How to Choose the Right Speaker for Your Event (A Complete Guide for Event Organisers)
Liam Sandford
Liam Sandford is a Head of Marketing, public speaking expert, and 2x Best Selling Author including the book Effortless Public Speaking. He helps ambitious professionals and entrepreneurs communicate with impact to get noticed, grow their career, and build their business.
Choose a speaker who sits at the intersection of four things: they understand your audience, they can deliver, they carry credibility your attendees will respect, and they are straightforward to work with. Get those four right and the speaker lifts the whole event. Get them wrong and you spend the day watching a good room go quiet.
I have sat on both sides of this decision. I have been booked to speak, so I know what a well briefed organiser feels like from the stage and what a vague one costs you. And in the past I have coached TEDx speakers, founders and CEOs to get ready for rooms that mattered to them, so I have seen up close what separates someone who looks impressive on a showreel from someone who truly holds a room. This guide is the process I would use if I were the one hiring, written for the organiser who has to make the call.
Start with your audience, not the speaker
Long before you open a showreel or a bio, your selection process has to start with the room. A technically brilliant speaker who does not resonate with your attendees will never land. Audience fit is the foundation of every good decision that follows, and it is the thing organisers most often skip because a big name is easier to justify to a committee than a good match.
Here is the mistake I saw again and again in the coaching work. Organisers would book on reputation, then hand the speaker almost nothing about who was in the room. The speaker would arrive with their standard set, deliver it well, and it would still miss, because "delivered well" and "delivered for this audience" are not the same thing. The best speaker in the world cannot read a mind. If you do not tell them who they are speaking to, they will guess, and guessing is where events go flat.
So define the room first. Get specific about:
The industry and the actual roles in the seats
Experience level, from people in their first job to founders
The aspirations and the pain points people walk in carrying
The tone that will land: inspirational, tactical, motivational, or led by data
The themes already running through your event, so the session connects rather than sits alone
A speaker who understands the mindset in the room will always outperform a bigger name who does not. If you want a structured way to map that room before you brief anyone, building audience personas for your event is the exercise I would run first.
Why relevance beats reputation
A well known speaker can still miss if they talk at your audience instead of to them. Relevance drives connection; reputation only drives recognition. Recognition sells a few extra tickets. Connection gets people talking on the way home and brings them back next year. When you are weighing a famous name against a lesser known speaker who clearly gets your audience, the second one is usually the safer bet, not the braver one.
Judge delivery from real footage, not the highlight reel
Speaking samples are the single best predictor of how someone will perform for you. They show you real delivery instead of a polished paragraph a copywriter wrote. Footage from previous events, podcast appearances, or the short clips of video content built for social media all tell you more than a bio ever will. What you see is roughly what you will get.
One caution from the coaching side: ask for a full segment, not a sizzle reel. A 90 second cut of applause moments tells you the speaker can be edited well. Five unbroken minutes tells you whether they can hold a room when there is no music underneath and no cutaway to hide a stumble. Any speaker worth booking will have that footage or be happy to point you to a live recording.
When you watch, look for:
Clear, purposeful storytelling with a point, not filler
A message that puts the audience first rather than the speaker's ego
Controlled pacing and vocal variation, not a flat single tone
Confidence without arrogance
Genuine presence and connection with the room in front of them
Reading their storytelling and message clarity
Great speakers use stories as tools, not as ways to talk about themselves. A good story has a structure, reveals an insight and earns its place. A self indulgent one is just the speaker enjoying the sound of their own history.
The test I use is simple. Can you say the speaker's core message back in one sentence after watching? If you can, they are clear enough to trust in front of your audience. If you cannot, and you have watched them do their best material on their own showreel, your attendees have no chance. Clarity is not optional on stage. A confused audience is a lost audience, and confusion almost always starts with a speaker who was not clear in their own head first.
Watch for stories that illustrate a useful idea, clean transitions between points, examples your specific attendees would recognise, and a central message that is easy to follow. If it feels scattered or self focused on a curated sample, it will be worse live.
Reading their energy, pacing and delivery
Strong delivery is more than enthusiasm. It is intentional pacing, well placed pauses, tonal variation and a calm, grounded presence. The best speakers make complex ideas feel simple and never rush. They let a point land instead of stampeding to the next slide.
As you watch, ask:
Does the voice feel controlled and dynamic, or flat?
Do they rush or ramble, or move with purpose?
Do they look comfortable and grounded, or braced?
Do they shift pace at the right moments?
Do they leave space for the audience to think?
Those are the signals of real skill, and none of them show up in a bio.
Use testimonials as evidence, not as a gate
Testimonials add reassurance, but they are not mandatory. Plenty of excellent speakers, especially those earlier in their speaking careers, have not built a large library of endorsements yet. Strong samples and strong communication are more reliable signals than a long list of quotes.
When you do have testimonials, read them for specifics. Comments that mention a real outcome, a change in how the audience thought, or how easy the speaker was to work with, tell you far more than a wall of the word "inspiring". One line saying "our sales team changed how they pitched the following Monday" is worth 50 generic compliments.
Weigh them like this:
Testimonials show how real audiences responded, which a bio cannot
They help you assess reliability, clarity and engagement
Social proof raises your confidence but should not be the only factor
A lack of testimonials does not mean a lack of ability
Emerging speakers often bring freshness, originality and real hunger to deliver
Spotting a strong speaker who has no testimonials yet
Some of the best value on any speaker roster is the person who is genuinely good but not yet famous. They bring modern relevance, energy and a real desire to go beyond what is asked, often at a fraction of the fee of an established name. If their footage is strong and their communication is professional, do not let a thin testimonial page put you off. I have watched newer speakers outperform seasoned ones purely because they cared more about the specific room in front of them. Judge on capability, not just history.
Judge professionalism by how they treat you
This is the most overlooked factor in speaker selection, and it is the one I would weight most heavily. How a speaker communicates with you before the event is a reliable predictor of how they will treat your audience on the day.
Here is the pattern I saw repeatedly across the founders and CEOs I worked with, and later in the speakers I watched get booked. The ones who asked good questions about the audience, the room and the outcome were the same ones who put the audience first on stage. The ones who were vague, slow or slightly self important in the planning almost always carried that onto the stage. It is the same person; the wiring does not change between the email thread and the microphone.
Signs of strong professional communication:
Timely, consistent replies
A polite, respectful tone
Thoughtful questions about your event, your theme and your audience
Willingness to collaborate and tailor their content
Organised behaviour throughout, with an eye for detail
Red flags worth walking away from
Be cautious of slow or inconsistent replies, a tone that feels self important, reluctance to tailor the content, no curiosity about your audience, and big promises with no detail behind them. Each of those signals a speaker who will prioritise themselves over the room.
The tailoring point matters most. You need the speaker to spend real time understanding your event, who is attending and what you really want them to deliver. If they will not do that with you during the easy part, when they are trying to win the booking, they will not do it for your audience when they are on stage. That is not a small risk. It is the difference between a session that serves the room and a session that serves the speaker's ego.
Balance credibility with engagement
The strongest speakers blend two things that often pull apart. Influence without credibility is hollow entertainment; credibility without influence is a forgettable lecture. Your audience deserves both, and the right choice gives them substance they can use, delivered in a way they will remember.
This balance matters because your speaker represents your event's values for the length of their session. Attendees want insight they can act on, not just a good time, and they want it delivered by someone who holds the room rather than reads at it. Get the blend right and satisfaction climbs, loyalty builds, and people leave feeling both energised and genuinely smarter.
Where the best speakers live
Standout speakers carry depth of knowledge but make ideas accessible. They tell stories with a clear purpose, communicate with clarity instead of complexity, and leave attendees feeling capable rather than overwhelmed. When you find a speaker who does that and treats your team well before the event, book them. The rare combination of substance, engagement and professionalism is worth paying for, and it is worth waiting for. For a fuller view of how a great speaker can lift an entire event's positioning, the ultimate guide to public speaking in marketing goes deeper on the why behind all of this.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I brief a speaker before the event?
More than you think, and earlier than you think. Give them the audience profile, the room size, the running order around their slot, the outcome you want, and anything sensitive about the crowd. A good speaker will ask for most of this anyway. If you hand over a rich brief and they ignore it, that tells you something too. The brief is not just admin; it is how you find out whether the speaker will truly build their session for your room or just wheel out their standard set.
Should I always pick the most experienced speaker I can afford?
No. Experience helps, but fit and effort matter more. A newer speaker who obviously understands your audience and works hard to tailor their content will often outperform a veteran running on autopilot. Spend your budget on the best match for the room, not the longest CV. The most experienced name is only the right choice when their experience is directly relevant to your audience's actual problem.
What is the single biggest predictor of a good result on stage?
How the speaker communicates with you before the event. It sounds too simple, but it holds up. Responsiveness, good questions and a genuine willingness to tailor the session are the same traits that make someone put the audience first on stage. If the planning phase feels like hard work, the day usually does too.
Do I need to see live footage, or is a showreel enough?
You need at least one longer, unbroken clip. A showreel proves someone can be edited well; it does not prove they can hold a room for their full slot without music and cutaways carrying them. Ask for a full segment from a real event. Any serious speaker will have one.
How do I judge a speaker when I am not a public speaking expert myself?
Trust the audience test, not a technical checklist. After watching their best footage, ask whether you could repeat their main point in one sentence and whether you felt anything. If the message was clear and it moved you, it will move your attendees. If you were confused or bored watching their own highlight material, no credential on their bio will fix that on the day.
TL;DR: How to choose the right event speaker
Start with your audience, not the speaker's fame. Define what the room needs before you look at a single bio.
Judge delivery from real footage, not the highlight reel. Watch for clarity, pacing and whether the message serves the audience.
Treat testimonials as supporting evidence, not a gate. A strong sample beats a long list of the word "inspiring".
Judge professionalism by how they communicate with you before the event. Behaviour before the event predicts behaviour on stage.
Balance credibility with engagement. Substance without connection is forgettable; connection without substance is hollow.
If you are the speaker rather than the organiser, the decision runs the other way. That is covered in choosing which speaking opportunities are worth your time.
More From Liam Sandford
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