Taking care of a good conference involves not only an exceptional venue, varied catering, or luxurious attractions. The quality of the conference is determined by its substantive level, and this can only be ensured by the right people sharing their knowledge.
These are speakers invited by the conference organizer, recognized as those who best fit the conference topic with their knowledge and experience, referring to the latest scientific knowledge, current statistics, or ongoing trends. What should you know about a good speaker?
It may not be the same as looking for a needle in a haystack, but it is easier to choose poorly than well. Why? Sometimes it's enough that speaking is not someone's strong point, hence monotonous reading from a sheet or too complicated a way of presenting information that is actually very important and interesting. Such a way of presentation means that this knowledge won't be remembered.
Sometimes the organizer makes the mistake of choosing speakers who don't practice professionally, which may cause them to be overly theoretical, without referring to experience and real examples from their work. It may be difficult for these people to answer questions from the audience later, who, on the contrary, may practice the field and seek practical solutions. So where to look for the right speakers to be sure that they can meet the expectations of the conference participants?
When organizing events like conferences is our everyday job, we should build and maintain contacts with speakers. If they are proven professionals, we should start looking with them at the next opportunity. But where to find them initially? It is important to follow similar events and speakers appearing there. Hearing good opinions about them and knowing that the topics they deal with are close to the event we organize, let's remember their names and look for information about them online.
Another option is the internet itself, where influencers or bloggers advertise themselves. Perhaps we will find recordings of their presentations on YouTube, which will allow us to immediately assess their speaking style, whether they encourage listening, generate questions from viewers, and opinions. Contacting them should not be difficult when we are interested. On the internet, we can also find companies and organizations dealing with the topic we are interested in, and there we can look for people willing to speak, sharing their knowledge and experience with a wider audience.
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The basic rule should be to find practical specialists with experience in public speaking. We should also research opinions about the prospective speakers. We can find them online, and apart from that, we can also ask other conference organizers who worked with the given speaker or people participating in the event. It is also important to consider the speaker's view on the topics to be covered during the conference. The person may have an idea for their presentation, which we as organizers may consider appropriate or quite the opposite. Speeches during the conference have a limited time, after which the audience has the right to ask questions. It is important whether the speaker takes these factors into account and whether they are open to cooperation and adapting to the conference rules. Personality traits of the speaker also matter.
Remember that a good substantive speaker may not necessarily possess the soft skills that are essential for a successful presentation. So our role will be to assess whether the person is resistant to stress related to speaking in front of a large audience. Besides that, having a sense of humor—which is useful when something goes wrong—and a positive attitude towards the audience, rather than experiencing it oppressively, are very important. From the organizer's perspective, it is significant whether the speaker is open to cooperation. Voice strength and linguistic correctness should also catch our attention. All these will translate into the quality of the presentation and cooperation with the conference organizers.
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