The 3 most frequently made mistakes when choosing a Professional or Public Speaker for an Internal Management Event.

The right Keynote Speech at your event can help grow your business and take it to the next level. There is great potential in the impact they can make in your organisation, however, all too often this does not happen because the wrong Speaker is chosen for the wrong event. This article goes through in descending order, for 3 to 1, the most common mistakes made when choosing a Speaker.

The goal of this article is to help you resolve the most frequently made mistakes when choosing a Professional or Public Speaker for your internal management event, so you can troubleshoot problems before they happen.

#3 Mistake: Not Paying the Keynote Speaker enough.

Always pay your speaker. If you expect accountability, treat a speaker like a professional. Professional relationships are based on providing value and receiving a return on that value.

You have put a lot of time and effort into organising this event so make sure you reflect this in the fee you pay the speaker. (To reduce risk start with a budget of at least €7,500.) For more information see the article: Considerations around paying a keynote speaker.

#2 Mistake: Choosing the wrong Type of Keynote Speaker.

The second most common mistake is choosing the wrong type of Speaker: Speakers are either Popular, hold a Position, or are Professional Speakers.

Popular Speakers are celebrities (public or industry fame). Be aware of how much you are paying for their fame or for their ability to speak.

Positional Speakers are Founders & C-level leaders of successful organisations (including Government, Military, Doctors, & Scientific experts). They are specialist, so make sure that they can transfer what has worked for them to what would work for your organisation.

Professional Speakers are people who’s profession is speaking. For these speakers, their product is the speech. They tend to have many topics and will work with you to maximise your event as they tailor their content towards your organisation.

#1 Mistake when choosing a Professional or Public Speaker for an Internal Management Event: Choosing a speaker based on the Topic.

The topic of the speech, what the speaker is going to talk about, is not the most important thing. Yet, the most common way of choosing a professional or public speaker for an internal management event is still based on the content of their speech.

In the 1000’s of events I’ve participated in, all too often an event organiser started their search for a Keynote Speaker by saying: “I need a speaker on Innovation / Leadership / Branding / Growth (or whatever the theme of the event is).”

However, this is not the most effective way of finding the right Keynote Speaker because the topic of the speech is often not the most important thing.

What a Keynote Speaker talks about is less important than how they make the audience feel: what is said by the Keynote Speaker is less important than what is felt by the audience. (The best way to find the topic of the Keynote Speech is to discuss it with the Speaker. Co-creating the topic together, you and the Speaker.)

What a Keynote Speaker says is less important than how they make the audience feel.

To overcome the number one mistake when choosing a Keynote Speaker focus on the speakers’ abilities to connect with your audience. Then whatever they say will have an impact.