Conference Best Practices no. 42- How many times do you use the same speaker and trainers?

This is a question that I’ve come across many times over my own speaking career…how many times do you use the same speaker and trainers? For the sake of this conversation, let’s ignore keynote speakers. Few conferences will use the same one year after year. That’d get boring. At best, keynoters will only return to …

Conference Best Practices- Advice from a Celebrity Rep for Speakers and Promoters

It’s time for more advice from Rikki Adams, a man who works with celebrities at conventions fulltime. I’ll just leave it all in his words. Advice for speakers- Don’t be afraid to go off script and engage the audience. A lot of moderators have no clue who you are and will ask questions based on …

Best Practices for Conferences no.34- Advice from a Celebrity Handler for Vendors

Back to round two of the interview with Rikki Adams, a guy who works fulltime with conventions and the celebs at them. This time Rikki has some advice for vendors- Make a check sheet of things you need and ask for it before you reserve your spot. Don’t forget, things like electrical outlets, WiFi, and …

Best Practices no. 124- Advice from a Guy Who Works with Conference Celebs

Last time I talked about using celebs to boost attendance at conferences, so this week I thought I’d talk with a guy who works WITH the celebs. Just don’t call him an Agent (you’ll see why later). Here’s Rikki at a convention with actor Brian O’Halloran from Clerks. I met Rikki Adams a few years …

Welcome to Best Practices for Conferences and Vendors

Welcome to a new series for conference planning, conference vendors, and all things related! I bet some of you get all weird with conferences, with post it notes and mindmaps all over your living room wall. That’s okay, though, because I do that working on my keynotes. In the biz we just call it storyboarding …

Don’t Be the Guy that Does this at a Conference…

The following is an excerpt from my e-mail newsletter on Best Practices for Conferences, Vendors, and Speaker. Subscribe to the newsletter HERE. Since we talked about great vendor booths in the last e-mail, I think it is time to talk about the dark side of them. Among all the free goodies, celebrity guests, and multimedia …

Brand Spanking New Newsletter- Best Practices for Conferences, Vendors, and Speakers

I know this won’t apply to all of you, but I wanted to let you know about a new e-mail newsletter that I’m starting up. I’ve been speaking at conferences and training events all over the world for several years and attending them for even longer.   Because of this, I’ve had quite a few …