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| Vol.3.129 | |
Big and Nastyby Vince PoscenteAuthor of The Ant and the Elephant, Invinceable Principles and The Age of Speed At a drive-thru, my wife meant to ask for a Big N' Tasty but inadvertently said, "I'll have a Big N' Nasty." A similar misstep is happening in the meetings business and planners are getting what they ask for. Speaker bureaus I polled revealed an interesting request from the menu. Meat and potatoes? You got it. Delicious? Well.... Judging by the "bookings board" in the halls of the nation's largest bureaus, experts who help drive sales or deliver substantive information are winning the day. What's surprising is the trend towards content first - platform skills, a distant, distant second. To understand why this is happening today, let's look at yesterday. Leading up to the 2009 recession, Meeting Professionals International polled its members regarding speaker selection. Content-rich presenters were increasingly preferred over the traditional "rah-rah motivational speaker". Return on investment usurped soft skills development. Rightfully so. Corporations should expect a return. But then, the divide between ROI and soft skills got infinitely wider. In late 2008 and 2009 the perfectly irritating storm of an overnight recession, meetings referred to as "boondoggles" and fears associated with the H1N1 virus - combined for a cataclysmic effect on the meetings profession. If an investment didn't realize an immediate and safe return, it wasn't made. If you walked through the halls of the 2009 National Speakers Association annual convention you quickly learned everyone was hurting except expert trainers (especially sales) or economists (people who pull predictions out of a dark place).
You could take a bucket of amazing content and dump it on an audience. You'll find most of it falls past the ears and is left on the conference room floor. Instead, insist your content is delivered within a compelling message. Content and motivation do not have to be an either/or option!
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© 2010 Vince Poscente. All Rights Reserved. |
When motivation was needed most it was ignored. Meat and potatoes - or in some cases meatloaf and powdered mash got sole attention. This can be problematic since content generally won't stick without a few cups of inspiration. Sustained value and retained information happens when audiences are moved by an experience, not a cold, calculated keynote.
By the way, to book your own helping of delicious meat and potatoes, give a call to your