Many conferences have discovered how to get more program for their attendees without raising costs. Finding sponsors for guest speakers is a great resource for meeting planners who need to make the most out of their budget year after year.

The key to finding sponsors for convention speakers is based upon the concept of serving your vendors and customers. Who can you serve? Who among your vendors or member companies wants or needs recognition? Who is willing to invest to make a lasting impression?

Quite often the first step is to begin with who are the prospective sponsors. That is where we began with the paragraph above. If you can find a natural match between the sponsor and the nature of the presentation all the better. Often John has spoken and been sponsored by an insurance company who handles workers compensation coverage.

Next, put together a package that covers the investment you will be making to bring in an outside speaker of quality. Some of the items that can be included are the speaker's fee, expenses such as airfare and hotel. Also, it is fair to include costs to cover the time your association executive needs to spend on obtaining a speaker and briefing them on what they need to know. You can sell sponsorships of the individual parts to lower the investment.

Include in the package the recognition the sponsor will receive. Will they get their name mentioned in the program or in the introduction of the speaker? John has done much better for many associations by putting the sponsoring company's name in the presentation. He can even put in their message or theme. He is an expert at doing this at corporate events.

Additionally, if they really want to make an impact, copies of John's book can be purchased to give to the attendees with the company actually having their message printed into the opening page of the book.

Diane Weiss can assist you in putting together a package that will be attractive to companies who can benefit by sponsoring your conference speaker.
Call her at (800) 588-9419 or (209) 745-9419