ClickZ Events Speaker Guidelines and Helpful Hints

The ClickZ Events has teamed up with Online Marketing Summit to share ideas, hear from expert online practitioners, and learn the best practices in online marketing in coming months.

There will be speaking opportunities for experts in social media, analytics, search engine marketing, online brand advertising, online video advertising, mobile marketing, and analytics in 14 cities across the United States from May through early July.

Here are a few guidelines to help you with pitching sessions, submitting proposals and speaking at a ClickZ event.

Please read the speaker guidelines below before submitting a proposal.

Event timelines, when and where to send requests
Session outlines and event information will be posted to the Online Marketing Summit site. We have also developed a handy speaker application to facilitate and expedite your speaker or panel request. You may now select from a drop down menu for each event, just don't forget multiple speaker requests require multiple submissions. If there is a topic that's not included in the session outlines, please summarize your proposed topic.

Quality and quantity
There will be no more than two or three speakers in each session with very few exceptions. Please keep this in mind when pitching a session. Sessions generally run 50 minutes (depending on the topic) so bear in mind the odds of one person speaking more than 10 to 15 minutes will be unlikely.

Case studies and actual tactical execution examples are key. I understand the need for maintaining confidentiality and the competitive edge but learning experiences can help build best practices. If you are confused about how to do this, ask your session moderator.

Speaking of moderators, moderating a session is a highly regarded (yet difficult to execute) role. It is the moderator's job to ask questions, generate arguments, involve the audience, and tell a story through the interaction of all participants. The moderator also summarizes the discussion, highlights key points of agreement and contention, identifies resources for further study, and ends the session in time to do Q&A with the audience. Before you ask for this role, be sure you have the intestinal fortitude to guide the discussion, panelists, and audience.

Avoid pitching yourself
Speaking engagements build awareness of and credibility for your organization. The best speakers (and those invited back frequently) know that being perceived as an expert through delivering quality content for the benefit of event delegates is far better than delivering a hard sell.

Keep your company profile and contact information down to one or two slides. Your audience will thank you and you will stand a far better chance of being invited back to speak.

Soliciting delegate business cards with "follow-up bait" is not permitted by ClickZ. In other words, offering a research report by "dropping off a business card on your way out" is not acceptable.

Presentations will be available for download by Online Marketing Summit/ClickZ delegates post conference. You will need permission to release any other information at a session, e.g. handouts or other promotional material.

Presentations style and format
Online Marketing Summit/ClickZ will have a session PowerPoint template available for download for each event. All speakers will be expected to use this template when preparing presentations for an Online Marketing Summit/ClickZ event. Each session will have its own format and if you are unsure, ask the moderator.

Pitching new sessions
Though it's been said many times and many ways, you can't buy your way into a ClickZ speaking role. Attendees come to Online Marketing Summit/ClickZ events expecting to get past the vendor hype and industry spin and learn the unvarnished truth (warts and all!). From time to time, at select events, there may be "sponsored sessions" but those will be clearly labeled as such and are not part of the programming docket.

PR Note: Public relations firms and in-house folks are great, except when they randomly pitch speakers for any topic without consideration for relevance. Know who is out there pitching you and give them direction. The fastest route to not speaking is a well intentioned, ill-informed PR pitch.

Pitching existing sessions
Panelists and sessions for a particular topic may change with each event, even for popular sessions. Simply pitching a session on the basis of having spoken on this topic previously will not guarantee a speaking role. See note above about PR.

Competitive and conflicts
If you own the product or service or have a financial interest in the company you recommend, you have what we in the business refer to as "a bias." If you are asked to speak about a topic that you have close financial ties to, you must disclose the nature of the relationship or excuse yourself from the discussion.

ClickZ is focused on delivering relevant and topical information. The use of presentations or stale content from a competitive event is not permitted at any time.

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