How to brief a keynote speaker

Most organisers spend weeks choosing a speaker and twenty minutes briefing them. That is backwards. The briefing is where a good talk becomes the right talk for your room.

After more than three hundred events, here is what I wish every organiser told me on the first call.

Tell me who is really in the room

Job titles help, but they are not enough. I want to know what their year has looked like. Have they just been through a restructure? Hit a record quarter? Lost a colleague? Are they excited to be there, or did they have to cancel something important to come?

The same keynote lands very differently with a team that is celebrating and a team that is exhausted. I would rather know the uncomfortable truth than find out from the faces in the front row.

Tell me what should change afterwards

"Inspire them" is not a goal. Try finishing this sentence: "After the talk, I want people to..." Maybe it is to stop over-scheduling their teams. Maybe it is to feel confident about a change that scares them. Maybe it is simply to feel seen after a hard year.

One clear outcome shapes everything: which stories I choose, how I close, and what I leave people with.

The practical details that matter

• The exact slot, including what comes before and after me.

• Whether timings are firm or likely to slip.

• Room size and layout: theatre, cabaret, standing.

• The theme of the event, and any words or topics to avoid.

• Who introduces me, and how.

• Whether the talk will be recorded or streamed.

The slot matters more than people think. Straight after lunch needs more energy. Last session of the day needs to be shorter and sharper. Following a difficult announcement needs care.

Share the hard stuff early

If there is something sensitive in the room, such as redundancies, a merger, a public mistake or a recent loss, please tell me. I will not mention anything you do not want me to. But knowing lets me avoid stories that might land badly, and it lets me speak to what people are feeling instead of pretending it is not there.

Introduce me in thirty seconds

The best introductions are short and personal. Skip the full biography; it is in the programme. One line about why you booked me and one line about what is coming is perfect. I send every host a suggested script, and they are always welcome to change it.

Let me meet a few people

If there is any way to join the coffee break before my slot, I will. Five minutes chatting with attendees gives me a story, a name or a phrase I can use on stage. It makes the talk feel like it was written for that room, because in the last hour, it partly was.

A good briefing call takes thirty minutes. It is the cheapest way to get a much better talk, and it is the part of the job I enjoy most.