5 Questions You Should Ask Before Booking a Speaker
Despite there being thousands of speakers out there and personal favourites suggested by your team, it’s not surprising that there are multiple ways you can go wrong when choosing the perfect speaker for your next event.
Let’s dive into the top 5 things to note when searching for the best speaker.
1 – What Type of Speaker Does the Event Need?
First things first, you need to consider what the speech will accomplish with your audience and the purpose of the event. Any good speech always leaves a lasting message that resonates with the viewers to act upon afterwards or discuss further with their colleagues. Your chosen speaker should understand all these factors and create a unique keynote speech tailored to your audience.
If you’re hosting a broad and high-level event such as Effective Team Building Methods or Secrets to Good Management, you want to choose a speaker who has tried and tested these methods and can share the tips and tricks with your audience to fast track them to success. Alternatively, you may want to inspire startup business-owners with more industry specific knowledge to their niche, from a successful entrepreneur.
2 – Who is the Audience?
Now we’ve understood the purpose of the event, next we need to think about the attendees. You don’t want to have a speaker discussing business and leadership in the organisation to an audience of non-profit employees. For this type of event you would want an entertainer or someone inspiring who is niche to the non-profits industry.
Think about what type of speaker would resonate with your audience and inspire them to move forward with actions.
Example 1:
Business Event – A speaker who shares their insights and business practices.
Example 2:
Awards Ceremony – An entertainer who keeps the the environment lighthearted
3 – What is the Speaker’s Expertise?
There are multiple of keynote speakers known to each industry and generation. You have the likes of Simon Sinek or Seth Godin for the marketing aspect, Tony Robbins for life and business strategies, Chris Gardener for business and entrepreneurship and so many more.
Knowing the expertise of your keynote speaker will help you decide who to choose for your next event. You may have a male speaker, who has successfully led an organisation through a financial crisis and may talk quite sternly about the problems that arose and the achievements. But this won’t be received well with an audience who need to hear the same subject but in a softer, carefree style of presentation.
Do your research on your top 5 keynote speakers and watch how they present to the crowd, the words they use and the presentations they create, to see if it will resonate with your audience.
4 – The Speaker’s Experience
Know your keynote’s past experience in the speech they’re willing to offer you. You don’t want a tech multimillionaire talking about how they created an innovative device, when your audience is there to hear a tech multimillionaire sharing his experiences on building out his business from the ground up.
Having a speaker experience the topic they’re discussing with your audience is essential for lending real-world insight and credibility from your audience’s perspective.
5 – What Messages Do You Want to Takeaway?
Let’s be honest, the keynote speaker is often the main draw for attendance. If you hit the nail on the head with a speaker who has experience in the topic they’re sharing, well known in your audience’s niche already, presents in a tone which is well-received by the audience and resonates with them, then you’re on to a winner and a standing ovation all-round.