Remarkable! A Speakers Bureau创始人Sue Falcone：会议策划者在讲者管理上的五点改进建议

Sue Falcone, founder of Remarkable! A Speakers Bureau, spent 30 years as a meeting planner with AT&T, then became an author and professional speaker. She started her own speakers bureau 17 years ago to place all types of speakers, from keynoters to celebrities to emcees. 

Having been a client, speaker, and now the leader of a speakers bureau, she has a unique perspective on what planners could do differently to maximize their investment in who’s on the stage.

Here are five considerations for what planners can do differently.

1. Know Your Audience

In a checklist she sends to potential clients, Falcone asks questions that she says they sometimes can’t even answer:

• What is the vision and purpose of this event?
• What are your goals?
• What three actionable takeaways should attendees leave with?
• What challenges are they facing right now?

Planners should expect bureaus to be more than just a search and placement agency and to help prove ROI, she said. “Applause and a good recommendation are not enough anymore.”

2. Being Busy Is Not an Excuse

Event planners are often working on several events at once and short on time. So are speaker bureaus, which means that their websites aren’t always updated with fee changes and other background materials. With that in mind, planners should be mindful of confirming details directly instead of solely trusting the website.

Some planners are also too busy to let a bureau know they are not going with its proposal, which Falcone chalks up to a lack of common courtesy.

“I would stay up late to answer an email if I knew someone was waiting on my decision,” she said. “Just say you are going in a different direction. I have two or three speakers on a soft hold for that date and I have to get back to them.”

3. Have a Real Plan

Event planners sometimes will come to a speakers bureau with nothing more than a date, a venue, and the F&B. The speaker is an afterthought, rather than the main attraction.

“That’s backwards,” Falcone said. “You need to start with the theme and the speaker, then plan the right venue and food around that.”

4. Understand Who’s Paying the Fee

Planners need to understand how speakers bureaus operate. In Falcone’s case, the commission is paid by the speakers, not added to the quote.

“Event planners have been told not to go to bureaus because it’s more expensive, and to go directly to the speakers. But when they do that, there’s no vetting. They don’t understand the experience that a bureau brings.”

Falcone said she has speakers who used to be exclusive to another bureau coming to her when they find out that other bureaus are charging an exorbitant fee on top of their speaker fee. 

“You need to be transparent. The planner will find out and the speaker will find out.”

5. Don’t Expect a Free Speaker

Some planners are under the impression that they can find speakers for free, or for as little as $1,000, because the speaker market has been flooded since Covid.

“Some speakers today are desperate because of the economy. Everyone thought they could be a speaker, and AI has convinced them that they could write a book overnight, create that keynote in 20 minutes, and go claim $10,000 to $20,000 for a fee.”

Speaking for no fee is not an option for speakers who are professionally trained, celebrities, and best-selling authors, she said. 

Starting to source speakers for your next program? Follow these six tips to make sure you find voices who will resonate with your audience.