Meeting Planners: Hire a Pro
Meeting Planners – do you want to have exciting, wondrous, successful, happy, powerful meetings? Dumb question. Everyone knows we need a shot in the arm these days. People who are attending meetings are not just hoping for the latest data from the industry. Although they need that to survive. They aren’t just looking for information on using Social Media to market. Although everyone knows we need all the help we can get.
What they WANT and NEED is a shot in the arm.
Last year we saw a rise in “Industry Experts” at conferences. All conferences need industry experts. They have deep knowledge in specific disciplines that will keep attendees current. But they don’t present for a living. As a matter of fact, many of them either don’t write their speech, or lose sleep for weeks preparing for it.
It’s time to bring back the Pros. While you’re preparing your Call for Speakers, remember - Professional speakers can help set the stage for the entire conference. We can light up a room, create the atmosphere for learning, and get your audience relaxed and primed. We know how to work a room. We aren’t thrown into a tizzy if the LCD projector or some other electronic thing goes on the fritz in the middle of our presentation. I once went through 7 microphones in a half hour speech. (Must have been my electric performance.) The tech guy was standing on the sidelines with extra mikes, and when one went out, I’d pause – toss him the mike and he’d toss me a new one back. It became part of our act.
Professional Speakers can help you set up a great conference. We’ll ask you questions you hadn’t even thought of yet. We understand how meetings work, and we know how to start and end on time. Nah, we’re not perfect, we just know our way around a conference. We can help you be more successful this year. And, as one meeting planner told a friend of mine, “Speakers are cheaper than the bagels!”
Scott McKain is one of my heroes. Scott is a fellow professional speaker. Smooth as silk on stage. Each line, each sentence is pure gold. I wanna be like him when I grow up. He’s a customer experience expert and a fellow CSP (Certified Speaking Professional.) He wrote a great blog post about including professional speakers in your next meetings.
And, if you have decided to go with all “industry experts’ – Call me. I’ll create a webinar just for your industry experts to get them up to speed and ready to give a great performance, and I’ll come in a few days early to meet one-on-one with any of them who need some last minute speaker coaching.
And the end of the day, you want your attendees to say it was a great meeting and they can’t wait to come back next year. Let us help you make that happen!
Beth Terry, CSP
© 2010 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc.
Beth – I thought you’d find this interesting. I just read Vickie Sullivan’s website about associations bringing in unpaid industry speakers…
http://blog.sullivanspeakeronline.com/2010/06/10/are-big-name-speakers-in-trouble/
Get this: she says – “Some associations are going to the extreme by not paying speakers at all. Does that work? Not for one nameless association, who had to cancel their meeting filled with free experts because of not enough registrations.”
You nailed it, as always!
Love your blog, sorry I’ve just been a lurker.
Maggie
Hi Maggie – thanks! I just got the same email. And if anyone has their finger on the pulse of the Meetings Industry, it’s Vickie Sullivan. Yeah, we speakers know our way around a stage. We can be a help, and a good speaker is worth their weight in gold if they engage the Meeting planner and the team and help them create a great conference. I hope enough of our colleagues are out there doing it the right way!
Glad you checked in!
thanks,
Beth