Hello class, here’s our first lesson. In this lesson we will cover the business benefits of public speaking and how to find opportunities to speak at trade shows, seminars, meetings and more.
One way businesses can brand themselves as the "go-to" experts in an industry is by taking advantage of public speaking opportunities. By doing so you share your knowledge with an audience and make a connection. If you appear to be an expert, you are an expert. This will give you an advantage when attendees are looking for a product or service. They are likely to seek out people they already know, or industry experts they have met or heard speak at a seminar.

Seminar Opportunities at Trade Shows
There are both free and paid speaking opportunities. You really can’t go wrong with free opportunities, though they tend to be much more restrictive about the topic you can cover. They are typically focused on education and facts about industry trends you are observing, changes in technology, etc.
 
That doesn’t mean you can’t mention your company name or products, it just means you have to be a little more skillful in weaving that type of information into your presentation. An easy way tends to be using your product or company as an example for an industry trend or change in technology. But be careful not to do this in an obvious manner; this easily becomes a “turn off” to attendees who are serious about learning new information.

Paid sessions can be great marketing tools or expensive flops. I always feel bad for companies that spend significant money to speak during a buffet lunch, thinking they will get a lot of attendees to listen, only to find that attendees are doing e-mail, chatting amongst themselves, on the phone or find other ways to ignore the speaker. Before signing up for any paid session, make sure you can attract the audience you are looking for at a time that the audience is willing and able to pay attention to you.

Picking a Company Speaker
When deciding to jump into the public speaking arena your company will need to pick a skillful public speaker. Selecting the perfect company speaker is a little like selecting the perfect booth staffer. You are looking for someone who is obviously not afraid of speaking in front of a crowd, should be eloquent yet easy to understand, be quick on his feet when it comes to thinking of good answers to questions, humorous, as well as knowledgeable about your...Read More >>