Thinking of Hiring Keynote Speakers? Read This First

Hiring keynote speakers is easy, especially when you have no clear idea of what you want them to talk about or what you want to achieve by hiring them. Companies hire keynote speakers like Amanda Blair on Platinum Speakers for a lot of reasons but mainly, to inspire and motivate their employees to do their work better and to make them feel happier in their workplace.

But then again, just because you hired the best doesn’t mean it’s all going to be peachy until the end. Again, it is easy to hire keynote speakers but ensuring a successful and effective speaking event is quite another matter, unless you pay attention to some expert tips and advice on what and what not to do when hiring a keynote speaker for your events.

For one, it is a bad idea to hire speakers during breakfast, lunch and dinner or even after lunch and dinner. This is a time when people are enjoying the food being served and the conversation going on so to have your keynote speaker give his speech during this time not only makes it difficult for him to get people to listen, but he is also competing with good food and digestion.

Another mistake most companies make when hiring keynote speakers is making them change their graphics and slides to accommodate the theme of the event. Speakers have worked hard to establish their own brand, just like a product that’s been on the market for a while now gets known by the brand marketing has created for it. To make them change this is quite unfair and shows complete disregard and disrespect for what they’ve worked hard for.

It also shows disrespect if you demand to see the slides before the presentation because if you don’t know this yet, the best speakers tweak their slides as they go until the end of their talk to keep the interest going. So along with your employees or colleagues, try to go along with the suspense – you may be pleasantly surprised at the end and be very glad that you didn’t interfere with anything.

Another thing you need to know is that it is best to schedule breaks during the conference or hire a lively emcee to keep things interesting and to keep your event from tanking. Make sure they’re there to fill in the gaps and help your audience by creating opportunities for interaction. You can also make sure that you don’t use round tables for your events as this creates distance between people and reduces the synergistic effects of humor on a crowd. Not to mention there will be a lot of stiff necks from turning around to hear the speaker talk.

And lastly, try to book your speakers at least 6 months in advance so that you will be able to book the best speakers and get enough mileage as far as promotion and preparation is concerned. Since speakers can cost you a substantial amount of your operational expenses, you need to exercise careful thought and consideration before going ahead and booking one…just to make sure you get what you want out of it all.