Are you planning any events, meetings, or conferences in the near future that involve having a keynote speaker at the event? It’s important to have a plan to ensure that the event is going to be successful. Planning for the event means you need to prepare all the necessary arrangements and groundwork. In doing so, it will involve crucial steps and being particular with the details as you put together the event. Keep reading to get to know the steps and tips that will help and guide you during your event planning process:
1. Identify your objectives.
Before you decide to do something, it’s helpful to identify your objectives and goals first. Rather than getting started without a plan, having clear objectives will help you do the work efficiently. When deciding to have a keynote speaker for your event, identify the objective of your event. What goals are you planning to achieve? How will the keynote speaker take part in the objective for the event? Would you like them to entertain, educate, or inspire the audience? Once you are able to answer these questions, you can decide what kind of keynote speaker you’d like to present at your event.
2. Identify your audience.
The next step is to determine your audience. Identify what kind of audience you’ll be having at your event – know their interests, distinct group characteristics, professions, age, gender, and values. Assessing these aspects will also be helpful in choosing the appropriate speaker for your event. You would want your audience and your speaker to go along with each other so it’s important that there’s a connection between them. This setup can also help the speaker to resonate with the audience and successfully communicate the message to them.
3. Research potential speakers.
After you’ve identified your objectives and audience, start looking into potential speakers that may be appropriate for your event. Keep in mind the speakers’ experiences and expertise. Check their credentials, past speaking engagements, or videos of their speaking presentations. You may also want to ask for references and testimonials to further evaluate the speakers’ performance and how well they will do at your event. This step is important and may require more effort and time to properly select the right speaker/s for your event. And by that, choosing speakers might take a while. However, there are other options like seeking help from a Speaker Bureau so you can have the perfect speaker without having to spend more time and effort. You can allot that time instead in other aspects of your event planning process. Speaker Bureaus like BNC Speakers can take that task off of your plate and provide you with top keynote speakers who have excelled and continue to stand out in their respective fields.
4. Communicate your expectations.
Once you’ve chosen your speaker for the event, communicate your expectations to them and all the necessary details they need to know. Discuss with them the theme and objectives of the event, the message you want to convey to the audience, and the expectations from their presentation. It’s important that the speaker’s speech aligns with your theme and objectives for your event to be consistent and successful. You’ll also need to talk to the speaker about your audience, details about the event like the place and time, so they can properly prepare and be ready for the event.
5. Plan the logistics.
Aside from focusing on having the right keynote speaker for your event, you also need to plan your logistics. Where will the venue take place? What about the food catering for the event and what dietary options you need to include? How will the seating arrangement be set up for the audience and the stage where the speaker will present? You also need to source the technicals and audio-visual equipment needed for the event. See to it that everything is prepared before your keynote speaker arrives at the event.
6. Promote the event.
Your event may have to be promoted in order for people to become aware of what you are planning. Through promoting, you will be able to reach your target audience and might even attract more guests to attend. This will also help build the excitement among the attendees and give information about your event. With the various social media platforms nowadays, you can utilize these tools to spread information about your upcoming event by posting it online. You can also use email marketing and other marketing channels to help with the promotion of your event.
7. Follow up after the event.
The event planning process doesn’t end after the event. You need to evaluate the success of your event too. And as organizers and event planners, it is essential that you gather feedback from the attendees and ask what needs improvement for the event. This information can then help you work on areas that need improvement and make your future events even better.
By following these steps, a successful event is now within your reach. Keep in mind that planning for a keynote speaker engagement requires thorough and detailed planning for your attendees to leave your event having learned new knowledge, feeling inspired, and be grateful that they went to the event.
And as mentioned before, planning for an event with keynote speakers entails several steps to properly prepare for the success of the event. And we may sometimes get stuck on choosing the most appropriate speaker for our event. It will need thorough assessment of the potential speakers’ information and may sometimes be a lengthy process. That time spent can be allocated to other event planning processes. With that, seek the help of Speaker Bureaus who are experts at sourcing the right speakers for any event and save time in choosing your speakers. Get to know BNC Speakers and how they can help you. To know more about their top keynote speakers, check this out to see if there are speakers you see fit for your events.