How to Book a Keynote Speaker for a Corporate Event

The Mollie Plotkin Group works with planners through that whole process. We help develop options, speak with the talent and their representatives, keep track of availability and coordinate the steps that follow a decision. Your team remains in charge of the event and the choice of speaker.

1. Start with the audience, budget and event

Tell us who will be in the room, what kind of event you are planning and what you can spend. That gives us a useful starting point for recommending speakers. A planner may favor one person while a CEO or another leader prefers someone else; we can put forward strong options without pretending there is one objectively perfect choice.

We can begin contacting speakers before your production plan is finished. For that first inquiry, send:

• The event title and date
• The appearance time or best available window
• A description of the audience and expected attendance
• The budget

The time of day is particularly useful. A speaker might be free for a morning keynote but unable to stay for an afternoon slot because of travel or another commitment. What Information Should a Speaker Inquiry Include? goes into the initial details, while How Much Does a Keynote Speaker Cost? explains how the fee and travel affect the budget.

2. Check availability while your team decides

The Mollie Plotkin Group presents the opportunity to speakers or their representatives and keeps track of the replies. If someone declines or cannot make the date, we can suggest alternatives. When someone is interested, we may ask for a soft hold so your team has time to make a decision.

We keep your team informed when availability changes and release holds for speakers you are no longer considering. What a Speaker Soft Hold Really Means explains how much time and protection a hold can provide.

3. Put the chosen appearance into an agreement

Once your team chooses a speaker, we send a formal event questionnaire. This is where we pin down the program, arrival time and production needs, along with anything you want the speaker to do beyond the keynote. If you are considering a Q&A, photos, an interview, a leadership meal, a book signing, recording or streaming, raise it now so it can be addressed in the agreements.

The Mollie Plotkin Group prepares corresponding documents for the client and speaker to sign digitally.

Speaker Agreements, Deposits and Payment Terms covers that stage in detail.

4. Prepare the speaker and the production team

As the event approaches, the pre-event call gives the speaker a chance to hear directly from your leadership about the organization, the audience and the direction of the presentation. That conversation helps the speaker tailor the program. We generally handle routine logistics by email so the call can stay focused on content.

Travel, presentation files and production also need attention well before event day. Confirm who is booking travel and when the speaker should arrive. Give us your production deadline for the deck early: some speakers release their slides during event week, while others keep the presentation on their own laptop. We pursue the materials and work with your team and the speaker to settle the requirements.

Those requirements depend on the program you booked. A keynote with slides needs an agreed playback plan and a review of the cues. A performance by a speaker such as David Kwong or Doug Manuel may also call for a technical rider, specific materials and a full run of show whose beats are settled early. The Pre-Event Speaker Call and Audience Brief, Speaker Travel: Fixed Buyouts vs. Client-Booked Arrangements and Speaker AV and Production Checklist cover the separate preparations.

5. Give the speaker a clear contact on event day

Choose one primary onsite contact who can tell the speaker where to be and when. Before the presentation, the speaker and production team should confirm the microphone, slides and any cues they need to run together. If the schedule starts slipping, tell the speaker and the Mollie Plotkin Group promptly. Whether a delay creates a problem depends on what else the speaker has scheduled.

Our logistics manager is available by call or text if something needs to be resolved during the event. The Onsite Speaker Contact and Day-of Coordination explains the contact's role.

6. Follow up after the keynote

There may be nothing left to process once the event ends. Depending on the agreement, we may instead need to coordinate reimbursable travel expenses, negotiated follow-up materials or results from an attendee survey that was used. We also schedule a debrief to hear what worked for your audience and whether leadership felt the presentation met its objective.

That conversation is useful if another event is coming up: we can begin the next search with a clearer sense of your audience and preferences. Post-Event Expenses, Reimbursements and Deliverables covers what may remain open, and The Post-Event Debrief and Booking Your Next Speaker covers the next search.