Choosing the perfect Keynote Speaker for your event

Your keynote speaker plays a significant role in influencing the success of your event. 

Your conference not only has goals to reach, but also has an important message to deliver to the attendees. A keynote speaker not only helps to influence attendees, but also creates an audience focus and generates a positive influence around the event.

Preparation and research are key to ensuring that your chosen speaker meets the brief, captivates the audience and delivers a high impact and memorable presentation.

The speaker helps to set the overall tone of the conference. The keynote who opens the conference determines the atmosphere and core messages, whilst the closing speaker helps to continue the conversation and wrap up key points.  They add a great amount of value to the program whilst also providing stimulating, meaningful and thought-provoking material.

However, choosing the right keynote speaker to deliver on all these aspects and create cohesiveness to the event can be particularly challenging.

These are the key points you should keep mind when selecting a keynote speaker for your next event.

Understand the Event:

• It is important to focus on the overall objectives and outcomes you want the event to achieve.
• Do your research. Find out “what is new” and “hot topics” within the industry.
• Recognize and understand the theme or main idea behind the conference
• Ask yourself questions like;
  • What is the key objective of the event?
  • Why are you holding this event?
  • What is its purpose?
• Have a look at the events program, a keynote speaker adds value to the event, enhancing the overall experience. Decide when this would be most achievable – how will the particular keynote speaker enhance the event within that particular timeframe.
• It is also important to consider that keynotes can help lift the energy of the audience, so decide when within the program this would be needed.

 

Understand the Audience:

• Create an audience profile of who will be attending the event. Have an understanding of what the audience want from the event, then, determine how you can give this to them and how you can engage them.
• Get to know the audience, research the median age, sex and background of audience members.
• This will enable you to choose a speaker who will resonate with the audience.

 

Set Goals:

• There are several reasons for incorporating a keynote speaker into your conference. You need to decipher whether the purpose of the speaker is to inspire your audience, persuade them, educate them or simply to boost the atmosphere of the room.
• Once you have a clear understanding of the overall goal of the keynote, then you can start to decide on the particular style of speaker to use.

 

Speaker Research:

• Research who has spoken to the group before. It is important to find out which previous speakers had positive or negative feedback, as this can help can help immensely when choosing the right style of keynote for the group.
• Once you know the style of speaker, research several keynote speaker options in order to identify who will work best for the group.
• After you have created a shortlist of speakers, we recommend interviewing them to determine if they are the right fit, and id they can help to reinforce the overall message and objective of the conference.

 

Budget:

• Have a clear budget set for speakers
• Don’t forget when looking at your budget, there are travel and accommodation expenses to consider on top of the speakers’ fees.
• Also note that some speakers only fly business class, which can take out a hefty chunk of the budget.
• Understand the impact some speakers AV or presentation requirements may have on the budget. For example, a ramp onstage for a wheelchair can cost over $1k to hire in.

Your chosen keynote speaker will be used to attain and hold the attention of the audience. It is vital to make sure the following session coincides with this, so that the delegates get the most out of the conference and its overarching messages.

Ensure the speaker understands the overall objectives of the conference, and the message you want them to relay. They also need an understanding of the audience before they attend so that they can alter their presentation to suit.

Following these guidelines will assist in selecting the perfect keynote speaker for your next conference. Contact us today for our expert advice on all your conference needs.