Planning a retreat or conference is a great way for event planners to demonstrate their skills and make a difference in the lives and performance of all the attendees.
Workshops, guest speaker appearances, and panel discussions are all great opportunities to offer education and inspiration. Still, nothing will build excitement and set the tone for the whole weekend quite like the opening keynote speech.
But how can you find a keynote speaker who will connect with your audience and get them to engage with the theme and goals of your event fully?
There are hundreds of keynote speakers to choose from, but when event planners find the right keynote speaker for their events, it is because they have set themselves important criteria that make a given speaker perfect for their planning purposes. The right keynote speaker will have real credentials, an engaging style, and a theme that aligns with your goals. Use this helpful guide as your checklist to find the right speaker, and you can be sure that your event objectives will be met and even surpassed.
Not Just Any Guest Speaker: Choose From Among Top Experts
Modern conference attendees can smell a faker from a mile away. If the event planner does not properly vet the keynote speaker, the audience will not be inspired or motivated by the speech. Instead, they will be drawn into conversations criticizing his takes, undermining his authority,y and wondering what the point of this event is if such a bad choice was made for the speaker. This outcome is disastrous for the whole event.
So, what can you do to prevent this outcome?
Start by checking the credentials for your candidates. Good keynote speakers have impeccable qualifications. They should be highly educated in their field, as well as thought leaders in their field. For a leadership conference, a former commander might be the perfect speaker; if the theme is environmental outreach, perhaps the speaker should be a former worldwide director of a leading environmental agency.
Excellent Credentials: Choose a New York Times Bestselling Author
While not every bestselling author is a true expert or a good inspirational speaker, this is often an easy benchmark to make sure they know their material and have the credibility to stand up to scrutiny.
Choosing a keynote speaker who is a best-selling author of multiple books that align with your conference goals will provide a great foundation of plausibility and will command respect from the audience.
Not All Motivational Speakers are Equal: Speaking Style
While a New York Times bestseller indicates deep knowledge of the topic and should imply a degree of ability to articulate ideas, it is certainly not the only criterion that needs to be met.
Good keynote speakers are not just experts in their field; they also possess an excellent speaking style, with the ability to engage with their listeners on a deep level. They have a degree of charisma and passion that is contagious, making their audience want to learn more and participate in their ideas.
When you choose your keynote speaker for your event, ensure that you read reviews and testimonials that attest to their confidence, expertise, and engagement. Find out if their audience felt that they became participants in the address, being drawn into the talk as they learned valuable insights and received inspiration.
Setting and Exceeding Expectations: How the Theme of the Keynote Address Influences Audience Response
Once you have narrowed your list of keynote speakers to those who have the credibility and charisma to capture your audience’s attention and imagination, it is time to ensure that your selection for a guest speaker will have thematic content that aligns with your goals for the event.
The keynote speaker needs to have an address that is aligned with your other speakers, the content of the workshops, and the overall tone of the event.
A good keynote speaker will adjust the content of their address in order to tailor it to your needs, but there isn’t much use in hiring an expert in future trends in digital transformation when your conference theme centers around health and wellbeing.
Creating an inspirational theme for your event will automatically narrow the field from which you are choosing your keynote speaker, and when you choose a topic for all of your motivational speakers and workshops, the choice for your keynote speaker may become very obvious indeed.
Choosing the Right Keynote Speaker
The perfect keynote speaker for your event will become very obvious once you have established your needs based on the criteria above. The right guest speaker will get every attendee talking and thinking about your theme, excited for further discussion and education, and eager to implement new ideas that will improve their life and career.
The keynote speaker you select needs to bring amazing skills and knowledge to the table. In return, they will create a lasting impact on your corporate culture, challenging the way your employees think about their performance and your industry for years to come.
