
Require them to meet with the technology crew and set up everything needed before the event begins, (not 5 minutes before they are to present on stage). This is to discuss microphones, power point presentation, etc.

Next, never overlook the obvious:

Demand, and we do mean demand, they stay on topic. There are speakers who become enchanted by the sound of their own voice. We have witnessed highly paid conference presenters who get distracted from the task at hand and begin telling stories or jokes and never deliver the message they were hired to provide.
Make sure your conference speaker understands the amount of time they have to speak. If you have contracted them to speak for 45 minutes, they should speak for 45 minutes and not 47 or 26. We have seen so called ‘polished speakers’ go over as much as an hour. Unfortunately, we have also witnessed speakers show up late or walk off after only speaking for a few minutes.

Final Precaution:

Avoid speakers who are very demanding. For instance, it is appropriate for speakers to expect travel, lodging, and food allowances in addition to their speaking fee. However, first class air fair, exclusive resort accommodations, and demands for amenities such as a workout room, specific beverage brands, etc. are way over the top. In contrast, select speakers who have a servants mentality. Therefore, avoid those who expect to be ‘wined and dined’.

Are you struggling to find expertise and motivation for your conference?

This is a challenge for most event planners. In fact, 89% of event creators said finding and securing speakers for their event is a major challenge. The speakers and panelists you select play a key role in the success of your events. Incorporate the above strategies to find the best speaker for your next conference.