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.
