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Author:
Yvon Douran

Politicians, VIP's and celebrity speakers often expect to bring their spouse or an aide with them when they travel. If other parties are involved make sure you have something in writing that outlines what the understanding is regarding lodging and food reimbursement. If you retain your speaker's services well in advance of your conference date he or she may be able to arrange other engagements close to your meeting date and location. If this happens, it could mean you save on the speakers travel expenses as this cost would then be shared.

If you would like your speaker to attend social events before or after the presentation, be sure the speaker is aware of your request well in advance. In many cases a speaker will spend the time right before his/her presentation preparing to go on the platform. Speakers are usually happy to attend extra events if given sufficient notice. Be aware, however, that some speakers prefer not to attend social events and some charge extra for any additional time spent.

Be sure to get the speaker's photograph and biographical information to ensure you have what you need for any publications (programs, brochures, newsletters). The speaker will also provide you with an appropriate introduction.

Send the speaker as much information as possible about your organization including company newsletters, annual reports and any relevant meeting bulletins. Also send the speaker copies of any material mentioning his or her presentation.

Many speakers and seminar leaders have written books and produced cassette tapes of their programs. Create a mutual understanding about what promotion of their materials will be allowed.

Mention of products being available can be made immediately following a speaker's presentation. Attendees often benefit from material that extends the value of the presentation. If you want to make an audiotape or videotape of a presentation be sure to get signed authorization in advance.

1. Check contracts for accommodation requirements.

2. Bars, snacks and complimentary buffets.

3. Transportation – to and from the event and to and from the airport - limousines, helicopters, private planes.

4. Welcome and hospitality arrangements in place.

5. Reference material about organization supplied to speaker well in advance.

6. Outline of speech received prior to event.

7. Date given for when biography, headshot and introduction to be received.

8. Arrangements for any other person(s) traveling with the speaker.

9. Be aware of VIP’s personal preferences i.e. likes golf, will attend banquet, meet and greet.

10. Send out thank you letters.

11. Gifts – either delivered to room during conference, presented following speech or sent after the event.

12. Allow time for questions from the audience following speaker’s presentation.

Written by Yvon Douran, President of Keynote Resource Speakers Bureau located in Santa Barbara, California your partner in planning highly successful corporate events.

http://www.keynoteresource.com

| Article Keywords: Professional Speaker

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Professional Speaker... Public Speaking: From Trainer to Speaker - A World of Difference A lot of trainers have aspirations to become professional speakers and are often misled into thinking that because both activities involve speaking to a group of people they are all basically the same activity. The truth is that there are probably more differences than similarities between training and speaking. The most obvious difference of course is with numbers. Trainers tend to deal with smaller numbers from one to one to perhaps fifty. There are exceptions, but most training courses deal with small groups of people. Speakers tend to work with larger groups. Again there are exceptions but audiences from fifty to thousands are more common. Another apparent similarity is that both training and speaking are concerned with changing behaviour, but again each discipline approaches this in a very different way. A trainer usually works to a Training Gap. There is a gap between a person's actual and desired performance and the goal of the trainer is help the individual to correct that gap. That skill development may involve some significant changes in habits, knowledge and attitude. The trainer breaks the process into a number of simple steps – then they Show and Tell, Observe and Correct, Motivate and Supervise, until the new skill is mastered. A speaker has a different challenge. The audience are not usually there because a specific training gap has been identified. The speaker is selected because there is a belief that learning about a specific topic will be of interest and benefit to members to the audience. Once the speech is over it is the responsibility of each member of the audience to decide if they want to change behaviour. Now here is the problem with that. We learn skills that help us to survive and prosper and “if it ain’t broke we don’t fix it.” ...