How to find the right speaker for your event

1

Look Who’s Talking

Speakers who give worthwhile presentations tend to get asked to speak at other events on the speaker circuit.

A good place to start searching for a keynote speaker is to leaf through the lineups of industry conferences to see who is being asked to speak. Follow up with colleagues who have seen the speakers to find out if the presentations are memorable and if they’d recommend them for your event.

2

Surf Before You Spend

YouTube might be a sinkhole of productivity for most companies, but it has also become one of the best research tools when it comes to finding the right speaker. “I think it’s incredibly important for a speaker to have a presence on YouTube, so you can see them in action before you hire them,” says Brent Taylor, managing partner at Timewise Event Management Inc. “You need to see that they have awesome content and an awesome delivery. If the content is delivered dryly, then that great content isn’t so great.”

3

Shoot the Messenger

An engaging speaker with awesome content and a great delivery won’t make much of an impact if it’s not the content and delivery you were expecting. One of the biggest pitfalls for a company bringing in a keynote speaker is not working with the speaker on the content of the presentation. “We’ve seen speakers flop simply because of what the speaker decides to talk about,” Howard says. “You have to nail down the topic and subject matter beforehand.”

4

Canned Goods

Working through the subject matter beforehand with a keynote speaker and understanding exactly what you’re paying for can also help prevent another common
pitfall: the canned speech. “Some speakers have a standard presentation and they try to adapt it to the event they’ve been asked to speak at,” Taylor says. “They feel that by replacing a few words or inserting an organization’s name into the session, it’s adapting their presentation.”

5

The Price is Right

Marquee names such as Al Gore, Warren Buffett, Tony Blair and Arnold Schwarzenegger have all made appearances on Alberta’s speaking circuit, but those names are usually attached to six-figure speaking fees. Taylor says typically in Canada, speaker fees land somewhere in the $5,000-to-$7,500 range, although for bestselling authors or minor celebrities the fees can start to creep closer to $15,000 or even $20,000. And remember, when allocating part of the event budget for a speaker, the fee is for speaking – travel and accommodation are usually extra.

6

The Right Stuff

Speaker agencies are a good source for hiring the speaker you’ve decided on, but Howard says to make sure you find the right company. “You have to make sure you’re dealing with the company that has exclusive rights for the speaker,” he says. “If you don’t, the speaker agency will still probably be able to book the speaker you want, but they’ll add a percentage for dealing with the exclusive agent.” And, if you don’t deal with the agency that has the exclusive rights, it can be harder down the road to sort out any issues that arise. “All you have to do is a Google search: ‘executive agent for …’” Howard says.

7

The Buddy System

Partnering with other organizations can also help keep speaker fees to a minimum. If a larger organization that you have a relationship with is interested in using the same speaker for a longer duration, then the fee could be split accordingly. “You can say, ‘we want to bring this speaker in and we’ll give you sponsorship credit for our event, then you use them for a half-day and we’ll get him for a keynote speech,’” Taylor says. “Then if it’s a $20,000 fee, you can pay $5,000.”

Leveraging partnerships is also beneficial when looking for a consultant to deliver a keynote address. “If you bank with, say, CIBC, and you want an economic forecaster to speak at the event, it’s possible they might come in and do that at no cost since you’re one of their clients,” Howard says.

8

Get Personal

Tapping into your personal network can help keep costs down. If you don’t have a personal connection with a speaker you’re targeting, find someone who does. “Most speakers have causes they like to support and if your event aligns with the causes they support, they might come and speak at a lower cost or no cost at all,” Taylor says. “Also, you never know if that speaker might already be coming to town and, if that’s the case, they might do it at a reduced cost.”

9

Out-House

Using company personnel as a speaker might be an attractive value proposition, but Howard advises against it. “We really try to get people to stay away from just having the president of the company speak,” he says. “They should be speaking anyway, so that shouldn’t be your featured speaker.” More important, Taylor says, is the fact that everybody can benefit from an outside perspective from time to time. “Management delivering the message might be ineffective because they can’t really say what they want,” he says. “People will listen and give more credibility to a third party than to management. Not always, but sometimes.”

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