For our team, the success of any event featuring speakers – whether virtual, hybrid, or live – is very much contingent on them being set up for success. The reality is that your attendees have come to see them and it’s our job to ensure they have everything they need to deliver incredible speaking engagements!
Supporting our speakers includes the following:
- Providing our speakers with a timeline of when we need their material submitted for review and when the deadline for final changes will be.
- Creating a speaker brief that details all of the information about the event including details such as dress code, when and where they will be speaking, who the audience is, etc.
- Requesting their photos and bio’s, as well as their AV requirements.
- Creating branded ‘welcome’ and ‘thank you’ slides so all slideshows look cohesive.
- Conducting a training and onboarding session for all speakers to review the event timeline documents and address any questions that they might have. This includes sharing the details of the event such as what time they need to arrive, what time attendees arrive, and what the expectations of the speakers are.
- Ensuring that our speakers are signed up for our event, when applicable, so that they receive all event-related communications and are in the loop of what information attendees are receiving about the event.
- For panel discussions and fireside chats, we find it beneficial to do a ‘meet & greet’ with panelists and the moderator ahead of time so that everyone can meet one another in advance of the event, including a discussion around any questions that might be great conversation topics.
- If time permits, it is sometimes helpful to share speakers’ presentations with one another to ensure that there is no duplication of content, but to also ensure that everyone is in alignment with one another.
- Setting up a time with us, our AV company and all speakers so that they can do final tech, mic, camera, and presentation checks prior to the event.
- If hosting a virtual or hybrid event, we create tutorial videos of how to navigate the virtual event platform so that the experience is barrierless and accessible.
- On the day of, we are right there with them to ensure they find their correct room, their AV is working and they feel comfortable with their surroundings. In some scenarios, we have allocated ‘hosts’ for each speaker, which provides the speakers with volunteers who can assist them with anything and ensure they get to their engagement on time.
- Sending our speakers a thank you email as well as provide them with a feedback survey to let us know how we can improve on their experience in the future. We also often send useful or unique gifts to speakers.
We want to ensure that our speakers feel empowered and comfortable with their involvement in our event. And with these measures in place you can set your speakers up for success too!
– XO, Team Tycoon