{"id":3724,"date":"2023-04-25T19:37:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T19:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allisonworldwide.com\/?p=3724"},"modified":"2023-11-27T19:48:20","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T19:48:20","slug":"speak-selection-health-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allisonworldwide.com\/speak-selection-health-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Selection: How to Help Health Clients Find the Perfect Pairings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Sarah Natoli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Health practice recently published a piece full of\u00a0tips and tricks for navigating events and securing speaking opportunities<\/a>, but\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0not always the only event \u201cask\u201d we get from our clients. In fact, over the past year,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0increasingly been tasked with sourcing co-panelists and moderators to engage with our executives at high profile events. As a result,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0established\u00a0best practices for selecting\u00a0various types\u00a0of speakers, and\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0become quite adept at not only putting together a \u201cPlan A,\u201d but also a \u201cPlan B\u201d (and occasionally, a \u201cPlan C\u201d!). In this blog,\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0share our top three learnings from a series of marquee events for health clients\u2014both industry-specific and outside-industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tip #1: Understand your client\u2019s key requirements from the start<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this tip might seem like a no-brainer, we\u2019ve actually found that clients may have very different expectations and requirements for speakers. If we assume that what works for vetting partners for one client will work for another\u2014even if they\u2019re both in the healthcare industry\u2014we\u2019re bound to miss something.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there requirements that are specific to the client\u2019s company?<\/em><\/strong> For example, one of our clients is in the life sciences vertical, and it\u2019s important to find partners for them that understand the complex science behind their products. We recently sourced a moderator for one of their executive\u2019s panels who had previously led a health system and is a clinician by training. He was able to drive a compelling conversation driven by deep understanding of the science and its potential human impact. Another example is clients that are building their DEI strategy, which we see increasingly in health. For them, ensuring there is diversity across a panel is a key requirement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are we sourcing for and how does that play into selection?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Our speaker searches look radically different when the client we\u2019re supporting is a CEO at a big brand versus a rising star at an early-stage company. For the C-suite at established brands, we often go after moderators from the media world with a focus on top-tier outlets. Two years ago, at SXSW, we sourced a moderator from Fortune for a high-profile client. For leaders at emerging health brands, we might pull in a venture capitalist or an individual from another company in the space. At last year\u2019s HLTH, we helped a client connect with the CEO of a health tech startup as a moderator, because he was a subject matter expert on the session topic\u2014health equity\u2014and he provided a valuable POV as an early-stage entrepreneur.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does the client want to offer in terms of incentives? <\/em><\/strong>We have some clients that feel very strongly about keeping everything organic. In other words, they do not want to pay speaker fees. This isn\u2019t always a matter of budget, but rather of principle. When a speaker is paid, some feel there\u2019s a risk that they won\u2019t come across as authentic. We find this is more of an issue with co-panelists than moderators, who more often than not do require a fee. It\u2019s important to also establish if the client is willing to cover out of pocket expenses such as travel and lodging. Wherever you land, be sure to document the terms clearly, ideally in a speaker contract so that everyone is on the same page and the engagement proceeds smoothly.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tip #2: Roll up your sleeves and do research\u2014a lot of it!<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you understand your client\u2019s key requirements, it\u2019s truly time to get to work. Many folks on our junior team really enjoy speaker research, and they often have out of the box ideas that clients are delighted by. Be forewarned though, these searches take time, so it\u2019s important to resource the research appropriately.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you find someone who is already going to be at the event?<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our team has found that often the fastest path to finding a co-panelist or moderator is to look at individuals who are either already speaking at the event in a different session or who attend annually and are likely to be there. They\u2019re easier to vet, engage, and coordinate with on the logistics front. Additionally, the conference organizers may be willing to make introductions to these individuals.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a Plan B? <\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When this strategy doesn\u2019t work, we of course have alternate paths to finding the right person. While we specialize in healthcare, we\u2019re fortunate to work at an agency that covers a wide swath of industries, making it easy to tap colleagues in different practices and leverage the full resources and connections of Allison+Partners to find that ideal person to complement our client. For a solo presentation at CES, the consumer tech show, we reached out to a YouTuber, which was an unexpected, yet extremely appealing, choice. While he ultimately could not act as moderator for that event, our team made an important future connection for our client.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And a Plan C?<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s convenient and efficient to leverage the strategies above, sometimes you have to do a lot of your own research. At a recent event where we wanted to source a co-panelist with some \u201cstar power,\u201d we looked, for example, at authors who had books about healthcare coming out that they might want to promote. We also looked at entrepreneurs inside and outside the industry. Provided your client has wide name recognition, putting their brand in the subject line of an outreach email is a great way to get an individual\u2019s attention when you don\u2019t have a way to get formally introduced. Note that if you select an individual who moderates or appears on panels frequently, they are likely to have a team representing them, as well as a speaker fee and specific contract terms.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tip #3: Overcommunicate throughout the process and be prepared to pivot <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve found the right person, there\u2019s still significant work to do, and if you miss steps in the process or fumble the ball in any way, you may be back to square one (which is yet another reason to do a lot of research and have backup options!).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you communicated expectations beyond the actual event?<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We heard last year at HLTH that a lot of the panels felt disjointed\u2014that\u2019s because many speakers did not know each other and did not prep for their panels together. It\u2019s always our goal to avoid that dynamic and we do so by clearly communicating our expectations with moderators and panelists alike. Typically, we ask for a live prep session ahead of the event, and we always prepare a briefing document for all presenters. Ideally, co-panelists and moderators will also promote the event through their social accounts, sharing with their networks, but if you don\u2019t ask them to do this or any other activity up front, there\u2019s no guarantee it will be done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you prepared to address last minute changes?<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s the event organizers throwing a wrench in things by changing a panel time or some other detail, or your client swapping out one C-suite for another, events are notoriously unpredictable. They require significant creativity and flexibility from the supporting agency team. We put forward an executive to speak at CES and then he had a conflict, so we went back to the organizers with an alternative executive and re-did the programming. Of course, with the pandemic, we\u2019ve also had to pivot when events go virtual or are hybrid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing counsel<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As challenging as it can be, sourcing a co-panelist or moderator is one of our team\u2019s favorite tasks. It\u2019s an opportunity to show the depth of our cross-industry connections, our commitment to getting things right for our clients, and perhaps most important, our deep creativity and ability to bring learnings from other industries to our healthcare clients. One last piece of advice\u2014the answer is always \u201cno\u201d until you ask the question. Don\u2019t be afraid to reach out cold on behalf of your clients. Just like the perfect pitch sent to the right reporter, if you find a topic that truly touches the individual in question, chances are, they\u2019ll be up for having a conversation! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To work with our Health team on events (or anything else), reach out to <\/em><\/strong>HealthSLT@allisonpr.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. <\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

View our health tech microsite\u00a0<\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0
\u00a0
Sarah is a seasoned content and communications strategist with deep experience in the healthcare industry. At Allison, she serves as the Health Practice\u2019s \u201cStoryteller-in-Chief,\u201d counseling clients on the most effective narratives and messages for their businesses, as well as advising on the appropriate channels to leverage for maximum impact. Prior to joining the agency, Sarah worked at Revive, a Nashville-based healthcare agency that sits within the Weber\/IPG ecosystem. Before joining the agency world, she worked as an in-house content marketer primarily in health tech.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Natoli Our Health practice recently published a piece full of\u00a0tips and tricks for navigating events and securing speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":3725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSpeaker Selection: How to Help Health Clients Find the Perfect Pairings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are top three learnings from a series of marquee events for health clients\u2014both industry-specific and outside-industry.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allisonworldwide.com\/speak-selection-health-clients\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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