How Can I Find Speaking Opportunities?

[JustinPopovic]

Hey Folks,

I am looking for new and creative ways to find opportunities as a guest speaker. I did some rounds of speaking at local services clubs, colleges, etc... a couple of years ago but I want to get back into it.

I have a really cool presentation that merges personal development and online business and I want to get invited to be a speaker at various networking events, etc..

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can find more opportunities to speak. It doesn't have to be large audiences, even a room of 15 people will do. I mainly want to get my message out and take my presentation skills to the next level.

Thanks for any feedback...

[Happy Giraffe]

How about approaching your local public library? This is a bad time for library budgets, so they probably won't be able to pay you, but many librarians are eager to schedule public programs. You can approach a branch library directly, or if your city has a large library system, you will probably have to go through their department of adult programming and get approved as a speaker first before scheduling presentations. You'll do best if you can pitch a slant of wide general interest. For instance, I wrote a book about an effective treatment for Crohn's disease that's been mostly forgotten in the US, and I knew that topic was too specialized for a library audience. Instead I developed a talk with lots of humor about how the GI tract works and all the different sorts of diseases that can afflict it. I spend just a few minutes talking about my book when I discuss inflammatory bowel disease, but I benefit from having the book cover on posters and other publicity. The talks also give me great practice in speaking to a diverse audience and handling questions.

[JustinPopovic]

Thanks for the tip! There are a couple of local libraries I can approach and take this idea in. The upside for me is I know that I lot of local business people actually use our library's resources for meetings and research so I may actually get a pretty good audience.

I appreciate the input!

[Brutha]

Have you tried contacting rotary clubs?

[JustinPopovic]

Yes, I have sent emails and I had a sales partner phone a number of clubs in my region. I have actually had some success getting speaking gigs at Rotary, Optimists and other services clubs.

Thanks for the tip though!

[ssandra]

For practice, how about high schools?

You cannot get a more difficult audience and if you can engage them, you can engage anyone!



I also think it is a nice way to give back, especially to schools who would normally not have the budget for it.

And who knows where these children might end up later and remember your speech and contact you again

[Happy Giraffe]

Are you familiar with Meetup.com? You might look over the meetups in your area, and offer to speak to groups that, thematically, would seem to be receptive to your message.

[JustinPopovic]

@sandra - I have done quite a bit of speaking at high schools and you are right...what a tough audience. My first few attempts pretty much bombed but then I got the hang of it. You need to engage them, challenge them and entertain then. After that, you can persuade them to action (I was doing personal dev type talks).

What I'm really looking for is more of a business audience, preferably in my target market or among my peers, where I can share my information and hopefully grow my reputation among them.

Which leads me to Happy Giraffe's feedback. I actually just joined the Meetup network last week and you are right, there are tons of opportunities to network and get plugged into different networks in business. My plan is to attend a few events, get a feel for the group and then offer to do a free talk once they see me as a contributing member of their group!

Thanks for all the responses everyone!