Janet Schlarbaum, Mark Schlarbaum Tools

Save Money With the 5 Key Points

Save Money With the 5 Janet Schlarbaum Key Points Author: Glyn Powditch

If you are booking a keynote speaker, then follow the 7 key points in this article. It will save you up to 20% of the fee you would have been charged by going to a bureau. The bureaus offer little benefits for their expensive charges and its easy to gain the small benefit of their experience by just calling them and asking their advice for free. With videos now on every professional speaker’s website, anyone can judge the quality and appropriateness of a specific speaker. Follow these 5 tips and you will be assured of a positive experience at your event:

1) “Try before you buy” – Only book speakers with a show reel on their website, Youtube or another video channel.

Its simple, good practice to have seen a speaker in action before you book them for an event. You are personally responsible for the success of your event, function, or conference. A video will allow you to not only judge the competence and likely impact of a speaker upon your audience but will also enable judgment as to the appropriateness of the speaker to the event.

Many speakers, even of poor quality, feature a show reel on their website. Therefore you can quickly eliminate speakers that are not up to scratch. Are the audience engaged? If they are out of shot, could it be staged? Any professional speaker will have countless performances at live events and should have no reason to “can laughter” or fakery. And if they don’t have a show reel, don’t book them.

Also examine what are their typical subject areas? Their videos should give a good guide and don’t expect them to deviate too much from their areas of expertise. If you want an HR speaker, look for one rather than a business speaker. Like comedians, many speakers rarely stray from the same stories. They will tend to try and mold the subject to their material which is not ideal for you. Therefore, I would urge you to really think about who you want.

2) Don’t book “celebrities” for business events unless…..

you can think of a really good reason to do so – and I can’t! I almost always hear that celebrities speeches go down like lead balloons at business conferences and events. Why? Well firstly a lot, and I mean a lot, turn up half cut. And this is whether we are talking big current names, sports stars, or c-listers and even those with tea-total reputations and bastions of health seem to succumb. Nerves, enjoying hospitality, or just part of a wider problem, consumption of alcohol affects speaking performance and audience enjoyment. Secondly, they are not speakers and whilst some are obviously good, a lot of them are not. Thirdly, you pay through the roof for them on multiples that are just absurd for the initial excitement of the audience as their name is announced before the typically crashing disappointment that follows when they open their mouths. Many toastmaster level speakers are much better and that’s not saying much.

3) Pick the brains of the bureau’s but don’t use them

Bureau’s are so expensive and do nothing to ensure you get the right speaker relative to their exorbitant fee. So by all means I recommend that you give them a call, ask for recommendations on speakers, and budgets and glean whatever valuable information that you can. If you do get a name, go direct. Any speaker worth their salt will have a website that is easy to find. You can even bypass management companies by going to Facebook and Myspace pages – it pays to be resourceful. Many speakers, especially good ones, will not make use of bureaus as many of the agencies engage in unscrupulous business practices and will host multiple websites pretending to be different companies and feature celebrities to whom they have no connection nor ability to book.

4) Set a decent budget and stick to it

Don’t get tempted to stray beyond your budget but make sure that your budget is sufficient. For any business event, I wouldn’t want to stray below £2000 / $4000 plus reasonable expenses. If you do your research, you should get good value for money.

5) Know when to use a speaker bureau – there is one time its essential

So I’ve told you to avoid using them and now I am telling you to do so! Well, in my opinion the only time to use a bureau is when you get an eleventh hour cancellation. Now this rarely ever happens in my experience. Most professional speakers will move heaven and earth not to let you down. But if it happens, then this is the time to use them.

Posted by Janet Schlarbaum