Meeting Planners Guide to Hiring a Great Keynote Speaker

By Judy Carter, Motivational Humorist

Since I’m a keynote speaker who has spoken at more than 1,000 corporate events, I know that a keynote speaker can make or break an event. Let’s face it, as a meeting planner, after an event you want to find a letter on your desk from senior management thanking you for a fantastic meeting. What you don’t want is a memo from HR about the dozen or so policies your speaker violated with his inappropriate remarks. Whether your meeting is purely smooth sailing – or the voyage of the Titanic – depends largely on how you select and prep your speaker.

After working with Speaker Bureaus, meeting planners and corporate committees, I’ve put together a list of the 12 most common mistakes meeting planners make when picking a keynote speaker – and how to avoid them – to make certain you don’t hit any icebergs along the way:

12 Mistakes Meeting Planners Make When Picking a Keynote Speaker:

1. You give up on your ideal speaker because they aren’t in your budget.
If you find a speaker you really like and can’t meet their price, there are ways to negotiate with us speakers. Very often an association, who can’t afford my price, turns to a vendor to sponsor my keynote to cover the difference. I then make a big deal about the sponsor from the podium and everyone is happy. Or, sometimes, we can make up the difference in my price by purchasing my books as a gift to the attendees as that comes from another budget. I’ve also have reduced my price by booking several events at once. We speakers can be flexible.

2. You hire a celebrity without watching their speaking demo.
There are many celebrities who are hilarious on a sitcom, but listening to them speak makes you want to poke your eyes out with a pencil. There are athletes who are amazing to watch in their sport, but are lifeless at a podium. And there are authors who are incredible writers, but put them in front of an audience and they’ll be begging for the Cliff Notes. You might have loved their sitcom, book or jump shot, but be sure to watch a video of them speaking to make sure you also love them as a speaker.

3. You don’t get references from other meeting planners.
Don’t be fooled by a snappy sales pitch and a fancy demo video – after all, you’re not hiring their graphic person. Talk to someone that’s hired him or her before and find out if their marketing material matches their talent. Most of my bookings come from referrals – the safest way to make sure you are booking a pro.

4. You forget to tell the speaker that the audience is very conservative.
What will rock an audience in New York will elicit complaints in Arkansas. With EVERY booking, I always have a pre-call with the event committee to ask them about the challenges facing the audience and make sure I know what is appropriate. Make sure your speaker understands the culture of the audience they are speaking to and maybe substitute, "Oh my gosh!" for "Oh my God!"

5. You go for the least expensive speaker to cut costs.
What is the value of everyone leaving your event with a smile on their face and advance booking for next year? A great speaker can do that. No matter if the hotel messed up room reservations, the women’s bathroom had long lines, or the air conditioning broke, an inspiring speaker can transform a disgruntled group into a hand clapping, laughing, and charged up group. Don’t cut corners on your speaker.

6. You don’t have a stage for your speaker.
This seems obvious, but I’ve had events where the meeting planner expected me to stand in a hotel lobby with people milling around. Booking a speaker is very different than booking a Mariachi Band. We speakers can have the best content, but if no one can see us they will lose interest. A stage, even if it’s a 4x8 platform, will help the audience differentiate between the speaker and the waiters.

7. You surprise your audience by not letting them know your speaker is a humorist.
As a humorist, it’s a good thing to make sure that the audience is setup to understand that I’m going to be a fantastic break from all the high content speakers. This is where they understand that now OK to relax, be entertained, turn off their "work brain" and laugh.

8. You have your keynote speaker present while dinner is being served.
You could have the President of the United States speaking at your event, but if he or she has to compete with a sirloin steak and a baked potato – it’s the speaker who will lose. Serve up the food, let them chat and digest – and when they’re full and happy – bring in the speaker with coffee and desert.

9. You forget to check on the basics.
Good lighting, a reliable audio system, and working audio-visual equipment are vital for a successful presentation, but many meeting planners fail to make certain these essentials are in place and working as they should. A speaker might have a wonderful message, but if they’re shouting over the microphone feedback from a dimly lit stage, the only message the audience will hear is, "Our meeting planner is an idiot!"

10. You choose the wrong venue.
As someone who has spoken on a golf course (note – don’t wear heels on the 9th hole), at a football field and even a bowling alley, I know that the physical environment plays an important part to my success. Humor needs a ceiling. Laughter is contagious and if audience members can’t hear laughs, they stop laughing. An enormous civic center with 100-foot high ceilings is great for a basketball game or a tractor pull (after all, those exhaust fumes have to go somewhere).

Unfortunately, the Grand Canyon echo acoustics are terrible for speakers. Try really putting some thought into what is an appropriate venue. Make sure the acoustics, seating, stage height and size, and amount of space match up with your (and your speaker’s) needs.

11. You don’t wait for the audience to settle down before you introduce the speaker.
Don’t just assume people will settle down when the speaker starts. Do things to make sure everyone is seated – and quiet – before your speaker hits the platform. An announcement like, "If everyone will sit down, we’ll announce the winner of the $10,000 door prize," will probably do the trick.

12. You fail to do a post conference call with the speaker.
Many meeting planners think they are through dealing with a speaker after the presentation is over, and so they miss out on a great opportunity. The speaker you just hired is an expert, who now also has the benefit of hindsight as to how to make a speech for your group run as smoothly as possible. Why not follow up to get as many tips as possible to make sure your next event runs even better than the one you just held?!

As you hold more meetings, and talk to other event planners, you’ll no doubt have more items to add to this list (i.e., have an emergency plan in case your speaker gets laryngitis!), but these are the basics. Follow these simple rules and you’re well on your way to a successful event.

Judy Carter, www.judycarter.com, judy@judycarter.com

About Judy Carter
Judy Carter discovered at an early age that the messes in her life were great material. She mined her stories into a standup comedy career performing on more than 100 TV shows, writing books (The Comedy Bible, The Message of You) that were endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, writing speeches for U.S. Senators and CEOs, and as an International keynote speaker, sharing the platform with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Judy’s message of using humor as a transformational tool led to her being featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN, as well as being a frequent contributor to NPR’s "All Things Considered" and a blogger for Psychology Today.

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