The S3 Blog - Relationships, Resources, Reach

Location Location Location

Leveraging the conference location is one the most important and beneficial things you can do to make sure you are getting the most mileage from your speaking engagements. We hear from clients all the time about the people they meet, the exposure they get, even the deals they close as a result of a conference speaking engagement.  Use the conference environment to your advantage. Be sure to attend all the networking events that the conference sponsors – consider sponsoring a small one of your own for clients and key influencers such as press and analysts.  Invite locally based clients and prospects to attend your speech. 

Beyond the boundaries of the convention center or host hotel, leverage executive travel schedules to conduct client meetings, branch office visits, and employee recruiting activities in the area.  All these measures will ensure your company and your brand get the maximum exposure possible from each speaking engagement.

In an increasingly crowded marketplace, a resourceful speakers bureau program can make your company standout.  By taking advantage of the complimentary marketing, communications, and relationship-building opportunities that speaking engagements present, you can reach the right audiences with the right messages – for less time, money, and effort than you think.  

Maximum Mileage, Minimum Coin

Speaking engagements can deliver a great deal of bang for your buck. Issuing a press release about your upcoming speaking engage­ment is an easy way to build brand awareness and boost visibility.  Speaking engagements can also help you strengthen relationships with the media. Invite them to attend your speaking session and arrange one-on-one meetings. These activities help generate press coverage – and are less expensive than press tours.

Building Your Corporate Speaking Program (Part 2)

4. Invest in your speaker program: Like other key com­ponents of your PR and mar­keting programs, a speakers bureau requires investments of time, money and resources to be successful. It is critical that you dedicate an experienced professional or team (internal or external to your company) to manage all aspects of the pro­gram—from abstract develop­ment and executive relations to logistics and follow-up. And be ready to invest significant time and energy in doing it right. Follow up regularly on sub­missions, speaking frequently with show organizers to build relationships that increase your chances of placement and help you identify upcoming oppor­tunities.

5. Prepare before your pitch: Take the time to create a library of speaker biographies, head shots and noncommercial abstracts on timely and com­pelling topics—this last piece can make or break your place­ment chances. There’s noth­ing worse than identifying an opportunity at the right event and then scrambling to meet the submission requirements. Having these critical pieces ready will increase your abil­ity to respond to opportunities quickly.

6. Leverage your successes: The speech itself will come and go in less than an hour, and while the impact is significant, promoting your speaker suc­cesses and taking advantage of ancillary business opportuni­ties can help you increase the benefits of each engagement. Participate in all available conference marketing oppor­tunities—brochures, Web sites, press releases, direct mail  and social media campaigns. Leverage the con­ference location to conduct meetings with clients, press, partners and employment can­didates.

7. Did we mention follow-up? After the speech is delivered and the conference has come to a close, there is still work to be done.

Look for ways to repurpose the speech for other confer­ences and other audiences. Share the speech and its impact with your employees, press and analyst contacts, clients and business partners to reinforce your key messages and boost brand awareness and thought leadership.

Conduct an assessment of each speaking engagement. Track attendance numbers and audience profiles, and solicit feedback from both the speaker and the conference organizer. This will help in determining whether or not you should pursue a speaking opportunity next year.

Building Your Corporate Speaking Program (Part 1)

Ask any VP of corporate communications what she/he is doing to secure executive speaking opportunities, and the overwhelming response will be “not enough.” A savvy communications executive knows the benefits of a successful speakers program: brand development, executive visibility, product/service promotion, thought leadership and lead generation.

One speech can reach an enormous and valuable target audience of clients, prospects, employees, media, business partners and analysts. The audience has chosen to attend the conference and your presentation, so they are ready and willing to listen to your experts and your messages. The conference environment is conducive to networking and deal making. And you can’t beat the price. These coveted sales, marketing and PR benefits can be yours for the mere price of a plane ticket.  Yet many companies are frustrated with the process and the results of their existing speaking programs. Why? In our 3 decades creating and managing speakers bureau programs, we’ve found the root causes to be a lack of planning and a shortage of resources.

2. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize
With an ever-growing list of business and industry conferences, it is critical to prioritize your efforts. Know your target audience and your business goals and be true to them both when researching conferences and pursuing speaking opportunities. Consider current and past speakers, location and venue, attendee profiles and other important criteria when building a focused target list.

3. Know the realities
Successful speaker placement is a difficult pursuit, so be ready for the challenges. Placement timelines are long (six-to-nine-month lead time), so start early and be willing to track an opportunity for months. Competition is stiff and sponsors get many of the top speaking slots (the unfortunat “pay to play” system). You can work around this system, but it takes perseverance and creativity. Select speakers and topics that are compelling and noncommercial, enlist clients for joint case-study presentations and spend time building relationships with conference organizers.

2011 Speaking Trends

S3 continually monitors the top conferences and leadership events to find out where the key players are speaking and what business topics they find most important to share with audiences.  This year, we kept a close eye on the most prolific executive speakers at the leading technology/media brands like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, AOL, and many others.  Here are some of the trends we observed:

Q2 and Q4 Were Big

The second quarter of the year had the most speaker activity by the top 2 dozen executive speakers in the technology & media space, followed by Q4, Q3, and then Q1.  Historically, the May/June and September/October time periods have been the most active speaking "seasons". This trend has held true pretty consistently for over 15 years.  

A Trend Toward Home

Executives presented around the world this year, but definitely traveled overseas much more extensively in the first 3 quarters of the year than in Q4 where fewer than 20% of presentations were made outside the US.

Media & Technology Focus

As might be expected, the main emphasis by these companies was on Technology & Media conferences.  The next most popular conference types were Advertising & Marketing, Women in Leadership, General Leadership & Business, Entrepreneurship, and finally, Social Good & Philanthropy. 

The Most Prolific Speakers Were Often not the CEO…

The CEO was the most active speaker at less than one third of the companies we tracked.  Strong lieutenants, many with their own powerful name recognition, often took on the speaking responsibility as their company’s public face instead of the CEO.

…They Were Often Women

Of the executives we tracked, about 25% were women, a much higher representation than the number of women in senior executive positions at these companies.  In addition, these women presented a lot – they gave about 43% of all the talks from this group during the year.  In 2011 there was a sizable increase in demand for top female executives, and more conferences than ever have been created to reflect this strong audience interest.

We’ll continue to monitor the speaker circuits as we move into 2012.  Revisit this blog often to keep up with ongoing observations as they occur.