Founder, Innovation Women, connecting event managers with female experts & speakers. I also own Lioness Magazine for female entrepreneurs.
Public speaking at industry conferences and events is a great way to advance your career, increase your chance of business success and support the perception of yourself as a thought leader or subject matter expert.
Finding Speaking Opportunities
Here are three tips to help fill up your pipeline with opportunities and your calendar with speaking engagements.
1. Search for opportunities online.
Use the search term “call for speakers,” and pair it with keywords from your field or speech topic and see what you find. The call for speakers is the basic currency of speaking opportunities for many events. That’s right. They are inviting you to apply to speak.
You can help narrow the search by adding in other keywords. Add in the next year to make it more likely to find an event before they have picked their speakers. Include your location if you don’t want to travel far. Other search terms include “call for presenters or presentations,” “call for proposals” or “presenter applications.”
2. Connect with event organizers.
What events and conferences do you attend? Who organizes them? Look for titles like program director, event producer or conference chair. Introduce yourself and ask if they are involved with selecting speakers. Ask how they select their speakers. If there is an event coming up and they have already selected speakers, feel free to mention that you will be available as a last-minute substitute. Now, keep in touch with that person.
3. Don’t limit your opportunities. o matter your role or area of expertise, you might be surprised to learn that your presence is welcome at many different events, not just those focused on your function or industry. Your presentation on team building, leadership or negotiation might be welcome at any number of conferences and is relevant to people outside your industry.
You might find that tips and tricks common to one industry are unknown and exciting in others. It’s also a good way to expand your horizons and learn more about different industries.
Preparing For The Event
Once you get the word back that you’ve been chosen, you’ve got more work to do. This isn’t the time to sit back and relax.
1. Deadlines for the win!
What does the event manager need from you, and when? Most event managers will send you a schedule of their pre-event needs. As part of the application process, you may have already provided an abstract for your talk, your speaker headshot and bio, or you may need to provide these vital items by a certain date. Please. The timely launch of everything from the event program to the website to the marketing materials depends on you and the other speakers meeting the event team’s deadlines.
Keep a record of all your applications and what topic you applied with; don’t be the speaker who has to ask the event organizer, “What am I speaking on?” Many speakers have a file with all their information ready to go. This makes it easy to meet even the tightest deadlines.
2. Prepare your talk and materials.
Plan ahead and give yourself time to adequately prepare your presentation, both your talk track and your slides, as well as any exercises, worksheets or handouts. Check the event deadlines. Do you need to submit your slides in advance? If so, you won’t be editing your slides on the plane.
Know who is responsible for printing handouts and worksheets. Is it you, or is it the event organizer? When do they need your materials for printing? How many people do you expect in the audience? You’ll need to have a good idea if you have to handle the printing yourself.
3. Help with promotion.
And finally, one way to be a hero to the event team (and possibly get invited back next year) is to help promote the event and your role. If you have a mailing list or a large social media presence, this is the time to use them. Many events will provide logos, images and swipe copy, making it easy for speakers to promote the event. Not only are you helping sell tickets, but you are signaling to other events teams that you are a speaker in demand.
It doesn’t take a huge national stage to start building your reputation. Even smaller or local events can help build your reputation as the go-to expert on specific topics.
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