Speakers and Meeting Professionals: Working Together to Drive Better Business Results

July 18, 2019
By Deborah Gardner, CMP, President of DG International, LLC; Founder & Researcher for Meetings Talk

Throughout my career in the meetings industry over the past three decades, I have been honored to attend or participate in many events, both as a speaker and as a meeting professional. Over the years, I’ve experienced many shifts within the industry firsthand.    

Importantly, one aspect of the industry that hasn’t changed is the emphasis on the value of face-to-face interaction. Professional speakers have strived to remain helpful and effective in reinforcing the tone of in-person programs with specific topics or initiatives, and by instructing organizations and individuals on how to overcome challenges and achieve peak performance. This objective is what meeting and event speakers aim for in order to provide the most memorable experience for all sorts of listening audiences, whether at a health industry conference or technology-focused summit.

There are three common goals that benefit business when speakers and meeting professionals work together:

1. Growing Impactful Networks. Nurturing fruitful professional relationships requires communication and accountability. Staying connected on a continual basis throughout the planning process for a speaking opportunity at a meeting or event helps build long-standing and trustworthy relationships. Both the speaking and meeting communities know that understanding and invoking each other’s business needs, and those of the client, is essential to everyone’s success.

2. Driving Positive Business Results. Both speakers and meeting professionals serve as educators for clients and corporations big or small. Working together, strong speakers and planners leave their audiences with tactics to elevate performance levels, get noticed by stakeholders and reach target markets. They also help instill soft skills such as verbal communication, self-confidence and personability. All of these combined lead to increased performance and net new business growth.

3. Advocating with One Voice. It has been proven time and again that great things happen when people come together. Meetings and events are where business objectives are promoted with a unified voice, relationships are forged, ideas are generated, opportunities are created and deals are made. That’s what the meetings industry is all about: showing the real power of what face-to-face business meetings and events can collectively do for individuals, businesses and communities – and speakers are a crucial component of hosting engaging, educational meetings.

At the end of the day, speakers and meeting professionals are part of a unique partnership that plays a critical role in bringing people together and improving businesses’ bottom lines.