Booking Multiple Speakers For Your Event
Booking multiple speakers for events is not just as simple as finding talent and executing a contract. The search process alone can take considerable time. Once you’ve booked your speaker, now it’s your responsibility to connect the logistical dots. You have to make sure your speaker is where they need to be on event day, informed of your event goals, and fully prepared to deliver a poignant message to your group. If you are booking multiple speakers for your event, your workload just doubled… tripled… quadrupled!
Mass media company Thomson Reuters recently contacted CelebExperts to book 3 celebrity chefs for live cooking demonstrations. These chefs would be the main attraction during their multi-day conference at Pebble Beach Resort in California this May. They had booked celebrities for their annual events in the past. But they’d never executed an event of this magnitude with more than one celebrity personality.
A live cooking demonstration from a celebrity chef is a lot more complex to execute than a simple 45-minute keynote and VIP meet & greet. There is a running list of action items for each demonstration:
- Work with the chef to determine menu items
- Source and secure the necessary ingredients to execute the menu items
- Source and secure the necessary equipment for the demonstration (kitchen appliances, demonstration table set up, microphones, swivel mirror to show chef’s table work, etc.)
- Determine and secure necessary wait staff and sous chefs to serve and recreate menu items
Multiply this execution 3 times and you’ve got yourself a full plate of responsibilities that are crucial to the seamless, successful execution of your event. Thomson Reuters needed an agency who could handle the chef booking process (while staying in budget) and the necessary logistics executions top-to-bottom in order to ensure their event went off without a hitch.
CelebExperts matched Thomson Reuters with three of the most down-to-earth and unique chefs in the culinary industry: Royal Chef Darren McGrady, former personal chef to Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry, Beau MacMillan, one of the country’s top chefs for modern American fusion cuisine and Roy Yamaguchi, one of the forefathers of authentic Hawaiian cuisine.
Post contract execution, CelebExperts assigned one of its top booking agents to work as lead liaison between the client and the chefs to tackle the tedious logistical actions items in a timely and efficient manner on behalf of the client.
To start, travel for each chef was booked well in advance to lock-in the lowest travel costs for the client. Our ultimate goal is to save our clients time and money throughout the talent search and event execution process. The client is our top priority, not the celebrity talent. Once the travel had been settled, CelebExperts worked quickly and efficiently to garner recipe options from each chef. Thomson Reuters could then choose their favorite dishes, and determine each of the 3 dinner menus. This allowed them to source all necessary ingredients for each chef well in advance so there were no surprises on event day.
CelebExperts has executed hundreds of celebrity chef cooking demonstrations and keynote speaking engagements in the past. In this case, we had a standard list of equipment and stage set up options for Thomson Reuters to choose from in order to execute their dinners to the exact specifications of each chef.
CelebExperts then coordinated conference calls between all three chefs and the Thomson Reuters kitchen event staff. This aligns the goals of both parties prior to event day. We have found these conference calls are imperative to the success of our client’s events. They help break the ice between client and talent before the talent even steps foot on site. These calls give both the client and the talent a sense of confidence, preparedness and excitement heading into the event.
Event day came and went without a hitch! Thomson Reuters received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the audiences who attended their celebrity chef dinners.
The key to success booking speakers for events is to get things done well in advance. This minimizes anxiety and last-minute curveballs that would change the scope and impact of your event. This can be hard to do if it’s your first time hosting an event of this nature or if you do not have the staff to meet the demands of this type of execution. All events are unique in their own right, but CelebExperts has seen and handled it all.
Some agencies will assist in the speaker booking process, but leave you to the wolves for event execution. Not CelebExperts! We guide our clients through every step of the process when booking multiple speakers for events. We have our client’s best interests in mind to be sure the event is one to remember for your attendees. As aforementioned, we want to save you time and money when booking keynote speakers. If you are booking speakers for events this year, read more about our services and contact CelebExperts today t0 book your next keynote speaker today!
