Booking the right speaker

A speakers' agency with years of experience can accurately ascertain a client's needs then match a speaker with that brief, says Debbie Tawse, managing director of Celebrity Speakers (NZ) Ltd.

Celebrity Speakers, she says, is this country's largest and leading speakers' agency. With its experience comes an intimate knowledge of speakers, their topics, abilities, and suitability to speak to and match a particular brief.

Some clients give the firm a clear brief as to what they want to achieve through a speaker, others have little idea. Her firm's consultants have to sit down with them and work through what they need to achieve.

Debbie Tawse gives the following examples of client briefs and what her firm did to meet them:

1. A natural health retail company wanted a keynote speaker with strong retail and franchise experience, who could get delegates to "buy into" the strategy required to change to a franchising operation and its benefits.

Solution: Engage Australian-based David Campbell, who has 20 years' experience in the finance/banking industry and is a guest lecturer at universities on franchising and business management.

Debbie Tawse says the client was delighted with the outcome that saw delegates showing commitment to the new structure.

2. An innovative dental company, with eight branches throughout Auckland, needed to identify the training required to deliver exceptional service, build customer loyalty and increase retail sales of associated dental and hygiene products.

Solution: Engage experienced sales motivator and trainer Robyn Fond to conduct a training-needs analysis and then develop a training programme for the client.

3. A publishing house wanted an innovative leader to present an inspirational after-dinner address on "vision in business and the community" to an audience of 600 senior executives, business leaders and professionals.

Solution: Engage Donna Awatere-Huata, a "visionary, innovator, and change-maker."

4. A telecommunications company sought an internationally recognised keynote speaker to speak on change within an "extremes" theme.

Solution: Engage Flight Lieutenant John Nichol, acclaimed author and former Iraqi prisoner of war, to speak of the extreme conditions he experienced as a prisoner and the challenges he met.

5. A diagnostic health sector supplier wanted a keynote speaker who could discuss the economic impact of health reforms and how these reforms impacted on guests' businesses.

Solution: Engage economist Gareth Morgan to lead an interactive session on how they could profitably position their business in a new economic environment.