June 2013
BUSINESS JOURNAL • PAGE 33
EVENT EVENT ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION What Every Meeting Planner Must Know to Organize a Great Event By Joe Heaps & Dave Reed Whether you’re planning a large association’s annual conference or a smaller company’s quarterly sales meeting, you know how important it is to find the right speaker for your event. Sure, you can have a beautiful venue, great food, and an engaging theme, but your speaker sets the meeting’s tone. Hire a speaker who is a fit for your meeting and you can change the lives, thinking, or behavior of your attendees. Bring in the wrong speaker and your event will be lackluster at best. The good news is that there are thousands of competent speakers eager to present to your audience. But therein lies the challenge for today’s meeting planners. How do you sift through the thousands of good speakers to find the one who’s the best match for your event? Following is a proven five-step process that will ensure you hire the right speaker for your next
Cantu-Galleano...
meeting. 1. Outline the content and goals for the event. During your pre-event planning meeting, as you decide the date, time, location, and theme of your event, make sure you and other stakeholders clearly define the desired content, goals, outcome of the meeting. Which groups of people will primarily be in attendance and what key messages do they want to hear? Why is the meeting being held? To educate? Motivate? Help attendees navigate a shift or industry change? Should the message be more inspirational or technical? And perhaps most important, what do you want your audience to feel, know, or think after this event? Make sure you get as detailed as possible during your planning phase, as that will help direct you to the best speaker.
acres of good Mira Loma farmland from the Cantu family. Domenico’s brothers, Angelo continued from pg. 21 and John, continued to farm the Bonita Ranch. The Cantu Ranch consisted of a two-story house, built in the late 1890’s, a large barn, smaller buildings and a vineyard, most of which remain today. The vineyards prospered under the direction and hard work of Domenico. Using a mule team and a Fresno earth scraper, he expanded the vineyard, burying the vine cuttings and other scrap vegetation in the hollows carved by the wind and then having the mules drag a covering of sand from the dunes. Domenico Galleano contributed a lasting legacy of soil preservation with the invention of the Noble Blade and the cofounding of the West End Resource Conservation District. Domenico cared for his family, tended his fields and made wine all the rest of his life at the winery on Wineville Road. He guided his family through the Great Depression, Prohibition and the Great Recession. Friends and family members remember the hospitality that waited for them all as they met at the ranch during those times. The ranch was again a safe haven, a place to seek refuge, a place to renew the spirit. Esteban Cantu and Domenico Galleano had many common threads; conviction, honesty, integrity and inner strength. Each man was dedicated to his family, country and chosen way of life. The Cantu-Galleano ranch is a story of two men. One young man involved in the Mexican Revolution seeking a safe haven for his family and continued with another young man seeking a better standard of living, fleeing the economic depression of Italy’s Piedmont Region. The former became a great statesman and governor of Baja California Norte; the latter would live 95 years to see his dream passed on to his son and grandson.
2. Know your budget. Budget is a significant factor when choosing a speaker. So don’t even start your search until you know what you’re willing and able to pay. While many people think that only celebrity speakers ($30 thousand and up fee range) and highfee speakers ($10 thousand and up fee range) have the experience to make an event successful, the fact is that there are many quality speakers with great content and delivery who charge significantly less. The key is to be honest about your budget so you don’t waste your time considering speakers you can’t afford. 3. Cast a large net. With your budget and desired content and goals in mind, it’s time to begin your search. All reputable speakers have web sites, and most have video samples on their site. Watch their demo videos or attend a local event if they’re speaking nearby, but don’t be too picky at this point. Don’t worry if you don’t like something about their delivery, if you think they’re too excitable, or if they seem to lack energy in their video clip. Remember that you’re seeing one snapshot of what they offer, so none of that is important yet. Simply make a list of six to ten speakers who appear to be good matches based on their topic expertise, their fee range, and their availability for your event date. 4. Start the narrowing process. With your pool of six to ten speakers in mind, you can begin narrowing your list. Now is the time to get nit-picky in your evaluation and elimination process. Compare each speaker to your stated goals for the event. Based on what you know about the speaker’s expertise,
topic, and delivery style, can he/she deliver what you want? Also, check out the speaker’s social media networks to get a feel for how they interact with people and what their connections say about them. Finally, read verified reviews and testimonials about the speaker, but don’t rely solely on these reviews. No one is loved by all, and even the best speakers get some negative feedback at times. 5. Make your selection. At this point, two or three speakers will shine above the rest. To make the final decision, check a few references from each. Then, ask each speaker two important questions: • “Are you willing to provide our group with something extra in addition to the main presentation?” This extra could be coaching or consulting before or after the speaker’s presentation, a webinar or conference call for your participants, or anything else that would be of value for your attendees. • “Are you willing to offer a money-back guarantee if you fail to meet the stated goals for the presentation?” Many speakers are willing to offer a guarantee, and it tends to improve their performance when they have a little skin in the game. If you enact this option, be sure you outline in your contract the key goals you expect the speaker to deliver so there’s no discrepancy. Analyze what the references say, as well as each speaker’s reply to your two final questions, and the speaker who will make your event a success will be clear. Hire that person right away! The Right Speaker, Every Time No matter what type of continued on page 38