9 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Event Speaker’s Content

‍#1. Make it Easy on your speakers

There can be a lot for your speakers to provide and communicate to you and your team in the lead up to the event. From routine paperwork like contracts, W9’s, COI’s, waivers, to the more in-depth personal stuff like bios, head shots, the presentation, social details, and posters, there is a lot of back and forth correspondence that takes place leading up to the speaking engagement. 

But the truth is, your speaker is being invited to your event to engage, inform, and entertain your audience. The last thing you want is for them to be bogged down in an endless sea of emails and documents, wondering if they missed something and feeling distracted from their true purpose… speaking. That’s why it’s important to remember:

• The easier and less stressful you make it on your speakers, the more they can concentrate on the content.
• Communication is key. So keep the most critical information organized in one place.
• Minimize the number of touch points between you and your speakers, and keep deadlines for documents simple and clear. 

#2. Create presentation templates

Not every speaker you select is a presentation pro. Just because these folks are interesting or intelligent individuals whom we want to gain wisdom from, does not mean they have spent their lives on stage practicing their timing and delivery. 

That’s why we find that providing a framework for the presentation to be highly effective in empowering those less seasoned speakers as they share their knowledge or stories. 

Therefore, it’s important to remember:

• Oftentimes your speakers are experts in their field, but may not be expert speakers.
• So beyond the content, provide a template for the things you believe will make for a great session (structure, timing, ensure they highlight the most critical topics and takeaways, etc.). 

#3. Make it Easy on your Selection Team

We all know how challenging it can be to choose the right speakers for your event. Narrowing down submissions can be tough, especially if you have multiple evaluators sharing the responsibility. Sure it may seem that you can tackle more session grading with more hands on deck, but if your evaluation plan and your process isn’t airtight it can actually make it far more complicated. 

So it’s crucial that you make it easy on your team, big or small, by creating a submission grading system that keeps expectations clear and concise. There are platforms out there that can make abstract grading incredibly seamless and simple. 

Regardless, it is important to remember:  

• The easier it is for your team to sift through and grade the abstracts and sessions being submitted, the higher likelihood they will be able to really focus on choosing the ideal sessions and speakers. 

#4. Make it Easy on your A/V Team

Speaking of complicated work, your event relies on the prowess and technical skills of your A/V team. The execution of the presentation rests on the shoulders of audio/visual experts. They work tirelessly behind-the-scenes to keep your sessions running smoothly and beautifully, and the more hurdles you can eliminate for them in the process, the better they can perform their duty.  

There is nothing like a session being delayed because the content wasn’t uploaded correctly. So the first line of defense to make things go smoothly, is to ensure your team can easily access the appropriate presentations. 

So, remember that:

• You should ensure there is a way for your A/V team to quickly and easily access and download the content they need. The easier you can make it for your A/V team, the more consistency you will get in the production of each session.
  
  

#5. Offer a content repository to your attendees & speakers

Just because your event wrapped last weekend, does not mean that the amazing presentations you hosted are now lost in the sands of time. In fact, the life of your past event has just begun when you’re prepared to distribute your sessions for online consumption. 

It doesn’t take much to create a database for your event content to be consolidated and shared with the world outside of your event audience. Just think of the power of conferences like TED and the longevity of their presentations long after their initial debut. 

Whether it’s attendees looking to rewatch something the saw live, speakers hoping to build out their portfolio with access to their presentation, or a whole new audience outside of your event whom you can now reach with the power of social media, remember this:

• Quite simply the best way to extend the life of your events is by providing a repository of the content from each session. 

#6. Distribute the content as quickly as possible

As important as it is to provide a content repository, riding the wave of momentum from your just completed event is key. The last thing you want is for your content to take weeks or months to finally be available to share. The quicker you get the content in the hands of your speakers, attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, etc. the more likely it will be to get re-distributed. You have to strike while the content is fresh.

So remember that:

•  When attendees get back to work the following Monday and want to share what they learned, they need an easy way to access what they experienced.

#7. Break the content up into bite sized, shareable assets

Now here is where we provide a caveat to our last two tips. When it comes to re-distributing your event content beyond the halls and walls of your event, the length and format of those shareable assets needs to be assessed for their digestibility. That’s where you will want to have your team step in to slice your content into powerful soundbites. 

It’s a lot of work to condense your multi-day event into short succinct highlights, but it’s essential if you hope to attract a large online audience post show. Thankfully that’s the editor’s job to worry about. 

So remember this:

• The way content is best digested at a conference is likely much different than the best way people digest content on social or amongst their team members.
• Make your content short, smart, and shareable.  

#8. Leverage A Centralized Platform

This is where we get a little self-righteous, but it’s absolutely essential that we discuss this. As you are painfully aware of, your time is limited and has a monetary value. Therefore wasting it should not be an option, especially in the modern age where technology can be leveraged  to make your life easier. 

So if you are using spreadsheets to collect, manage, schedule and onboard your speakers, it is paramount that you do the math. A rough estimate is that it can take you at least 2-3 organizer hours per speaker for evaluation, selection, scheduling, and collecting all of their key details before a speaker even steps on stage. When you multiply that by your number of speakers and sessions, it becomes a disturbing figure that can truly make your headspin.

Therefore it is critical that you remember this:

- Having a state of the art system can drastically reduce the time you spend on your entire speaker management process. 

            - Freeing up your team from the tedious back and forth tasks that go into speaker management will allow them to focus on the overall execution of your actual event. 

            - Having a streamlined system also provides your speaker with a much better experience that will reduce stress and inspire them to want to work with you again in the future.

#9. Choose Wisely - Find a Platform that Puts Content First

We’re obviously biased, because we believe that when it comes to one of the most important aspects of your event, i.e. the “CONTENT”, it is critical to have a system that is built to help you get the most out of that content. That’s  why  we believe that it’s critical to choose a speaker and content management platform that optimizes your content distribution.

And in order to help you choose, we came up with the top 6 questions to ask when choosing a speaker and content management platform:

#1. Does it integrate with other systems?

#2. Does it elevate or detract from your event’s brand?

#3. Is it easy to use for everyone involved (Speakers, Administrators, Evaluators and even your A/V Team)?

#4. Does it create more or less work for your team to get the most out of the tool?

#5. Does it help you search and access the most relevant content to quickly execute your marketing and community strategy? 

#6. Is the pricing simple to understand and easy to explain to your boss?