Know Your Audience And Engage Them Early
There is one principle that applies to all audiences: they like to hear fascinating things, from creative and passionate conference event speakers.
Yes it’s true that you might need to shape your event differently depending on your event, but there are essential truths about all groups of people. Normally, people like to smile. They enjoy laughing.
They like to listen to people that are not insulting their intelligence, that talk to the audience as peers regardless of their knowledge, and show consideration for their time. It’s all about respect.
People who are attending an event, who have normally paid good money to attend (or perhaps more importantly are spending their time), deserve to feel that their time is being used beneficially, and that the level of discourse is at a level of quality that is worthy of their attention.
The best way to get respect with and from the audience is in the first session. Often this opening act is called the keynote. Many event organizers will invite speakers in, because of their reputation or knowledge of a particular subject.
However it needs to be taken into consideration that the keynote speaker you hire is qualified in being able to set the emotional and personality tone for the day. That first session, however short or long, is an opportunity to form a first impression.
If the session is concise, lively, fun, smart and interesting, it therefore sets a baseline for everything else that follows.
If 3 or 4 short key points are made well, with a few laughs in between, and the other speakers are in attendance (which they should be), those points can be echoed and reused throughout the day by other speakers.
If the opening speaker has a broad style and can be open and amusing, it enables every other speaker a little more room and informality to come out.
Then again, if the opening speaker is boring, dry or pompous, it gives every other speaker less momentum to work with.
Therefore hiring the right conference event speaker can deliver the right opening message to your audience is paramount to achieving a successful event.