Speaking at conferences is a great way to establish yourself as an authority on a topic, to network with your peers and to meet potential clients, but how do you get invited to speak at conferences? Firstly, don't wait to be invited.
Identify the areas where you can add value as a speaker and then hunt down the conference organisers who specialise in those areas.
Some conferences are advertised before the speaker line-up has been finalised, so you can contact the organisers to offer yourself as a speaker.
But since the conference organising industry is so competitive these days and the conference producers are under a lot of pressure to be first to market, a lot of them keep their new conference topics under wraps until they are ready to be marketed.
So how do you get on to the speaker panel at conferences before they are marketed? One way is to look at past conferences.
Call a couple of the speakers from past conferences and ask them what the experience was like.
Find out how many delegates attended.
If the conference was successful, then there's a very good chance that the organiser will either repeat the topic, or run a program with a similar theme.
Also, some organisers specialise in particular topics, so keep a list of the organisers that run conferences on your favourite subjects and stay in touch with them on a semi-regular basis.
It also pays to keep a calendar of yearly conferences and to get in touch with the organisers during their production window.
What about responding to a call for papers? Some conference organisers put out a call for papers, but many don't.
It pays to be proactive and find the associations and commercial organisers BEFORE they have produced your ideal conference.
But if you have missed the window and the program has been finalised, you can still offer your services as a replacement speaker, although if you are a late addition to the program, you will have missed the exposure that comes with being on a brochure that gets sent to thousands of people.
So get to them first! I was told that because I am a consultant and offer a service to the industry that the delegates don't want to hear from me, and I should be sponsoring the conference instead! What should I do? This is a common brush-off technique from conference organisers.
One way to get around it is to offer to bring a client to present alongside you.
Conference producers are often looking for presentations from well-known corporations.
Big names help sell delegate tickets.
So if you have a client that the conference organiser wants on the program, then offer to run a tag-team presentation where you and your client split the speaking time.
That way everyone wins.
The producer gets a "name" on the program, and you also get to speak at the conference.
What other ways are there to get on to conference programs? Conference producers typically look for speakers from a wide range of sources, so being visible in a number of spheres increases your chances of being invited to speak.
Join and be active in the relevant professional associations.
Write books or articles (or be quoted in them), and become an effective networker.
Many conference organisers also select speakers from other programs, so once you have spoken at a few business conferences, and especially if you rated well, the organisers might start hunting you down!