Friday, 27 May 2016

An Expert Guide To Picking A Motivational Keynote Speaker

By Frances Smith


A few things come to the mind of any conference participant upon receiving the invitation. They include the venue or setting, food, guests and social interactions with other participants. Food and venue are fairly straight forward. You have little control over social interactions. Meeting expectations on the motivational keynote speaker is one of the biggest challenges. How do you surmount it?

A background check will give you an idea of the person you are about to engage for your meeting. There are amateurs and other guests who are hyped for marketing purposes. Attend an event where your target guest is speaking. Watch videos or podcasts to learn about his mastery of content, engagement with the audience, presentation skills and style. The decision you make will be based on first hand experience.

Good speakers involve their hosts in preparation of their speeches. This will ensure inclusion of vital information about the participants and organization. Understanding them and sticking to the theme keeps the participants engaged. This calls for a guest who is ready to research thoroughly and pick relevant examples and words that the audience can relate to. This is a way of assimilating to the lives of participants thus generating a feeling of comfort.

It helps to have a person who commits substantial time to your gathering. This means readiness to engage and interact with participants before and after his presentation. It shows disinterest and pure commercial interest to pop in a few minutes before you hit the podium and then out immediately you are done. It is necessary to build up to the presentation and later engage on one-on-one basis afterwards. These personal encounters leave an impression in the minds of participants.

A referral is considered the best approach to getting a perfect guest. This saves you time and resources used in vetting new speakers blindly. Talk to your peers to refer a guest who performed incredibly during their event. This is a way of getting a specialist in your industry. Such an individual is conversant with issues in your sector. Since his performance is already known, you will not be engaged in trial and error. You will escape the traps of media hype on speakers.

Speakers take personal initiative to promote events they are participating. This works perfectly for new events or where you have no track record to boost participation. In instances where you are sourcing for participants, this will boost your campaign. Co-promoting events also involves using own networks to gather momentum. It raises the profile of your gathering and creates greater impact. This can be negotiated when signing the contract or be part of his incentive for speaking at your event.

There are speakers who use events to promote their wares. This should be done with restriction to avoid overshadowing your event. In fact, it should be negotiated during contracting. It is helpful in that it offers something memorable to take away but must never override your theme or activities. The understanding should be that, it is not about the speaker but your event.

Prominent speakers are risky because their style or message easily overshadows yours. Some people could have encountered them in other forums. The impact in such a scenario might not be as intended. Guest who are proactive to understand the audience, their journey, mission and vision will produce better results.




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