Top Bureaus, Great Results

As a professional speaker, I have had the privilege of working with many outstanding bureaus. Among the many traits that excellent bureaus have in common, these seem to show up often: they return phone calls properly, keep advised as to the status of held dates, gather comprehensive background materials from the client, collect fees as originally negotiated, and have a well-developed follow-up procedure in practice.

Think of using speakers bureaus in this way: You use a lot of professional services in your organization and your life, including attorneys, accountants, bankers, computer consultants, and tax advisors. The essence of any good professional is that the price you pay for his or her services is more than justified by the benefits. As it turns out, dealing with speakers bureaus works exactly the same way.

Arriving Well in Advance

It might be semi-comforting to retain a speaker who's very busy. After all, if many other groups are hiring this speaker, he or she must be good, right?

If the speaker doesn't arrive the night before, or at least two to three hours in advance of the presentation, watch out. Professional speakers arrive in advance, work out the room logistics, meet with the production and audio-visual personnel, walk the room, give equipment a test run, and in general make themselves thoroughly familiar with the meeting venue.

No matter how good the speaker may be, if he or she expects to get off a plane, jump into a taxi, and make it to your site with moments to spare, be on guard, for you may get a performance that is not quite up to par or doesn't fit the needs of your audience.

The Wisdom of Staying on Time

Here a few ideas from EffectiveMeetings.com on the topic of staying on time:

* State that the meeting will begin promptly at the scheduled time and that all participants should be on time.

* Send a reminder e-mail thirty minutes before the meeting begins and encourage meeting participants to arrive on time.

* Ensure that you begin the meeting at the scheduled time. If you've encouraged others to be prompt, don't embarrass yourself by showing up late.

* Close the meeting room doors at the scheduled time.

* If your meeting starts a little late, still finish the meeting at the scheduled time. It's inconsiderate to assume the participants' schedules revolve around your meeting, so wrap up the meeting when you promised.

* Consider creating a "latecomer jar" to which meeting participants must contribute one dollar for each minute they arrive late to meetings. At the end of the week, you can buy muffins or donuts for everyone who attended the meeting… courtesy of the latecomers!