How To Get a Conference Speaking Appearance

Conferences continue to be big business, and a way for people to meet industry experts and connect with a number of people in their online network for the first time. This is one of the reasons I wanted to become a conference speaker. The other is to give my ideas about social media a bigger platform.

I have been a panelists at small and medium sized events for years - some of which I helped to organize. But I didn't start doing conference presentations until the last 12 months. In February 2014, I spoke about Twitter at the world renowned Smithsonian Institution - a humbling experience to say the least - and the very next month, I traveled to the Social Media World Forum (SMWF) in London where I gave my first keynote presentation.

Together, those two, standing room only events opened up other speaking opportunities for me throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. But, whenever I travel on business, someone always wants to know what I did specifically that made them say, "We should reach out to Sean."

That's a good question. It wasn't a big strategy or anything. I do know that a LinkedIn account helps tremendously. I love writing on the LinkedIn Blog of course, and I post career-related image quotes and infographics that do very well in the news feed. Every week, I also use the site's advanced search to get a feel for who the conference producers are on each continent. So LinkedIn, overall, has been a serious reputation-builder for me.

As I reflect on it, I can say that it really gets down to this: it pays to have an inclusive approach in social media. I not only share content from celebrities and well-known online personalities, but, I also share content from the people in my network who don't have a big social footprint but who consistently support me. Let's face it, the effectiveness of +1s, likes, retweets and shares takes on new meaning when you consider that people in your network with 200 LinkedIn connections, 300 Facebook friends, 150 Google+ page fans and 400 Twitter followers could be conference producers, or, in the words of Heather Robinson, "be the most connected people you know nothing about, but choose to overlook because of one's follower count." Alexander Taub's words about online networking rang true when he said:

Be nice, friendly and (digitally) connect with everyone you meet.

So engage people. Respect people. Get to know people. I would like to think that this mindset has helped to create some of my opportunities.

For more perspective on what conference organizers look for, I reached out to Kosta Petrov, founder of The P. World. His conferences have captivated audiences in Southern Europe, Asia and Africa for a number of years now. As billions more will come online this decade, Petrov and his brand stand to benefit from the regional and cultural partnerships that are definitely on the way.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been booked to speak at three of his firm's annual Marketing Kingdom conferences: the one in Belgrade, Serbia in March; Baku, Azerbaijan in April, and Amman Jordan in May. I am looking forward to presenting about social business and connectivity, and of course, networking with tech executives and brand ambassadors from every continent. In an interview, Petrov (pictured below) explained what he looks for.

What are the best tips you would recommend for an aspiring speaker trying to get the attention of organizers and producers of a particular conference?

The first thing you have to take into consideration is that as event organizers our main goal is to create a world class event that will provide delegates with great content and at the end of the day will help us sell tickets for the event. In order for the event to be sellable you need to have speakers from world class brands talking on new trends and on issues that are important for the industry. Now, this can also be tricky because sometimes a speaker works for a great brand but he is not a good speaker. This happens a lot. They are great for promotion of the event but at the end of the day the experience is not so good because obviously a good brand does not mean a good speaker. So, just to answer your question, organizers are always looking for new content. If you have an interesting story to share, let the organizers now. We are always looking for cutting edge topics so even though you don’t work for a glitzy brand, your topic can could be of an interest and the organizer may include you in the programme. Go with a really interesting view on a certain topic. This always works.

What are some of the qualities you look for in potential speakers?

Great brand and expertise are a must. This is what will help us sell the event. Now, for the onsite event experience, I really don’t like when speakers read from their power point presentations and they depend too much on their notes. A speaker needs to be relaxed and make the presentation as interactive as possible. It is always good to include some questions for the audience during the presentation so they are engaged. Avoid sales pitches. Also, before the event make sure you understand the audience and make sure that the content you are presenting is related to them. We many times give guidelines to speakers and inform them of the seniority of delegates and their background. This is very important because we need to make sure that the content is relevant to them. Lastly, if you present in a new country, research the country, find out what the trends in that country are. We are doing events in many countries and some of them are emerging markets but that does not mean that the audience is not informed about global trends. Sometimes the speakers make some funny remarks like, do you know who Oprah is? Of course everyone knows who Oprah is. If you live in a post soviet Central Asian country, it doesn’t mean that you are cut off from the entire world.

I notice that you pick speakers from all over the globe, different regions and different backgrounds. How does that kind of dynamic diversity enhance and elevate your conferences?

Our company organizes global events in some of the most exciting countries in the world. You know, before us, many of our clients had to travel to London or Paris to hear about the current global trends. We changed that. We bring global expertise to them. For example, we have a big event in Azerbaijan on marketing and this year we have Twitter presenting for the first time ever. This is really cool because before if you wanted to hear someone from Twitter you had to travel abroad and only one or two people from a company could go. We changed that and the effect has been incredible.

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Here is some of my recent work on LinkedIn, Huffington Post, and Smedio:

• Two Big Lessons About Promoting Your Book in the Digital Age
• 20 Beautiful Women
• Politics, Diplomacy and Social Media
• Success and Social Media: Heather Geronemus

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Sean Gardner is a global best-selling author, keynote speaker, digital consultant and business creative who splits his time between Washington D.C. and Seattle, WA. He currently conducts workshops and social media training for small business, nonprofits, celebrities and multinational corporations. You can Tweet, Friend, Pin, or Instagram him, and/or circle him on Google Plus.

Also...you can purchase Sean's international best-seller, The Road to Social Media Success. It has some of his observations on digital strategy, social media law, Giving Tuesday's impact on philanthropy, how to network at conferences, and a host of other topics.

So if you're trying to understand social, some its major players, its impact, its history, and where its going, this is the book for you.

Inspire, inform and elevate social media. Always!