Speakers: A Critical View

As buyers of speakers for our event(s), have we built the wrong model?

With the recent global economic reports of another potential rebound-recession, meetings and events could once again come under scrutiny. Have we overcome the "meetings are fluff" perception? Delivering real applicable content is critical to ensuring your meetings deliver the return for your audience and organization.

In my high school economics course I learned about supply and demand. Fast forward 25 years, and the same economics apply. As buyers, we create the demand and, by default, determine the price and type of products being supplied to us.

Take speakers for example. We have built a model that supports a speaker being paid for, on average, a one hour presentation. I don't know what an average speaker's rate is (perhaps our friends at CAPS could tell us?) but it is no secret the range is hundreds of dollars to as much as $250,000 plus travel etc. For some event budgets, the speaker expense line item is as much or more than the audio-visual, facility rental and F&B combined!

Rest assured, I'm not suggesting all speakers are overpaid nor am I saying that the being a professional speaker is an easy profession. I am saying, however, that as buyers of this product we need to start putting some industry-wide expectations in place because I see this expense category continuing to rise without any checks or balances.

Let's look at facility rental: if you were returning to the same venue to run your annual event and you were using the same space for the same time period, you would likely expect the rate to increase 0-5%. In the same scenario, by comparison, the same speaker could be as much as 100% more expensive. How can we mitigate the annual increases on speakers?

One suggestion is the type of speakers we are sourcing. Far too often, we want to hear from the person that has a Cinderella story or the one-in-a-million success story. This category of speakers typically commands very high speaker fees and often come with a prima-donna complex. Let's assume their presentation and presence delivers the WOW factor you seek. Can your audience truly apply this type of content to their personal or professional lives? Rather than chasing these types of speakers, I think we should be seeking speakers that have failed big and failed often. These are the people from whom we can learn the most.

Content is only one part of an event's total experience. Delivering solid content that your audience can learn from and apply will give your event(s) the edge they need to thrive not "just survive" another recession. I highly doubt my views and opinions will change the speaking industry on a dime. But I do know that collectively, as buyers, if we change what we demands from these suppliers/partners, the industry will change for the better.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this,
Steve
thestevereport@gmail.com