"What do you mean the money's gone!?!"

The event industry is a truly great, exciting and friendly place to work.  It's also stressful, time sensitive and requires perfect planning. 

Businesses could learn a lot from many experienced event organisers about; team building, customer service, negotiation, bidding, project management, multiple supplier handling, leadership, marketing, advertising, return on investment, budget controls and so on.  

However, the success of many events also relies on a backbone of those involved being able to build trust, relationships and professionalism simply because of the nature of the environment.

And it's because of this backbone, the fraudsters are moving in to this space as more reports are surfacing because event organisers are starting to stand up and let others know there are scammers taking advantage and that it isn't the fault of the event organiser over looking small details. 

The scammers are taking advantage and using the backbone against the industry!

Here are some of the frauds I've heard:

1) A large UK law firm decided to run an event in India.  They did their research and found a local event organiser to partner with.  They did their due diligence. They flew to meet the organiser at a venue, met, discussed, flew home.  They did this several times as the event was to be a flagship event. Finally they agreed figures, signed a contract and handed over £50,000 as a deposit to kick start booking everything.  That was the last time they saw the money!  The organiser was a con artist who was playing the long game pretending to be an organiser.  He had everything perfectly covered and seemingly credible and plausible. The law firm lost the cash. All the signs were there because experienced organisers merely pass liability for booking onto the client and won't take this upon themselves incase the client decides not to go ahead and leaves them with the cancellation charge.  However, there are also a few innocent event organisers who do operate this way - take a deposit and pay the deposits on behalf of the clients especially if there is an issue involving currency, so I could see how it could be easy to overlook the alarm bells which allows for this type of con, which typically preys on international clients reaching out to the local area.

2) AEO in the UK have issued a statement warning that a number of their members' clients are falling prey to 'directory service' scammers.  It seems customers exhibiting at exhibitions are being targeted by scammers claiming they are working with the exhibition, using the exhibition's branding and event details to appear genuine.  The scammers contact those who've booked a stand at the event, getting the exhibitors to sign up to a directory service which is 3 years, non-retractable agreements and in some cases for significant amounts of money.  Unfortunately, the scammers here rely on the Event Organiser trusting anything that has the exhibitors branding to be genuine communication and so will sometimes agree to or sign forms before reading the small print assuming that it is a genuine offer instead of doing the normal, 'did you send this out' and 'are they really your partner' check with the exhibition office first.  This is also the same base method used by Hotel Poachers and Room Blockers too.

3) There is also an increase in the Cyber crime of 'whaling'.  This is phishing on steroids and it relies on the victim attending an event.  This is highly targeted stuff as it relies on someone somewhere naming names as to who is going to what event and when.  The scammers are looking for high worth individuals, and particularly like to favour bosses of medium sized organisations who are probably doing a speech and listed as being on the stage at the event, or have read somewhere about them attending as an exhibitor or being a member in the audience - but it's always around the event.  On the day of the event, or the evening before - depending on the information they've found, they send an email purporting to be the victim to their PA, Accounts or who ever they've identified as a 'link', saying that they've ran out of money and have met an important prospective client and need to wine and dine them so could some cash be transferred quickly.  Or they need to buy something at the event and need the cash transferred quickly to take advantage of show prices or the hotel bill was more expensive than they thought and need the cash transferred quickly.  The details given are so close that at first you would think it genuinely came from them and going to a genuine source, but with one small letter or number change, emails and accounts can look deceptively real.  Most victims are left out of pocket to the sum of £3,000 to £4,000.  However, at one cyber crime event I was attending, a CEO rather embarrassingly admitted that his firm had been victim to this: while he was away at an event, his PA sent him, (the scammers) £150,0000.  The shocking part was that while he reported it accordingly, he did admit that if it had been for one of the smaller sums like £3000, he would have written it off as bad experience and save himself the feeling of being embarrassed to admit that they'd been caught out!

4) The charge back or cheque to cash scam.  This has come in many guises in other industries but it's starting to make it's way in to the events industry in a number of ways: 

1. Thanks to the increase of registration apps, online payment, internet banking, card payments and registering for events online, one method is really starting to shine through using a stolen credit card to purchase tickets.  Why? because the fraudster then calls the event organiser and asks for a refund (sister / mother granny dog has died and can't attend excuse)- but not to charge it back to the card, but to another card, or to a bank account or asks for a cheque. Once done, the money is usually untraceable and it's the organiser who has to foot the loss and not the credit card.
2. The 'client' (read scammer in this case) says they'll pay by cheque and send the organiser a cheque accordingly or sends the cheque to the organisers bank direct. Depending on the bank, it normally takes 3 working days for 'business cheques' to clear and the scammer uses this time to call the organiser, explain they've over paid or there's been a change of circumstances and need to reduce budget - either way, they ask the organiser if they could 'send some or all of the money back' - ie do a bank transfer against the sum they can see 'registered on their account but still waiting for the cheque to clear'.  Of course the organiser obliges only to find that when the cheque is supposedly due to clear, it bounces. 
3. A little more sophisticated but involves a 2nd party being part of the con too.  Client (scammer A) calls and books the services of the organiser.  The client then says they would like a particular speaker or service and names them.  The organiser calls the speaker's agent or the service provider - who is actually Scammer B. The organiser is put through the mill 'negotiations', giving it all the feel of being 'genuine', including info that they have to pay for the speaker or service, 'upfront'.  Organiser calls the client to let them know. Client sends organiser a 'cheque' and is persuaded to send a cheque themselves to the other party on the pretence that both cheques clears at the same time.  Reality is the organiser being left out of pocket as Scammer A's cheque bounces and Scammer B cashes in the organiser's cheque for real cash.

While we can't stop fraud overnight, being vigilant is key as well as not being afraid to step up and share knowledge so scammers and their methods are highlighted quickly, helping to stamp this out.

Because of this, I know with iwantaspeaker.com we've stopped client's losing money to fraudsters, saving one client over £6,000 in air flights alone simply because we equipped the site with the facility of an escrow account - which means that until the money is in the neutral escrow account and the service has been performed, no one is going anywhere or being paid. Speakers don't leave home before funds are cleared into the escrow and organisers fee doesn't leave the account until the speaker has done whatever they agreed to do.  So, we haven't been good news for fraudsters and those wishing to get their hands on your money quickly.  And we look forward to continuing to do our part in helping to keep the event industry in it's wonderful, creative way of doing trusted business.

by Cindy-Michelle Waterfield

How much should I pay a Speaker?

If you ask a speaker, some will answer this with a retort of; 'what ever they can get away with charging you'.

If you ask a bureau this question, they'll answer with whatever your budget can afford to pay, and some consultants within the bureaus will even try and push you towards a basic entry level of being £5,000 - £10,000 citing that this is the figure you need to start thinking - when really all it means is that's where they themselves want to earn commission so have to start with this budget size (read more about this in my coming Myth Buster about Bureaus which is coming soon)!

If you ask the person who's holding onto the purse strings of the budget for your event, their answer would be as little as you can possibly spend!

The truth is somewhere in between £0 and in excess of £100,000.

However, if you take a few factors into consideration, you can start to work out if you are being over charged or if you have a bargain.

When negotiating, bear in mind the following:  

• Who the person is
• Are they known to your audience already  
• How relevant they are to your audience
• How relevant their topic is to the audience

For example, there is only one Madonna but a high number of impersonators ranging from those that look like her to those that can sing like her to those who can sing and look like her.  But, there is still only 1 Madonna.  Therefore, everyone else must be cheaper. 

Then consider your audience: if your audience does not know what Madonna looks like but have heard her songs and interested in hearing her songs, then an impersonator who can sing like her but might not look like her  would be more fitting over the impersonator who looks like her but can't sing.  And if the audience is not interested in the person - just the music and the vocal style, then paying for the real deal would not necessarily give you any better results.

However, if your audience are Madonna fans and know her well with some attending hoping to talk to her personally afterwards, then using an impersonator to save budget would cost you not only your audience but also future business and reputation because for most organisations, keeping the audience happy is key to future business.

And so it is the same with the business world.  Those business speakers who speak from experience of being there, done it themselves, leading from the front or have in depth knowledge or created new insights from specialist research are worth more than the person who quit their job on Friday, had an epiphany on Saturday, decided to become a speaker on the Sunday and now wants to be in front of your audience on Monday!

And these guys are out there.

And they think they are worth the same fees....

So to answer how much should you pay for a speaker, check out their competition and do a comparison for someone who has a similar background, similar content and similar profile suited to your audience.  And make sure you know exactly what you want from your budget, how much you are willing to pay and never give away how much your actual budget is without doing your homework first.  

Bureau websites have fee groups for a reason so check them out and decide if you like the type of profiles you see within those groups. Remember, Bureaus are not really able to negotiate best deals for you beyond these fee group figures, but they'll try and beat the speaker down and drop some of their commission rate too if you push hard enough for a specific name or you might just find they'll start offering you names from a different lower fee group.  (read more about this in my coming Myth Buster about Bureaus).

Dealing with speakers directly will give you the best value for your money, but dealing direct also leaves you vulnerable to those speakers who will try and take advantage of you too by accept your budget knowing they are usually a lot lower fee normally.  When you deal direct, you are at the mercy of the speaker being honest and openly saying their normal rate - so watch out.  Do do your homework first.

Or to get the best of both worlds, ie the support like a bureau but able to negotiate directly, use a site like iwantaspeaker.com where you can do your homework comparing profiles, get an idea of the fee groups and then use the site to communicate directly with the speakers.  This way you'll get the best for your budget, the support behind you and a speaker who won't let you down but will leave you feeling like you've just got a bargain.

It's why iwantaspeaker.com was built.

by Cindy-Michelle Waterfield

Get smart, save money, be properly informed, use iwantaspeaker.com as your process to de-risk booking and working with speakers.

Blimey. That was Quick! or Why Award Nights are over in a flash!

You've been busy organising for almost a year and waiting for this night to arrive: "The Awards Ceremony" and judging by the way the Host you've hired has just rattled through the categories, it could be the last one your organising too!

And the worse part is, it won't be your fault.  

You've created an atmosphere which is electric, and filled the venue with expectant finalists and party people, all eagerly anticipating to know who's won which category.  The venue staff alongside the catering staff work to perfect clockwork timing and then the Host appears on stage ready to start the Awards Ceremony....

The Host begins their usual warm up routine, only, they don't really stop for the audience to laugh or slow the pace of their delivery either.  Soon, the atmosphere changes from relaxed laughter to short giggles as the audience tries to keep up.

At first, we brush it off without really giving it a second thought....

But as the Host carries on at the fast pace, repeatedly telling us they have to do it rapidly because, 'There's so much to cram in to tonight's schedule!!!'  the giggles get less and less....

And just before it truly becomes annoyingly noticeable, the impeccable timing of the Host sees them bring the audience altogether by grabbing everyone's attention as they start reading out, "And moving on to tonight's Awards and The First of the Categories is...."

But instead of slowing to allow the winners to have their photo taken and have time to get back to their seats, the next lot are up on the stage, photo'ed and ushered off!

What was supposed to be the time to take in the proceedings and time to allow the winners to celebrate and the finalists to congratulate or commiserate now becomes a big blur  and towards the end of the categories, no-one's really listening to the Host accept the last few categories because everyone else is occupied with talking and selfies....

Mayhem? High energy? You decide, but one thing is for sure - you've just lost next years attendees as those at the end won't appreciate not having their 5 minutes of fame.

You've lost the atmosphere of the room as the audience was given no time to savour their moments which means the second the last award is given and the Host leaves the stage, they too won't be that far behind.  Evening over!  Empty room.  No after party business - which is the hidden bonus of these things.  Which means next year you will find this particular audience not really bothered about entering again because it all became, well, a bit of an anti climax.

This Awards Night has just been hit by the Secret Assassin - someone somewhere treated your event or more to the point, your budget as a target and they were not going to let you out of their sight. And because of this, you will have to work harder at getting the attendees to come back next year.

So who was the Secret Assassin in this case?

At one particular Award Evening I was attending, I watched the above scenario and noted the audience's reaction.

To find the Secret Assassin, I asked the questions to find out why the disparity between the Host and the organisers perception?

From the Host's view point they gave good value as they managed to squeeze the proceedings down by 30 mins which meant they could be on time for their own travel arrangements and felt they were giving the audience more time to dance afterwards as that would be far more entertaining than listening to someone droning on!

However, the organiser didn't think they got the value as they had thought there would be time for photos and selfies with the Host, especially as they ended ahead of time and it was only as the Host was running off the stage they found out about 'the diary' issue.....

The organisation behind the awards booked the Host through a speaker bureau, who then went to another bureau who then went to the management agency of the Host.  Between these two bureaus, they had added an additional £10,000 (approximately) between them.  The management agency already has a fee arrangement with the Host so the Host knows exactly how much they've gone out for and how much their agency will be keeping and how much will be in their pocket at the end.   In addition, the Host's agency had made it clear  to the bureau that the diary was already booked for another gig the following day of the Awards night  so the  end organiser would have to appreciate that the Host would have to leave as soon as possible and not spend the customary time with the end organiser and the audience. No one passed this message on to the end organiser and no one could tell me where this part of the communication got lost while only the inflated costs was successfully communicated.

To make things worse, the Host management agency and the end paying organiser didn't know the difference in the two charge fees, nor that there were two bureaus involved either which meant that the Host thought they were providing a value of £x + a small % commission for the bureau and that leaving the moment they left the stage was OK, while the other was expecting £x+£10,000 + some mingle time for their value.

I lost a few friends in bureaus that day as I told the management agency how the two bureaus had brought their Host's performance into question as the end organiser and the audience felt nothing but 'rush rush rush'. Had the end client known the Host had another engagement and needed to leave straight after, they would have thought twice about using them or made appropriate adjustments.

This is not an isolated case either.

It's why we built iwantaspeaker.com because the process would have only allowed the management agency to have registered the Host's profile and not either of the bureaus which means if the Organiser had asked the first bureau to register the profile of the Host in the first place, they would have been alerted to the fact that they are not really managing that Host.  In addition, because only the management agency can register, vital decision making communication would not have been lost and the costs would have been kept down too.

So if you want to make sure your bureau is truly working directly with the speaker, the Host or the expert - ask them to register that person's profile and use the iwantaspeaker process to then hire and book them because if they can't get a profile registered or they want you to then go direct with them once they've registered the profile, they could have something they don't want you to know about lurking in the background about how they truly work and where your funds truly go and they've just realised the iwantaspeaker process will uncover this.

I'd love to hear from you if you've had a similar problem with Secret Assassins.   Lets share knowledge and let others know that this does happen and that they are not alone.

by Cindy-Michelle Waterfield




Get smart, save money, be properly informed, use iwantaspeaker.com as your process to de-risk booking and working with speakers.

The rise of the Pitch-fests!

Even event organisers go to other events and if you are like me when it comes to choosing which events to go to and which ones to give a wide berth, it all starts with a quick look at the programme:
What's the date?
Where is it?
What's the over all theme?
What's the topic?
What's the speakers' title....

And that's when I either continue or stop reading.

If you are like me, you've probably noticed the increase in the amount of speakers who are there to do a pitch than provide information. And because of this noticeable increase, you start to take more notice of who the speakers are and their title and then work out, based on your past experience, if they are more likely to Pitch or Provide content.

Unfortunately, I find myself thinking that if there are more who will do a Pitch than provide content then the risk of going and getting no content is too great so it's a 'no go' event!

But why are the Pitch-fests on the increase?  And what's the big deal?

Several reasons and I predict it will be causing several major problems for the Conference Expo industry within 5 years time!

There has been a steady increase in the growing trend of the new style conference companies that are basically selling everything! By this I mean, they sell tickets to the audience, sponsorship and exhibitor packages, lists to the supplies, charging for speaking slots...

Yes - you read right.  Charging speakers to be there on their stage and present to their audience!

Sounds a great idea and you could be wondering why you hadn't thought of this for your own event instead of paying the speakers and going through all the usual in-house budget related arguments.

But  before you start down this road, here's the issues and the backlash for your event:

Speaking slots are prime estate at any event.

There are a number of different ways to fill this, so here are the current top 4 popular ways and respective outcomes:

1) You Pay a speaker
If you pay for a speaker's services, you expect them to deliver exactly what you want which is their services for your audience - be it entertainment, information or simply a personal appearance.  The audience will receive the speaker's service as they would have expected and the event is then seen as being an acceptable cost of their time and money invested to attend and so are more likely to come back next year.  I call this the 'Pitches not included' method because you know the audience won't be subjected to one as you've pre-instructed the speakers they can't do this and they suffer a consequence if they do.

2) You use an Unpaid speaker
If you are using speakers on a pro bono base, then you are more than likely to get a speaker who is wanting to use this opportunity to provide content to your audience because it's also their target market for their 'post speech' service. When audience and speaker are matched well, your audience will be happy and feel like they've received a value for their time invested and as for the speaker, they will probably be approached afterwards for further information if they've provided the right content for that audience.  I call this the 'Triple Win Pitch' as organiser, speaker and audience get something from it.

3) Paid for as part of the Sponsorship package
While this is a nice method of giving some value to the main sponsor so they feel that they have something for their money, it does leave the organiser at the complete mercy of the sponsor's speaker.  For the audience, they are already prepared that this particular slot will be angled, biased, pitched, selling, or a glorified advert from the sponsor.  This is what I call the 'Forgivable Pitch'.

It's the one time the audience will forgive the event if the sponsor's speaker does indeed accidentally turn it into a pitch while trying to give content.  The good news here is that most sponsors will try and give content as they are trying to raise their profile in a good way too so when they do provide content, the audience view this as a bonus.

4) Speaker pays you.
This is where you know you have a 'hot audience' and have a number of speakers wanting to talk to them, so you decide to let only those who can pay you for the privilege to buy the slot. Sounds a great money generating idea but while you will get money in from this, it's a very short sighted tactic because the dynamics of Speaker:Content:Audience=Value go out the window.  This is because the audience are often unaware that the speaker has paid to be there.  The speaker or the organisation who's paid for this slot however, will need to recoup their outlay so will use this opportunity as best as they can to create business for themselves.  This means that the audience will be subjected to a pitch more often than content and if they've paid to be there too, they really won't appreciate this and will consider this speaker and the event unfavourably, I call this 'Warfare Pitching', as no one is really the winner.  As an audience member looking at the original program details, I wouldn't have been able to second guess this pitch was coming and most likely would have expected it to have been providing content instead.  Therefore, I am less likely to trust the speaker or the event in the same way and next year I know I'd be thinking again about attending....

And yet, despite the increase of the Warfare Pitching due to the organisers going after short term gain rather than long term repeat footfall and growth, the event will see dwindling numbers leading to it's demise or be morphed into something else.  No matter which way it ends, it will give the misleading message that "Events are dead because no one goes" when the truth is - no one likes to waste their time and money which would be very obvious if only events could occur at the same time rate as a weekly shop, because then you could see this particular product line wouldn't survive the standard 3 month trial!

You've worked hard to find and work with the right speakers for your event.  You will be rewarded as successful Event Organisers are only as good as the audience they continue to keep happily returning each year.

Look after your audience, look after your speakers and they'll look after you.

Can I sue a speaker?

Technically you can, but reality is that it's time consuming and could be cost prohibitive.

After talking to an insurance company about the usual yearly policy update of professional indemnity, I was horrified to learn that many speakers are actually leaving themselves open to not being professionally covered with an adequate insurance policy when they give a presentation.

This means that should they say something that you or a member of your audience then acts upon and it is advice that is detrimental, the speaker is not covered should they be sued.

What does this mean to you?  As an event organiser, you probably think that it's all down to the speaker and nothing to do with you.  But you'd be wrong.  If you have no proper contract in place with them, a clever legal bod could construe that they are a part of your team and as such, you would be libel for their mistake.

But we all rely on that one tough question of "proving the fact" as being the main reason why things don't go too much further as usually this is cost prohibitive.   However, what if it could be proved?  If it could be proved that what they said on your stage was the result of someone suffering from their bad advice, could your organisation be picking up the cost especially if you haven't done the basics?

And it's not just their advice that could be putting you at risk but also their behaviour and attitude.

Take the case of the speaker I mentioned in my earlier blog - the one who was chatting up members of the audience to go home with him.  Because there was no contract in place and the speaker was there as a 'promotion' for the event rather than being a paid professional, he was acting as one of the company's ambassadors - on their behalf.  And because he was there on their behalf, his behaviour of chatting up and making sexual references towards the guests could have landed the company in trouble should one of the guests taken offence and issued a formal complaint.  Had things taken a turn for the worse, the company could do very little towards the speaker as there was no contract, no clear definition of the working relationship and therefore trying to counter sue him would be again, cost prohibitive.

In today's audience experience, I recently listened to someone muttering behind me that they wanted to sue the organiser for having speakers who were not providing the content they were led to believe. Words like 'mis-reperesentation', 'taking money under false pretences' and 'false advertising' were being quietly bounced between her and her colleague.  Whether she will or not, I have no idea, but she did raise an interesting point: who was at fault - the speaker or the organiser?  And who would she sue for poor content / poor experience of the ticketed event - the speaker or the organiser?

After all, if  Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne, can be sued after an audience member complained about his inappropriate comment towards someone else, then the floodgates could start to be opened for more actions to be brought against comedians, after dinner speakers, professional speakers and the friend of a friend of the CEO who's just graced your stage as a favour.....

Most professional speakers have professional indemnity insurance and issue you with terms and conditions.  If you are working with people who are not professional, by that I mean they have a day job and speak because of a passion, or it's related to their job role or they've been asked by the friend of the friend of the CEO, they probably won't have terms and conditions and it's also likely to follow that their insurance might not be adequately covering them when they give information from the stage.

Your process must include a means to guard yourself and your organisation against that 1 speaker in every 100 who will bring your organisation into disrepute - you know the one I mean that traditionally makes the event organiser being put into the position to take the fall and find a new job.

We think it's unfair and unjust and why there needs to be a standard way of working with speakers to guard against this and raise the level of professionalism - that's why we built iwantaspeaker.com.  If you have your own process already - fantastic and I'd love to hear more.  Please do send me an email or comment below and let me know how you've headed off potential issues before they arisen too.   Thank you and l look forward to reading them.

S**t! The Speaker's Overran!

We've all been there - watched and listened to a speaker talking for longer than they should.  Sometimes they are politely stopped by the Chair or MC, on occasion, forcibly ( and fun to watch) while other times you simply can't interrupt.

Sometime, speakers over running can save lives such as the case I heard of 30 years ago about an Army troop due to catch a ferry but first had to sit through a presentation. The speaker, a very high ranking senior officer, over ran, causing just over 300 troops to miss the Ferry.  There is no possible way to stop such a Speaker of this type in mid flow due to their seniority and, as they were not a professional speaker, but merely someone thinking they were 'rallying the troops', they had no concept of the length of their speech and just ploughed on regardless. This presentation was being held in Belgium and the ferry everyone was due to catch: the MS Herald of Free Enterprise. At the time, it was a logistical nightmare for events organiser because of people rushing around scrambling for cars and kit the moment the speech ended,  all trying to get off base at the same time. It's only in hindsight that you realise the impact of how costly that particular event's running over could have turned out.

But while most events won't ever have as a dramatic hindsight bonus for a speaker over running most are never the less left with the issues it causes:

• Audienced stressed for missing travel connections, or prearranged meetings or food
• The Venue's kitchen juggling the timing of the food or trying to keep it hot without spoiling
• Another speaker or speakers having to cut their presentation time down or even step aside
• Quietly trying to admonish the guilty speaker while they feel like they've delivered more value by over running and that you should be grateful to them!

Speakers who over run their allocated time simply are not thinking about you nor the event nor your audience.  Members of the audience do plan things around your event or the speaker they've solely come to see and while the speaker demands respect for the audience not to leave during their presentation, so then must it be a two way street and the speaker must respect the audience's time.

To prevent this, make sure your process:

1. Clearly states what time you want the speaker to go on the stage and to leave by and what they are to do there when on the stage.
2. Make is clear to the speaker what you are going to do as a count down timer incase they do forget about timing or their own stop watch has stopped working
3. Make it clear to the speaker what will happen when they have reached the end of their time - how you will be asking them to leave the stage
4. Tell the audience during, 'House Rules', what will be happening about the speaker's timing notices so they know also what to expect should a speaker over run
5. Do not be afraid to brief even the highest senior ranking official, CEO or celebrity about the timing procedure as most will appreciate knowing they've only got 5 minutes left and will happily wrap things up.

Your process should have the timings in the contract and agreed to before they even get to your event.  But if you are relying on simply email exchange for them to be a speaker at your event, then it will be the little thing of one speaker over running who will ruin your day. 

Don't let speakers who continually over run damage your event and upset your audience: we don't like it and that's why we built iwantaspeaker.com

Can a Speaker Sue me even though they didn't perform? And what can I do about it?

The short answer is Yes, a speaker could sue you and win especially if you haven't kept a good enough account of what you needed them to do, even if they performed badly, you could lose.

Obviously the usual reason a speaker would take an Event Organiser to court would be for non payment of their invoice.

For an Event Organiser not to pay is often because they were either relying on ticket sales to raise the funds or they have a policy to pay after the event and decided the speaker’s performance wasn't as expected so withheld payment. 

But, even if the speaker did a bad performance or even failed to turn up because you changed the date and they couldn’t make the new date, and if you didn't check the Terms and Conditions you signed, you could still be liable and still have to pay.

Not fair is it!

Most organisations sign the Terms and Conditions of the speakers who are savvy enough to provide them, many without checking them carefully first.  In addition, many other speakers are reliant on just sending an invoice and a few email exchanges to be sufficient enough which means that while you don’t have to deal with paperwork and it seems a quick way to engage the speaker you want, you are in fact leaving your organisation wide open to paying for a bad performance.

While the industry is and works on word of mouth for hiring and finding speakers, there is still a high need for them so without protecting yourself and putting in place a proper system to limit your liability you could be hugely out of pocket as not only would you be paying the speaker, but the court cost, the time and energy involved and the hidden cost of audience dis-engagement from the event and if you are really unlucky, any potential media fallout too.

To avoid this when you book a speaker, make sure you:

1) Check their Terms and Conditions carefully to find out what happens if something does go wrong so you can fully understand what you would be expected to pay.  And if you don't like any of their Terms, ask for changes and agree to the new terms before you sign.

2) Understand and agree exactly what they will do for you for their fee before the day in writing.  Be reasonable as to what can be measured and what can't. Performance is considered objective unless it is clear they failed to meet requirements.  Remember: what I think is good might not be what you think is good, however them saying they are an expert on a subject and then clearly demonstrating their knowledge to be less than that of the audience is measurable!

3) If they want full payment upfront and you are not happy or able to commit, find a third party format to hold the payment for you: iwantaspeaker, paypal, a client bank account, solicitor, speaker bureau as examples, or come to a payment arrangement where you are happy to take the risk and lose the sum without it being detrimental to your budget.  

4) If the speaker doesn't have any Terms and Conditions, doesn't have any standard contracts and only relies on the ‘sending you an invoice and a few emails’ method, make sure you have in writing exactly what they will do to compensate you should they fail to deliver in all eventualities.  Or insist they use your process which de-risks you and standardises them.  If they fail to get through or won’t go through your process, don’t hire them.

Only by safe guarding yourself against all speakers you work with being a possible failure, will you be able to protect yourself from the actual one speaker who will take you to court and win even though they didn't perform well enough and didn't deserve their fee!

It's why we built iwantaspeaker.com

Four Critical Questions You Must Answer If You Want To Hire the Right Speaker

It can be quite Herculean to surf through the web to get the vital details you need in order to hire a Speaker. The dynamics of effective marketing, PR presentations and social media presence does not necessarily make an individual the ideal speaker at your event. The only way to ensure that you do not settle for mediocre performance at your event is to do your research. One of the ways to get the best results is to get honest answers for some of the questions that will be addressed below. In a sense, getting the right Speaker for your program is not complex if you know how to navigate the tides.

Four Questions you must answer;

1) Is the person someone who speaks for a fee at an occasion or is he a professional speaker?
This question may seem obvious to those who are trying to turn on the lights in their event planning career but it is deeper than you think. Both scenarios are ideal depending on the dynamics of your event. If you are low on budget but want to have a great speaker, you may not be able to handle the costs and logistics that go with a professional speaker. You can settle for someone who will strike the right chord in the heart of your audience without over-shooting your budget.

2) Does the Speaker adhere to a professional code of ethics?
It may be difficult to pin down a standalone speaker who manages his itinerary in this range. Most Speakers do not necessarily operate with rules because they do not belong to a professional body or association. This can prove to be a knotty issue if the speaker derails from the focus of your event when he is called to address the audience. It is Ok to stick with a Speaker if you have done your homework but it is better to run with a Speaker that adheres to a professional code of ethics.

3) How easy is the speaker to work with?
You do not want to have a ‘’great’’ Speaker who makes your event planning tedious. There are so many stories about speakers who make extreme demands that may scuttle the success of the event if it is not properly handled. You can stay clear from this dilemma by booking speakers from a certified platform. This gives you the opportunity to have good knowledge about the speaker and the things you should expect at your event.

4) What impact will this Speaker have on your attendees long after the presentation is over?
The essence of organizing an event is to bring value to everyone who attends the program. You may have the right concepts, designs and marketing prowess but it all comes down to the performance of the speaker. It is important to connect with someone who has the requisite knowledge, charisma and ability to deliver if you truly want to have a successful event.

The safe rule is that you can book speakers only when you have done a thorough research and you have a process in place detailing how you are going to work with the speakers.  Not all speakers will want to use your process which is great because you only want those who do and will suit your event.

iwantaspeaker.com is based on the same process as used by the professional bureaus to engage their speakers on behalf of their clients.  iwantaspeaker is opening this process to anyone who books and works with speakers, providing everyone a professional standard when working with paid speakers as well as Speakers on Pro Bono.  

The iwantaspeaker.com process ensures Speakers who have the right experience needed for the audience are quickly highlighted while those Speakers who do not have the experience required or are unwilling to be Reviewed afterwards.  Giving a perfect process for contracting and working together. 

How can you stop worrying about a speaker not showing up?

So you’ve put your life on hold for the last 6 weeks while you’ve been busy finalising the event details: going to the venue, checking and rechecking the room layout, ensuring all AV equipment is at hand and working and updating your list of back up AV suppliers, make final decisions and agree sign offs, check the speakers have sent their material in and it’s on appropriate slides…  oh wait… hang on…   You …are…. Kidding!!!

The speaker isn’t coming?  What do you mean they are not coming?

Rather unprofessional of them isn’t it!

For the last umpteen months, you’ve been plastering their name all across your event, raising their profile, marketing their topic and advertising their name to their ideal audience only to have all this hard work and effort undone.  Let alone the cost and time and effort of yourself and your team you’ve put in and the stress it’s going to cause to get a replacement and somehow get literature together and inform the audience ahead of the event because there will be someone who was coming specifically to hear that speaker and if you keep quiet and decide to only let everyone know on the day that the speaker isn’t going to be there, you just know you’ll get complaints…..

Sounds familiar?

You are not alone.  Considering how many events are ran each year and how many speakers there are out there, this does happen.  Sometimes during the beginning of planning before too much time and cost has been sank into promoting them attending your event, while on other occasions, you only hear from them on the day that they can’t make it.

It’s times like this you wish you had a crystal ball or possibly heard from others that the speaker was likely to do this so you could have planned in advance or not even bothered with them in the first place.

There should be at least somewhere a professional standard for speakers and then know if they are willing to stand by it or not.

So we looked around because we too have experienced this and we thought it was about time someone found a way to figure out how you could predict if you are going to be given the run around or have a professional service from the speakers…   we discovered not all the speaker bureaus and agents were honest about who they exactly manage and not all the speakers showed all their testimonials on their website. 

We realised there isn’t even a quantified standard for being a speaker or even booking them!

So… we built one: iwantaspeaker.com

iwantaspeaker.com is the only online Speaker Management software tool that gives you early indications about a speaker’s level of professionalism. 

It is a process that only those speakers who have a minimum standard of experience or expertise in their subject would be able to get through as well as giving you a perfect process for contracting them. 

And we paid you how much?

You’ve hired a motivational speaker for your event and it’s a name everyone recognises.  You chose this speaker because they said they could impart invaluable knowledge and a winning method to your audience. 

You also chose this speaker because you didn’t have to try and ‘sell’ them to your colleagues as they’d heard their name too.

You’ve done your background checks and they seem to have been booked many times before without issues.

Come the big day and the company’s management team are in the auditorium, all primed and ready to hear the famed speaker.  Mics have been arranged around the room to help create an ‘interactive’ feel to the session.  The speaker is on for a period and then opens the floor up to the room to ask questions about the information they’ve just presented. 

You’re pleased as punch when one of the managers asks for the mic. And then they ask a question: ‘We’ve paid you how much for this rubbish?’

Feeling a tad embarrassed, you politely grab the mic and go to the next enthusiastically hand waving in the air.  It’s one of the other managers from another department; ‘And we’ve booked you to do this for 3 of our others areas too?  Why?’

At this precise moment in time, you’ll probably find yourself going through all the process of how you went about finding, selecting and negotiating a speaker the moment you realise the audience has started to heckle the speaker.  You will now be trying to work out what went wrong in the process and at what point you might have missed something because you just know questions will be asked about who wasted the company budget on this!

The sad truth is, you probably haven’t done anything wrong.  Even if you have a strong process, you still have to rely on a speaker understanding their own strength and level of content needed for the audience in front on them and then to say openly if they can or cannot meet your audience requirements.

And because there isn’t a standard process for working with speakers, you have no way to validate the level of audience and content they gave for the previous engagements they’ve received testimonials for.  In fact, each speaker, bureau and organiser has their own way of working, their own process and their own standards – all which increases the chances of someone getting through your process who shouldn’t be getting through being able to be standing on your stage, disappointing your audience and letting you down.

To avoid being put in this position, check:

1. Have they presented to your level of audience before and if yes could they provide you with a Review
2. Are they willing to have a conference call with key people of the audience beforehand to give a presentation outline
3. If they are insisting on being paid upfront, will their Terms & Conditions refund 100% immediately should the audience deem them unsuitable.
4. If it involves more than one area, would they be happy to treat each area as an independent booking.
5. Would they be happy for you to publish a Review of their presentation on Social Media afterwards.

If a speaker is in any doubt about their own abilities and delivery, you will find they would prefer to find a method to steer you towards their process of working which is in their favour only.  If they are confident in their own value of delivery they will be happy to work with you and your process and flexibly enough to accommodate your process.

iwantaspeaker.com is based on the same process as used by the professional bureaus to engage their speakers on behalf of their clients.  This process is open to anyone who books and works with speakers, providing them a professional standard when working with  speakers.  

The iwantaspeaker.com process ensures the speakers will have the experience needed for the audience as it quickly highlights those that do not have the experience required or are unwilling to be Reviewed afterwards.  Giving a perfect process for contracting and working together. 

‘It’s the Celebrity speaker here, can you get me some of the White stuff?’

What would you do? 

I’m not going to beat around the bush.  Without you even realising it, your event organiser has probably just saved your company from an embarrassing, bad press, client losing situation and you probably won’t even know. 

Many organisers are faced with situations that can either bring the company or themselves into bad press.  But more worryingly is the lack of support or understanding they get from their own company and the business world at large and instead of sharing information, they are left to deal with this as best they can and hope it ‘doesn’t come out on their watch’. 

Don’t believe me?  Imagine: You have just spent the best part of a year, organising and overseeing the task of arranging your company’s largest annual event.  All Key personnel have arrived. All helpers and crew are ready to sprint into action. All equipment, AV and everything else is set up for the event to begin in the morning.  The Celebrity has arrived, spoken to the CEO, joined the team for evening dinner and now retired to their room to get ready to do the keynote in the morning.  With the last checks done, it’s now your turn to turn in, leaving some of the team members at the hotel bar enjoying the last of the night before the big day tomorrow.  And then you get a call.  It’s from the Celebrity.  Last minute changes to the speech? An issue that’s arisen and they’ve got to go? Just wanting to thank you and find out if there is anything else they could do for you?  No.  It’s them asking you to get them some drugs!  And I don’t mean the over the counter type either.

Your heart races.  What to do? Who to call? It’s the middle of the night….!

What would you do?

We all know what should happen.  But the truth is scarier – the organiser is left to deal with it and often won’t mention it to anyone apart from a select few they trust.

By this, I mean they deal with it as in they either do or don’t find the drugs – I’ve heard of organisers doing both and sadly for the same reason – because they felt it was their job that’s on the line and the event outcome being ruined. 

And they had to make this tough decision on their own, with seconds or only a few minutes to think. 

Media is littered with Celebrities having indiscretions, but hardly at a conference or at a named business event.  Have you ever stopped to ask why this is?  With over 1.29 million events running each year in the UK alone, the only drugs that hit the media headlines are those mentioned in Pharma events or a Celebrity indiscretion going to, leaving a party or in a hotel!  

To me, I think the answer is simple: instead of being allowed to name and shame, the celebrity will use their high status and, often being good manipulators, will use their social status and dominant personality to intimidate and belittle to get what they want.  A great article by Jenny McCartney on 5^th November 2012 published in The Telegraph highlights this and why people won’t say anything.

But then you have to ask, what would have happened if others had blown the whistle?  To answer this, you don’t have to look too far: in the case of Oisin Tymon and his Celeb run in with them asking for something that was impossible under the circumstances as highlighted in the wonderful article in The Telegraph, by Victoria Ward, 12^th March 2015,  the brand suffered and the Celeb was sacked because of it going so very public.  The public backlash didn’t focus on the behaviour of the Celeb, instead it focused on the messenger.  And no messenger wants to be put under that type of public pressure, especially when we have a bad habit of demonising those who do stand up and call these Celebrity’s behaviour into question.

Recently, I heard yet again of another organiser who received, ‘The Phone Call’.  For guidance, they naturally turned to the person who they booked the Celebrity through.  It was then they found out they were not the agent but a bureau, an intermediary. The intermediary didn’t know about there being ‘a problem’ beforehand either….

I’d like to tell you how it was resolved in this instance, but, seeing as the true agent didn’t tell the booker about the Celeb’s little habit, and the booker won’t ever divulge who it is and neither will the Organiser tell anyone else out of fear of backlash, I’m sorry to say the next Celeb that you book might be them as this collaborative silence allows this behaviour to go on.

And because this silence goes on, the next organiser who books might well be faced with the same phone call and are forced into a position to make that instant decision which could jeopardise your brand.  It only takes one person to successfully inform the public in a way they don’t get a backlash and like a house of cards, it’ll all come out. 

We are not that far away from that moment.

There has long been a need for openness and accountability when it comes to booking speakers and personalities for events and it’s why we put on our site. Iwantaspeaker.com, the opportunity for organisers to give Reviews about their experience after working with the speakers.  At first, we thought we did the wrong thing when a few speakers who tried to register with our site said they didn’t like the Review section, but, after a bit of research - it’s the being ‘Open and Accountable and a fear of Reviews’ that’s keeping them away and more importantly a fear of receiving Bad Reviews because usually it’s been justified!

 

Good. 

It means we are doing what we set out to do and those who do sign up to our site will not be one of those Celebrities who will be making ‘that phone call’, and putting your brand at risk.  What are you doing to make sure you are hiring Speakers that won’t behave badly and more importantly, have you an action plan and a support system in place for your event organiser should they be put in this position? At least those speakers who have signed up with us are happy to be Reviewed which means your organiser will not have to face one of those dreaded late night phone calls….

  

Cindy-Michelle Waterfield

iwantaspeaker.com

trust –convenience – peace of mind

Signs to look for when finding a true professional speaker

If you are going to get a group of people into a room all at the same time who would all rather be somewhere else, you’d better have a good reason, good content, good information for them to be there.

Often the answer to this is:- "Yes I do".  After all you wouldn’t be doing this now would you!

However, to think this far and then concentrate on venue, the chair layout the seating, the guest list and then think about who is going to be delivering this content, imparting information or being the reason enough for the audience wanting to be there is usually left to last minute or given little credit. 

Well that’s just like organising a wedding, hiring the venue, working out the colour, sending out invites and then working out who the Bride and Groom should be!

In today’s connected world, audiences are wanting more and more ‘content’.

The biggest insight I’ve seen is the growth of Tech being used by the events industry in order to plan, plot and pre-engage with the audience and then use it to try and continue engagement during and after the event too.

Then they think about speakers….

The truly professionals speakers are used to dealing with those who are savvy enough to ask, to help you engage with your audience BEFORE the event, as well as AFTER.  Some professional speakers offer pre event and post event follow-up email messages – (in marketing speaker: we now call it nurture and drip campaigns), while others offer conference calls and mini consultations.

However, the true professional speaker also now understands they have to contend with technology while they are on the stage, but not many can actually handle it.

Traditionally we called it heckling.  Nowadays it’s called, ‘interaction and engagement’.

So for a true professional speaker who can handle today’s fast pace changing world, make sure your speaker can:

•   Manage taking questions and providing answers almost as if ‘off-the-cuff’, if they can’t they don’t have depth of knowledge greater than that of your audience
•  Interact and be comfortable with social media, live feed and audience apps while they are on stage – if they can’t deal with this, it means they might not be confident in their presentation enough to allow for distractions
•  Offer your audience tasters and teasers before the event and provide relevant follow up info – if they can’t, you will have more workload to do in order to get, keep and build audience loyalty.
•  Ensure their message is on task and about your event and not promoting themselves – if you use a speaker’s standard template email, chances are YOU are promoting them rather than the speaker writing something for you and your audience to promote YOU and YOUR EVENT which means you’ve just given your audience’s loyalty to the speaker.

When you engage with a speaker, always think how they can help you, pre, during and post the event and then make sure it’s down in writing in a contract.  It’s why we build such a flexible speaker management booking process to cover their involvement from start to finish of the event and not just for the speaking bit.

Using iwantaspeaker.com will help you standardise the process of working with speakers.

How Do You Pick which Expo?

It’s Expo season and it’s in full swing.  But which one do you go to?

One of the top reasons is: To Gain Knowledge.  And one of the best ways is to listen to the speakers and the Keynotes as it’s a quick way of learning new information.

So, you do your homework and work out which of the Expos’ breakout sessions and keynotes you want to attend and could be of most value and then you consider that while you are there, you might as well check ahead to see what exhibitors are there and arrange a few meet-ups. 

Come the day and….

You get to the speaker session and….

The room is empty. 

The Speaker didn’t show.

Yes, it’s annoying.

If you had known they wouldn’t show, would you honestly have gone?  It’s only at this point you realise that you will at least be getting something from the day with the meet-ups and the exhibition.  But reality is, if you knew the speaker wasn’t going to be there, you probably wouldn’t be either.

Speakers impart knowledge. This is a great way to learn about what’s hot, what’s trending and what your company needs to have or do right now.

Of the Expos I attended last year, on average, 11% of sessions were cancelled because of no speaker on the day.  5% had alternative speakers from the name advertised simply because the Event Organiser found a replacement speaker at the last minute and in one case, they had a speaker do repeat performances just to ensure that the audience had someone!

Event Organisers work hard to ensure the right people are on the stage to impart this knowledge so you are drawn to the event in the first place.  So it doesn’t help them either when a Speaker decides not to show. Not professional of the speaker and it’s them that’s potentially just wasted your time.

The only speakers the Event Organisers can 99% guarantee of turning up are the Keynotes as usually these are booked via a speaker bureau and are charged big bucks for the privilege.

Now, while you and I know that these big name speakers are interesting as a draw to get us to possibly go, it’s usually the smaller, lesser known speakers in between that we go to hear as we know their content is sometimes more valuable, relevant and related to our own business. But it’s these that are the hit and miss.

Because of this, we decided it’s about time to set a Professional Standard for booking speakers and created a speaker management system that does this –iwantaspeaker.com.

Our online process reduces the risk when it comes to hiring speakers, which means Events ran by your Event Organiser will be less likely to have a “No Shows”. 

If you’ve attended an event with a ‘No Show’, tell the organiser about us as and be assured that if they use our system, they will have our 'Icon logo' on their event which means you can be sure the next time you attend their event, you will get to see the speaker you wanted and know that they will be of a Professional Standard.  No Logo? No gogo! 

That’s why we built   iwantaspeaker.com

Why someone else's Little Black Book could be fatal for your event.

With all the information at our fingers today, searching for a speaker can be like searching for a needle in a haystack.  With information overload, false testaments, overzealous new speakers and tired established speakers, it’s no wonder we create a Little Black Book of tried and tested names of speakers that we keep going back to, or we use a third party like a speaker bureau who have their own little black book of ‘preferred speakers’, to take on the headache for us.  If you have reached this stage, you are in danger of either having a very bored audience, or getting less value for your money or both!

Keeping things fresh and new always goes down well with audiences.  A very happy audience is a very giving audience and one that returns big style.  The trick is to make sure it’s the right kind of ‘fresh’.

While it is harder, more stressful and creates higher levels of anxiety when engaging new speakers you've never heard or used before, getting the right one will bring more rewards, benefits and a greater ROI.  Simple business rules.  The higher the risk, the greater the gain.  It’s just unfortunate that with some organisations, they also adopt: ‘the greater the fall’, should anything go wrong.  With this kind of added unwanted pressure, it’s no wonder why the little black book method gets adopted so easily.

Little Black Books, whether it’s; the Organisers, the Event Managers, the Directors, or even the Speaker Bureaus, give a false sense of security.  Why? Because no one really takes into consideration the audiences’ experience and expectation.

For a long time, audiences have been told that attending a conference gives them the opportunity to ‘Network’, ‘Create business’, ‘Learn’ and so on when the simple truth is, is that if the speaker or presenter is not engaging enough to grab the audience’s attention, those that recognise that their value of attending is being eroded will seek to address this before the value of not attending becomes greater. You can spot this easily as the audience natural gravitates towards other activities, opportunities or entertainment.  Eg: ‘Excellent event - I’d didn’t want to listen to the speaker so went to the bar and got chatting to someone and now we are doing business’.

When an audience member is tired of hearing the same speaker, the same presentation message and can no longer meet someone at the bar and create business your event is now in danger of low turnout as the equation of ‘valuable attending’ turns towards it being more ‘valuable staying away’.  It is at this point some organisations start to order their employees to attend while others stop the event altogether.  You have now become a victim of The Little Black Book!

In the great scheme of organising a conference, many regard speakers as a small cog.  However it is a pretty crucial one.  One that unfortunately has fallen to the bottom of the ‘To do’ list because the Little Black Book has made it easy for this to happen.  Today, many treat the act of finding or hiring speakers with little thought or effort.  This is crazy and in the long term, costly.  It’s like organising a wedding and once everything is organised and the invitations sent for guests to attend, only then are thoughts turned to whom the Bride and Groom should be!  Just think, if you are allowing your events to be organised like this, no wonder your audience are looking for the additional value as to why they are there and not at their desk!

A good event is one where the audience gets full value, not just partial. Full value means not just spending time at the bar creating their own value of business, but one where they are also there because they want to hear the speakers, the presentations contents, they want to meet the speakers and the authors behind the content, they want to meet the creative geniuses who had the insight to bring these group of people together and find out what else they could do for them and their business.  Now you are talking a conference that has not only delivered full value to your audience, but to also the Host as well as the speakers.

How to engage speakers like the professionals

Have you ever wondered how the speaker bureaus manage to find and suggest speakers who are always so professional and won’t let you down?

You are probably thinking it’s because of years of experience in the industry and being so well connected they’ve gained respect and attraction from the speakers as being the reason.

And if you have, I bet you’ve also thought that it would be wonderful if ALL the speakers that didn’t come via a bureau were just as professional as those that did.  And it’s at this point, you’ve probably assumed that because those speakers who are not with a bureau is because they are not professional or famous enough and therefore not worthy of justifying the bureaus hefty price tag.

What you have just done is assumed the “Value + Content = Worth” equation.

The truth is, using a bureau is not an option when you have a limited budget or even no budget. But you can still work out the V+C=W equation with a good speaker management process.

Bureaus and some speakers rely on you making assumptions as this allows them to drive up the price. However, justifying the price is a little more tricky as not all well known famous names are able to deliver a speech of value or with content as much as we would like whereas an unknown but practicing CEO is able to give invaluable insights and content rich and delivers well above their worth.

If you want to book the speakers who can deliver the Value + Content = Worth equation without the additional commission costs, all you need to do is standardise your procedure for booking and working with speakers.

• Have a system where all speakers have to send you the minimum amount of information about themselves which enables you to quickly work out if they could be suitable BEFORE you decide to use them at your next event.
• Have proper Contracts with Terms & Conditions that you send to each and every speaker even if it’s a pro bono slot
• Have a payment method system speakers can understand and trust
• Have a two way feedback process which you are willing to be open about. 

By having a simple process which standardises the way you work with speakers – not matter paid or unpaid, you will find that those who want to work with you will adapt to your process and do what you require.

It’s why we built iwantaspeaker.com – providing you a professional process to standardise working with speakers.