Last of the Future Trends for Professional Speaking

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Posted on 31st October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Speaking Trends

And, to finish out my diatribe about future trends for the professional speaker, American Express Business Travel released the results of its annual Global Business Travel Forecast.
Among the predictions as reported in Successful Meetings magazine:

  • Planners will likely hold more local and regional meetings
  • They will incorporate more virtual alternatives and supplements to face-to-face gatherings
  • Airfare and hotel rates  are expected to reach pre-recession levels next year (wish I could say the same thing for the value of my house here in Scottsdale, Arizona!)

All in all, I think it is safe to say that the landscape is changing…and we need to be able to change and adapt with it.

Trend #8 Presentation Co-Creation

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Posted on 28th October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Engaging Mindset |Opening Activities |PowerPoint |presentation skills |Speaking Trends

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Brad MacMillian, president of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) says that “the number one thing an audience wants is to feel involved in the actual creation and development of the session.  When they are involved, they are much more connected, they feel it is more personal to them, and they get more out of it.

Now let me give you an example.  When Don Tapscott, author of the best-seller Wikinomics, was our keynote speaker at MPI, he did a great job in advance of reaching out to all our attendees.  He blogged with them, invited questions before the event, and considered them; he built them right into his presentation.  So, in essence, he built his presentation around the interests of his audience even before they got there.  The audience felt like they were personally involved.  They felt like they could see their fingerprints all over the content he delivered.  And so they got more out of it to.  And Don went the extra step and engaged with people after the fact, too.  It really was an end-to-end experience.  It was personal, and the people who were in the audience felt that they had collaborated and created something remarkable.”

And for those of us who use PowerPoint, I believe the Ipad is a game changer for presentations. Why?  Because it makes it much easier for the presenter to go where the audience wants to go – right there on the stage in real time!

Most PowerPoint presentations are linear in fashion – unless you have figured out how to insert hyperlinks to help you “jump” from one slide to another or remember the slide number so you can “go to” a specific slide in your presentation.  But, it requires a bit of finesse to go over to the computer and hit some keys or manual dexterity to move your mouse over the just the right spot.

The Ipad changes all that.

The “computer” is in your hand, and you can simply tap on the screen.  Doesn’t require much finesse or dexterity.

So, you may ask, what’s the big deal?  It allows the presenter to easily go where the audience wants to go!

You can set up a “splash page” which is a main menu of topics you think you should cover – and then let your audience decide where to start and where to go so their fingerprints are all over the presentation.

Trend #7: Offer Value – Do More Than Show Up To Give Your Speech

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Posted on 26th October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Speaking Trends

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Clients are looking for a solution – to relieve their pain, leverage an opportunity, or to make their lives better.  So it is more than just a speech.  It’s a package of value-added services.  Gone are the days when you fly in, do the same speech you do for any and every audience, and fly back out.

The more focused speakers are on presenting solutions, the more clients will value their services. As President of the National Speakers Association, I commissioned a “white paper” to explore the myriad ways speakers can convey value to their clients before, during and after their presentations. Here’s a sampling from the white paper, The Professional Speaker’s Imperative: Bringing Value to Today’s Global and Tech-Savvy Marketplace, although there is much more detail in the actual report, so check it out here.

Before the Meeting:

  • Assess the culture, skills and abilities of their audiences or organizations
  • Advise meeting planners about meeting and speaking logistics
  • Connect with other speakers (internal and external)
  • Meet with client leadership and stakeholders
  • Assess technologies to ensure optimum delivery formats
  • Start a virtual conversation
  • Coach leader(s) and meeting planners before the speaker’s presentation

During the Meeting:

  • Provide a presentation that inspires employees
  • Provide a training or breakout session in new skills, models and tools
  • Moderate or participate in a panel discussion
  • Facilitate a roundtable discussion among peers or diverse stakeholder groups
  • Consult leader(s) on various paths to take and/or consider
  • Moderate or participate in the event

After the Meeting:

  • Facilitate the leadership team to create meaningful plans of action
  • Assist clients in implementing these plans
  • Coach individuals through implementation
  • Provide online follow-up resources

Ongoing Services:

  • Create or provide learning tools and systems to continue or enhance the value of the meeting
  • Participate in company meetings
  • Become an expert spokesperson for the organization
  • Provide additional services, such as assessments, customized training, retreats and special events
  • Mentor specific people within the organization
  • Serve as an ongoing adviser or consultant to the organization

Trend # 6: Shorter General Session Speeches

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Posted on 23rd October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Speaking Trends

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While I don’t have any statistical evidence for this, I do believe that the “slot” allocated for a keynote or general session speaker is getting shorter.  It used to be quite common to have a speaker present for 60-90 minutes.  These days, it is more like 45-60 minutes and I see that trend continuing.  People want more variety, and you can squeeze two speakers into a 90 minute spot.  One of ‘em is bound to be great!  Even better if both of ‘em hit it out of the park!

Trend #5: Market Maturity

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Posted on 18th October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Speaking Trends

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I just came back from Paris, France where I attended the French Professional Speakers Association (Association Française Des Conférenciers Professionnels) where over 60 professional speakers came together for an “immersion into the know-how and awareness of world-renowned speakers.” After many informal discussions, most participants agreed that France is an emerging market for professional speakers.  French companies are used to asking people from within their own organizations to read their powerpoint slides.  They don’t do a whole lot of motivation,  storytelling, or interaction.  I would call these presenters “industry speakers” vs. a “professional speaker” who gets paid to deliver that presentation.

The United States and other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom are undeniably more mature markets where the participants are used to seeing professional speakers and have a rather high expectation for exceptional content and platform excellence.

Okay, so this is an oversimplification – as there are multinational companies and organizations that cut across geographic boundaries, but for this “trend,” let’s keep it simple!

Thanks to internet access and the availability of global communications technologies, countries (and organizations in those countries) are becoming more sophisticated, savvy buyers AND participants.  Yes indeed, the world is becoming flatter every day, and there are opportunities to speak all over this planet – if you are a good match between the culture and maturity.

Trend #4: Social Media Sophistication to Find and Qualify Speakers

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Posted on 14th October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Speaking Trends

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Typically, the conference committee or meeting planner gathers a list of potential prospective speakers from a favorite speakers bureau and recommendations from others in the organization.  With the advent of social media (and I do mean “advent” as most planners and speakers haven’t tapped into the extensive reach of social media), recommendations will also come from a “google-ish” search on facebook, Linked In etc.  Ability and competency will be verified through the speaker’s website, YouTube channels etc.  Social media isn’t going away – but the use of it to find and qualify speakers will become much more sophisticated as meeting planners and decision makers learn how to use these online tools.

Trend #3: Shorter Lead Times

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Posted on 12th October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Speaking Trends

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When meetings came to a screeching halt last year, professional speakers suddenly had some spare time on their hands.  Some organizations cancelled meetings in fear of the AIG effect, and others brought their meetings “under the radar” – holding meetings on property while using internal, industry speakers.  A few months later, when companies started to climb out of the foxhole, they started to call speakers with a drastically reduced lead time.  Many of us were getting calls a few months or even weeks before the program!  Although this is hard to understand from a marketing perspective, this trend is going to continue.

Why are lead times going to stay shorter?  Because the company has more at stake and leadership looks harder at the bottom line impact of each meeting.  So meeting planners are spending more time strategizing “success”, getting approvals from leadership and working to get better deals from the meeting venues.  And, if they wait long enough, they can try to get a better deal from the professional speaker!

Trend #2: Greater Audience Expectations

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Posted on 10th October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Speaking Trends

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Boomer audiences are a fairly compliant crowd.  Even if the presentation isn’t all that great, they will typically sit through most presentations.  Not so with the younger generations!  They won’t tolerate a canned speech that is not relevant to their world.  They will make their feelings known with their two feet  by walking out or their two fingers by twittering in the backchannel.  Add in a dose of Hollywood, and today’s audiences are demanding edutainment of a quality they cannot access via the web on their own.

The result?  Professional speakers have GOT to bring their “A” game in order to thrive in this business.  That means you do your homework with the client, truly understanding their opportunities or troubles.  You can’t just phone in your standard speech, either.  They want to see their fingerprints all over your speech – addressing their issues in their words.

Some call this customizing your speech – which far exceeds putting the client logo on your handouts.  Weave in timely, unique anecdotes, stories, examples, illustrations, urban legends, best practices etc. Let the audience know that they are with a professional who understands their situation and gives them confidence, hope and inspiration for a better future!

BTW, if you do use a slideshow, it should provide relevant visual references that complement the speech and don’t dominate it.  As a professional, your slideshow should ROCK! (see Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen, Nancy Duarte’s Slideology and Dave Paradi’s Visual Slide Revolution for what I mean by “rocks”).

Trend #1: Definition of “Speaker” is Morphing

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Posted on 8th October 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Speaking Trends

©2010 www.aydinstone.com

While in Marlow, UK at the Professional Speaking Association convention, I was asked to be on a panel discussing the future of professional speaking.  In preparation for the panel discussion, I scribbled a few headlines about the trends I am seeing as a professional speaker and as President of the National Speakers Association in the United States.

Oddly enough, we didn’t get around to the list until halfway through the panel discussion.  Once we did start talking about the list, the energy went up in the room and we started sharing diverse perspectives. (LOVE it when that happens!).  After the conference, Phil Jones asked me to continue the conversation.  And so, here it is.  I’ll write a trend a day until I don’t have anything else to say.  Feel free to comment as I do NOT have the omniscient view of the world – but I certainly have an opinion!

So here’s my first comment on the future of professional speaking:

1.  The marketplace definition of “speaking” is morphing.  In previous years, the definition of a “speaker” was synonymous with a “keynoter” or “general session speaker”.  Thirty to ninety minutes of your best stuff on the main stage.  I see the demand for this traditional kind of speaker is more aligned with the celebrity/entertainer in an effort to put butts in seats.  They have their stories/entertainment, they share it with the audience, and then they leave.  Today’s audiences (and future audiences) want to be more engaged with the presentation. Yes, they want to feel good, get some insights and feel inspired in that time period.  But it has to be more about THEM rather than about you, the professional speaker.  They are seeking pain relief or to tap into your ability to leverage an opportunity.  This could come in the form of a keynote or general session, OR it could come in the form of facilitation, training, coaching, consulting, or other offline/online delivery systems.  The lines between speaking, facilitating, training, consulting etc. are blurring.  Most “speakers” who are doing really well in this economy don’t call themselves a “speaker”.  They call themselves as experts – who deliver exceptional value to the client.  I am beginning to believe that whatever we, the professional speaker, call ourselves is irrelevant.  The marketplace decides what they want – and we need to be positioned to deliver it now and into the future.