Regardless of what industry you work in or create events for, working with speakers can be very rewarding. You have the opportunity to work side-by-side with experts in their field, becoming familiar with them as you collaborate on individual or annual projects and events. In this time, it is so important to be mindful and respectful. Part of doing so includes researching each speaker as you begin to reach out or work with them and managing that relationship as you continue to work with them over one or more events. In this article we will explore why researching speakers and keeping some form of notes or records is crucial as well as some tips on how to compile and share information with your team.

Research is Important

Knowing who you want to invite to speak at your event is important but researching their expertise and past talks is the single most important thing you can do before building a working relationship with any expert. Having some idea of who the speaker is and the topics they have spoken on is so significant when starting to work with them because it shows that you care, even in the slightest bit. This also shows that you are trying to create a welcoming and collaborative working environment for the event or project. 

As you do your research, add information such as previous talks of a relevant topic or new research/projects to the notes you keep about the speaker. This will give you some talking points when speaking to or introducing yourself and an idea of what to ask the speaker to present at your event. Knowing what to ask for provides you a leg up in the conversation and builds a good rapport with experts, having them come back to collaborate on future events and projects.

Record Keeping

The biggest favor you can do for yourself in regards to speaker management and event or project organization is to keep records (or notes) on the people you speak to. Not only will your notes come in handy when creating contracts with speakers and external parties alike, but it encourages accuracy from managing the research you do, to negotiating a fee or trade of services, all of the way through to the live event. The records you keep should include who you are contacting (including contact information), specifics of negotiations, where to locate contract files, relevant notes from your conversations, and personal information such as preferred pronouns, picture, biography, social media handles, and food preferences. 

Sharing Info with your Team 

While working on projects and events, we rarely find ourselves working completely alone. To this regard it is evident that at one point in time or another you will have to share your notes with your team or colleagues. We want our teammates to be on the same page as us when it comes to managing relationships with external people, whether that be general external parties or (more importantly) speakers. 

Let’s explore a bit about some of the best ways to do this without compromising the integrity of your note-keeping and the privacy of the external people or companies involved. If you are the main person responsible for gathering and recording information, it may be ideal to use an easily shared tool such as a word document or spreadsheet that only you are able to edit but other team members can view and monitor as needed. In this case, example of this can include Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Word, or your preferred document apps. By using such a tool, you can decide who gets access and how they have access to the document. Tools such as Asana can also be very helpful if follow-up tasks are required to occur when new information is gathered. This is also a tool where you can decide who has what sort of access, creating a dynamic, customizable virtual workspace. As you gather all of the information you need, it can be quite tiresome and frustrating to do this exchange over email. A final tool that we should explore are forms for collecting the data you seek. There are many options to choose from, but some popular choices include Google Forms and Typeform. If you use HubSpot, there is also a form function you can use that may be integrated into a branded webpage(s).

Conclusion

The tools and practices stated above are suggestions. There may be alternative tools that you prefer or might be more easily accessible for you. Regardless of the tools you use, it’s imperative to ensure that the data does not get shared with the wrong persons and that the information you keep is accurate and up to date. Last but certainly not least, if there is a tool you love to use, share it as a comment using the social media icons below!