| EVENT INTELLIGENCE 08.08.05 12:00 AM |
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| Roundtable: Hiring Speakers |
| Smart suggestions from planners, reps, and some speakers themselves. |
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Angela Sifakis is administrator of the research pharmacology department at Pfizer, in charge of booking speakers for panel discussions and department meetings. "A lot of choosing a speaker has to do with looking at the material. What are they going to discuss? Is it pertinent to us? Are they willing to make it more personal for us? We look at their content and how it will it be beneficial to our audience. Some email an outline of what they are going to discuss, or we talk over the phone or meet in person about it. Speakers are generally very amicable to working things out."
Vince Poscente is an Olympian, speaker, and author of The Ant and the Elephant. "The sooner you bring the speaker in as a partner, the better chance you will have an outcome that is congruent. The more they tell me, the more I can integrate with the event. Don't assume the speaker will do his own research. Send annual reports, highlight things in the annual reports, tell who you are, what the meeting is about. Give a detailed report of what you want to accomplish in the meeting and how the speaker fits in. There are two kinds of speakers: the kind that will talk about what they want to talk about, and those who talk about what they want to talk about, but in relation to what you want to hear. Some have canned presentations and noncanned. Some speakers think of it as a badge of honor to give the same speech all the time. Know which one of these you are going to get. Some speakers will say they customize, but all they will do is 'insert company name here.'"
Joel Gheesling is an associate in the corporate division of Keppler Associates Inc., a speakers bureau in Arlington, Virginia, that books more than 2,000 speaking dates a year and represents about 90 exclusive speakers. "Every client wants some form of connection between the speaker's message and their agenda, but there are times when customization is not the most important factor in selecting a speaker. For client conferences or annual association meetings, they may need a name or someone with a big story to draw people to attend and entertain them for an hour. But for an internal meeting, the company wants to bring in a speaker who is not only going to be entertaining, but also impact the event and give them personal development and business management tips."
Diane Rohan is senior director of special events at Court TV and recently booked Colin Powell to appear at a dinner for the National Cable Television Association at MoMA. "It's very important to have a recognizable name for an event. It doesn't have to be a big name overall, but just within your industry. Contact a reputable speakers bureau and ask them who they would recommend. Any speaker who is worth his salt is through an agency. Set your date based on the speaker's availability. Also, make it an interesting venue and try to combine it with something else, so it will be a really good draw. The speaker is just the icing on the cake."
Andrew Kline is C.E.O. of the Athletes Agency International, a speakers bureau in Los Angeles that provides athletes, coaches, and sports personalities for events. "The speaker shouldn't be better than the event. If the total event budget is $1 million, you can spend $100,000 on a speaker. But if the event budget is $150,000, you can't. The speaker should ideally be 10 to 20 percent of the overall event budget; 50-50 can be fine, too. Also make sure the celebrity will shake hands, take photos, and talk with your team. Organize something afterward and hire a professional photographer. The cost is minimal and it makes your event memorable."
Kathleen Fish books speakers for 14 meetings a year—ranging from a seminar with one speaker to an annual meeting with 16—as the director of programs at the Association of Management Consulting Firms. "We have no budget for speakers, so we pay expenses or offer them exposure in exchange for speaking at our meetings. I have contacted local bookstores to suggest they set up book signings with our speakers. We work with local media and arrange for interviews. The speakers' bios are posted on the association's Web site in the Members Only section, so members can contact them for consulting work."
Steve Garvey started out speaking as a baseball player with the Los Angeles Dodgers and now speaks mostly to Fortune 500 companies. "Consider the time of the event when booking your speaker. The best time for me is between 10 AM and noon. Everyone has now woken up and is at their most productive. Luncheon speeches are more social time. Between 2 and 4 PM people are sleepy. Four PM is also a good time, because audiences are refocused again. For dinner speeches, you can be more personal. If you're getting up to speak at 9:30 PM, you're losing them. Also consider the whole day. I remember doing a cocktail hour speech on the first day of a conference where attendees had spent the day playing golf and then had a few drinks. They were wiped out by the time I spoke. It was my toughest speech ever."
—Ellen Sturm Niz
Posted 08.08.05
This story originally appeared in the August/September 2005 issue of the BiZBash Event Style Reporter. |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
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