Elevate Your Business Through Speaking

Securing a speaking podium at the right event for your business can be a game-changer. A well-targeted and executed speaking placement with supporting communications activities can elevate a company's profile and credibility, helping boost investment, partnership and sales activities.

Many early stage companies or leadership teams without prior speaking experience target speaking podiums by reputation. They rightly want to trumpet their story and success from stage at the biggest brand name events. But most don’t understand the legwork required to attain these podiums or which topics will best resonate with audiences and organizers.

Understanding how to navigate the changing nature of speaking podiums today and maximize appearances requires thoughtful planning and coordination with a communications partner.

Empathize with Organizers

Just as with the media, the key is to put yourself in the shoes of an event organizer. This person or team is tasked with building a compelling lineup of speakers and panels that will attract the largest possible paying audience. That means a months–long hunt for the most timely and instructive topics, proven speakers and best-known brands.

Pitching them a case study on an obscure technology or early stage company makes you one of a thousand and unlikely to break through the noise. Instead, do your homework to understand who regularly appears on-stage at a particular show, if its organizers have any requirements like prior speaking experience (many ask for video examples), and which topics will be featured on the current agenda.

Know too that the pandemic still figures prominently in the minds of organizers. We regularly hear that 30% of planners’ time is spent developing back-up plans for outbreaks and speakers, accounting for on-site precautionary measures, and responding to related requests. That eats into the time they can spend evaluating new speaker submissions and forces many to rely on prior or bankable speakers rather than evaluating potential new ones.

Creative Paths to Stage

Given that it’s harder than ever for many speakers to break into the big leagues, it’s important to right-size your speaking goals. We encourage clients to develop a ladder strategy, targeting smaller, industry shows first to build name-recognition, a list of prior speaking podiums, and (ideally) videos of compelling presentations. These targeted stages still offer the chance to gain exposure at events with prospects and partners as you build a resume fit for bigger shows, while also creating post-event marketing opportunities to engage others within your network.

For premier events like Money 20/20, HLTH, Collision or others, younger companies can try to earn participation through partner networks. While a startup might not have the budget to sponsor the event or the name recognition to gain a podium, its investors, partners or customers might. Ask if anyone needs a speaker or moderator to join their planned panel - you might be surprised.

Once you’re on-stage, it’s critical to demonstrate your expertise and point of view without using the podium as a promotional or sales opportunity. Abusing this can damage your reputation among your peers, potential customers and with organizers. Clear, authentic and non-promotional content will maximize the value of the stage.

Build a Better Speaker Database

Internally, it’s critical to establish a process for tracking and submitting for shows. Many organizers begin searching for speakers immediately after a current show ends, meaning you can start engaging them a year or 10-months out from an event.

Cosmo employs a dedicated team to monitor and track every show on a client’s radar. This can sometimes run into dozens or even hundreds of events over the course of a year. We constantly update show dates and details, applications and deadlines for speaking, and frame compelling submissions based on current agendas and client areas of experience.

Our mission is to align a client’s business goals and thought leadership themes with the events that have the greatest potential impact. By identifying material shows and tracking them, we are able to craft submissions with timely topics and quality content that compliments event organizers agendas and will be of value to event audiences.

Maximizing Show Participation

Importantly, communication opportunities around successfully placed speakers do not begin or end with the presentation itself. Smart teams will use the speaking placement itself to engage partners and prospects, often soliciting for meetings far in advance of an event. Identifying attending media and pitching for interviews is also useful, and leveraging social media effectively throughout an event can boost awareness. Finally, using insights or observations from the show to inform content and thought leadership activity post-event extends the impact of the podium and can help drive ongoing conversations with partners and prospects.

And just because you’re not speaking at an event, does not mean it shouldn’t factor into your communications strategy. Resourceful teams will send participants to walk the floor, host on-site booths or off-site networking events. These all provide openings for social media engagement and to build related content that can reach prospects and partners who are following the event.

Ultimately, a conference and speaking podium provide an opening to increase your influence, build trust in you and your business, and accelerate business growth. It can also help secure media coverage and expand attention beyond the podium.