Todays Women in Business

Join Me At The Worlds First Global Personal Branding Telesummit

If you have wondered why I've been absent from posting here over the last few weeks, it's because I have been really busy organising some huge events and also participating in many events as a speaker.

One event that is a must for your diary is a global personal branding telesummit taking place on 8 November 2007.

I have had the priviledge of being the chair of the organising team who have all gifted their time to bring this event to life. We have attracted some amazing speakers who are authors on subjects related to personal branding.

All of these speakers are gifting their time to support us in our goals of reaching 100,000 people across the globe with this FREE event to educate people about personal branding.

Yes the event will cost you nothing to attend - just the cost of your phone call so make sure that you register. And if you are not able to attend the event due to your schedule, we will be making the recordings available after the event for you to access.

I will be attending 12 hours of programming from 3pm on Thursday to 3am on Friday morning as a moderator for the programme, during which time I will have the opportunity to participate live on four sessions:

• In conversation with David Meerman Scott, author of the great book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" about how to build your personal brand online
• In conversation with Stewart Emery, co-author of "Success Built To Last" about the strategies of world leaders of the most successful companies
• In conversation with Tim Demello, John Jantsch, Guy Kawasaki, and Andy Sernovitz about how to create brand evangalists to build your business and your brand
• In conversation with Leigh Branham, Orla Graham and Tim Zastudil about how to build your employer brand to win the war for talent.

This event is FREE to attend. If you would like to join me, you can register at the personal branding summit website - and if you can not attend then we will be recording all the seminars.

I do hope you will join me - there is a truly world class faculty - and remember you can access 24 seminars all for the price of your phone call.

How to increase your chances of being a guest speaker

How do you enhance your chances of being selected as a speaker for conferences and events?

Well let me let you into some insider secrets from someone (me) who has organised hundreds of events with industry experts from across the globe.

Just yesterday I was speaking the event manager for a professional association who is planning the events for their UK organisation.

I'm heading up the Irish events team, and we were discussing how to ensure that we select great speakers for the forthcoming year. Even though we do not pay speakers, as it a not-for-profit and voluntary organisation, that does not mean that we don't want to hire engaging speakers with great content.

I was sharing with her the fact that this week I had been conducting podcast interviews for an organisation I am working with to help promote a forthcoming conference. One of the speakers who I interviewed for the podcast was so monotone and uninspiring in their deliver, that even though they have good content, I would not have hired them as a speaker if I had been the event organiser.

What I suggested to my colleague in the UK is that as part of  the selection process for the speakers for the professional association, that they include a telephone conference interview as part of the selection process. The event organiser in the UK particularly concerned about how the speaker would not only deliver content in terms of energy but also their ability to respond to questions live. Having a telephone conference would enable a number of people to be on the phone line and the speaker could then present and the panel ask questions.

If you are a speaker or want to build your personal brand as a professional speaker, adding a podcast, the recording of a teleseminar or a video of you speaking to your events page or media page on your website, if well executed, will enhance the chance of you being selected as a speaker.

You see you are taking away some of the risks and fears of the event organiser as they will have been able to "sample" your ability to engage with an audience just by listening to your audio or watching you on the video.

Interestingly, I was reading a post from David Meerman Scott who reported on the way that the team at the Business Software 2007 conference are selecting some of their speakers this year.

Business Software 2007 are inviting potential speakers to create a short video of themselves speaking on a topic that will inspire, and be relevant to, an audience of software executives. They are then inviting their newsletter subscribers to vote on the speakers they want to hear at the event.

That certainly takes event organising to a different level - with the engagement of the potential delegates for the conference deciding who they want to hear speak.

So if you are a professional speaker or an aspiring professional speaker, consider how you can show case your expertise through video and audio to showcase your personal brand as a speaker.

And if you are looking for additional guidance on building your reputation as a professional speaker, don't hesitate to register for our forthcoming no-cost teleseminar, "Speak your way to success" which takes place on the 13 August at 1pm ET.

PS - more on David Meerman Scott soon - I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of his new book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" - it arrived in the post earlier this week so I'll be reading it and posting my reflections in the next week or so.