February 5, 2024
The Role of a Keynote Speaker in Successful Conferences
Successful conferences leave attendees feeling energised and engaged. Ultimately, conferences are collaborative spaces – a place where information can be exchanged and professional connections are forged. It’s not surprising, then, that a good keynote speaker plays a crucial role in the running of any successful conference.
After all, a professional keynote speaker will bring together many of the aforementioned traits – though they may be speaking to a large number of people at once, their storytelling abilities enable them to foster a connection with their audience, whilst their expertise adds to the overall educational experience.
In this article, we will examine fully the role of a keynote speaker in running a successful conference – looking at what a keynote speaker is and the impact they have, as well as the prep required beforehand and much more in between.
What is a Keynote Speaker?
Having a keynote speaker is essential when it comes to holding the theme of a conference together. They typically deliver a talk tailored to the topic of the conference – this will likely be something the speaker has experience in and talks about regularly.
The keynote speaker role as we know it today began to emerge in the early 20th century. Still, the early concept goes back as far as ancient Greece where speeches were an important method for delivering and sharing information. It was then in the 1900s that we saw a move towards keynote speaking as we know it today, with entertainment also factoring into the role of being a speaker – so that they not only educate their audience, but also engage them.
Of course, there are other speakers at conferences – so what exactly marks out keynote speakers as different? Well, the main distinction is that keynote speakers play an important role in bringing together the other strands of a conference by solidifying the overall theme. While guest speakers tend to provide specialised knowledge, keynote speakers tend to deliver more big picture information that is accessible to everyone.
The Impact of a Keynote Speaker
A keynote speaker can have a massive impact on your conference. They provide an opportunity for you to really hammer home the themes of the conference, and leave the audience with the headline takeaways. Humans naturally respond to storytelling, which is why keynote speakers provide a way for event organisers to deliver the main themes of their conference in a way that is both motivating and memorable for attendees.
Keynote speakers ultimately leave audiences feeling confident and inspired – by offering a clear message via an emotive and often relatable story, they inspire real action in audiences who may approach things in work and life differently as a result. In order for audiences to trust keynote speakers, it’s very important that they have credibility. Keynote speakers can establish and show their authority in a number of ways – whether that be via their professional experience, the number of talks they’ve done before, or even through the relevant experience of something that has happened to them personally.
For conference organisers, the impact of a good keynote speaker is undeniable. Picking the right speaker for this role can have a huge knock on effect for the rest of the event and the experience of attendees, to boot.
Key Qualities of an Effective Keynote Speaker
So, what are the key qualities that mark out the effective keynote speakers from the average ones? Well, it goes without saying, but being an expert in the given area or field is an absolute must. After all, why would the audience have good reason to pay attention otherwise? It is this expertise which provides credibility to a speaker and entices audiences to listen.
Still, this knowledge alone is not enough. It doesn’t matter how talented or knowledgeable a keynote speaker is about their subject matter if they’re not able to communicate it well. That’s why exceptional public speaking skills are so important here – they enable keynote speakers to entertain and engage their audience, with clear delivery, humour and engaging storytelling skills.
This leads us on to the last but not least important quality of a keynote speaker. That is, the ability to connect with the audience. There’s nothing worse than a keynote speech which leaves people yawning or staring off into the middle distance. An effective keynote speaker can capture the attention of everyone – even those sat at the back of the event space. This sense of community, with everyone listening at once, is exactly why keynote speeches are a principal function of good conferences.
Preparing for a Keynote Speech
We now know what makes a good keynote speech from the perspective of the audience and event organiser, but if you’re a speaker yourself, how do you prepare for delivering a keynote? Wel, first and foremost is research – this provides the raw material which you can then mould into something more precise.
From here, you can prepare by making sure you understand the audience you are talking to, which will then enable you to craft a compelling and relevant message that will resonate with them. You can get to know your audience by asking the event organisers what kind of professionals they expect to be there, and of course thinking about the theme of the conference.
The final step to preparing for a keynote speech is actually rehearsing. As they say, practice makes perfect – and it also provides an opportunity for you to spot any weaker points within the presentation. Sometimes these little flaws are harder to identify until you’ve actually had a go at performing out loud. So, by rehearsing you give yourself the opportunity to improve your delivery and refine the presentation in the process.
The Role of a Keynote Speaker During the Conference
Typically, a keynote speech features as the opener for an event or conference. It provides an exciting jumping off point for all that’s to follow – making the audience feel energised about heading into the rest of the event. Occasionally, a keynote speech will also factor at the end of the event – this is a way of solidifying the themes of the conference and also ensuring the takeaways are still fresh in the audience’s mind.
A keynote speaker’s role doesn’t start and end with their speech, however. They’ll also mingle with other speakers and attendees at the conference, having interesting conversations as a result of their talk and adding to the sense of community. Over all, this adds to the general flow and dynamic of the conference by ensuring the themes of the keynote speech provide food for thought for all the attendees at the event.
The Future of Keynote Speaking
Just as keynote speaking has evolved since its first emergence in Ancient Greece and later in the twentieth century, it’s still continuing to grow and adapt to our new technological age. We are now seeing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) both play a role in the future of keynote speaking. Today, conferences no longer need to be solely in person. There are a number of virtual and hybrid conferences that allow people to attend either entirely online, or join for a portion of the conference remotely, with other sections still held in person. This naturally has had a knock on effect for keynote speakers who have had to adapt to delivering their talks virtually, as well as in person. As for the future of conference keynotes, speakers will most likely have to get used to embracing this trend towards hybridity, and also technological adoption to go alongside this. With AI becoming more ubiquitous too, we can expect to see more interactive talks that make use of technology in order to actively involve audiences even more.
Conclusion
As we’ve covered, it couldn’t be clearer that keynote speakers are the thread which holds a successful conference together. They engage audiences, solidify the themes of the event, and provide a jumping off point for other conversations and actions during the rest of the event.
Good keynote speakers are able to walk the thin line between sharing informed expertise, and still being accessible and engaging to a broad audience. Their storytelling abilities and excellent delivery enable them to leave a lasting impact on the audiences they talk to. For organisers looking to select a keynote speaker for an upcoming conference, it’s crucial you consider the above information to make sure you’re having the impact you’re aiming for.
