Meeting professionals are deluged daily with solicitations from meetings industry suppliers, including speakers! Famous speakers, not so famous, speaker bureaus are all seeking new contracts for their revenue pipeline, just like the hotels, a/v companies, catering firms and others. Its mayhem out there!

Where many speakers fail, is not in the quality of their content or delivery skills; it’s in failing to understand the fundamentals of the decision process and criteria.

Once an event destination and venue is selected, the event team is busily working on the theme and knowledge sharing goals, along with the budget and forecasted revenue from registration fees, exhibitors fess and sponsorships. The selection of keynote speakers, breakout session trainers/facilitators then comes into play for promoting attendance and tying into the theme and education goals.

If your speaker content doesn’t fit that theme, then it doesn’t matter how great of a speaker you are, the meeting professional and event team is not going to select you.

Speakers would be well served to just focus on the event theme criteria once it is identified and then be straightforward about whether you are a fit or not?   If not, quit selling!  There may be a future event for that organization where you are a fit and the meeting professional will circle back to you with appreciation for not pressing for an engagement at the event where you were not a fit.