How to Create Long-term Value at Your Event

Good speakers have the power to create a real and sustained impact on the lives on delegates in terms of their overall productivity and wellbeing; for example, by providing tools to lead healthier lifestyles, build stronger relationships, or work more effectively, which in turn result in enhanced creativity and more positive attitudes in the workplace.

In order to ensure that a client achieves this ROI, a speaker should aim to create a feel-good factor that endures beyond the event itself. This starts by putting a stake in the ground about what they define as ‘success’ and establishing goals with the audience that have longevity.

When planning to meet the goals of this ‘defined success’, think about how the day will be planned out, why not have an extended Q&A, a roundtable discussion or ask the speaker to join for lunch or dinner, this way you can explore some of their ideas further.

Keynote speaker, Nigel Barlow , imparts his wisdom on this topic, as he says: “right from the off, you need to find ways to show that it's a journey you are embarking on together.” The critical point here is to work together with the delegates to show you’re all looking to the long-term.

Challenge your delegates to think to the long-term

During the individual session, and indeed throughout the event itself, it is important to maintain a consistent level of engagement with delegates. In the industry, different slots in a day’s agenda are regularly referred to with nicknames such as ‘the energiser session’ or ‘the graveyard shift’, implying that different elements of a conference have the power to engage delegates to varying degrees.

It falls to an event organiser to manage these elements in order to create a format of the greatest benefit to the client. Therefore, if you think carefully about the structure of the day, plan regular breaks and put together a killer line-up, then delegates will be able to take more from the sessions, which will give them more food for thought in the long-run.

Once the long-term messages have been communicated, organisers and stakeholders in the conference can start measuring their actual impact when the immediate buzz has subsided.

Again, Nigel Risner , comments that it is worthwhile incentivising delegates to complete tasks days, weeks, and even months later. By challenging themselves in this way, speakers can make sure that their words continue to have an impact on the wellbeing and productivity of delegates once they have returned to their desks, and even further on along their career path.

For further information or to book a speaker, call us on +44 (0)20 7607 7070  or email  info@speakerscorner.co.uk .