When Solution Providers Speak at Events

I try to keep abreast of industry events, even if I don't plan to attend them. When I see calls for participation, I try to share them widely - here, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. - because I know event producers often struggle to get good speakers. 

What's a good speaker? In a nutshell, I think a good speaker should be: 

• Knowledgeable. I mean, that's the reason you'd want them as a speaker in the first place, right?
• Prepared. The session is logical and flows well, and the speaker is rehearsed and comfortable. 
• Interesting. The speaker doesn't read the slides (or a canned script) to the audience, and doesn't bore everyone to sleep with a monotone delivery.
• Responsive. Marketing takes time. Send your bio and description over in a timely fashion. Send the slides by the deadline. Be reasonable. 
• Flexible. Things happen at both ends. This doesn't mean bending over backwards, or eating travel costs if something comes up from the event planner's end, but it does mean recognizing that, for example, COVID may require changing from in-person to virtual.
• Focused on education, not selling. Good speakers don't pitch their wares to the audience, either, unless the session sets those expectations. For example, if I attend a solution provider's demo, I fully expect to see the solution demonstrated. Same thing with a case study. But even solution providers should focus on educating, not selling. 

This brings me to the point of this post. As a consultant, I am a solution provider. I'd like to think I'm a decent speaker as well. I would never dream of pitching to an audience, and I think 20+ years of speaking, nearly all of it while working as a consultant or for a company that sells software and/or training, supports my assertion. But being a speaker and solution provider raises a number of issues for me and that I see constantly. 

1. Selling from the podium. Event planners always have a concern about solution providers selling from the podium - and for very good reason. There are still far too many solution providers who send speakers to events with presentations that are long on their solution, its features and capabilities, and how superior it is in the market, and short on anything remotely educational. If you're a vendor, and you do that, I'm walking out, and you shouldn't be surprised or offended - you're the one wasting my time. 

2. Pay to play. At industry events, there seems to be an ever-increasing link between sponsoring and speaking. And this is not just for "expo hall" sessions, but in the main tracks and even keynotes. For several well-known events, if you are a consultant or solution provider, you can't speak at all unless you sponsor the event. The reason generally given is that there are only so many slots, and it wouldn't be fair for Vendor X or Consulting Firm Y to get to speak for free while other vendors and firms have to "pay to play." And it is pay to play - very few of these events even review their speakers' sessions, much less hold the line on the amount of sales-y content they include. And they wonder why their event registration numbers are in decline....

At the same time, the right solution providers, and the right people working there, can deliver fantastic content, chock full of great learning, stats, etc. that are educational and entertaining. Often they bring years of experience as an end user, tempered with experience with a number of different organizations by virtue of working for that vendor. Yet because they work at solution providers, these speakers are off limits. Again, I get it, but I've seen a number of them create their own companies with innocuous names, or even submit using just their name, and hoping that the event planners won't connect the dots. So you still end up having the same problem, because someone will recognize them as being with Vendor X. 

3. Perceptions of quid pro quo. This last is very personal to me because I take my professional ethics very seriously. Especially at smaller events, I'm generally willing to at least get a booth, and I may kick in for other sponsorships if they make sense for me and my consulting firm. But I also want to speak at those events where I think I have something of value to share. What I don't want, and I've been very explicit about this, is to connect those two things. I don't want to "pay to play". I don't want an event to consider me as a speaker in the hopes that I'll write a check - or turn me down if I don't. 

So. 

Solution providers: recognize that the audience appreciates your content when it's educational, and if you try to sell, you're liable to turn them off. 

Event organizers: Ease up on the "pay to play", and label those sessions that are vendor-provided. Put them in their own track, call them "Industry Intelligence" or some such, but let us know in advance. And do your due diligence in setting their expectations! 

For my part, I think I'm going to start posting the agendas of conferences and breaking down end user vs. solution provider sessions, and if I attend, the "good" (non-sales-y) vs. "bad" (pure pitch) solution provider sessions, in the hopes that it will help to improve the overall educational quality in our industry.