Daily Buzz: What Meeting Planners Want From Speakers

At professional conferences, speakers are responsible for delivering informative and entertaining presentations. As a result, they often make or break an event.

“When retaining speakers to present at their conference or convention, meeting planners must tread very carefully,” says professional speaker Jeff Davidson on the Plan Your Meetings blog  (opens in a new tab). “Picking the wrong speaker for an event can have disastrous consequences.”

What are meeting planners looking for in the right speaker? For starters, a veteran who has presented to dozens, or even hundreds, of groups—someone who knows how to present with impact, Davidson says. Beyond that, someone who can tailor a presentation for a specific audience.

In addition, planners want speakers who can engage with that audience by asking questions, posing dilemmas, and encouraging participation. “Interaction can be a notable, even memorable factor for audience members, who have sat in front of one staid delivery after another,” Davidson says.

An effective speaker is also succinct, Davidson argues. Event speakers should be able to stay on time and on topic, even when plans change.

“The seasoned speaker, on the fly, knows how to convert what was scheduled to be a 45-minute presentation into what now has to be a 32-minute presentation, and has the ability to do so without the audience knowing the difference,” Davidson says.

Keeping Up With Social Media Trends

Are you shifting your social conversations yet? “User sharing of content via reposts and retweets on Facebook and Twitter declined 18%” via @Forbes  (opens in a new tab) https://t.co/T5MWmPLhg6  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab) #nptech  (opens in a new tab) #socialmedia  (opens in a new tab)

— Debbie Willis (@DebbieatASI) February 24, 2020  (opens in a new tab)

By now, it’s a safe bet that your organization has a social media strategy. But is it the right one? A new report from the audience intelligence platform Shareablee highlights how social media users are changing the way they’re engaging with U.S. brands, Forbes reports  (opens in a new tab).

According to Forbes’ summary of the report, while the total amount of engagement went up overall, Facebook made up a smaller share of total engagement between 2018 and 2019, falling 3 percent—while the Facebook-owned Instagram rose by 3 percent. (Instagram makes up the lion’s share of engagement, with 70 percent of total likes, shares, and comments in 2019.) Not only has performance changed across platforms, but it’s also changed across content type: Video engagement across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram grew 8 percent, from 23.9 billion actions in 2018 to 25.9 billion in 2019.

Other Links of Note

What does the nonprofit industry look like today? Nonprofit Quarterly presents a map of the industry’s economy  (opens in a new tab) in 2020.

For digital transformation to be successful, your organizational culture also needs to change  (opens in a new tab), writes Melissa Henley in CMSWire.

Looking to redesign your office? BizBash asks event professionals  (opens in a new tab) how they’re designing their own spaces to inspire creativity.

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