Engaging Professional Speakers - 5 Tips to Find The Speakers That Best Suit Your Needs

Finding the right speaker that best fit your needs is both science and art.  Below are 5 tips to make your meeting a success:

1. Be clear what your audiences need

The first crucial step of finding the right speaker for your event is to clarify what your audience need.  A good starting point in clarifying your expectations is asking yourself what challenges you are facing.  Working with experienced professional speakers bureau can also help clarify your needs.

2. Decide on date, time and book early

Good professional speakers are always in hot demand.  Therefore, determining your event date early and booking in advance can help ascertain you get the speaker you want and best fit your needs.  Working with professional speakers bureau, especially the one in your region can also help you identify the speakers who will be around and are appropriate for your event, and as a result help save in traveling expenses, or even get a discount for en-routed arrangements in some cases.  

3. Decide on budget

Be clear about your budget and communicate with your speaker agent openly can help them to find you the appropriate speaker within your expected fee range.  

4.  Identifying the right speakers

Below are a few good ways to identify the speaker who is truly good and suitable for your event:

• Speaking video – Most speakers nowadays put up videos / YouTube links of them speaking.  Make sure you have watched them and like their style.  You may also wish to observe the audience size, responses from the live audiences and event scale from the video.

• Direct conversation – Make sure you have spoken with the speaker directly, before confirming the engagement.  Ask a few questions related to the topic you want the speaker to present to see how he responses – look for unique insights, industry specific knowledge, relevant stories and experiences from the answers, and also get a feel of how well prepared the speaker is for the conversation, and whether his / her style fits your organization / audience.

• Repeated bookings – Whether a speaker gets repeated bookings from the same client are always a good indicator of his quality.

• Expert advice – The advantage of working with a professional speakers bureau is that it is our job to identify the most appropriate speakers for the clients, and the quality of the speakers they represent directly impact on their reputation.  Responsible speakers agencies are selective of their speaker intake.  Do ask the bureau you are working with on their speaker selection criteria.

• Customization – One size never fits all.  Look for speakers whom customize their presentation contents for individual clients, based on their research of the industry and specifically the client.

5.  Candid Communication

To ensure the presentation of the speaker best fit your needs, make sure that you communicate candidly with the speaker the followings:

• Company information, background

• Specific expectation of the event

• Current challenges faced (if any)

• Size and demographic of the audience