All of us here at eSpeakers want to send our best wishes to all of you in the speaking industry during this challenging time. These are these unprecedented times in this industry, but there’s something you can do right now.
When we see a challenge, we also see opportunity. Many companies are instituting work-from-home policies and social distancing. This new work environment is challenging for many employees, creating a more fragmented workforce and straining company morale.
The event industry is growing fast. This is great news for planners, but it can still be stressful for your event planning business. Keeping up with new industry terms and trends can be intimidating, but itâs essential if you want to show authority and gain trust from your clients and listeners.
With new trends come event planning industry terms and lingo that you need to know to be successful in your business. Beyond the buzzwords comes the tried and true terminology that every experienced planner knows, but someone new to the industry may be unaware.
Having a long list of event terms at your disposal, no matter how long youâve been an event planner or speaker, can help you understand the inâs and outâs of the industry and encourage you to be a well-informed professional. This becomes especially critical when youâre pitching to new clients and meeting with collegues.
So youâve spent months and months planning an event. Itâs the biggest ever, youâve pulled out all the stops and covered all your bases. Youâve planned for every single possible contingency. Especially the biggest one. But then, without warning, you find yourself dealing with a canceled speaker last minute.
A nightmare, right? Youâve printed all the programs and posters with that personâs face all over them. Attendees have bought tickets with the promise of hearing an awesome keynote speech from this particular speaker. And theâadmittedly, rareâunthinkable has happened. One of the worst things that could happen, really. Your keynote speaker canceled and it feels like thereâs no way to redeem yourself.
Event planning has always been a tough industry. And now with our ever more competitive economy and smaller and smaller budgets, planning an event is more challenging than ever.
Gone are the days of skyâs the limit budgets. Now, clients are expecting their planners to pull off the same events they always have but at greatly reduced budgets.
Everyone is trying to save money. And if you want to succeed in todayâs planning industry, this means you, too.
Written by Dana Brownlee as a Forbes Contributor
In my previous post, âTired Of Speaking For Free? Hereâs How To Get Paid To Speak,â I tackled the thorny issue of how to secure paid speaking engagements, but getting paid engagements presumes the speaker is worth the big bucks and not all are. Easily commanding five figures per talk, the best speakers have taken their craft to the next level. Here are a few nuggets of advice for novice professional speakers seeking to do just that.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
57 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most famous and influential speeches in American history. The âI Have a Dreamâ speech was effective not just for its words, but also for Dr. Kingâs impassioned delivery.
It represented the feelings of millions of people fighting for civil liberties. The speech, given by a lesser man in a lesser setting may not have earned the same attention. Dr. King knew if he were to truly help bring about change, he would need a speech and setting that would inspire. The March on Washington and âI Have a Dreamâ speech caught the attention of a nation, and brought it closer to the much-needed change.
eSpeakers believes in the power of great speeches like the âI Have a Dreamâ speech, and in great speakers like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. To honor his speech given 57 years ago, eSpeakers has created an infographic in commemoration of that great moment in American history. You can view the infographic below.
Click this link to see the full inspiring infographic:
Celebrating 57 years of the âI Have A Dream Speechâ Infographic
To find great and inspiring speakers for your own event, consider searching eSpeakers Marketplace.
In this era of constant distractions combined with higher expectations across the board, terms like âedutainmentâ are conceived every day as we try to define the higher bars we are all leaping over.
This couldnât be truer in the event planning industry.
How To Book a Celebrity: Ten Things You Need to Know to Bag a Big Name
Hiring a speaker is a challenge in itself. Hiring a celebrity speaker is a whole different ballgame!
A celebrity speaker will drive lots of traffic and attention to your event; the free buzz that this person will create for you can pay for itself, itâs true.
If you decide you want to book a celebrity for an upcoming event, you need to consider that there are two sides to this coin.
But if you book a celebrity, you also need to be on a level of professionalism that you may not have achieved before. You have to have all your ducks in a row before you even consider contacting a celebrity to appear at your event.
Bring your âAâ game.
If you appear in any way unprepared when you reach out to a celebrityâs PR team, they will not even consider your proposal because it will smell like a âwaste of timeâ.
Celebrities donât have time to waste. They also have their public reputations to consider. Most of them wonât appear at an event that wonât make them look good. If you come off as unprofessional at the get-go, they wonât sign on.
The way to successfully book a celebrity is to approach their PR person with all the information they need in a concise document that allows them to assess your event, what it has to offer and make a quick yes or no decision. If your proposal is incomplete or messy, it will much more likely be a ânoâ.
You donât want that.
For them, time is money, so you need to have all your expectations set and ready to present up-front. With that in mind, we put together a list to help you present a strong proposal.
Big surprise: celebrities cost a lot. Be prepared to pay a minimum of $50,000 all the way up to a six-figure number.
Donât just choose celebrities at random, just for the sake of having a big name. Your celebrityâs presence at your event should make sense. So know the purpose and theme of your event, and choose a celebrity who fits in with that idea. An appropriate person will have a much stronger effect than someone who is there just for the sake of their celebrity status.
Curate your celebrity speaker into your event for the greatest effect. Consider who they are and what they have to offer your attendeesâwould a full 60 or 90-minute keynote speech be appropriate, or a moderated Q & A session? Every speaker brings something unique to an event, even celebrities. Remember that when you are proposing your event to them.
The location of your event will affect which celebrity you will be able to book, because of two factors:
Your speaker may not want to fly thousands of miles. So the farther you are from city centers, allow more time to find someone who can.
You need to know the exact dates and times that your celebrity will be speaking, down to the minute, before you contact them with your proposal. Most celebrities want to spend as little time as possible at your event (no offense, itâs a time thing) so they will arrive shortly before their allotted time and leave shortly afterward. Provide this information upfront.
Your celebrity needs to know that there is a solid team ready to receive them. If they donât know who to contact or your team seems to change on a daily basis, you will seem unprofessional and they wonât want to be involved. Make it clear who on your team does what, and how they should contact them.
Using a speakers bureau can cut down on a lot of back-and-forth and guesswork for you. It is a speakers bureauâs business to know which celebrities are available for speaking engagements, what they charge, and what their special expectations are. Engaging a speakers bureau to do all this legwork for you can save you a ton of time.
Not sure where to start? Check out our directory of celebrity speakers!
Itâs important to know who your audience is, so your celebrity can know what to expect if they accept your offer. Also, they can curate their speech appropriately so they can have a greater impact, which is better for them and for your audience.
All of your promotional material will need to be okayed by the celebrityâs PR team before it is distributed. To avoid wasted resources when they reject something youâve already paid for, make sure you know how you plan to promote the event so you can get their approval as soon as possible.
This doesnât go on your proposal. But itâs important to have a strong Plan B, because most celebrities will have a cancellation clause written into their contracts in case they are offered a film or other such engagement and need to back out suddenly. If this happens, you need to be ready to deploy your second-best speaker at a momentâs notice!
This list will help you get everything you need in line to book a celebrity for your event. We hope you enjoyed it. If you think we missed anything important, let us know!
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Corporate event planning: ten tips to make it unforgettable!
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So youâve done the hustle, youâve sold your skills and pitched like crazy. And you did itâyou landed that next big contract!
Well done…now what?
This oneâs bigger than any event youâve organized before and youâre feeling ever-so-slightly in over your headâyouâre more nervous than excited! And youâre not sure where to start.
What you need is an event planning checklist that will ease your fears.
With all the moving parts involved in planning an event, itâs easy to get overwhelmed. But donât panicâyouâre at the very start. The perfect place to be to plan an unforgettable event from the ground up.
But first, you need to get organized.
With this event planning checklist, you can keep track of all those little details and make sure you donât forget anything.
Looking for the perfect speakers for your next event? Search our speaker marketplace here!
As a professional in the event planning industry, youâre in the perfect position to help your colleagues find the right speakers to make their meetings great! Connect with our SpeakerShare program to learn how you can make a commission from referring speakers!
An event planning checklist is essential to keeping organized whether youâre a veteran planner or are brand new to the industry. Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments.
Now, get planning!
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Corporate Event Planning: Ten Tips to Make it Unforgettable!
As all event planners know, corporate events are not all created equally. This can make corporate event planning a tricky business. An art, even.
Corporate events all have the same goal in mind: to bring a groupâlarge or smallâtogether for the purpose of inspiring them to do better in their professional lives, one way or another.
They can be engaging, emotionally-charged power-events, leaving attendees feeling united in their common purpose to advance their industries for the greater good of society as a whole!
Or, they can be awkward, boring snooze-fests that have the participants checking their watches and plotting their escapes out a side door.
If your work is in corporate event planning, an event like this can be a career-killer.
But, have no fear! Weâve compiled a list of ten tips to make sure your next corporate event is unforgettable.
This is the whole point of corporate event planning and canât be overlooked. If your attendees donât leave your event inspired in some way, then you havenât done your job as an event planner.
This is where the speakers you choose can play a key role in making your event unforgettable. Choosing the right person to speak to the particular challenges and issues of your participants can make all the difference between an event with impact and one that fades into distant memory.
The main purpose of corporate event planning is to help businesses break down divisions that exist between their employees and various departments. This is also true for larger events that can work to bring people together who inhabit different areas of the same industry.
Through interactive activities such as workshops and icebreaker events, your participants will enjoy opportunities to get to know each other in more casual situations, rather than just sitting passively side-by-side at presentations and talks.
People love to feel included, especially in this era when so much of our lives are dominated by digital interactions rather than face-to-face.
Spend lots of time during the event talking to participants, asking them how the event is going for them and how it might improve. Take polls and post the results. Create social media platforms dedicated to letting participants interact with each other.
Did you know we have an interactive database of fabulous speakers? Check out the marketplace here.
The invitation is the first introduction to your event. So make sure it isnât impersonal and humdrum, so recipients stay away from that delete button. Make your invitations thoughtful, informative, and reflective of the theme and intent of the event. If potential participants can get a good idea of whatâs in store if they attend, they will be more likely to consider registering.
An integral part of your corporate event planning may include choosing a theme.
A theme creates a narrative that can anchor your participants firmly in the experience. Find ways for attendees to participate, such as dressing to the theme or creating playlists they can download on their devices.
Studies have shown that experiential learning is far more effective than passive learning, such as sitting and listening to lectures.
So, at your next corporate event make sure to include some experiential learning opportunities. This can include specialized training sessions or pop-up workshops. When an educational aspect is included in an event, it is transformed from a potential waste of time to a productive chance to improve skills and knowledge.
A venue isnât just a spaceâif chosen carefully, it can be elevated to an important part of your eventâs story. So, put some thought into your venue selection. Choose something that fits with the theme and feel of your event. Also, a venue that has an interesting focal point or feature will add character to the even. It will also give your attendees a cool spot to gather.
Corporate event planning also means planning for the future. Post-event is a valuable time to gather feedback to put towards your next event, as well as making sure attendants donât forget the experience theyâve just had.
Send fun, interesting questionnaires to all the participants, inviting them to share what their favorite and not-so-favorite parts of the event were.
Youâve put so much thought into the venue, theme, content and speakers of your event. Donât cop out when it comes to the food!
Whatâs on the buffet tables may seem inconsequential compared to whatâs on stage. But the truth is if you offer refreshments that go beyond the usual mediocre event fare, people will remember. Food matters, so donât treat it like an afterthought!
Last but not least, the right presenters and keynote speaker will make or break your event. Choosing speakers correctly is not optional when corporate event planning, as they have the power to lift an event from mundane to memorable.
If youâre looking for an amazing, inspiring speaker for an upcoming event, make sure to reach out to us so we can help you find the perfect fit.
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