Fair Trades for "Free Speaking"
By Lynda Curtin

For a variety of reasons some salaried business people regularly ask business people who make income from speaking to speak for free. There are also some conference organizers that make a very good living running conferences that charge attendees hefty registration fees to attend but who will not pay speakers to present at their conferences. 

These business people will tell you that just by speaking at their event you will instantly land lots of great new paying clients. As a business person you need to carefully consider these "free" engagements. You could land new paying clients if the audience is filled with people who are actually responsible for making decisions on hiring speakers/trainers/consultants/facilitators, and they need what you have to offer.

If the engagement does make sense for you use the following fair trades for free speaking list to help you obtain real business value in return for your professional preparation to speak. After all, their success depends on your performance. 

Fair Trades for Free Speaking

1. Travel expenses reimbursed
2. Presentation scheduled at the time of day you request
3. Necessary audio/visual equipment provided at no additional charge to you
4. Room set-up to meet your needs
5. Your speaker introduction read exactly as written 
6. Two free conference registrations - invite a client to attend with you
7. Publish one or more of your articles in their newsletters
8. Give you free membership in their association
9. List your services for free in their association vendor listings
10. Link to your website in their conference brochure 
11. Provide you with a free ad in their conference proceedings
12. Publish your contact information and your handout in the conference proceedings that all attendees receive
13. Provide you with a free exhibitor booth or table at the conference
14. Provide you with a table to sell your books, tapes, videos, etc. 
15. Write a testimonial letter to you after the event that you can use to attract new clients
16. Provide you with the mailing list of all conference attendees
17. Provide you with the email addresses of all conference attendees
18. Provide you with as many conference brochures as you want to mail to your hot list
19. Send you the conference brochure via email as an attachment, likely Acrobat PDF, that you can post on your website
20. Provide you with a list of 3 potential clients to contact who would benefit from your services
21. Provide you with free enrollment in any pre or post conference workshop that you want to attend for your own professional development

If the conference organizer is not reasonable in response to your requests you will have to decide if it is worth your effort to help them deliver a successful conference.