People & Processes By Dave Lutz, CMP

Take Away

7 Tips toGet theMost FromYour Industry Speakers

‘Don’t judge a book by its cover.’ When it comes to selecting industry speakers, that adage is especially relevant.

You’vereadtheirspeakerproposal,description, andbio.They looklike theymight be a good fit for your conference. But just because they’ve got the right dancing shoes doesn’t mean they can pull off the dance. Here are seven considerations to keep in mind

to make sure you line up the right industry speak- ers for your event: 1. It takes two to dance. Build a relationship

with your industry speakers. You’re partnering with themto deliver the best content and learning experience for participants.Don’t call themjust to tell themthey’ve been accepted and to finalize the session title, description, and learner outcomes.Ask questions about their delivery style, presentation skill level, audience-engagement plan, andhowthey evaluate their success. Share attributes of previous, highly rated education sessions. Offer advice and continue the coaching after the presentation. 2. Knowledge,facilitation,anddelivery.Ensur-

ing that industry speakers have deep knowledge on the topic is a given, but it’s just the first step.Know- inghowto develop and deliver a stellar presenta- tion that engages the audience requires strong facilitation skills. They have to know how to move to the music, too — that’s the delivery. Remember to make the distinction. 3.Being a subjectmatter expert (SME) is not

enough. Just because SMEs know the content doesn’t mean that they have experience applying and implementing it. Instead, look forSMEswho are SubjectMatterExperienced. TheseSMEs can share relevant tips and takeaways for applying their content in the real world. ASAE’s recent research study “Exploring the Decision to Learn” (http://bit.ly/9kTIJ4) shows that associationmem- berswant tolearn frompractitioners as instructors, not from suppliers and/or vendors.

4.Delivery and handling not included.Many

industry speakers have yet to acquire good adult- learning presentation skills. The right content plus the right delivery style plus the right audience engagement equals a winning session. Invest in your conference speakers. Set aside money to provide webinar training on developing content into a presentation aswell as face-to-face training on presenting it with panache. Invest in speakers, and they’ll invest in you. 5. Set the goal. How serious are you about

improving the education at your conference? If you really want to start raising the bar, set an overall speaker-satisfaction-rating goal. Publicize that goal. Let speakers know that if they don’t score a minimum level of satisfaction, you won’t use them again (unless you think they’re coachable). Create a speaker-score comparison sheet and share it with all the speakers. Post it online aswell. Each year, raise your goal by 5 percent, until you reach an overall average favorable score of 90 per- cent or 95 percent. 6.Evaluate,evaluate,evaluate.Use an extensive

session-evaluation system,not just a“smile sheet.” Have participants rate each speaker for all sessions attended. Evaluate the speaker’s knowledge, style, pace and timing, programcontent, relevance, and whether or not they met the learning objectives. Ask open-ended questions, such as:“Howwill you apply the learning to your job?” Let speakers see their unvarnished compiled evaluations. 7.Gobeyond 60 to 90 minutes.Many confer-

ences are realizing that learning fromface-to-face events can be extended by doing advance web- inars, blog posts, “tweetchats,” and LinkedIn dis- cussions. Look for opportunities and platforms to build anticipation for the live session and enhance the learning.

ON_THE_WEB: Comm Coach is a good resource for industry speakers to obtain the basics of effective public speaking: http://myweb.stedwards.edu/corinnew/commcoach.

30 pcma convene October 2010 ILLUSTRATION BY BRAD YEO

Give ’em a Hand Industry speakers tend to require more hand-holding than professional speak- ers. Organizations that coach and evalu- ate their speakers based on proven adult-learning princi- ples will deliver a higher-quality educa- tional experience.

Dave Lutz, CMP, is managing director of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting,www .velvetchainsaw.com, a business-improvement consultantcy specializing in the meetings and events industry. His com- pany assists organizations in realizing top- and bottom-line growth by delivering customer- focused solutions in business development, best practice and process improvement, strategic planning, and training.