How to Help Your Event Organizer Find Focus

Dealing with a lot of event objectives can be tricky…

Just ask subscriber John Eades, who sent us this question: 

“An event organizer wants to solve 4 or 5 challenges in the organization with a 1 hour keynote.  How do you get to the root issue so you can recommend a talk that will hit the mark?

Example: "We want our people to experience growth in 3 areas: Personal Growth, Team Growth, and Business Growth...oh, we also want you to tie in "improving time management and communication skills."

(Thanks for your question, John!)

When I encounter this situation during my client theme calls, I try to address the event organizer in a really structured way.

I’ll share my approach here, but please write if you have found other methods that work well.

Step #1: Empathize with Your Organizer

Imagine an event organizer who shares a long list of event objectives including: employee retention, inspiration, burnout, company culture, AI, and more.  The first thing I always do is try to empathize with my organizer.  I’ll say something like:

“Wow, you guys are trying to accomplish a lot.  Can you tell me more about the other breakout sessions and keynotes you already have scheduled?”

For example, let’s say there is a great breakout session about employee retention.  That means they don’t necessarily need you to talk in your keynote about this concept.

Then, there’s a keynote speaker who’s coming in to talk about climbing Mt. Everest seven times.  Okay, looks like they’ve got audience inspiration covered too.