Meeting News - April 21, 2008 - (Page 42)

Live from the Forum @ MeetingNews.com TOPIC: Views on planner-speaker relations from both sides ’m presenting a program on professional speaking at a conference of trainers and facilitators. From your perspective, what would you like or need to know from a speaker to make the relationship work best. I guess another way to ask the question is, “What are the most frustrating aspects of working with professional speakers?” I Izzy Gesell, IzzyG & Company, Northampton, MA Do you have a burning question to ask your peers? Log on to the MeetingNews Forum to get answers fast. meetingnews.com/forum It would be wonderful to have the professional speaker tailor his or her presentation to my industry, to have the speaker understand what is critical to the group. When I set up pre-conference calls with my speakers, it is like pulling teeth. I want them to provide a somewhat unique speech to my group. Anonymous I have to say that the professional speakers I know would want to do that. Audiences can tell a canned speech, and the speakers can’t get away with it unless they are celebrities or politicians. There are some speakers who won’t customize for a group, but they make that clear during the selection process. If you’re paying a decent fee to a speaker, you should absolutely expect a tailored speech. Philippa Gamse, President, Total Net Value Inc., Capitola, CA I have spoken to groups where my only contact has been the meeting planner who booked me. I’ve asked for group details and asked to see upper managers and have gotten pre-meetings less than half the time. But I often ﬁnd the bigger the company, the easier it is, and that associations sometimes are the most oblivious. There is no excuse for a speaker who does a rote performance—or for group executives to think it’s not important to converse with a speaker before the presentation. Julia O’Connor, President, Trade Show Training Inc., Richmond, VA I want professional speakers who are willing to take the time to understand the objectives of the group, as well as the proﬁle of the attendees. I want the speaker to be interested in how the presentation ﬁts into the group program and in who else is speaking. It is important that the speaker meets deadlines for returning information needed for meeting promotion purposes. The speaker must realize that my reputation is on the line and that I have vested interest in the success of his or her presentation. I want the speaker to be ﬂexible in unforeseen circumstances. In return, I, as a meeting planner, owe it to the speaker to be professional and thorough in the information that I provide him or her. Anonymous I live on both sides: I’m a professional speaker and I also create my own events where I select speakers. Izzy, please tell your audience that if their potential speakers aren’t “getting” the audience and goals, then those speakers aren’t for them. If a speak- er acts like she or he is doing the group a favor, skip the speaker. If a speaker just wants to get in front of the group to sell a message or product, skip the speaker. If a speaker seems bored or uncaring, skip the speaker. If it’s only about money, skip the speaker. Also, communicate with the speaker to be sure you know what the speaker needs and what you’ll have (lectern, table, computer hook-up, white board, etc.). Deborah Shadovitz, author, speaker, and Apple events producer, New York Another big issue in the planner-speaker relationship is how well the planner handles the logistics and timing of an event. I was scheduled to close a conference—the last speaker of a three-day event. Everyone was tired, one-third of attendees was either gone or packing, and the rest were dead-hangovers-walking. The planner didn’t have good control over the agenda. The ﬁnal, 3 p.m. program began 15 minutes late, as the outgoing chair was on stage reminiscing. I was left with 20 minutes to do a 45-minute slide deck. That’s not fun for either the speaker or the audience. Jim Carroll, author, columnist, and speaker, Toronto Things I wish speakers do are ﬁnding out who the group is and letting me know what they need two weeks at minimum before the event and whether they need assistants. Also, meet the audience beforehand and mingle with attendees, and don’t use PowerPoint unless it is a real asset to the program. Keep within time limits; I was at an event and a professional speaker went over by 30 minutes, causing chaos by disrupting the schedule of workshops and coffee breaks. Be gracious—speakers are a small part of the event—and call upon arrival so that I don’t have to wonder. Pegine Echevarria, President and CEO, Team Pegine Inc., Ponte Vedra Beach, FL So glad you mentioned PowerPoint. I’ve seen it seldom used effectively to hold everyone’s attention. Usually, the speaker puts too many lines or complete sentences rather than bullet points, so the type is too small. They also tend to leave the slide up too long and skip to a different topic rather than have a blank or black slide as a break. Sometimes, they never refer to the information on screen. A good speech should be able to hold attention without visual disruption. There’s enough going on in the audience with the handhelds and ear pods. Julia O’Connor MEETING NEWS (ISSN 0145-630X, USPS No.356-010, April 21 2008, Vol. 32, No. 8 is published semi-monthly except for August, which is monthly, by Nielsen Business Media, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9595, tel. 646654-5000. Subscriptions are offered free of charge to individuals actively engaged in planning meetings or conventions in the U.S. and Canada. 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Meeting News - April 21, 2008

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