The Role of the Keynote Speaker
You are managing an important event. Admittedly, you could save the time and money and just send your audience a CD-ROM with information or hold a video conference, but you are making the conscious choice to have them physically attend. Why? The reason is that something important happens when you gather people together. It’s called SYNERGY. You have a message to deliver and a clear objective for your audience. This can only happen in an effective way if the attendees are in the right frame of mind. The question is how do you, as the host, get them there? When your audience takes their seats they are far from focused. In fact, they could be completely distracted: by travel, budgets, e-mail, voice mail, office politics, and life in general. To accomplish the objectives of your event, you must have them pause everything they are doing and be completely taken by the speaker. This is what’s called Ready To Learn. Learning sometimes could translate in to an action directly related to their business, or it could be an inspiration that relates to several actions, some related to their business but mostly life altering. A good keynote speaker sets the tone for your meeting and transforms the audience to the Ready To Learn state of mind. The right message and the right messenger are both equally important and have the potential to positively influence your audience for that entire event or even more importantly beyond it.
So who should you choose to be your opening act? There are a couple of different types of speakers we have listed below which depending on your needs could be the right fit or not.
Type 1: This could be the author of last year’s book or executive from a previously successful company. You may have heard their speech at an industry conference within the past six months. Chances are, if you engage that person for your event, you will hear the same exact speech. In fact, that speech may have been given at your biggest competitor’s event the previous week. The topics can be interesting and their delivery motivating, but the content is usually very general. Even if this speaker is a celebrity (the author of this year’s book) the recognizable name is not as important as their message and what it does and does not accomplish for your audience. Which particular objective does this type of speaker meet? As a rule: the more general the speaker, the more general the results. If you have a large audience, and want to motivate them to embrace a specific topic (e.g. sales) or to consider a new market (e.g. the e-Business), this type of speaker can work. However, if there is a specific action you want the audience to take, for example, to build a strong vision for their salesforce, this type of speaker will simply not do.
Type 2: This type of speaker is a technical expert from the major research, accounting, analysis, tech or other specialty firms and delivers presentations developed and approved by their company based on careful research and subsequent reports. No matter how new or dynamic the category, every person from that firm will deliver the same presentation. They will not be keen to tailoring the content to meet the goals and objectives of your event. Since they have to be objective, do not expect them to include your company in their speech. As with the previous type, the very same speech may have been given at your biggest competitor’s sales meeting the week before your event. So which particular objective does this type of speaker meet? This speaker is very knowledgeable of facts and details of that particular expertise. As authorities, they can be very effective. However if your goal is to get them to “move your audience” and create a call for action, understand that the demand they generate is for their own company’s reports.
Type 3: This type of speaker is interested to introduce their services, their company and build an audience. So they don’t mind offering a charge free speech to a large audience.
There are two caveats here:
a. free is not always useful.
b. free is not always prepared.
So which particular objective does this type of speaker fulfill? Consider how much you investing in this event per person. If you believe that there is wide range to your audience’s interest level and you want to be able to move everyone equally, doesn’t make sense to invest more on your keynote than on your coffee? Audiences all over the world are now a lot more sophisticated than we may want to give them credit for. They do walk in not expecting much because they have seen some disappointing acts out there, but a good shaking at the core could mean so much for your purposes. Unless of course, you are just trying to get the job done!
Type 4: This is the group that absolutely loves to talk to your audience, tolerates little control from you and believes that they are the best speakers. They are not free but have some similarities with the free speaker, in that you can’t have high expectations of their content or connection to the audience. So what purpose do they meet? Your corporate execs are very important in that their mere presence delivers a message to the audience that your event is a priority. However, do not expect direction to be taken by them. They are motivated to get the job done, but further than that, don’t expect polished diction or even technical enlightenment. Expect the audience to feel important and to pay attention to what they say. But not necessarily to be moved. The audience will be impressed, but not necessarily relate.
Type 5: This is the hybrid type of speaker. The possess the best of all the previous categories because they have not only been around but they have a learning attitude which means they created their style based on what they know works and doesn’t work. This type has the motivation skills, the authoritative knowledge, and the polish of the Exec and most importantly they are not free. This speaker believes that it is their job to work for you, and with you, to make your event (large or small) a success. Unfortunately, this type is not easy to find. Their speeches are not one-size-fits-all because they will take their time to learn about your audience, your needs and design the speech accordingly. They will have a common theme to work around and it builds from there. This type of speaker offers an incredibly powerful combination with which to kick off your event and make it a buzz. So what type of event would this speaker be best for? If you are looking for an expert to talk about a topic to teach your audience how it’s done, you can satisfactorily use with caution of course any of the already mentioned types. However, neither one is fit for a keynote. By nature, a keynote will have maximum impact, and hence is best delivered by a keynote speaker. Work with them to shape their speech by describing exactly what you need to accomplish with your event; more than with any other type of speaker. Only this type of speaker can bring the audience on-board to the vision that you have set out as part of your objectives. A good speaker will get your audience to listen, a good keynote speaker will get your audience to “grow”. By this I mean both in number for the next event, but more importantly existentially, because we all want to make a difference in someone’s life right?
Center for Work Life of Orlando, Florida is an award-winning executive development firm providing leadership and management training to executives and organizations. Our main services include executive coaching, leadership development, executive succession planning, emotional intelligence training, career planning, staff development, and communication in the workplace.
Needs and topics addressed within these categories include: management styles, situational leadership, developing leadership qualities, executive recruitment training, work life balance, emotional intelligence training, work performance, stress management in the workplace, stress management activities, time management activities, team development, problem solving activities, management consulting training programs, professional communication, assertive communication coaching, interpersonal skills for top performers, effective communication styles, communication techniques, public speaking skills, presentation skills, and conflict management strategies.
Effective Public Speakers can be difficult to find, but Center for Work Life has that covered too. As a leadership, communications, and change management speaker, Dr. Farnaz Namin- Hedayati of Center for Work Life raises the bar in interactive presentations. We can also help companies conduct organization research and run focus groups.
