Find Speakers & Presenters and Keep Them Organized

It’s really uncomfortable to do a hour long webinar on your own. Plus, it can get boring to the attendees. So, instead of doing that find speakers and presenters for your webinar. More speakers will mean more information, plus more attendees because each speaker will attract their own audience. This works best if the speakers aren’t direct competitors but promote complementary products and services to the same target audience.

Look to Your Network

You can find speakers in a variety of ways depending upon your topic. Some topics are easier to come up with speakers than others. But you can find them through your networks, and plan the event together, or you can plan the event, and the topic, and then invite people whom you’ve identified as movers & shakers within your target audience community. It is highly suggested that for your first multi-speaker webinar that you plan it in advance and invite the presenters.

Set Expectations in Advance

When you invite anyone to present it’s important to set expectations in advance with some kind of formal agreement. It’s a good idea for you to have content approval and deadlines for participants to produce. In addition, set dates for and require attendance to practice sessions. If you have open communication and set expectations from the beginning you’ll have few problems.

Send Information ASAP

If you are going to use any collaboration software, or any other software that requires special logins it’s important to send them to the presenters as soon as you get them. If you’ve received questions from your target audience from your email marketing campaigns your presenters need to know what they are. Any information that you should share, do it immediately so that the presenters have plenty of time to act on it.

Keep Open Communication

Set up a shared calendar for all speakers for the event. In addition, it will help to have a space for all information, handouts, special offers, and presentations to be uploaded. A shared Dropbox might work, or a project management system like Basecamp will work well too. Add them to an automated email list that will send out reminders and information leading up to the date of the event so that no one forgets to show up or do their part. This is a great way to put on a professionally produced webinar event.

By choosing people that you know, or know about, setting expectations in advance of them even agreeing to participate in the event and keeping communication open throughout you’re sure to experience few problems with the presenters for your event.

Planning an event involves juggling many different balls and handling a lot of different people. If you happen to be a visual person, one of the most creative ways to help you manage this whole process is Pinterest.

Pinterest is an online photo sharing tool that works a lot like a virtual corkboard. Just “pin” up pictures of what you want to organize on this virtual corkboard and share it with other people, who may also want to pin up ideas for your event.

Here are some suggestions on how to plan an event using Pinterest.

Step 1: Create a Board

To create a board, click “Add” in the upper right corner.

Click “Create a Board.”

Enter your board’s details. If you are planning a public event and want to build interest for your event, choose a name that is very descriptive and something interested parties would be interested in. For example, if you’re organizing a business seminar, use seminar’s name and planned date for the event. Or if you’re planning your wedding and want to build up excitement, use the name of the bride and groom.

Step 2: Install the Pin It Button

Throughout the process of planning an event, you’re going to have to pin a lot of images. While you can pin each image individually by uploading it or pointing to a web address, the fastest method by far is by installing the Pin It button.

To install the Pin It button, click “About” then “Pin It Button.”

Drag your Pin It Button to your bookmarks.

This will allow you to use the “Pin It” at the top of your browser to pin photos from whatever page you happen to be visiting.

Step 3: Create Boards for Each Category

What are some of the most important things you need to organize and share in your event?

For a party, you might want to have:

Entertainment
Food
Music

For planning a business seminar, you might want to have:

Guest speakers
Location (hotels, conference halls, etc)
Food
Equipment (microphones, projectors, etc)

Before you begin, brainstorm a list of categories that you will need to plan and then proceed to create boards for all those categories. That will make it easier to pin as you start getting into the groove of researching ideas. All you have to do is pin and keep going.

Step 4: Add Pins to Your Board

To add pins to your board, simply navigate to a relevant webpage and click “Pin It.” Choose the image you want to pin, then select its board and give it a description. If you plan to collaborate on your panning, make sure to list some pros/cons or reasons for wanting to consider the particular item.

Rinse and repeat until you’ve pinned up all kinds of interesting or useful photographs on your various boards.

Step 5: Invite Collaborators

Few events are organized by single individuals. Instead, most events are organized by people brainstorming. One of the best ways to use Pinterest is to have other people also add photos and ideas to your Pinterest boards.

To invite others, click “Edit” under the board in which you want collaborators.

Select “Me and Contributors” under “Who can pin?” Then add the names of the people who you want to participate.

Step 6: More Ways to Use Pinterest for Planning Your Event

There are so many ways you can use Pinterest to help plan your event. You can …

Help brainstorm ideas. For example, if you’re picking flowers, you can pin 30 different kinds of flowers that you might consider. Take a vote or simply get some feedback if the end decision belongs to you.
Create a photo guestbook. Pin a picture of everyone who is attending or who you want to attend.
Create to-do lists. For example, you could create a Pinterest board that has only photos of things that you need to buy before the event.
Activities. Use the Pinterest board to show people what kind of activities they might expect.
Brainstorm. Use a Pinterest board just for sharing wacky ideas.
Share photos after. After the event, have everyone pin up their photos. It’s much more efficient than hoping everyone will tag everyone in their Facebook uploads.

Pinterest is a powerful tool for planning, managing and hosting an event. Use it to help make the whole process smoother, easier and more creative.