So, you are planning a great business event that is going to bring all of your people together, offer networking opportunities, and help strengthen your brand. You have decided on a date and picked a venue that is comfortable to get to, appealing and within budget (though if you haven’t, there’s a great London venue hire finder here to help you get that checked off your to do list). Now, you are starting to think about the actual running of the event, and this is where you might consider hiring a speaker from outside of your own organisation to cover part of the event.
There are lots of different types of speaker you can bring in from outside your company. Some, for example after dinner speakers, are more for entertainment, and can include celebrities, athletes, authors, comedians, and other people who may not be directly related to what you can do, but can tell engaging and interesting stories that create an exciting and memorable experience as part of your event.
Then there are keynote speakers. These are also (if they are good at their jobs!) entertaining, but will generally be people from business or your own industry who will talk about something specific – for instance you might choose a keynote speaker who is a social media expert to talk about social media marketing at the event to launch your new website. These will offer something more akin to a TED talk or a keynote presentation at a seminar.
Then there are motivational speakers who have several persuasive speech topics to woo the crowd and entertain them. But their focus is more on creating an inspired and positive mood and offering new perspectives to help your company culture.
Deciding which type of speaker would best suit your event and then choosing who to hire is easiest if you have an idea of what you want the event to get out of them being there. Speakers are not cheap, so if you just want to fill in a gap in the proceedings you may even be better off showing video or giving a presentation yourself. If, however, you want a speaker who can keep the group engaged and entertained, and also teach them something that will help them in their jobs or inspire and motivate them, then this kind of mixture of entertainment, motivation and training is something you can seek out in a professional speaker once you know the direction you want them to go in.
If you are hiring a speaker who is well known or even a celebrity, or someone who is going to talk about something really interesting, then you can also use this as a big draw to encourage people you want to attend to prioritise your event. Of course, this isn’t important if your event is a staff one for your own people, but if you want to bring in potential clients or others you’d really benefit from entertaining, then look for a speaker who will catch their interest.
There are lots of ways to approach hiring a speaker, but first you need to know what kind of speaker best suits your event, what you want them to achieve, and whether you need a big name to boost your event’s appeal.
If you’re interesting booking Gordon, who is an International Speaker on Leadership, Employee Engagement, Empowerment and Achieving Success, please click here to find out more.
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