Planning the Venue

Every audience is unique. Is your audience typically available for an 8 am start time or possibly several of the attendees will have to travel a great distance and be subjected to difficult traffic situations which will hinder their arriving in a timely manner? What is the length of the venue? Is it one or two days and is it eight or 12 hours long?

I went to an event which was 7 days long and it started at 8 am and finished at 11 pm every day. Their philosophy was to break people’s resistance down by exhausting them. When someone is very tired, they’re more apt to absorb information and change their behavior. That is an extreme method that is not normally acceptable for corporate event employees. In fact most corporate events are conducted during the week while public events are held over the weekends.

Make sure your speakers plan frequent breaks during the day to prevent your attendees from nodding off. I’ve been to many events that they only allow one hour for lunch but for me to have enough time to check phone and email messages one hour is not enough.

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A speaker will make or break any event.

A speaker will make or break any event. Choosing a speaker has mystified event planners since Socrates times. What resources do you use to select speakers? Do you interview speakers and talk with other event planners to see what success they have enjoyed and which speakers failed short of their expectation? How do you go about finding the new and upcoming speakers?

There are more speakers to choose from in today’s market, more topics to ponder and more possibilities than ever before. It was simpler when Zig Ziglar was the formidable choice for a motivational speaker. Yet the speakers that are providing the most value for events are the ones who are creative and innovative, not the tried and stale presentations that were delivered over and over again over the past 20 years. The day of the canned speech should be over and done, if not so already.

Finding a speaker who will impact your audience long term is just as, if not more important. Having a memorable event is what will keep your audience returning year after year.

Some event planners rely on speaking bureaus, but the challenge in doing so is the bureau will pitch the speakers who command the highest fees since their income is based on those fees. National Speaker’s Association has a directory of speakers which are rarely tapped into and offers an unlimited number of talented resources.

Content that relates to your audience is what relevant speakers are providing. Finding unique speakers is the real challenge.