Content and Entertainment
[en-ter-teyn-muh nt]
1. the act of entertaining; agreeable occupation for the mind; diversion; amusement.
2. something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement, especially a performance of some kind.
Securing a speaker for your meeting or event requires more than just contracting. It requires careful planning and preparation. Is this speaker a good choice? Do they share the same values as your organization? Will they help you achieve your objectives for this meeting? In this Education Essentials, you'll learn how to align your event speakers and entertainment with your meeting's strategic goals, ways to incorporate diversity into your meeting, and how to engage your speakers at every stage of the program planning process.
Preview Exciting Speakers at FICP Events
FICP programs are a great opportunity to preview speakers who could fit your own audience. Leadership, customer experience, culture and generations are just a few topics that appeal to both FICP’s community of meetings professionals and attendees of financial and insurance meetings and events. Here are just a few experiences from meetings professionals who booked a speaker they saw at an FICP event.
Stand-Out Speakers and Engaging Entertainment
FICP is lucky to count more than 20 speaker bureaus and entertainment/production professionals as hospitality partners. We asked who their favorite up-and-coming speakers are right now. Read on and get inspired for your next keynote or entertainment search.
Planning Your Content
The events industry is constantly evolving, and conference professionals want to stay on the edge of innovation when it comes to selecting speakers and event entertainment. Out-of-the-box designs or trending keynotes can “wow” your audience, but before jumping into a new fad, it is important to first determine what would truly align with your event’s purpose. How do you provide a unique experience, while also ensuring your conference entertainment and education are relevant to your event’s goals? Here are some important considerations when strategically planning your event's content, from booking your keynote and speakers to planning the entertainment and décor.
Try Something New
Get creative with your meeting or event and try eliminating microphones, getting rid of chairs in the general session, or forgoing the buffet for local food trucks parked outside of the event. Sound radical? Here are some other ideas for radically changing up your event, and check out this case study for how an organization appealed to its attendees' senses in its 4D Experiential Booth.
As part of the FICP community, you have an opportunity to learn from what FICP does, too! As FICP tries out new session formats, speakers, learning and networking activities, and trending technologies, you can incorporate those ideas into your meetings and events. Here are just a handful of FICP education efforts over the last few years.
Reinforcing Diversity
As a meetings professional, you have a valuable opportunity to advance the thought leadership for the people speaking at your meeting or event. By carefully curating your event's content and speaker involvement, you can help reinforce diversity in your field. At every step of the event planning process, there are opportunities for meetings professionals to promote diversity. Here are six tips for making your event more inclusive, including incorporating sessions on diversity and extending the conversation outside of your event, offering flexible event registration options such as a gender neutral prefix (Mx.), and always securing panel presenters with gender and racial/ethnic diversity.
Consider how this organization has put parameters in place to make sure diverse events and speaking opportunities exist, including ensuring the event is physically accessible to all, offering pronoun stickers, and providing food that appeals to a range of dietary needs. Need more ideas? Check out this case study featuring a D&I pin station, where attendees chose pins with phrases that described them to spur conversation with other attendees.
Engaging Your Speakers
Speakers can range from experts in the field to professionals in the speaking circuit. Some may require a large honorarium and some may come at no cost. Either way, utilizing your speaker's network and increasing their participation in your event showcases their expertise while bringing value to your attendees. Engage them before the event, during the event and after the event by having them create a promotional video, setting up a meet-and-greet and sharing handouts or supplemental materials after the presentation. Here are a few other ideas for incorporating your speaker into the program development process.
Watch the video below for more ideas on how to effectively market your speakers.
#TBT - Jordan Khan Orchestra
At the 2018 FICP Annual Conference, attendees enjoyed dancing to the Jordan Khan Orchestra.
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