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Top downsides of working as a professional keynote speaker
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Posted On :
Aug-16-2011
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Article Word Count :
514
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You get paid well for your services, with travel and accommodation expenses covered. In most cases, you get some extra perks from the event organizers to make your visit memorable and enjoyable for you. What else could you ask for?
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What could possibly be a downside to a job of a keynote speaker? You obtain a position that predisposes you to speak from a vantage point of authority to large audiences. Your name is highlighted in event programs and serves as a selling point to participants, a marketing gimmick of sorts. You have people swarming around to steal a moment or two before and after your speech for a private, face-to-face conversation. The best of all: you get paid well for your services, with travel and accommodation expenses covered. In most cases, you get some extra perks from the event organizers to make your visit memorable and enjoyable for you. What else could you ask for?
In reality, keynote speakers have to struggle with a fair share of disadvantages to their role. Needless to say, most of them do more in life than just perform in front of academic or business audiences, running a parallel career, but the status of someone who can be invited to act as a keynote at a conference or a meeting comes with a package of responsibilities and inconveniences.
Exposure to stress would be one of the most important ones. As their status is extremely high, it is not wonder that their services are associated with high hopes on the part of their addressees and buyers. Speakers have to deal with this excessive pressure during the event itself, but more importantly before it. It would be a great mistake to let it paralyze them or distract their attention from providing a top quality service. Instead, they need to find motivation and method to create a speech that would live up to expectations.
The imperative to aim for perfection is another difficulty keynote speakers need to struggle with. They are invited to be experts and authorities on whatever the topic of the conference or event is. What goes together with this designation is a need to exhibit the highest standards in terms of competence and softer areas, such as appearance or manners. The first demand means they have to keep pace with developments that relate to what they do, as audiences expect them to fully comprehend them and carry across their essence. On other fronts, the bar is set very high too and you need a particular kind of personality to endure it.
Every keynote speaker has to actively promote their services practically incessantly. It is necessary to keep the fire of interest burning so that assignments keep flowing in. Losing the status of an authority is much easier than building it, so candidates to become keynote speakers should see this state as dynamic rather than achieved indefinitely. Poor visibility, lack of publications, a string of business failures, indecent conduct or other infringements against the conventions of this industry might result in a fall from grace. Both those who aspire to the status of a keynote speaker and those who are currently enjoying it should be aware of the fact that it is more than just basking in the glory of your fame and achievement.
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Article Source :
http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Top downsides of working as a professional keynote speaker_73882.aspx
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Author Resource :
I am a leadership training consultant working in a school of business. I write publications about motivational speakers and their work. Being a keynote speaker myself, I also write about executive training programs.
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Keywords :
keynote speaker,
Category :
Business
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Public Relations
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