Congratulations. You were invited, accepted or otherwise negotiated for a speaking role at an upcoming conference. Obviously, you're going to do some preparation to make sure you know the topic and are prepared to make the most of your stage time. But to take full advantage of the opportunity speakers need to realize that what the audience in their sessions hear them say is just a fraction of the value they can gain from an event. Here's how to take a wide-angle view of your next gig in order to squeeze as much value as possible out of it:
- Your role as a speaker begins the day you learn of the gig, and ends when the conference producer dies. Your audience are the people peering at you on stage, but your principal consituency is the person who put you on stage in the first place. As soon as you've landed a gig, do whatever you can to help promote the event for the producer, including blogging about it, issuing press releases, inviting your clients personally, etc. Want to make a huge impression? Negotiate a co-op ad buy with the conference producer to run banners about your session on the conference website or elsewhere online. Why? Because good speakers possess two very distinct attributes: they do a great job on stage, and they make the conference producer's job a little easier. Add value at every step - instead of requiring maintenance - and you're a shoe-in for the producer's next event as well. And the one after that, and after that.
- Prepare an exclusive announcement. Maybe your session will have 50 people in it, maybe 500. Either way, it's a bigger audience than who reads your press releases, which you probably deliberate over for days and limit only to the biggest news. And since many attendees (and fellow speakers) blog about the events they're at, each pair of ears is attached to its own amplifier, just like the press. Only they've wilfully selected to come and hear you, and in doing so are hoping you'll reward them with some fresh, new, unique, exclusive announcement, piece of data, case study, or witty epigram. Let them down at your own peril.
- Treat your fellow panelists like your best customers. Even if you're a CEO and you're seated on the panel next to an Assistant Manager. Remember that anyone in the audience evaluating you as a potential partner is doing so based in part on what your company offers, and also in part on what kind of partner you personally will be. There's room for controversy and some adversity on stage, but never at the expense of graciousness. I've seen too often a speaker attack his fellow panelists and clearly win each micro debate both on merits and on volume, only to end up alienating himself in the process. And I've got the audience feedback forms to prove it. (This advice comes from me in my trade marketing consultant hat, not my conference producer hat: a villian makes for a great session. But don't expect to play the villian if you're my client.)
- Be in the audience, as well as on stage. 2 reasons for this: (1) There are likely dozens of really interesting speakers from remarkable companies at the same event. It's highly probable that you will learn something and find someone you want to do business with. (2) It's important to remember what it's like to be in the audience when you're on stage yourself. Identify what makes a session valuable to you (data points, strong opinions, epigrammatic wit, organic and authentic conversation) and what bores you (pitches, self-promotion, universal consensus, session time wasted on intros and background). Keep all of it in mind when it's your turn.
- Send a Thank You note to the producer. Don't you dare call this self-evident. It's not. I programmed a show a few months ago with no fewer than 170 speakers, each of whom I was in personal contact with leading up to the event. The show was a blockbuster success, with 2500+ attendees and full rooms in every session. And I did get some thank-you notes afterwards: 2 of them. Out of 170 speakers. Remember, the person who puts you on stage is doing you a favor, not the other way around.
- Your word is your bond. Understandably, conflicts come up and speakers must drop out. But drop out with less than 2 weeks before the show and no matter how passionately you adhere to all the points above, you just made the List. Oh, and remember that you are not your company. If you do drop out, you should absolutely offer up a replacement from your company or elsewhere - but don't simply assume that your speaking role is transferable to someone else. You think more of yourself than that, don't you?
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