The 60 Minute Keynote is Dead!
We receive requests for some of our more technical speakers to present for 60 minutes, which I strongly advise against.
And what most speakers won’t tell you is that they hate speaking for this long too.
There is a perception which assumes that an investment in a keynote speaker means that the speaker needs to be presenting for as long as possible, but research over the last 20 years has shown that the average persons attention span has dropped from around 2½ minutes to approx 45 seconds.
In other words, your audience stops listening to a speaker or feels disengaged about halfway through a presentation.
Need proof? The next time somebody is on stage for longer than 40 minutes, survey the room and note the number of people that seem like they are actually paying attention vs. the number of people that are totally checked out.
We help planners think about the ways their investment in a keynote speaker can help drive the most value by asking this one question:
How can your speaker effectively engage and interact with your audience within your 60 minute slot?
Here’s one of the ways that’s worked for us and our clients.
Have your speaker present for 30 or 35 minutes (MAX!)
Then, if there’s an event host or moderator, invite them back onto the stage and get a fireside chat going. This part about having somebody else on stage with the speaker is very important because there’s truly nothing more awkward than a speaker just standing there, hoping and praying that somebody asks a question.
Anyway, have the moderator ready to go with questions or start fielding questions from the audience to get the post-keynote convo. going.
I promise that there are so many good lessons, insights, and learnings that are extracted and elaborated on during this part of the session.
PLUS….you’re now structurally inviting and engaging your audience to take part in the conversation too.
Not only does this format allow you to incorporate a little bit of everything within the 60 minutes, it’s also setting your speaker up for success as well.
Give it a shot. Your audience will thank you later 😉
#keynotespeaker #eventprofs