No More Off-the Shelf

Today, every audience requires at least some form of a tailored presentation. There are no more off-the-shelf programs that fit every audience every time, even when the topic is as generic as management, leadership, or stress. The speaker has to take time to know the audience, what they're specifically facing, their daily challenges, and so on.

The true professional speaker will spend more time asking you about your audience than conveying the essence of his or her message, at least at the outset. Be wary of any speaker who claims to have just the right message but who does not ask you a lot of questions.

Speaker Selection Challenge

Nancy Lazarus, writing in meetingnewsresearch says that “the process of picking a speaker, while not as universally feared as public speaking itself, still has an assortment of variables, any of which could result in a wrong choice.”

“As expensive as speakers are, usually the most costly component of their presentation is the cumulative time of those listening,” said Brian Palmer, president of National Speakers Bureau in Libertyville, Ill. That makes picking speakers who can deliver messages that resonate with the audience among a meeting planner’s most vital tasks. The rest of the article