Holding an important event for your community, organization, or graduation can be a great way to promote what you have to offer. Often with big events, you will have a keynote speaker to kick things off. Finding the right keynote speaker will help set the tone for your event and how you want to inspire your audience moving forward throughout the event and beyond.
If you are struggling to find the right keynote speaker for a graduation ceremony, you can use these five tips to find a speaker that will be one the graduates will always remember.
1- Start Early in Your Speaker Search
The best way to find the right keynote speaker for a graduation is to start your search as early as possible. Once you have a specific time, date, and location, you can begin your search for keynote speakers that are available. Starting early will help you have options if your first choice for keynote speaker isn’t available.
2- Identify the Main Theme of Your Event
No one wants to listen to a graduation speech that has nothing to do with the graduates or isn’t able to offer any relevant advice or stories. For example, you wouldn’t choose a keynote speaker who is an expert in science to address a crowd of artists. The makeup of your audience and the theme of your graduation will help you determine what type of speaker you want to use. Graduates often like to see people who have risen above challenges to become successful.
3- Consider a Speaker’s Qualifications
There are many experts available for speaking at graduations, but finding the right person will take time, and you will need to evaluate that person’s qualifications to give the speech on your event’s theme as well as how relevant your speaker is to your audience. For experts that often give keynote addresses, you will easily be able to find their career highlights and the types of events they have spoken at before.
4- Consider How Your Audience Would Relate to the Speaker
A keynote speaker for any type of graduation needs to be able to reach the audience and inspire them in some way. That is why you often find successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and politicians giving many keynote speeches at graduation ceremonies.
Along with the overall theme of the graduation ceremony, finding a relevant speaker who will touch the audience in some way is key to getting your event started right. If your typical audience is talking about a specific expert or performer, this can be a place to start to find people that are the most relevant to your audience and that can inspire them to keep going.
5- Get Assistance in Your Speaker Search if Needed
If you are still having trouble finding the right keynote speaker for your event, there are businesses that can help you find the right speaker for your event. As long as you are able to provide the date, time, theme of the event, and your budget for paying the speaker, they can give you notable options that may work