Ask a conference speaker what he will speak on, and you will get an elaborate outpouring of his expertise. But ask a speaker why he was invited and what his audience will be able to achieve as a result, and you get a shrug. And that's the planner's fault.
Organizations spend millions of dollars to bring people together—to help them to move forward to achieve critical results. But instead of helping the participants to learn the skills or concepts that they need in order to overcome the obstacles they face, speakers give yet more information. If information were all it took, everyone would read books or material on the Internet, and become wealthy quick. Adults don't achieve by listening or by reading; they achieve when they are able to overcome the specific challenges they face by taking action.
Conference planners are crucial to supporting speakers to help their audiences. Speakers need to know why they are there and how to tailor their messages to each new group of people. Recently, at an international conference for public health practitioners, there was an invited speaker who had completed research that showed that in order to attract potential carriers of HIV/AIDS to the clinics, a specific set of messages worked better than the old messages. The speaker and his fellow researchers had tested their messages and they had evidence-based data to show. Their work had taken them most of a year and was an important contribution to their field. The speaker had a well-rehearsed seminar, was quite busy, and was about to give the same talk to an audience of health-care practitioners as to a group of researchers. And why not?
He was asked to speak about the research to both groups. When he spoke to fellow researchers, he focused naturally on the group's research methodology and data collection, and he was about to offer this same evidence of the terrific research methodology to an audience of practitioners when I called. I asked if he knew what this audience was going to be able to do as a result of the talk. A fellow researcher might be able to replicate the research, but this group needed to implement their findings. Their challenge was not research methodology, but how to integrate the new message within an ongoing program. With this new direction, the speaker was able to tailor his speech to address the "how to" and not waste this new audience's time on methodology.
In order to produce high-quality results, everyone needs to be able to:
—advocate for an idea or practice
—influence others
—implement a method or practice
—sell a product or service
—find a resolution to a problem
—be motivated
—develop a vision
—reallocate resources to put a method/activity higher on their list of priorities
—work more effectively with others
—develop a skill
—understand something new or change something old
—take actions
Using the above criteria, ask an organization or individuals to add specificity to their needs by stating each point and finishing the sentence with "in order to". Because in order to produce results, everyone needs to know why, not just what.
Gail Rae, president of InteractionMatters, coaches speakers, writes seminars, and runs conferences. She focuses on content, relationship development, and impact. Rae speaks at professional conferences on storytelling, knowledge sharing, and meeting design. She can be reached at
[email protected], or at (202) 362-8550.