Questions You Didn't Know You Had
Bobbie Carlton
Founder/Speaker/Marketer/PR Thought Leader/Publisher/Editor-in-chief. Advocating for more women onstage
If you are like most people, you probably have some of the same basic questions about public speaking. These are some of the most common questions I hear:
But what about the questions you don't know you have? Or the questions that you don't know to ask? They may involve subjects or topics you just haven't come across yet. But they could provide important insight and knowledge as you move forward in your speaking career.
Our Speaker Friend Friday events (the Zoom link goes out in our weekly newsletter) have been an important source of "questions I didn't know to ask" for many of us. Here are just a few examples:
That last one blossomed into a whole hour-long discussion one day.
Video Rights...and Wrongs
With so many hybrid and virtual speaking engagements, access to and ownership of a speaker’s presentation recordings is often a hot topic of conversation for us. (And, as always, a disclaimer. We’re not lawyers but speakers and event managers sharing our experiences. Have a legal question? Ask your lawyer. They went to school for this purpose and have far larger college loans than I.)
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It started with a speaker being asked to sign away the rights to a video of her presentation for an undetermined amount of time.
We had to discuss the possible impact of the decision and what we needed to understand in order to make a decision like this. What was the relationship with the organization? Who was supplying the recording? Who produced the recording? What would the recording be used for? Where would the recording be hosted? Was it going to be on a public or private platform? Who would have access to the recording and for what purpose? Does the speaker also have access to the recording and can they use it for marketing purposes?
From here we went down a whole side path, questioning, "Will a freely available video of our presentation stop others from hiring us as a speaker?" So many of us share so much of our knowledge via books, websites, and social media. Is this really an issue? Will an event manager or conference organizer decide that a speaker isn’t a must have because their material is freely available elsewhere? (Google me and “video” and you can watch hours of me online for free. From webinars to video interviews to a TEDx talk to video podcasts, I openly share my mission and healthy portions of what goes into my stage presentations.)?
And another question pops up.
Will this “ownership” of a video of our presentation prevent us from giving that presentation in the future?
A lot of event contracts talk about the event owning the video of presentations from their conferences and events. They may need this ownership in order to broadcast or stream your presentation or even sell tickets to your presentation. Does this mean they own your intellectual property? Not usually. There are some examples of events, such as TED or some TEDx events, asking for exclusivity, but this doesn’t mean they are taking credit for your ideas and thoughts. BUT, they own the video they produced and you will have to ask permission to use the video or even clips of the video.
A good reminder to read the contract and consult your lawyer!
On that note, I'll close out this edition of "Speaker Friends Tell All". What questions didn't you know to ask?
Bobbie Carlton is the founder of?Innovation Women, an online speaker bureau for women.
?? Literature reveals other people's stories ? Writing reveals our own
2 年Questions I didn't know to ask are about the possibility of a day rate (thank you Bobbie!) and what other budgets might be available to leverage a speaking opportunity, such as to buy the book, etc.