Phase 2 · Booking and Contracting
Q&A, Photo Ops and Additional Appearance Requests
A keynote booking does not automatically include every other use of the speaker's time. Q&A within the agreed presentation block can often be included without another fee, and a brief photo or leadership meal may sometimes be possible. Requests that add time to the main presentation, involve a larger group or change how an image will be used need a separate conversation. The answer depends on the speaker, the schedule and what your team is asking for.
Is Q&A included in the keynote time?
Start with the time you have agreed to book. If the speaker can take audience questions within that presentation block, Q&A can often happen without changing the fee. If you want the speaker to stay longer, a highly in-demand speaker may charge for the extra time. That is not true of every speaker, so let us check rather than assuming either outcome.
Tell the Mollie Plotkin Group how much time you want for questions and where Q&A falls in the program before the agreements are finalized. Once it is included, How to Moderate a Keynote Q&A covers how to run that conversation onstage.
What about photos, meals and meet-and-greets?
A quick photo with leadership or a brief meet-and-greet may sometimes be added without another fee. A lunch or dinner with leadership may also work if the speaker's travel schedule allows it. An audience-wide photo line or a long meet-and-greet is a bigger time commitment and is more likely to affect the fee. A large book signing needs its own planning as well; Corporate Book Purchases and Book-Signing Logistics covers that arrangement.
With photographs, the intended use matters, too. A speaker may agree to an ordinary event photo but have concerns if your organization plans to use the image in a way that suggests a commercial endorsement. Tell us how you want to use it so we can explain the request to the speaker and address any concern.
When should you bring up another request?
As early as you can. That includes interviews, a meal, photos, a meet-and-greet or a short internal greeting video. Some brief additions may be possible without another fee, but we need to check the speaker's availability and the scope. The formal event questionnaire captures these requests before the agreements are finalized.
If something comes up later, tell the Mollie Plotkin Group what you want the speaker to do, for whom and for how long. We can ask whether it fits the existing engagement or needs a change to the arrangement.