• May 20, 2018
  • Mark LaCour
  • 0

How to find the top business speakers in Houston.

 

 

 

 

All right. Today, top business speakers in Houston, Texas. You know we speak all over the country, and all over the world really in the oil and gas patch. And one of the things I get a lot from companies and organizations is how do you find the top business speakers here in Houston? The speakers in Houston that will make a difference for your event.

And we’re going to give you a couple of ideas that we’ve learned through trial and error and experience.

So this is a big one don’t look for speakers – look for ideas. And don’t look for ideas that necessarily go along with whatever your company’s culture is, think outside the box. Look for ideas that may be different that what your company culture may align with. Not adversarial, but different. And that difference can be super valuable.

New is Awesome

Look at all the new stuff that’s coming out. These types of ideas are exciting and they’re fun and this is what an audience wants to hear. Whether they agree with it one hundred and ten percent or not, it doesn’t matter.

Think about the TED Talks. I love the TED Talks. Do I agree with most of what I hear? Not always. But it’s done very well and I love the idea. The idea is outside of the box or normal culture. So when you think about finding a business speakers in Houston think about the idea, not the speaker.

Where to Find Business Speakers in Houston?

Here’s another big thing – where to look? You can go online and find a bunch of speaker aggregate websites out there where they have a whole bunch of different speakers, that they quite honestly don’t know or don’t know very well. They just allow the speakers to submit their information, so you can go to it and have a one-stop shop.

That may be fine for big box retail or legal or medical, but for oil and gas it’s different. You need to be one of us, right? It doesn’t matter how great a speaker you are in other parts of the world, our other industries. But if you cannot relate to oil and gas, it just won’t go over very well and will most probably simple not work.

So when you start to think about places to look for business speakers in Houston, number one, look in your local communities. Look at what’s going on in the Houston area, look who’s speaking at other places. All that stuff is public and available online. You can keep track of them.

Look at Oil and Gas Events

Other thing is look at the big oil and gas events and conferences. They have a ton of speakers that after the conference is over, you can go back and listen to this speaker. Or at least watch part of it. That’s a very good way to find a speaker. Also think about publications. As much as I hate to admit it, print is still somewhat important in oil and gas. So there’s another place to find business speakers in Houston.

And then finally, ask your peers. The people that have done events in oil and gas that have brought speakers in, especially business speakers in Houston. They will  have a feel of what’s going on out there, who is good and who is not. So that’s a good place to look and find your speakers.

Speakers in Houston Need to Fit

Business Speakers in Houston

Then you need to make sure that your speaker fits. So if you’re doing a company event, and it’s a sales and marketing kickoff for the year. You’re trying to bring a speaker in that motivates your sales and marketing people, or maybe gives them a different way to look at things or some insights into what other sales and marketing people have to deal with.

That would be a perfect fit for a sales and marketing event. But that same speaker will be horrible if you’re doing a product kickoff. For a product kickoff, you want to have somebody onboard that understands about whatever that product is. Let’s say it’s new measurement while drilling, who can you bring to speak about measurement while drilling? You need to make sure the speaker fits the actual event.

If you’re doing a conference or an expo, you don’t want a downstream speaker to come speak to an upstream conference. And if you don’t know the difference between upstream and downstream, here is a link that explains the difference. Especially if you’re putting on a conference, what is your anticipated audience? You need a speaker that fits the anticipated audience.

An Emcee is a Must

Also make sure you have an emcee. This is something I see so many people mess up on. An emcee is not there to make everybody happy or joke around, although that is part of what they do. The emcee is like the director of a movie. The emcee is the one there that will cut a speaker short when they’re running over time, will ask for the last question to make sure the questions don’t run over the next speaker. If the speaker finishes early, the emcee fills in. The emcee directs the whole thing, it’s like an orchestra.

It’s actually really hard to find a good emcees in the oil and gas industry. We actually do have quite a lot. I’m not bragging, but if you need help with an emcee reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.

Then after you have all these stuff put together, and if you known me for any length of time you know what I’m going to say. You have to have a game plan. Literally get a piece of paper, write out a dozen bullet points, where you’re going to start, where you’re going to end, and all the stuff in the middle. Then you can figure out where the slots are, that the speaker fits in.

Use the Business Speakers in Houston Twice

Lastly one of the things that’s actually really beneficial, especially if you’re doing like a small to mid size event. Have the speaker come in at whatever time you want, but don’t take any questions. Have him/her finish and let the audience know there will be questions later at the end of the conference or expo. This will help people have a motivation to stay to the very end of the event, then come back and ask questions. And for you for the same dollars that you spend on speaker, you actually get to use that money twice. Once when he/she speaks and once he/she does Q&A at the end of the session.

Share Please, for Some Great Karma

If you like everything I’ve just talked about, if it has helped you find business speakers in Houston. Can you do me a favor and share this? All it takes is a simple social share and help us get the word out. This allows you to help your peers, who also may be looking for a business speaker in Houston.

So, hopefully this helped. We will see you next time.