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There are a number of best practices involved in event planning, and one is finding a keynote speaker who doesn’t put your audience to sleep. No matter how much planning goes into location, setup, catering, and design—all of which are important—lack of a dynamic speaker, or just the right speaker for the occasion at hand, can be a letdown for attendees. After all, the keynote speaker sets the tone and establishes the underlying theme of the event, and if they don’t leave your audience excited for what’s to come, it’s an uphill battle to regain their attention. But how do you find the right keynote speaker? Here are some suggestions.
10 Ways to Find a Keynote Speaker For Your Event
1. Perform a Google Search
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s a pretty smart tactic. By Googling just what you’re looking for, say, “Top Motivational Speakers in New York,” you’ll find agencies representing motivational speakers in New York plus a lot of inspiration. And if you choose this method, you’re not alone: I just plugged it in and found that 64,100,000 people did a similar search. 64,100,000 can’t be wrong, can they?
2. Poll Attendees for Ideas
The best ideas can come from the most unlikely of places. Polling your event’s attendees and asking them who’d they like to hear from is a great way to get started and discover who they’re interested in. Sure, you may get some requests for Jeff Bezos or someone way out of your league, but you may also get some great suggestions for speakers you may have never considered.
3. Consider Internal Talent and External Partners
Choosing someone from within your company, or an external partner may seem like a cop-out. But for larger companies, you have to remember that many employees probably don’t interact with these individuals on a daily basis, if at all. So not only can an internal executive or external partner help put a face to a name, they also know the business and should know just what to say. Pro Tip: It doesn’t always have to be a member of the C-Suite; audition lower-level employees for their speaking ability and have a number of them work as one to deliver a grounded message.
4. Search Speaker Databases
There are a number of websites such as the National Speakers Association, SpeakerHub, BigSpeak, and SpeakerMatch that allow you to sort through and filter thousands of speakers, based on topic, industry, and budget. These are go-to sites for many event planners, so chances are the competition may be using them, but if that’s not a concern this is a great option. If nothing else, it can get you thinking about who’s right for your NYC event.
5. Look Through Publications
Scanning recent publications can turn up a number of ideas. Whether you’re looking through academic journals, news sites, bestseller lists, or even blogs, you can quickly find out whose name is turning up again and again. If they’re making waves in your industry, they may make a great keynote speaker. Better still, while eliciting conversation, they may not yet have hit the mainstream, enabling you to get them while they’re cheap!
6. Scan Social Media
Social media can be an event planner’s best friend (we covered a lot about social media in part one and part two in recent blogs). Not only does it let you get the word out about your event, it allows you to see who in your industry are becoming influencers and gaining followers. LinkedIn is a great place to find speakers, and YouTube can let you see them in action at previous events to see if they’ll work for yours. BuzzSumo is also a great tool; it allows you to plug in your topic, and it will cultivate a list of people trending within that category.
7. Check Leading Organizations for Certified Speakers
There are a number of organizations such as Toastmasters and the Certified Speakers Organization that train and certify people on any given topic. They may not be household names, but they’re specifically trained to be dynamic and are experts on their given topic.
8. Issue a Call
Also known as an abstract, this lets speakers come to you. Think of it as a “help wanted” ad, in which you describe what you need and what you expect from your speaker. This can give you a large pool of speakers from which to choose. Don’t worry, you don’t need to take out an ad in the paper. Sites such as BusyConf will set up calls and get you proposals from speakers, sometimes within minutes of release.
9. Look for Speakers Who Support Your Cause
If you’re a non-profit or even a company that supports non-profits involving children, animals, the disabled, or those battling any number of diseases, there is usually a known speaker, or even a celebrity, who supports the cause. It could even be something such as businesses going green that gets them excited. They may be willing to attend your event for little, or no, compensation.
10. Ask Around
If all else fails, reach out to your network. Most people are happy to give referrals, and oftentimes nothing beats a recommendation from a peer.
Now that you have some ideas on how to find a keynote speaker in New York City, we have some ideas on how to be sure you’re finding the right one. Check out our story, How To Find the Right Keynote Speaker For Your Event, for more insight. When the hunt for the right keynote speaker is through and you’re looking for the right event production company, hit us up. We will work with you on every aspect of your event—or handle specific needs—and we guarantee we will make that sought-after keynote speaker look and sound their best!
