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How
to Make Your Investment in a Professional Speaker More Worthwhile.
Hiring a professional speaker
can be a substantial investment. The important realization? It's
not what an investment costs, it's what the investment returns that
is important. This article takes a look at what savvy and cost-conscious
meeting planners are doing to maximize their speaker investments.
Read this to learn the 21 additional ways you can use one professional
speaker to make your event be better than ever.
592
words.
How to Make Your Investment in a Professional
Speaker More Worthwhile
21 Creative Ways to Improve Your Meeting ROI
Bill Cole, MS, MA
Founder and CEO
William B. Cole Consultants
Silicon Valley, California
Hiring a professional speaker can be a substantial
investment. The important realization? It's not what an investment
costs, it's what the investment returns that is important.
Some meetings bring in multiple speakers for good reasons. Sometimes
each speaker has a specific capability only they can deliver. Or
your audience wants to see a particular speaker. Perhaps a speaker
is local and does not charge travel costs. All good reasons.
There are times when it makes sense, though, to utilize the multiple
services of a single speaker, so their travel and speaking expenses
you pay are maximized. In addition, when you bring in a speaker
who takes the time to engage in meaningful, extensive research on
your organization, the value-add is in utilizing that speaker's
knowledge of your capabilities and needs so they can deliver assistance
to your people across many platforms. Your people can engage in
learning at many levels.
Let's take a look at what savvy and cost-conscious meeting planners
are doing to protect their speaker investments. Any of these 21
additional uses for your professional speaker can be a wise move.
- Use the speaker as a keynoter as well as in breakouts to save
extra travel costs for another speaker.
- Get people reading the speaker's materials in advance.
- Publish articles by the speaker in your organization's materials.
- Use the speaker's educational materials as gifts for attendees,
in advance.
- Schedule the speaker as a consultant prior to and after the
meeting.
- Utilize the speaker as a coach to individuals and teams on site.
- After a keynote, involve the speaker in activities, breakouts
or coaching sessions so people can go more in-depth with the keynote
material.
- Having the speaker do a breakout after the keynote can improve
attendance at the breakouts.
- Have the speaker do a breakout with material that is largely
interactive so people gain a complete different perspective on
the concepts from the keynote.
- By using the speaker for multiple roles, you save extra travel
costs from hiring another speaker.
- Utilize the speaker as a panelist with your other speakers.
- Have a senior member of your organization interview the speaker,
live.
- Have the speaker do double duty as an MC or announcer.
- Videotape or audiotape the speaker as a resource for those
who can't attend, or for future training initiatives.
- Partner with the speaker to create educational materials that
positively impact your people.
- Customize the speaker's educational materials with your organization's
logo and text for use as a special audience giveaway.
- Have the speaker involved in media interviews before and during
your meeting for more exposure and credibility for your organization.
- Have the speaker continue the learning your people started
by creating ongoing distance classes.
- Have the speaker write a series of articles or a regular column
in one or more of your publications.
- Have the speaker act as a spokesperson for your organization,
realizing more positive exposure for you.
- Engage the speaker as an on-line expert in a chat-room or discussion
group, organization-wide.
So there you have it, 21 ways to stretch your
meeting dollars into something more worthwhile. Your budget is satisfied.
Your people are fulfilled. You then have a speaker who can add even
more value to you, from having been inside your organization longer
and deeper than a mere one-shot speech could ever provide. In a
sense, you've hired a speaker and received the results of a writer-consultant-facilitator-media
person-coach-trainer. Quite a return on your investment.
To learn about speaking programs offered by Bill Cole, MS, MA, the
Mental Game Coach™, see www.mentalgamecoach.com/Services/SpeakingAndTraining.html.
Copyright © 2011-
Bill Cole, MS, MA. All rights reserved.
Bill Cole, MS, MA, a leading authority
on peak performance, mental toughness and coaching, is founder and
CEO of William B. Cole Consultants, a consulting firm that helps
organizations and professionals achieve more success in business,
life and sports. He is also the Founder and President of the International
Mental Game Coaching Association (www.mentalgamecoaching.com),
an organization dedicated to advancing the research, development,
professionalism and growth of mental game coaching worldwide. He
is a multiple Hall-Of-Fame honoree as an athlete, coach and school
alumnus, an award-winning scholar-athlete, published book author
and articles author, and has coached at the highest levels of major-league
pro sports, big-time college athletics and corporate America. For
a free, extensive article archive, or for questions and comments
visit him at www.MentalGameCoach.com.
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