by Kerry Heaps | Featured Contributor
- Its complicated. Many people feel that the submission process is complicated, however nothing could be
further from the truth. The submission process if anything can be tedious. You are basically submitting the same information to multiple events. Once you start the process, you will find after a few submissions that you pick up the pace of the process. If you have all your information in one location where you can just copy and paste, the process moves fairly quickly and easily.
- If nothing is listed about payment, they don’t pay Speakers. If you are on an event website call for speaker’s page, and you don’t see anything about payment or compensation, don’t assume they won’t pay you anything. You should still apply, it is typical that most events will want to find out what your fees are and negotiate from there, so there is no need to post about fees. You will miss out on a lot of opportunities if you don’t apply to these events. Typically, events that don’t pay anything will list on the site that they are unable to compensate or cover expenses.
- You only submit once; the event staff will save your information. This is false, each year they will post an open call for speakers on most event sites. This is for you to apply for the current year only. If you apply and you are accepted to speak for the current year, and they asked you to come back a second year, you will still be required to submit your information again. Most event websites receive several hundred/thousand entries for calls for speakers. They are unable to retain that information and use it for the following year. Every year the needs of the conference will change, so therefore the open tracks for the call for speakers will change as well.
- Email is a better way to send in your information. This is also false. If an event has taken the time to set up a call for speaker’s page and submission site, then you should respect their wishes and submit the information as they have requested. By sending an email and ignoring their process, you are sending a negative signal that you won’t follow direction. Which will raise a red flag for the meeting planning staff. Some speakers feel this will make them stand out and it will, but in a negative light. They have the process set up for a reason, follow it.
- They rejected you once, so don’t reapply next year. Just because your topic was rejected this year, don’t take it personally. It could be they had a similar topic in the past year or two, or it could be that they have a certain agenda that they want to fill, and they just didn’t feel your topic would be a good fit. When you receive a rejection letter, it’s just part of the process. You will always receive more no’s than yes’s is in this industry. Should you decide to reapply the following year, take a closer look at the open tracks, go ahead and resubmit your proposed topic. You never know what will happen, and you can always submit more than one topic. Events do not retain your submissions on a year-to-year basis as their needs change from year to year.
An Entrepreneur of 16 years, Kerry is the President of Book.Speak.Repeat. She is a sought-after Speaker on topics such as Leveraging your Publicity to Close More Deals, Bodies Don’t Lie-Body Language Basics, The Significance of Color in Wardrobe and the Psychology Behind It, The Network Game – Making Networking “Work” for Your Business, and The Fortune is in the Follow-up.
Kerry owns Kerry’s Studio an online boutique for women who like classic elegance. She currently works with professionals who wish to add speaking as a paid marketing tool for their businesses.
