Booking a Speaker

Do you need a speaker for your event? If you are planning a luncheon for the women in your church and history shows that you already have a high rate of attendance, you probably do not need a speaker. You may have a gifted speaker in your church who can share a short message or a devotion before lunch.

If you are planning an annual retreat and, again, everyone always attends, you may not need to go outside the church to find a speaker. However, if you don't have anyone within your congregation that can fill this role, consider hiring a speaker for your event. There are several sources for finding good speakers. You can first check with your denomination. They may have a list of speakers available at no cost. You can also check with publishing houses. Many times authors are available to speak as they need to promote their new book! This may save you money as well. You will probably need to have some sort of promotion for the book but that can be OK as long as the book is one that you would recommend.

You can also check with speakers bureaus. Of course, I am promoting the Proverbs 31 Ministries awesome speaker team! These ladies are all friends of mine and I recommend any of them without hesitation. For a list of the P31 speakers and their topics, click here.

For your convenience, I have also provided a list of speakers bureaus on the resources page of this site. I do not have first hand working experience with them, but here are some things to consider when booking a speaker:

• Word of mouth! The best recommendation is always from someone you know and trust. If this person recommends a speaker, you can probably count on their referral.

• Request a tape or CD of the speaker and listen to the full talk. Most people can speak well for five minutes but... can they carry it through 30-60 minutes. Invest in the time to listen to a complete talk. If you are looking for a comedienne, make sure they are funny throughout and not just a joke or two... unless that is what you were looking for.

• Check their doctrine! Many speakers say that they are "inspirational." Make sure you know exactly what that means. It is perfectly OK, and recommended, that you ask them what their personal beliefs are. You do not want your speaker sharing that crystals can heal you if you only believe... unless, of course, you are still looking for a comedienne!

• If your event is an outreach event, you want a speaker who is gifted in evangelism. Some speakers are very gifted in this area. They share the difference God has made in their own life, introducing the attendees to a very real Jesus, showing them the NEED for Jesus in their own lives. If you are booking a speaker through a bureau, ask the coordinator to send you tapes of speakers who are gifted in evangelism. There a lots of amazing speakers available but not all of them are gifted in evangelism. If this is the primary goal of your event, you really need to have a speaker with this specific area of giftedness in order to have a "successful" event.

• Do you need a "name" to draw people to your event? A speaker's fee can vary from $50 to well over $10,000. You will need to take this into consideration when establishing your budget. A "name" will definitely be more than $1000 for a key note speech. Break down the cost to a per person rate and add it to the registration fee to cover the speaker fee.

• If you determine that you need to have a well-known speaker for your event, you need to secure them at least one year in advance.

Make sure you read the speakers contract carefully and have another member of your planning committee read the contract as well. The speaker may have stipulations in the contract that you are not comfortable with. Or, it may be that a simple request for having water at the podium was missed. Addressing these issues in advance will save a lot of embarrassment as well as unmet expectations later.