Choosing the right speaker for any social event is always tricky, with a balance having to be struck between who the speaker is, what the speaker is saying and how they are delivering the content. When booking a speaker for an event, there are certain rules that should be followed. Some of these may seem obvious, but keep in mind that they will make for a much more successful event and more interesting and appropriate speech.
First, you must consider the audience of the event. If you have a bunch of high school kids who you need to keep entertained, then finding someone with an excessively dry or verbose speaking style will certainly do you no favors. Bear in mind that the speaker has to be relevant to the audience. Someone who is closer in age to the target audience would be advisable, as the speaker may be able to relate to them more easily than someone with a forty-year age gap. Similarly, someone they may have actually heard of would help: a celebrity, for instance, be it local, field specific or fleeting, will help hold an audience’s attention.
Second, you have to consider the interests and general belief system of the audience, as well as their general comprehension level. While booking an Islamic preacher for a Bar Mitzvah would be an interesting experiment, it is also almost certainly doomed to failure. Certain groups may be less likely to be tolerant of an openly gay speaker, regardless of the subject matter being covered or general quality of the speech. You could have a Nobel prize-winning physicist lined up to discuss quantum mechanics, but they wouldn’t really suit people with only a passing knowledge of or interest in science.
Subject matter would appear to be the key consideration, but is only one of many things. Going back to the high school example, discussing career would seem a logical subject. Perhaps citizenship and duty. Or maybe the hazards of drugs or unprotected sex. These are all age- and situational-appropriate subjects for the audience. Similarly, our Nobel prize-winning physicist may be welcomed with open arms by a group pursuing a PhD in the subject. Tailoring to the needs and interests of the audience is fantastically important in arranging a speaking event, but not the only factor in the success of the occasion. The ability to develop a speech is also of utmost importance. You can have the most knowledgeable speaker in the world, but if they can’t share that information convincingly, or relate it to their audience in a way that is entertaining and comprehensible, then you would be as well showing slides at regular intervals.
A speaker has to engage his or her audience, he or she must be able to reach out and invite them to take a journey. A journey makes the audience think, challenges them, entertains them, and imparts a final wisdom or thought which makes them richer for having participated in the experience. This is, of course, one of the hardest things to gauge and test when booking a speaker.
References help, as does having seen them before. Talking to them beforehand about the ability and expectation of the crowd helps, too. This is arguably the most important part of your speech, and the hardest to get right beforehand. This is what will separate your event from the crowd and where it can become either an abject failure or resounding success.
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