Secrets of a Successful Meeting (Looking Good as the Program Chairman) … by Marita Littauer Select a Theme A good starting point is to choose a theme that you will have throughout your entire meeting or throughout the entire year. Think about what topics have been covered by your group in the past. How were they received? Did the group love the idea? If they did, and it has been a few years, you might want to replay that idea again. Try to avoid duplication of subjects. Keep the ideas new and fresh to make them keep coming back for more. Some suggested themes might be: "To Be a Woman of God"; "Reach In, Reach Out, Reach Up"; "Prayer"; "Peak Performance"; "The Fruit of the Spirit"; "How to be a Winner"; "Faith in Action"; "Growing in Excellence" and "Transformed Thinking". Try to choose a theme that has a visual you can use with it in your decorations and on your printed material. For example, "The Fruit of the Spirit" would lend itself to fruit labeled "Love, Joy, Peace.…" "Transformed Thinking" would work well with a butterfly. Choose A Speaker Your speaker is the most important part of your meeting. If your speaker entertains, enlightens and educates your audience, no one will remember if you had festive decorations or not, no one will remember that the chicken was cold when their table was served, or that the weather was bad that day. On the other hand, if your speaker doesn't deliver what was promised, every memory of the event will be poor. For that reason you need to be very careful in your selection. The speaker will make or break your meeting. Use a professional speaker or at least a semi-professional to assure that your speaker is someone with some experience and will not just be practicing on your group. Someone who does a fair amount of speaking should have the support materials you need for your planning. These materials will let you know the speaker's available subjects and what type of format they like to work in (Seminars, Keynote, Workshop, Sunday morning service). A professional speaker will be able to provide you with a list of references. Call the references, ask for what kind of group the speaker was used, what were their needs, if their needs were met, and the audience's reaction to the speaker and to the message. Before you sign on the dotted line, ask for a tape of the presentation you are expecting. All speakers should have an audio tape available to you and many will have a video tape which will allow you to see them in action. As you listen to the tape, pay close attention to the message. Does the speaker personalize the message to the group? If they do, you can be sure they will do the same for you. Your speaker's credentials are important also. Someone who has written a book or been seen a lot on TV or who has impressive titles may draw a larger crowd. (They may also be in more demand and therefore they will cost more and will need to be booked further in advance.) Other credentials that are important (and may not cost you anything more) are life experiences, expertise in the field, and educational background. Before you hire your speaker, be sure you know what you are looking for. Know exactly what results you want from that meeting. Do you want your ladies to be motivated to rush home and organize their homes, or do you want them to be inspired to be a better witness to those with whom they work? Is your goal to get the congregation to donate to the mission fund? In order to have speakers meet your needs, you must first know what they are. Different meetings have different goals and will require different speakers with different fields of expertise. If you are working with an agency to make your speaker selection, be sure to let them know all your needs so they don't waste your time with speakers who don't fit the bill. Where do you find a speaker who can meet all these requirements? That can be a very laborious task. You can start by asking last year's program chairman, or by asking your membership for suggestions. Then you'll need to find out how to contact the persons suggested. Addresses of authors can usually be obtained from their publishers. Next, call or write and try to find out if, based on the previous guidelines, they can meet your needs, your budget and your dates. If you choose not to use a particular speaker it can be very awkward. This is where a speakers bureau or agency can be helpful. The agency's prime function is to find you the right speaker for your meeting. They can make your job much easier. You can just call them and let them know what your needs are and let them do the leg work. They can provide you with many different kinds of speakers, and they can make suggestions for you about who will best meet your needs. In most cases the agencies are very familiar with all their speakers. They know the major strengths and weaknesses of each speaker, as well as their fees and availability. Biographies and black and white pictures are usually available. Another benefit of working with a speakers bureau is available substitutes. Speakers are people, not machines, and sometimes an emergency comes up at the last minute. An agency will usually have someone who can fill in for you should this happen. Remember, agencies depend on the repeat business of satisfied customers. They are in existence to serve you. What About Fees? Remember the old phrase your mother taught you, "you get what you pay for"? It's still true in most cases. The better a speaker is at his or her craft, the more in demand they become. The more in demand they become, the more backup staff they need. Staff is needed to ship books and material, to answer mail, and to be there to answer your call. Even if the speakers you want aren't that big yet, they still have many costs involved in being what you and your group want. First, realize that you are not paying just for that hour-long talk, but also for the years spent in preparation so that he or she could say something worth coming to hear in that hour. You are also paying for the time spent in updating the material, researching and customizing the talk for your group. Then there is travel time, and if you are dealing with a semi-professional speaker, there is the loss of income for the time taken off from their regular job. Would you want a speaker who was wearing dirty, out-of-date clothes? Of course not. There's another hidden cost for the speakers. Their clothes must be current and freshly dry cleaned. It is not uncommon for a speaker to spend over a hundred dollars a month on dry cleaning alone. There are expenses for travel, gas, insurance and just plain wear and tear that they would not incur if they weren't traveling all over speaking. If they are flying to your engagement you can expect to pay for the airline ticket, but most speakers will just absorb the cost of leaving their car at the airport or the cost of having their spouse take time off work to take them to the plane. In many cases your speaker will be paying for childcare while he or she is working with your group. The list could go on and on. Realize that no matter how much speakers may really want to share with your group, there are many costs involved and someone has to pay for them. It is not fair to expect the speaker to come to work with your group without some kind of compensation. You've Made Up Your Mind O.K., so now you have selected the speaker. Next be sure all the details are worked out. Get a letter of confirmation, or better yet, a contract that spells out all the details. A good agency will take care of those details for you so you don't have to worry about them. Some of the details to watch for are such things as airline arrangements. You need to know exact arrival and departure times. Flights should not be booked on such a tight schedule that if the flight were cancelled you would be out of luck. (It does happen.) The expenses should be clear, stating who pays for the airfare, the hotel and the meal. If the speaker comes into town early to visit with friends, when does your obligation begin? Sometimes a speaker will be traveling with a companion. Are you financially responsible for the extra person or is the speaker? Finding this out ahead of time can save you some embarrassing situations and extra cost. Make sure you get the speaker's biographical information and pictures soon enough for effective publicity. The agency should send this along with the contract. You will also need to know if the speaker is planning to sell books or tapes at the program. If you have any problems with this, let the speaker know right off. Someone from your group may be needed to help the speaker with sales so that he or she is free to talk to your attendees when the program is over. Your audience will benefit from this extension of your speaker's message, and it will be helpful if you or your emcee would mention the availability of these products after the speaker is finished speaking. These details sound small, but they can make a big difference in the success of your meeting. They should all be automatically handled by the agency so you don't have to deal with them. Fill The Speaker In Let speakers know everything that is going on. If you have a mailing list, put your speakers on it as soon as possible. This helps them have a feel for what's going on with your group. This way they can personalize their presentation to your needs. Tell them all you can about the size and demographics of the group. Give the speaker a list of key people in the organization so that they can be worked into the speech. Another helpful tip is to tell the speaker what speakers you have had in the past, and who you are having in the future. Let them know the subjects that were covered. This allows the speaker to play off of what was said before and avoid duplication. If you plan to have speakers attend an extra session or give an extra "little talk" at some time, be sure to tell them. Most speakers don't mind attending a staff dinner before or after, or saying a few extra words here and there, but it is your duty to let them know so that they have the right clothes with them and are prepared to share appropriately. Your speakers want you to be pleased with their services. Both you and your speaker will look better if your communication with one another is thorough. Should your speaker dismiss the group for a break, or will you? Who will close the meeting? Give your speaker as much information about the meeting as possible. Before The Event Provide your speaker with a "shepherd" or a liaison. The shepherd's job is to check with the hotel, to make sure the sleeping room is in order and that the reservation is right (you can never be too careful). The shepherd may be the one to pick the speaker up at the airport if that is needed or to watch for the speaker's arrival and welcome him or her to your event. The shepherd should know where all the books, tapes and hand-outs are if they have been shipped ahead and act as an escort to help the speaker find the meeting room and test the equipment. The shepherd should know all the key people to introduce the speaker to and be available to assist the speaker with any emergency needs (runs in pantyhose, aspirin, or the tie that never made it into the suitcase). During the meeting, the shepherd will make sure the speaker has water up front and that the hand-outs are distributed. In general, the shepherd is to see to it that the speaker feels welcome and has everything he or she needs. There is nothing worse than a speaker arriving and wondering where to go and how to get there. The room set up is another important aspect of the meeting that you don't want to ignore. Check with the speaker to see if they have any specific needs or requests. In general, don't just automatically use the same setup everyone else uses. Think about your goal for the meeting. In most cases the presentation will go better and have more audience response if the meeting is held in a room just large enough to hold it. Set the room up with only the chairs needed for the expected audience. The dynamics of the group are always better if the attendees are seated close to each other. If more show up, great! Nothing makes the people feel like they came to the right thing more than having to add chairs as additional people arrive. If the session is one geared to teaching and note taking, consider seating everyone on one side of 6 or 8-foot tables, classroom style. Plan to keep the food service and the book tables all in that same room. This helps build group rapport. A Good Speaker Deserves A Good Introduction When the time comes to introduce the speaker, realize that an introduction is a very important part of the whole picture. Many times there are people in attendance who were dragged there by some well-meaning friend and the introduction can build up that wall or tear it down. The introduction should sell the speaker to the audience, and make them want to know more. Professional speakers or their agents will provide you with written introductions. The introduction is designed to set the stage for the presentation. Read it as written. If you know the speaker's whole story, be sure that you don't ruin the punch of the message by giving it away in the introduction or in your publicity. A good rule is if the speaker didn't give you the information in their printed promotion material, you shouldn't mention it. If you have any questions about the introduction you are prepared to give, check with the speaker first. If speakers fail to send you an introduction or you have lost the one you were sent, find out about them. Who are they? Where are they from? What do they do? (What is their area of expertise?) Why are they there? Stick to a brief, simple introduction; remember, they came to hear the speaker, not you. It's All Over Now you can breathe a sigh of relief. It's all over and if you followed these guidelines it should have all been great. Now your peers are coming up to you and telling you how their lives have been changed, what a great job you did, and how they are so glad they came. Are you all done? No. Again this is where your shepherd will be a big help to you and the speaker. The shepherd should be sure that the speaker is not left stranded. The speaker may need to eat now or rush off to the airport. The shepherd should take care of this and be sure that the hotel bill is properly taken care of. Your last job is to see that the speaker gets some feedback from the presentation. We all grow from the evaluations of others, so enclose those comments along with your thank-you note. If your speaker was everything you had hoped for, send him or her a letter of reference on your company letterhead. If your event was booked through CLASS, we will send you a helpful speaker evaluation form following your event. This not only helps the speaker but will help the next program chairman as they start on the steps you just finished. If you are a program chairman and are looking for some assistance, please feel free to give us a call. We can assist you with your program ideas, promotion, and speaker selection. We're here to help, and we want to help you look good! Marita Littauer is a professional speaker with over twenty years experience. She is the author of 17 books including Personality Puzzle, Your Spritual Personality, You've Got What It Takes, The Praying Wives Club, and Wire That Way, President of CLASServices Inc., an organization that provides resources, training and promotion for speakers and authors.    CLASServices, Inc. Copyright 2001

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