Maximize ROI by Choosing the Right Busienss Keynote Speakers

Keynote Speaker John Di Frances Speaking on Strategic Open Innovation

How do you choose the business keynote speakers for your conferences or events who will actually aid in the transformation of your corporation or association members? That is the question executives and meetings professionals are asking themselves.

Today, meeting and event ROI is front and center and the business keynote speakers who address your audience are the primary business transformational component in your meeting or event agenda. But not all keynote speakers have the same ability to lead audiences in recognizing and embracing disruptive change. Nor do all keynote speaker’s topics yield the same dividends in terms of positive ROI.

I have been speaking professionally since 2000 and prior to that I instructed for numerous educational entities including universities and colleges, for profit seminar companies and government agencies. Motivating an audience to think and act transformationally consists of three aspects for professional keynote speakers.

Keynote Speakers Must: Equip, Empower, and Motivate

1. Equip – People can only apply what they know. Many business keynote speakers are ‘motivational.’ Motivation is important. In fact, it is critical, however, unless your audience has the tools with which to act, your highly motivated attendees will soon run out of steam once they are back on the job. Top keynote business speakers begin by educating their audiences, providing the information needed to change the way your attendees and their organizations think and work.
2. Empower –  The most effective business keynote speakers follow up equipping by empowering their audiences through demonstrating how they can turn what they have learned into immediate actionable results. Let’s face facts, we have all attended conferences where we learned new ways of doing things (information), but the keynote speaker then failed to show us how to put that knowledge into meaningful action. Audiences not only need to hear, but to also be shown—to see—through real world examples, how to quickly put that knowledge into action.
3. Motivate – Armed with knowledge and prepared through real life examples that are applicable to the audiences’ industry and experience level, the business keynote speaker can then properly motivate the audience to energetically respond. They are equipped, they are empowered, and now they can actually make a difference. Excitement stems from knowing that you have the ability to make a positive difference.

Business keynote speakers who do all three: Equip, Empower, and Motivate, create positive ROI for the meeting or event sponsors who hire them. And that’s what meetings today are all about — Maximizing ROI.

• John Di Frances is an international professional keynote speaker and strategic open innovation consultant.