How you can find the perfect keynote speaker for your event

Define the purpose of your event [...] Is your goal to inspire your audience, or educate them?

Your long-awaited company event is fast-approaching, and the anticipation amongst your colleagues looms over you as you triple-check every detail.?

As any professional working in the events sector will know, organising and executing a successful (and memorable) event often involves months of preparation and creative problem-solving.

Yet, it can be easy to overlook a crucial piece of the puzzle...

Choosing the right speaker for your event.

This doesn’t mean booking the biggest name that fits your budget.?Here are 4 must-know tips on finding the perfect keynote speaker for your event.

1. Define the purpose of the event

What are you trying to achieve?

Organisers regularly have a particular idea of whom they want as their keynote speaker. Often, we point them in the direction of a speaker they hadn't even considered.

This is all dependent on your organisation, your audience, and the objective of your event.

Is your goal to inspire your audience, or educate them?

If you don’t have the time to invest in finding the perfect keynote speaker, a good port of call is to find a reputable speaker bureau . They will be able to provide you with a compilation of appropriate acts, ranging from the lower to the higher fee brackets. If you’re looking to book a celebrity speaker, you could be looking at fees within the hundreds of thousands. Therefore it’s crucial that your speaker aligns with the purpose of your event.

2. Read the room

Know your audience.

The audience is often overlooked as a key stakeholder in the speaker selection process.

If you want bums on seats, make sure you have an idea of what the demographic makeup of your audience is. Examples of this range from your delegates' industries, age bracket, gender and level of seniority of your delegates.

This can be trickier the broader your topic or the larger the event. However, segmenting your audience can help you narrow down the process of choosing the right speaker.

3. Listen?to feedback

Always listen to feedback from previous events. What does your audience typically value most from a keynote speaker? Do they prefer to observe, or are they keen to participate and interact with the speaker? Q&As are another useful way of figuring out what worked well (or not so well).

Finally, make sure your speaker is flexible with the format of the event. You want their speech to have a memorable and unique impact on the audience.

The Entrepreneur and Founder of Gener8 Ads, Sam Jones (below), was a headlining speaker at the 2022 Retail Technology Show, alongside Tinie Tempah. As an innovator in the tech start-up space, Sam's fireside chat gave the audience the chance to engage with him in an authentic manner, which was received incredibly well.

4. The customer is always right!

It can be tempting to compromise your needs and wants to accommodate your desired speaker. This is often to the detriment of yourself (or whoever is organising the event).

Often, organisers are keen to engage with their speakers prior to, or after the event, to ensure everything runs smoothly and they are familiar with the event’s format. Perhaps you’d like your speaker to feature in a short video interview or make an appearance at a short meet-and-greet for your team.

If they cannot provide what you require (or at least offer a compromise), then it may be best to find an alternative speaker. This will ensure your speaker provides value for money and a great experience for your delegates!

What do you think is the most important thing to consider when choosing a keynote speaker? Let us know in the comments.