Four Tips for Researching and Recommending Speaking Opportunities

By Abby Van Uum, Account Executive, Edelman Austin
and Risa Kleen, Assistant Account Executive, Edelman Austin

Our clients are always looking for opportunities to showcase their executives and expertise, but the idea of selecting key events from the endless opportunities available can be daunting. It’s helpful to bring a method to the madness and apply a process to researching and recommending events, especially if there is CEO-level participation. Below are four steps that can help you be more efficient in your event research and ultimately provide educated and valuable recommendations to clients.

1. Understand client priorities. Even the most thorough research is useless if client expectations and priorities aren’t taken into account from the beginning. What audience does your client want to reach? Who would be the primary spokesperson? What key regions do they want to target – local, national, global or all of the above? 
2. Know the relevant logistics and barriers. Some opportunities require a significant amount of travel or may only be open if tied into an event sponsorship. Is your client open to pay-for-play speaking opportunities? How much are they willing to spend for travel/event fees? These are critical questions to ask before diving into your research and can help you make a fast initial cut on events.
3. Do your research. Events can often be judged by the company they keep. Research the sponsors, exhibitors and speakers of each event, both past and present, keeping in mind your client’s competitors, customers, and prospects. Look into how the event has been covered in your client’s priority media, and if any media sponsors are attached to the event.
4. Provide a quantitative recommendation. We aren’t the only ones who can feel overwhelmed by the event research process. Clients are concerned with using budgets wisely and want to prove to senior leadership that each event gives the most bang for their buck. We’ve had a lot of success creating “scorecards” that assign points to different event criteria and help us gauge the value of one event over another. It’s a great tool for clients to use internally, and one they can help develop with a clear understanding of their priorities. Our scorecard system uses a maximum of 60 possible points spread over six different criteria that are “scored’ between 1-10:
• Attendees – Are there opportunities to engage key customers and prospects in person?
• Media influence – Is there a critical mass of strategic media attending/covering the event? Are key media outlets present in the region, even if they aren’t attending?         
• Engagement opportunities – Are there opportunities available to speak/exhibit at the event, network with industry leaders and partner with customers?        
• Region – Is the event in a key region that your client wants to target?
• Costs – Does the cost to attend the event, taking into account travel and accommodations, fit within your client’s budget? (The higher the cost, the lower the points given)               
• Event notoriety – Has the event been held for multiple years and is it highly regarded in its industry?
5. Provide a qualitative recommendation. Use this quantitative score rank it against other events and slot it into one of four big categories:
• 0-17 points - Pass
• 18-32 points - Nominal
• 33-53 points – Strategic
• 54-60 points – Imperative

It often helps to take your recommendation a step further by suggesting key announcements that your client can leverage and key topics that align with your client’s focus areas. With both a qualitative score and quantitative value in hand, you can feel confident in the recommendations you provide to your client and make their job of selling it into an executive a lot easier!