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You can honestly host a vision board party anyway you like. You could invite your friends over for some wine and have a small party or you could host a large-scale event with speakers and sponsors - the whole nine.
If you're looking to host speakers at your vision board party, it's going to take a lot more effort than calling up your besties but the reward can be huge.
Why Have A Speaker At Your Vision Board Party?
Your attendees want to spend time thinking about their goals for the new year and feel inspired to take the next steps in their journey. As the host, it's your job to help them get there.
A speaker can add a element of inspiration through experience and mentorship. They can talk about the challenges they've been through and how they got through them. Encourage people to continue pursuing their goals. Speakers can also answer burning questions that the audience may have.
Consider your target audience
There are a million speakers out there that can speak on a billion different topics, but you want your speaker's message to resonate with your audience. You have to know who your target audience is to be able to get a speaker that will will be able to connect with them.
First, know what their goals are.
If you have an audience of small business owners, an influencer talking about breastfeeding and healthy eating for new mothers may not resonate perfectly with their goals. However if you have an audience full of pregnant women, they will be highly receptive to that message.
Focus to the audience you are catering to to find a speaker that has a message for that person.
Who would your target audience be interested in seeing?
There are often some speakers that get people super excited, and then there are other speakers who people aren't as excited to see. Try to balance that line of popularity with a very strong message. If you have a larger audience you can simply ask them who are they interested in seeing tell you.
Who can help them Reach their goals?
Sometimes the person your audience wants to see is super popular but their message couldn't really help them reach their goals.
For example, you could invite Cardi B to your vision board party and a lot of people would show up to see her but they may not get the message that you hoped for at the end of the day.
Your speaker cannot be selected based on popularity alone, they have to have a message that your audience can take away to reach their goals.
Panel versus single speaker
Speakers can appear alongside four to five others and answer questions from the host. On the other hand, you can have a single speaker doing a workshop or keynote talk. Both options are really great options based on how you set up your event and how you want your event to flow.
If you have a host to ask questions or you want to ask questions yourself, then a panel might be a great route to take. Panels are great because you get several different viewpoints on one question and opportunity for people to be able to see themselves in different panelists.
A single speaker can be equally as effective if the audience and the speaker are both very targeted so you know that speaker's message is going to totally land with the theme of the event and with the audience is hoping to see.
Getting in contact
Getting in contact with influencers and popular speakers is easier than you might think. Once you decide on the speaker, simply go to their website and go to the contact page. Most speakers will have their email or contact forms available on their site.
Your first email
When you send your potential speaker an email, give them information that helps them understand who you are and who you're catering to.
Here are a few examples:
where the event is and what kind of event it is.
who the target demographic is so they can assess whether it's a good fit for their brand.
show that you know a bit about them and have specifically chosen them based on their credentials (show that you’re not picking a name out of a hat).
the next step in the process and gives them a link to learn more about the event.
following up
When you hear back from the potential speaker about your event, make sure that you follow up with them in a timely manner. Offer a few times to hop on the phone with them so that you can hash out the details and they can ask you any questions they might have.
Paid versus Unpaid
When you start to contact speakers, you will find that many speakers have a speakers fee available on their website or will quote a speakers fee when you contact them.
If you do not have a budget for your speaker, that's okay. Some people are happy to speak at your event without a fee however you may want to give him a few things to make your event worth their time and effort.
Here are a few examples of things you can offer instead of a speaker's fee:
Emails to your list
Advertising on social media channels
A table to sell products at your event
Complimentary tickets to event for friends and family
Access to the full event video
Once you secure a call with the speaker, this is where you talk about all of the offerings you have.
Make working with you easy
From the moment someone agrees to be a speaker at your event, make it super easy for them to do what they do best: speak.
Be Available
Whenever they send you an e-mail always respond within 24 to 48 hours. That will give them the confidence that you are professional and put them at ease with working with you.
Provide a social media promotion kit
We would all like for speakers to be excited about creating fun posts on social media for our event, however speakers are very busy so that doesn't always happen.
If you want a higher chance at getting a speaker to promote your event, make it incredibly easy for them by providing a social media promotional kit.
Your promotional kit will have cut-and-paste social media templates that they can easily post to their channels and provides all of the images that you've already created to promote the event.
Day of show list with to do's and contacts
A lot of moving pieces can be distracting on the day of the event. As the host, you don't want to be running around trying to take care of everything last minute. (At that point, your main concern should be looking fabulous and having a good time.)
To ensure everyone knows exactly what to do (and minimize how many people are asking you questions) provide them a "day of show" itinerary. This is basically a list of what to do and expect when you get to the venue.
Creating this list is a little bit more work up front, but will come in handy when you are able to welcome your guests without having speakers and advertisers asking a million questions.
Having a great speaker for your vision board party can enhance the day of the event. You'll have a professional there for people to ask questions and get more clarity in their goals for the year.
Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party?
Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.
Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!
