5 Things to Negotiate When Your CEO is Invited to Speak
When your CEO receives an invitation to speak, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking they have two options: Accept or decline. But if the speaker is high-profile enough to have their very own speechwriter, it’s likely they have a lot of room for negotiation.
Assuming the invitation is for an audience the CEO wants (and should) speak to, here are some of the things that you can negotiate with the event hosts or conference organizers.
Format
Keynotes are great… until they’re not. Keynotes are wonderful when you have a specific message to deliver and adequate time to prepare. But the reality is that 99.9% of people are more engaging in conversation than reading from a script. If the request is last minute but it’s something your CEO really should do, ask to turn the keynote into a fireside chat… And if you do, don’t forget to express your preference for the moderator.
Open or closing keynote
I always advise people to open a conference rather than close it for a couple of reasons. First, you’ll have a bigger audience: Many people will skip the final sessions unless the closing speaker is an Oprah or Obama-level draw. Second, it’s really hard to deliver a compelling close if you haven’t attended the rest of the conference and shared the experience of the attendees. Most CEOs want to get in and get out so kicking off the event is a much safer bet.
Online or in-person
I always prefer to do things in person. It’s much easier for your CEO to read the audience when they can actually see them! But busy travel schedules and time zone differences mean that’s not always possible. So you can negotiate either a virtual live appearance, or if necessary, a pre recorded speech that’s broadcast at the event. Prerecords can be very useful when translation and subtitles are needed for audiences that don’t share a language with your speaker.
Length
Never, ever, ever say yes to 45-minute keynote. It’s impossible to keep an audience engaged for that long. Conference hosts are trying to fill time so they make these lazy invitations without the audience in mind. But, it doesn’t matter because if the venue and audience is right, you can still accept and counter that your speaker will speak for 15-20 minutes and do 25 minutes of Q&A, which will still fill the time and make for a better experience. If the invitation is online, shorten the keynote further and do a mix of Q&A with the host and then open it to the audience.
Q&A
Often the conference organizer will ask if your CEO will do Q&A after their keynote or fireside chat. If they want to do it and their calendar permits, you can negotiate so many things about this portion of the event… length, whether the questions are in groups or one at a time, whether they come direct from the audience or are chosen by a moderator. My preference is to have a moderator select audience members so that the CEO can focus on the answers. I think 25 minutes is a good length, which is usually long enough for 5 or 6 questions.
Whatever the event or the venue, remember that everything is up for the negotiation. Except for the coffee, which will be reliably awful at every single event.
