Conventional wisdom has it that a big-name speaker drives attendance. Is that still true? Kinda, but with caveats. The economy and “teach me something now” audiences are redefining value and demanding real learning. Some big-name speakers do that: one association reports they had the biggest attendance since 2004 when they hired former President Bill Clinton to speak.
Some associations are going to the extreme by not paying speakers at all. Does that work? Not for one nameless association, who had to cancel their meeting filled with free experts because of not enough registrations.
The deciding factor: does the prominent speaker give real information, or phone it in with platitudes from a canned speech? The former still drives attendance; the latter doesn’t. It’s just that simple…
Tags: associations, meetings, speakers, Speaking, strategy, Vickie Sullivan