Choosing the right speaker can make or break your event. Your speaker sets the tone, engages the audience, and reinforces your event’s purpose. So how do you find the best speaker for your event? Define Your Event Goals Before starting your search, define what you want your audience to gain from the experience. Do you want to inspire, educate, motivate, or entertain? Your answer will help determine whether you need a thought leader, motivational speaker, industry expert, or someone…
Planning an event often leaves you with the feeling that it shouldn’t end. There’s a unique joy in gathering like-minded people to make meaningful connections. As events evolve, planners are looking to amplify the impact of their events, particularly through speakers. Beyond the traditional keynote, new trends such as interactive Q&A sessions, gamification, and live polling are becoming popular, but is there more? Keynote speakers offer a unique value because you can take their impact out the door to…
Imagine that you are planning your client’s annual conference, and they have assigned you the task of finding the perfect-fit professional speaker. The speaker’s goal is to engage the entire audience during the opening Keynote address, bringing the event to life and energizing the attendees. This will set the tone and energy for the rest of the event. No pressure right? The speaker is “only” going to be addressing the entire audience at once. If it does not go…
A good speaker can be key to what makes an event memorable and a success. For some people, taking the stage, whether it’s the fifth time or the 50th time, feels as natural and instinctual as riding a bike. But for most people, presenting onstage for a room full of attendees is a daunting experience, especially if they’re relatively experienced. Luckily, there are a few things all speakers can do, regardless of their experience level, to feel more comfortable…
Why pre-record content? In a nutshell, for your sanity! Pre-recording content ensures that everything will be ready to go on the day, limiting the amount of technical issues that could occur. There’s no chance of speakers failing to turn up, having connection issues, forgetting what time zone they are in or any of the other myriad things that can go wrong with a live event. Another important and often overlooked benefit is that it gives your speakers a chance…
With all the available options and directions for an event there is nothing more effective at bonding people, team building and creating a lasting impact than moments attendees can feel. There is abundant research to support the value of fun and entertainment. According to communications guru Dale Carnegie, “People rarely succeed unless they are having fun in what they are doing.” By creating an environment where people enjoy the time they spend at an event, you set a welcoming…
By Janice Cardinale Anticipation is what drives every one of us in the event industry. At The Idea Hunter, my corporate entertainment agency, we do our best work when we anticipate the future and craft ideas before our clients are aware they need it. Our work needs to inspire, resonate and, most importantly, add real value to our clients’ businesses. When we’re successful, it’s fulfilling not only for my clients and the talent I connect them with, but for me, too. To…
“OK, so, here’s what I want to talk about.” I meet with 75 or so presenters every year to help them craft talks, presentations, fireside chats and panels, and this is often the first set of words a speaker shares. This is a problem, and it’s big enough to derail your entire presentation. Many speakers think about presentations as moments of tell, as in, “I have something to tell the audience.” But the truth is, presentations are moments of sell.…
By Ben Moorsom With the IMEX focus being on purposeful meetings this year, it was apparent, after attending many sessions and talking with all sorts of folks in our industry, that if we’re going to engage our audiences we must be really strategic with events and meetings. When we build experiences, we can better shape event design and flow in order to improve many areas of an event, including engagement, retention, restoration, understanding, energy and beyond. Neuroscience and psychology can play…
By Jessica Symons and Sarah Stockton Before determining what the perfect event space is, you first need to understand your client’s needs, their demographic, and their expectations: Do they prefer downtown locations versus the suburbs? Do they need to be close to transit or the airport? Do they need to have off-site social locations close by? Where is the majority of their membership coming from? How many people are expected to attend this event? Are they mostly women, mostly men,…
