Know-How Exchange : Branding

Dear shrinivas.ayyar,

OK, here are a few thoughts:

Timelines & Planning gestation: Six to 9 months starting from now, and these are at a minimum. If you want top speakers you might need to act swiftly, as dates tend to get penciled in months if not a year or more in advance.

Selecting Key Note Speakers: Consider using a theme and placing speakers within that framework. Avoid people that do straight PowerPoint presentations as much as possible because their presentations just put people to sleep. Any halfwit can stand on a stage and read bullet-pointed slides out loud, but this kind of approach is just DULL, and it's been done to death.

You want to engage, delight, inspire, and thrill your audiences, not bore them to tears.

How do we ensure better industry connect: consider using social media to push tangible benefits—with messages along the lines of "After this seminar you'll know how to A, B and C.

Should it be generic or theme based? THEMED!

Ideas to engage the audience: Prizes, questions, envelopes stuck to the bottoms of chairs in which there are random offers or treats, giveaways, selling from the back of the room, booths for vendors to sell their wares (income for the event to defray costs), charity auctions for services or products or one on one coaching from speakers, with the money raised going to local charities.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
Wilmington, DE, USA