How do you pick the Speakers?

I have just finished the notes for our SAGE Conference. These will be in our premium program book available for purchase that day. Only a week away – May 19^th, 12 noon Eastern until 4 p.m. eastern. Register for free at http://sage.leadnet.org.

 

But I get this question a lot. Unlike many traditional conferences that are dependent on “big names” to sell tickets and draw crowds, we have a nice niche that allows us to use other criteria for selection.

Sometimes the question is actually “Why don’t you have _________ on your program?”

The blank is filled with one of the following:

1. A big name speaker that everyone hears at other conferences.
2. A leaders that shares the theology/perspective/denominational tradition of the practitioner and they feel under represented.
3. An under represented group on other speaking platforms. Fill in your favorite group there.
4. The other fill in here is “me”. Why can’t I speak on your program?

Other times we get the opposite question: Why do you have ____________ on your program?

That question is usually followed with a statement similar to one of the following:

1. Everyone knows that person is a heretic.
2. That person is so shallow.
3. That person is so deep that they are irrelevant.
4. That person make a mistake once and now needs to be excluded from future platforms.
5. That person is not all that special.

On both of these fronts we simply encourage people to participate. State your opinions via twitter that day and evaluate the program as a whole. (The hashtag is “#SageLN)

But to all the conspiracy theorists here is how we tend to do it:

1. We ask our staff to nominate people. In our regular meetings our directors and coordinators make long lists of potential presenters.
2. We tend to nominate people we have a relationship with through our programs. Most of the speakers have been a part of one of our Leadership Communities, Labs, or the like. Or we have known them forever through our history. So, if you have never been a part of one of our programs, it is hard for us to know you.
3. We look for people with interesting stories and statements, not necessarily flashy ones.
4. We try to blend leaders that you have never heard of with some people you have heard of. This is the benefit of the online, short format. If you don’t like this one, another one is coming in six minutes.
5. We ask lots of people. Many times a questioner will ask about a specific individual or group that is not speaking and the truth is, we have asked that speaker or leaders from that group to contribute a message to the conference and they have turned us down. Sometimes that is a timing issue. Sometimes they don’t seem to “get” what we are trying to do. Sometimes they don’t want to be associated with us. That’s all fine. We are happy to have those that want to speak and contribute.

But often the lack of “diversity”, in gender, race, theological view, and so on, is the result of non response to the invitation to participate.

1. On rare occasion someone will agree to speak and then not be able to submit a video by the deadline to make it on the show. That is hard for all of us but we appreciate them trying.
2. And while it hasn’t happened yet, we could have quality issues (bad sound, video) that prevent us from showing a video on the show day. We are getting much better at that as we go though.
3. To date we have not rejected any video presentation regardless of whether we agreed with the speaker or not. That is just not our style.

My old boss Brad Smith used to say that a Leadership Network event our goal should be one third of the participants loved the speaker, one third hated it and one third didn’t know what to do with it. We have the freedom to make people think and ponder and we are good with that.

So, I hope that answers the question. Got a response? Feel free to comment below.

And we hope you will join us on May 19^th for SAGE!

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network