Enjoyed a very enlightening talk by Deborah Gardner CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) at the monthly meeting of NSAGLAC (National Speakers Association, Greater Los Angeles Chapter). Deborah Gardner has a rich background to draw upon including qualifying for the 1980 Moscow Olympics that the US boycotted and serving as a Marine. At this meeting, however, Deborah built upon her 27 years of experience as a meeting professional and she generously shared many value nuggets in her presentation. Here follows merely a small sample in the form of six ways a professional speaker can better accommodate the needs of meeting professionals:- Respect the complexity of a Meeting Professional, speaker selection and management is merely one small piece in a much bigger puzzle. They are heavily involved in the strategic aspects of meetings and manage logistics, food and beverages, hotels, sponsors, etc. Hence, call them “meeting professionals” and not merely “meeting planners” as the latter doesn’t quite capture the depth of their profession.
Market the event on various social media platforms and produce videos sharing your enthusiasm for meeting the audience. Also ask the meeting professional about various ways in which you can help promote the meeting as they may have desired format, timeline, hashtags, etc.- Communicate in a responsive manner as meeting professionals experience very high stress levels. Answer their calls and emails in a responsive manner and let them know when you arrive, etc. Avoid big surprises on stage that you have not cleared with them beforehand. She brought up an example of a speaker who changed the topic based on the news he saw in the hotel room the night before the event which meant that his talk didn’t match the conference agenda. The meeting professional was not pleased.
Customize your talk to the industry as industry-related topics increasingly are in focus. Therefore, you may want to consider speaking more to industries in which you have more direct experience. Also, keep in mind that many people in the audience go to 5-6 events a year these days so the chances are higher that they have seen you before which means that you increasingly have to create a new presentation every time.- Engage the audience. Meeting professionals want “participants,” not merely “attendees” so find different ways to get the audience involved as this will increase the likelihood that the audience achieve the goal of true professional development. You don’t want people to just passively sit back and watch your keynote. You can use exercises, props or social media during the presentation to get interaction going with the participants. However, don’t overdo the complexity in terms of technology as this could stress out the audience if they don’t understand what they are supposed to do.
- Develop relationships with meeting professionals to better understand their changing needs, so now I am pleased to get to know Deborah ? This was merely a sampling of what Deborah shared with our chapter and for more knowledge about meeting professionals and what speakers need to know, look no further than to Deborah Garder!
