Are You Talking to Me?

Have you ever planned a plenary session for an event? If you plan conferences or conventions, of course you have. The amount of work that goes into planning one of these sessions is tremendous; reserving the right amount of meeting space, planning resources, room setups, sound, lighting, stage design, rigging, program, and speaker selection. As planners, we labor for hours upon hours to bring attendees the perfect session that either educates them, encourages them, or informs them.

One aspect of this process is speaker selection. To create a great session, it is important to find just the right person or people to deliver just what the attendees need to hear. A speaker might be chosen because they are versed in a specific subject matter, product, or industry. Vetting speakers to ensure their values and the organization’s values align can be a critical piece to the session success pie.

It is perfectly acceptable to ask for a sample of a speaker’s previous work. Most speakers (especially those at a keynote level) have a library of their sessions and should be able to send a link for you to watch them in action. If not, ask to attend their next speaking engagement so you can observe how they move on stage, project their voice, and engage an audience. Not everyone who is an expert in their field can orate as well as they can write.

A speaker also needs to be screened for their level of knowledge on your particular subject matter and for their strengths and weaknesses. You may really want a specific speaker on your stage for a particular reason but if they have to present on a topic they are not comfortable with, things could go badly. Make sure the selection team knows which speaker has a strong background on the content they are being asked to deliver.

Once selected and contracted, screen the speaker’s outline or speaking notes. Do this to ensure that the speaker is on the right track with the focus of their presentation and for the sake of timing its length. To help a speaker craft their message, schedule one or two meetings where you can coach them on understanding who the audience is they are speaking to and what the intended goal is for their session. Be sure to set the speaker up for success.

You can also review a speaker’s slides or video clips prior to their session. Actually, it’s important that you review them. Check for any potential copyright infringement issues, spelling and grammar, and accuracy of information. You can read about an experience I had with a copyright infringement issue in my blog, “Beware of the Copyright.”

If the speaker will be participating in a Q&A or roundtable discussion related to the plenary session, supply the speaker with the questions ahead of time so they can prepare their answers. During one of the pre-event meetings, the selection team should review the speaker’s answers to the questions to ensure the information is accurate and meets your expectations.

No matter how much work is put into vetting a speaker, you can’t please everyone. You could pick the most ideal speaker, most relevant, timely topic, best location, lowest-priced room rate, and be blessed with the best weather and still miss the mark for someone. It comes with event planning and can happen with any part of the event. An event planner can’t be phased by it (see my blog “Put on Your Thick Skin“).

Despite our best efforts, people have free will. On occasion, no matter how much preparation goes into selecting and preparing a speaker, they go rogue. Whether they forget who the audience is they are speaking to, they cannot read the room, they lost their place in their notes, or they’re just having a bad day, once in a blue moon a speaker ends up delivering a message out of left field. Depending on what is said, a representative from the organization may need to do some damage control. Welcome to event planning. But how to handle this is a blog for another time.

Just know that all a team can do is their due diligence to research, interview, and prepare a speaker for their plenary session. If you stay true to your organization’s values and the event’s goals and objectives throughout the process, the chances of you selecting the right speaker every time are high.

Do you have a process for screening speakers? If so, email me, I’d love to hear
how you do it!

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