Designing Big General Sessions

Wednesday, Nov. 9, 9:45–10:55 a.m.
Presented by Jeff Hurt, Director, Education and Engagement, Velvet Chainsaw Consulting

Finding the right keynote presenter that has content specific for your conference audience is frequently as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. Many times the content experts are not the greatest presenters. Yet the good presenters don’t have any content of value to the attendees. So what do you do? How can you design conference general sessions that are relevant to your audience? How can you use recognized experts with poor delivery skills? What expectations does your audience have from a general session? Attendees to this session learn audience expectations from general sessions, discuss strategies for using speakers, emcees and content experts, and identify how to apply adult learning and attendee engagement principles to ballroom presentations. Jeff Hurt has worked in the events/nonprofit arena for more than 20 years as a consultant, trainer, writer, professional development manager, and director of education and events, as well as been on the board of directors for several national charities and organizations.