One of the hardest things to organise (IMHO) is the speaker. Having been to numerous events where the only memorable thing was how bad the speaker was - it's important to know who is going to speak for you, and whether or not they are any good at it.

Now there are people who can make cold porridge sound interesting, and some people who were born to entertain, but chances are going to be good, you won't have that kind of budget. So how do you choose?

Word of mouth is always a good place to start. Who in your organisation has been to an event recently - who spoke there? Were they any good, did they act and sound professional? Did the topic interest them? Did they make the topic sound interesting or was it just a collection of facts? How long did they speak for? Would this person be any good for your kind of event?

If you can't find anyone who comes recommended to you - then the next place to think about looking is the National Speakers Association or the Speakers Bureau. These websites have a search function, choose the topics you are interested in, add a price range and hope someone suitable pops up. Once you have a name or two, you can then plug these into a search engine and see what comes up. Any professional speaker worth his or her salt will have a website with more information pertaining to work done, and upcoming events. It may be, the person you are interested in isn't available on the date you have chosen, in which case, it's time to look again. But if you like the look of the person, it's time to give them a call.

Arrange a meeting if necessary and discuss what you would like them to cover. The initial meeting can be used to decide if the person in real life is as good (or better) than the person on the screen. Discuss your needs, your organisations focus and whether they can help you or not. Oh and the cost involved.

Discuss audio visual requirements, will they need a data projector for any images or training material they would like to show. What kind of microphone would they prefer. Do they need any special equipment or will a lectern and laptop suffice?

And don't forget to talk about timing. How long do they have to speak for? Are there other speakers on the same event / bill - who are they going to follow? Who will be following them? Who will be introducing them? Who will handling the MC duties? And most importantly - what time are they supposed to be at the event? There's nothing worse than your participants arriving before a) the speaker b) the event staff c) the organisation.

As always - something to consider as you prepare for your next event.