The Best Time to Hire a Public Speaker

When is the best time to hire a public speaker?

When you Hire a Public Speaker for your event it can get expensive if you aren’t prepared, and getting the speaker you want can be difficult. Worse yet, hiring a speaker last minute can easily turn the best motivational speakers into an eyesore for the audience.  If you’re planning an event and know you’d like a keynote speaker to project your message, invest the time early to get the most from your speaker.

So, when’s the best time to hire a public speaker?  The best time to hire your speaker is 6 months before the date of event.

If that simply isn’t feasible for your organization, try to allot your speaker at least 3 months to prepare.  Failing to take the time to connect with your speaker can result in an inauthentic experience for your audience.  More importantly… You’re paying for their presence and well-known name.  The earlier you start working with your speaker, the more you’re able to draw attention to your event before it occurs.

Beat the Busy Seasons with Proper Planning

Just like every other business, speakers have on and off seasons.  Sometimes they are presenting all over the country for months on end, and other times they seem to have nothing to do but plan for the next busy season.  When looking for the best motivational speakers for your events, try to take into account when you event is occurring.

For most speakers, summers are usually slower, when spring and fall are usually their busiest season. Every speaker and every speaker topic will have their own busy and off season. For example: Agricultural speakers are usually busy in the winter time, as during the spring and summer, farmers are too busy working to attend a session.

Try to plan further in advance if your event interferes with busy seasons by considering the following:

• If you contact a speaker 6 months before an event, they will most likely be available
• Consider your industry, when is your busy season, when is your slow season
• Get in touch with a bureau or a speaker to find out their travel schedule and if they might be in your area
• The start and end of each business quarter – usually when they are being hired or speaking
• There is a good chance that another organization similar to yours may be facing a similar challenge as you, teaming up and matchmaking with other organizations is a key way to elevate an event and save you some money.
• National holidays celebrating or bringing awareness to a topic – Pink Shirt Day, We Day, Movember…speakers are called in to help bring awareness to holidays and therefore are usually booked well in advance

Speakers and bureaus always try to deliver their best work, but only so much is possible when the speaker cannot research your needs before the presentation. For example: You don’t want to try and hire a keynote speaker for your December charity event in November.  Not only will it be hard to find a speaker, you’ll both struggle to prepare and promote a speaker at the event.

By Roger Breault, President
& Gordon Breault, Executive Director
Speakers Bureau of Canada
Feb 1^st, 2017