How to Book Group of Speakers at Conference in the UK – Guide
22nd October 2024
Imagine bringing together a group of speakers from across industries, each with unique perspectives, insights, and experience, and delivering what they do best together at one stage; sounds exciting, right?
Booking a group of speakers at a conference is the best way to ensure that your audience has a wonderful time. However, bringing all of them together at once can be a daunting task.
And for that matter, this guide is here to help! Here you’ll know everything that you need to know while booking a group of speakers for your conference in UK.
Why Do You Need to Book a Group of Conference Speakers?
A spectacular way to improve the quality of your event is to book a group of speakers at a conference rather than one keynote. One speaker might be powerful, but a group of conference speakers can present different points of view to keep the audience engaged during the event.
If you’re hosting a business conference, an industry panel, or an educational seminar, using more than one speaker can give a different perspective on the issues of leadership, innovation, or diversity.
Increased Engagement
With a single speaker, you’ll have to spend a lot of time with the audience to make sure they stay with you until the end of the conference. Given that different conference speakers have distinct presentation styles, ranging from energetic and motivational speakers to deep analytical speakers, there can be an audience that will remain interested in learning without you boring them to death and catering to various learning preferences.
Depth and Breadth of Content
Conference speakers from a group can narrow in on some aspects of your conference’s central theme. For example, if your event is around the business innovation topic, then one person might tackle digital transformation, another will concentrate on leadership and the last on sustainability.
While this multi-faceted approach gives your conference more dimensions, it also enhances value for your attendees who are likely to be interested in many different things.
Collaborative Opportunities
Panel discussions accompanied by Q&As or roundtables encourage many speakers to engage one another interactively. Collaborations can yield deeper insights and more practical takeaways.
By choosing a range of experts, you become more likely to get cross-pollination of ideas, and you get your audience to learn new things from different viewpoints.
Reputation and Credibility
Getting a well-known group of speakers at a conference can boost your event’s prestige. When you can get speakers who are well known, they are a certain ‘must-attend’ for industry professionals when they speak together. With these conference speakers, you can likely attract media coverage, sponsorships, and a further high-profile crowd.
How to Find The Best Speakers for Your Conference in UK?
Selecting the right speakers will help you meet your event goals. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you make informed decisions when identifying speakers for your event:
Clarify Your Event Objectives
Defining the main goal of your conference is the first step. Is your aim to inspire your audience, educate your audience, or provide actionable takeaways?
Let’s take business leadership as an example. In this case, ensure your speakers specialize in leadership, personal growth, and corporate culture. They should be experts in their field and can present what you need.
Know Your Audience
You need to tailor the speaker lineup to what people are going to be interested in. What do your audience expect? Are they seeking practical industry knowledge or inspirational stories?
For instance, if you’re hosting a tech conference, consider including industry experts alongside futurists on trends in AI or digital transformation. This will help you choose speakers who will have the most impact on the audience.
Find a proper balance between Expertise and Variety.
Using different fields or perspectives of speakers enriches your conference’s content. Your goal should be as disparate as possible: well-known figures and emerging speakers, along with practical experts. This balance helps you attract the kind of attendees who want to hear from some stars but might also be looking for fresh insights from unknowns who may bring your audience valuable content.
Cultural and Gender Diversity
When choosing your conference speakers, it’s vital to prioritize diversity and inclusion. While the conference might seem more inclusive, it also gives a chance to hear different voices that can be more universal when presented to the audience.
It is important to consider gender, race, age, and professional diversity to reflect the variety of viewpoints that exist within an industry or topic area.
How To Book Group Of Speakers At Conference In UK?
It’s the role of speaker bureaus to cut back the speaker selection and booking process. They act as the go-between between an event planner and a speaker, and that means they handle logistics, negotiations, and availability. Here are some of the top speaker bureaus in the UK:
Kruger Cowne
Kruger Cowne is one of the UK’s most prestigious speaker bureaus who have an extremely impressive roster of globally recognized talent.
They’re known to have lots of experience in the industry, and their main specialty is to link clients with thought leaders, industry experts, and celebrity figures.
Their conference speakers come from all different fields — entertainment, politics, business — and regularly appear as a go-to for high-profile conferences.
Make Your UK Conference Memorable With The Best Panel Of Conference Speakers!
Great British Speakers
Great British Speakers is a boutique bureau that likes to go the extra mile in terms of their personalized service. The company has a bag of talents, which includes motivational speakers, industry experts, and media personalities.
If you need to find someone to speak on diversity and inclusion or leadership in times of crisis, this bureau is sure to get you the best fit.
JLA Speakers
JLA is home to one of the world’s most comprehensive lists of speakers from a wealth of subjects, including politics, media, sports, and entertainment.
For events, big and small, their extensive database of high-profile names and rising stars means that clients never have to draw a blank when it comes to selecting the right host or facilitator.
Speakers Corner
With its big profiles, Speakers Corner has surely created a fandom of its own. A renowned UK-based agency, Speakers Corner offers a blend of industry experts, motivational speakers, and keynote speakers that can really raise the charm of every event!
Focusing on customer service, they connect the audience with the most suited talent they need for their upcoming conference. They’re known for having a large network that gives them the access to get you either an up-coming talent or the established names.
NMP Live
NMP Live features an impressive collection of conference speakers, ranging from global business figures to adventurers who have successfully found businesses overseas and motivational speakers.
Getting speaker management right is critical, but they take care of every detail, from fee negotiation to contract management and logistics, which means that the event planners can focus on the other key aspects of the conference.
How Conference Speakers Boost Audience Engagement?
The speakers themselves are one of the best ways to involve an audience. Here’s how you can make the most out of your speaker lineup:
Interactive Panels followed by Q&A Sessions
When you’ve got a group of speakers, organize them into interactive panels that you can discuss with the whole group. Invite questions from your audience either by live Q&A session or through a digital platform. Not only does this increase engagement, but it allows the audience to get much more from the speakers.
Have Workshops And Breakout sessions.
Kitting out the event with keynote presentations is great, but consider scheduling workshops and breakout sessions given by individuals. This is more intimate where attendees and conference speakers can get closer and interact more with the speakers and ask questions before they even leave the building.
Event Networking Opportunities
Informal interactions after speakers’ sessions add significant value, which is probably why many speakers are always willing to stay back at the event for some informal chit-chat with the audience. However, you can also organize post-event meet-and-greet meetings or exclusive dinners with your speakers that give attendees a chance to actually network and gain additional knowledge.
Live Streaming and Digital interaction
For the event that has virtual or hybrid format you can use digital platforms to engage the audience more. Ask your conference speakers to be engaged with the virtual attendees via live polls, social media interactions, or virtual question and answer.
How To Properly Book a Group of Speakers?
By this time, we are sure of the fact that you may have understood the value of choosing the right speaker and how to work with a speaker bureau. Saying that, it’s time for you to start understanding through the booking process itself.
Here are the easy-to-follow ways you should go through if you need a trouble free booking experience and avoid things going south.
Determine you’re budget.
If you know how much you can set aside for having a speaker bureau reach out to you, then you’re ready to begin before you even go to a speaker bureau. Speaker fees are set on a fee per speaker and can vary depending on the speaker’s popularity, their expertise, and, if they don’t live locally, how far they are willing to travel.
Depending on who you are, well-known keynote conference speakers typically garner a higher fee versus other experts or industry insiders who may fall in the lower price range. Make a list, and then decide which ones you need to hear, and budget accordingly.
Discuss Event Objectives and Themes
That’s important in that clear objectives and themes will help you both the speaker bureau identify the right candidates. If you want to motivate and inspire your audience to adopt new technologies, then find speakers whose expertise relates to these themes. A well written brief allows speaker bureaus to filter their suggestions that would suit your event.
Evaluate Speaker Profiles
For working with a speaker bureau, you would choose to review speaker profiles, videos, and testimonials. Consider the relevance of what they have spoken at other events compared to what your event’s theme is all about. Make sure they speak like how you wanted the event to be in terms of professional, conversation or interactive.
Finalization of contracts
After you’ve selected your speakers, the bureau will do the haggling. Ensure that all the further additions like traveling and accommodation should be mentioned in the contract that is given. It’s important that these things are policed before the end to avoid last-minute changes.
Coordinate Event Itinerary
Logistics are very important for a group of speakers at a Conference. It is paramount to give each speaker a detailed itinerary about his travel, hotel details, technical requirements and so on. However, if you need your conference speakers to travel internationally, this is especially important. Sometimes, it is possible to tap speaker bureaus to coordinate these details.
Promote Your Speakers
After finalizing your lineup, you start promoting your speakers using your event’s marketing channels. If they are high profile, then use them as the key reason that attendees should come. Let social media, email newsletters, event websites, and other channels help announce your speakers to your audience and peers with details: a short bio and headshot to stir things up.
Trust Kruger Cowne to Book Your Next Group of Speakers
Booking a group of speakers can be a daunting task, but if it’s done the right way, the rewards are worth the effort! From selecting the right group of speakers to managing their itinerary, every step needs to be crucially executed to ensure a seamless conference.
Whether you are hosting a seminar for small industry or a full tech event for an enterprises, Kruger Cowne is your go-to platfrom that can help you find the perfect group of speakers.
Coming with an extensive network of experienced conference speakers in UK, Kruger Cowne ensures that it prepares a line-up of the best conference speakers, to make your event both inspiring and impactful.
Reach out to Kruger Cowne today and see how they can help you make your event get the limelight it deserves!
