How I Choose Speakers for My Events

I’ve been selecting speakers for my events for over a decade and to be honest, it would be WONDERFUL to abdicate this important role.

Why?  Because I often upset people — with my choices.

After all, YOU probably wouldn’t pick the ALL of the speakers I’ve chosen and if you are a speaker — my guess is that I have at least 6,000 professional speakers on my subscriber lists — you may be wondering right now why I didn’t pick YOU!

That’s 6,000 to about a dozen odds and when you are the one doing the picking, some of the frustration of 5,988 people not picked just naturally falls back on you.

The only problem is … it’s so important that I feel like I need to take on this responsibility personally.

So how do I go about picking speakers?

My first priority is to choose speakers who are the BEST available for the individual event.

I always try to choose the best available, because that’s what the audience deserves.

Here are a few of the minimum criteria:

• The first priority when picking speakers above all else is to maintain the standard of excellence in remarkable presentation content, solution-driven thought leadership, dynamic practical results and generous support for the Impact family.
• Speakers need to be able to deliver powerful relevant content in a heart-centered, dynamic way that keeps our audience engaged and moving towards clear objectives.
• Speakers need to deliver powerful solutions to real problems in a way that is packed with value.
• Speakers need to consistently close the sale and deliver on promises
• Speakers need to proactively support our clients and customers after the sale.

Those are minimums, but beyond that — They need to be among the very top of the list of usually over 200 people who are qualified and available to speak at the event.

Even if they are available to speak and at the top of the list, it’s still not a guarantee that they will be asked to speak, because I need to match other criteria such as:

• Topic match with the other speakers.
• Whether the content has been exposed to the audience before.
• How recently they’ve spoken.
• Are they exciting and current?
• How much new audience they might be able to bring in.
• How polarizing their presentation is.
• How responsive they are to my needs and suggestions.
• How early did they say they wanted the speaking slot and we’re committed to being there?
• Have they promoted the event in the past and will they promote for this event?

And yes … being a Platinum Mastermind Member is definitely a plus when I choose speakers.

You will notice that not all speakers selected will be the ones you would have selected and that the weights given to different criteria vary with the individual event, and locations and are eventually completely subjective.

Also, note that I didn’t mention anything about sex, ethnic background, religion, or any one of a thousand ways that we as people divide ourselves into groups.

I’m more about inclusion than exclusion, so everyone is welcome here.  Take a look at my post on “A Friend Asked Me To Warn You.” for what I feel about inclusion.

While I proactively want to help people who are qualified but underrepresented as a group, my first priorities are that they are the very best.

I’ll let my track record on diversity in speaker selection stand for itself.

So what if you want to be a speaker?

Reflect on the speakers that are chosen and ask yourself as honestly as possible, “How can I emulate the BEST of their strengths and minimize the weaknesses I find in myself?”

Because the only thing YOU can control is what you do and how you take full advantage of every situation to grow.

All of the other factors that aren’t under your control are just that — things you can’t control.  So forget them quickly and keep persisting.

For more information on what I’m looking for in a speaker for my events, check out our speaker information page for the Impact Event at:

http://theimpactevent.com/speakerinfo/

If you want to be a speaker, come to one of my events and get to know my friends!

Live events move you faster than anything I know.  Building relationships is crucial and successful people attend live events.

I’d love to meet you in person and introduce you to amazing people to get you on the way.

https://kenmcarthur.com/events