great business speakers

COL. NICOLE MALACHOWSKI USAF, (RET.), a rock star in military aviation, has just joined the D'Amelio Network which will manage her speaking career.

THE DRAMA-FREE WAY OF BOOKING EVENT SPEAKERS Choosing a speaker for an important event can become a frustrating experience. There are so many choices it can become difficult to know how to sift through them all. And then there’s the challenging process of getting all the stakeholders to agree on the candidate.

Most leaders don’t need convincing that a focus on transforming organizational culture pays big dividends. What a company is to its customers is inextricably tied to the workplace culture it creates for its own people. Recognizing this direct link between corporate culture and competitiveness & profitability, the topic of culture is popular at business meetings and events. Below I've highlighted advice from top keynote speakers and seminar leaders who are popular choices for such meetings because their insights help jump-start fresh thinking. Their ideas can help transform your culture to unleash the power of your organization.

MIKE ABRASHOFF'S "NO-LIMITS MANAGEMENT" CREATES A CULTURE OF INNOVATION What organization isn’t searching for a path to inspire breakthrough performance by engaging the employees differently? If you’re among them, this story will inspire some fresh thinking on the subject.

TIPS FOR YOUR EVENT PLANNING CHECKLIST Taking your time to choose the right speaker is a great first step to a successful outcome. After that, a well-planned pre-event call, about 3-4 weeks in advance of your program, will make certain your speaker has the best chance to shine and meet your objectives.

As anyone who has been booking speakers for events can readily attest, the speaking industry can be one very confusing space to navigate to the outsider. Those of us on the inside are used to it, but if you only step into this world a few times a year, making sense of how things work can be a daunting prospect. As someone who’s been involved in bringing talent and audiences together for my entire career, I thought I’d offer up a few essential insights that would be useful to corporate event planners - both novice and veterans alike.

This is the last in my series on avoiding disaster when booking event speakers. The idea is for top speakers to talk about their onsite experiences in a way that provides some useful lessons and reminders. Ideally, their insights will find their way into your event planning checklist.

TAKE CONTROL OF THE CONTENT/MESSAGE How can you generate maximum impact from the outside speakers at your next meeting or conference? How can you make sure the speakers’ insights are relevant and focused on what matters most to your audience? In my years helping event planners wrestle with that challenge, I have found there is sometimes no substitute for adding an experienced interviewer, discussion leader, or panel moderator. The difference it can make to the quality of the content delivery can be sizable.

SUCCESS STARTS WITH THE FOUNDATION Basketball legend and top sports motivational speaker BILL WALTON will never forget his first practice under the legendary UCLA Bruins coach John Wooden. Walton and the other star recruits, plus famous seniors and members of national championship UCLA teams, were anxious to get started. But first, John Wooden says, “Men, this is how you put your shoes and socks on.” Some of the returning players had been through this before; no matter - they were going to learn it again. Walton, the country's top-recruited player that year, thought “WHAT!!!???!!! We're top players! We don't need this!"

THE POPULARITY OF LEADERSHIP SPEAKERS As a group, leadership speakers are quite possibly the most popular category of speakers. In a world that’s moving too fast, leadership is the ingredient that helps to focus resources, manage risk, and spot new opportunities. And of all the roles, leadership helps focus the organization's most important asset – its people – on the hard work of doing big change. In short, leadership skills are treasured. With that in mind: this column.