Guidelines for hosting a speaker

I used to roll my eyes at the conference speaker divas who had a whole list of demands, until I needed to develop a few of my own guidelines. I don’t need green M&Ms or a plate of farm-fresh produce, but there are a few things I need. Whether you’re an organizer or a speaker, here’s a bottom-line checklist.

In preparation for the event—

Send out a schedule. In particular, make sure the speaker knows the starting and ending time. If you would like the speaker to hang-out with conference participants, you can make that clear (some speakers are better than others on this).