What Relationship should you have with a Keynote Speaker after your Event?

By definition, a Keynote Speech sets the tone (the key-note) of your event & establishes the framework for everything that follows. (For a full definition of what is a Keynote Speaker see our article.). And in order to do this, they must prepare by researching your industry, interviewing you, and empathising with your audience.

So for a Keynote Speech to be successful, the Keynote Speaker must be intimately aligned with who you are. Booking a Speaker then is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Or at least it should be.

The goal of this article is to give you a list of things you can ask a Keynote Speaker for, after they have spoken, so you get maximum value from their preparation and your investment in them.

A Relationship to Build Knowledge.

There are two things that help embed knowledge within an organisation: immersive experiences & spaced repetition.

An immersive experience is a focused period of time on a topic. This is exactly what your event is. It is a deep-dive into material for a day, or more, to feel ‘immersed’ in the content. In order to ‘get-it-into-our-system’, we need to immerse ourselves in it.

After your event, it is then spaced repetition that will be the key to embedding knowledge into your organisation. To maintain what is learnt we need to be reminded, repeatedly, across time. This ‘spaced repetition’ is for a minimum of 30 days, and ideally over a period of 90 days or more, for it to become a habit.

For more on this, see our article: How to keep Learnings after a Keynote Speech?

One Day after your Event.

Shortly after your event, you should get a Summary Document from the Keynote Speaker. This is important because in most events there will naturally be some people who were not able to attend the event.

Therefore, a Summary Document needs to be designed to be read independently of the event. This means that a Summary Document is not the same as sharing ‘slides’. Slides are not designed to be read afterwards.

A Summary Document translates the essence of a Keynote Speech into a document that can be shared internally in your organisation. For more on this see our article: What are the Options & Extras I should consider when booking a Keynote Speech?

One Week after your Event.

A Professional Keynote Speaker has extensive experience of previous events. So considering they have just participated yours, there is great value in having a Reflective Conversation with them about one week after the event.

Arrange a call with the Keynote Speaker about one week after your event. This is the right period of time to contemplate some additional insights on the event. Discuss in this Reflective Conversation what the Keynote Speaker thought worked and what could be done better. And their additional thoughts on moving forward.

One Month after your Event.

About one month after the event arrange a call to interview the Keynote Speaker. Start this interview by asking them to recap their key points that they shared during your event. Then share with them what has happened in your organisation/department/team since the event. Reflect with them on what new insights could come from this.

This interview can be done by you and shared with your team. Or it can be done by someone in your communication department and shared with the whole organisation.

An interview is a great way to stay connected, learn about the Speaker’s recent activities, and be reminded about the key points that they shared during your event.

Three Months after your Event.

About three months after your event is the perfect time to get new input from the Keynote Speaker. This could take the form of a webinar.

In this webinar, the Keynote Speaker can begin by recapping the essence of their speech from the event three months ago. Then they can share some reflections on what has happened since (from the interview one month after the event). And finally, they can share new content the builds upon the work done so far.

This is also an excellent opportunity to get the participants involved again by putting forward their own questions.

Anytime after your Event.

For the Keynote Speech to be successful, the Keynote Speaker worked hard to be aligned with who you are. So to get maximum value from their preparation, and your investment in them, consider them an ongoing Sparing Partner.

Anytime after your event, remember that you can call on them as a Sparing Partner for new ideas, to discuss your next event (your next immersive experience), or for them to offer more content (more spaced repetition).

So next time your book a Keynote Speaker make sure you get maximum value from their preparation, and your investment in them, by building a longterm relationship with them. Connect with them one day after the event, then one month, then three. And finally, remember that you can call on them anytime.

To learn more about how Paul Hughes’ Keynote Speeches can help your organisation grow, Request a Quote now.