Choosing speakers for your events

Choosing speakers for your events

I have been to and organised many events where we have had fantastic speakers but then some that are not so great!

We all know it is a hard thing for the majority of people to get up and present to an audience (its not something I love myself) but speakers need to be engaging and give delegates something to take away otherwise this really affects the success of an event.

Where to start – we will always look at speaker credentials so where have they spoken previously and what type of audiences have they addressed. Therefore will the content be relevant to your audience. Also think about what are you trying to achieve, do you want something which is more inspiring and comedy focussed - good for after dinner speeches, or do you want to motivate and challenge a group of employees, try to get a speaker that has good background of working in both areas.

Once you have made a decision and budget is always dependent,some speakers will drop their fees in return for promoting themselves or selling copies of their books so this is worth investigating.  Ensure you have a contract in place (that covers you if they don’t turn up! Never pay their entire fee in advance).  If you have time it is always worth going along to actually see them speak at another event or ask for a YouTube video or DVD of their speaking slot.

Then prior to the event ensure you give the speaker a detailed briefing, at so many events I have seen speakers stand up and prepare something which is not relevant to the audience purely because they haven’t been briefed correctly by the organiser.  So remember to tell them about key people that may be in the audience, time that they have to keep to, any no go’s and musts to covers Overall ensure you are not leading them into the lion’s den and that they feel relaxed.

Finally always thank your speakers if they have done a great job after the event and tell others how great they are, if there is room for improvement give them feedback ,this is so important so they are able to improve and develop for other events.

Some good speakers we have used in the past...

Around Leadership and Development – Julie Harrison Consulting - Julie Harrison

Sales and Business Development – Nick Bramley - Jorvik Associates

Motivational – Lisa Clifford - Lisa Clifford Business Coach

After dinner speaker/lunch – Alastair Humphreys (Pictured), Steve Womack

If you’re interested in blogging for Mosaic Events please email sarah@mosaicevents.co.uk

Income Generation for your events

Income Generation for your events

In the current economic climate we are extremely busy with generating income for various events.  For many associations and memberships they cannot run events for members without at least £20K worth of sponsorship to fund the event and help with the existence of the organisation.

For public sector organisations and not for profit organisations similarly times are hard so more emphasis has been put into getting as much income as possible to ensure the success of an event. 

There are many ways of generating income for an event and this week we are using the blog to give you some ideas for how to make your events pay!

·         Exhibitors – the obvious way of gaining income selling exhibition space at your events.  Hosting a table top exhibitions stand will keep your costs down and allow suppliers of products or services connected with your sector to promote themselves to your delegates.  We advise charging anything from £395 plus VAT upwards for a one day event.  This is dependent on your audience, sector and of course how many delegates you have attending.

·         Inserts within the delegate packs or adverts within the event programme – selling space within an event programme can enable an organiser to have a nicely designed and printed handout for nothing.  Making this pay for itself and having some left over!

·         Sponsorship of the coffee/tea breaks – allowing the supporter to have pop up stands, cards on the refreshment tables and possible a short slot to address the audience is another good way of generating some income.

·         Conference App – Gain support for a conference app to be built, this is a fantastic way of engaging with delegates prior to the event and then on the day.  A good way of promoting interaction and discussion between both speakers, delegates to more importantly the sponsor is able to have their say!

·         Finally overall Sponsorship packages – pulling together a package which would allow one or two main sponsors of the event – the package can include a prominent exhibition stand, a speaking slot in a plenary session or delivering a workshop, insert within the pack, public thank you at the event and then access to the electronic delegate list.

We hope this helps but if you’re interested in finding out more email sarah@mosaicevents.co.uk for a non obligatory chat with Mosaic Events on generating income for your events.