Obtaining Guest Speakers For Users Groups?

sdweber asks: "I am the president of the LUG here at Lehigh University. Many members of the group have expressed an interest in having a guest speaker or speakers come in and talk about Linux, Open Source, or other geek-friendly topics. Looking for a good speaker, however, is proving harder than I thought. There are a few big names that come to mind quickly (ESR, RMS, and others) but beyond that I'm not sure where to look. Has anyone had a good/bad experience with guest speakers? Who are some good people to chase down? Of course, being college students, we don't have a whole lot of money to offer the speaker, but there are plenty of interested listeners eager to learn. Any suggestions?"

Comments

Getting speakers: Go through the P.R. department

[tgeller]

Funny you should ask this, because I'm on the other side of the equation: I'm a public relations flack looking for speaking engagements for executives at two client companies (Topica and one other I can't announce yet).

For small organizations (i.e., under 25 full-time staff people), you can probably contact the proposed speaker directly. You might have to go through a secretary: Be courteous and follow their rules. The speakers will probably make arrangements themselves.

Organizations of 25-75 people often have a dedicated Public Relations Manager to handle such things: Ask for them. They in turn might send you to a freelancer or small agency, who'll make the arrangements.

With companies of this size and bigger, they probably won't be interested unless:

1. You can deliver audience members who are in their target markets
2. You can deliver large, high-profile audiences ("opinion leaders"), and/or
3. The talk is convenient for them.

In short, you'll have a hard time getting someone to get on a plane to appear before your 20-member User's Group. :)

Finally, for bigger organizations (75+ full-time staff), you may have to deal with the organization's P.R. firm. Go to their Web site, look under the "About us" button, then to the "Press" section. If they don't list a press contact, look for contact names and numbers on press releases.

Don't be discouraged if they turn you down, and feel free to pester them if they don't return your emails and phone calls within a week. Good luck!

--Tom Geller
President, Bandwidth P.R.

It's a very simple concept

[OlympicSponsor]

To get speakers, you need members. Speakers don't generally want to come to talk to the 5 guys who live in your dorm and run Linux.

And how do you get members? Basic common courtesy. Pardon me while I go on a rant for a moment: I've only lived in my area for a year so I don't know a lot of people. Last night, I went to a LUG meeting that was a complete disaster (from my point of view). I show up and sit down at the table (dinner first, then speaker). No one asks me my name, no one tells me their name, no one has name tags, no one explains what's going on (even as simple as "once everyone gets here we'll do introductions, etc"). We sit around and try to hear one another over the noise for 30 minutes and then order dinner. Again, no explanation of how we are going to be paying, etc. We eat. At 7:00 we go upstairs and participate in much unexplained activity (handing out tickets for what turned out to be a raffle later, making in-jokes, etc). Speak for a while and then out.

If all I wanted a LUG for was technical information, I'd browse a website on the same topic and save myself the drive and price of dinner. I want a LUG to be a social group--talk about Linux issues, make local connections, etc. I know I wasn't the only new person there because I saw one or two one-off intros going on--but no concerted effort to make people welcome. I felt like I was attending a stranger's wedding.

I'm not a total socio-phobe myself--I was looking alert and interested in conversations, making eye-contact and even contributing comments. But only two people bothered to even ask my name and I'm pretty sure one of them was a new guy. Sure, I could ask names first--but shouldn't it be the function of the LUG to make visitors welcome and not the other way around?

(As a sidenote, why is there always one of those smart-alecky geeks with the nervous sniff and inability to shut up when he is wrong in any group of computerphiles? Somebody smack those idiots.)
--
An abstained vote is a vote for Bush and Gore.

linuxresources.com speaker's bureau

[dmorin]

Although the URL now redirects to linuxjournal, www.linuxresources.com used to maintain a list of people who could/would speak on Linux subjects. I notice in the table of contents that it's still there under the new ownership.

DO NOT BOOK ESR (was "Re:ESR")

[pergamon]

I was involved with a local ACM chapter and LUG who co-sponsored an event (not in an official capacity, so I do not represent the views of either). We had several speakers, but ESR was the "draw". We had a tiny budget going into it, but did just have enough to fly ESR in and out. All the arrangements with ESR were finalized many months in advance.

As is the tradition, we decided to try to sell T-Shirts to help pay for things. I paid for these out of my own pocket. More on this later.

I happened to be the person with a car who had the lightest schedule that day (I'd only have to miss one class to pick him up), so as soon as my class was out I picked up the person who had arranged ESR's visit and we drove the 80 miles to the airport as quickly as possible.

When we got to the airport, we searched the airport from top to bottom. No ESR. We talked to a series of airline employees trying to find out if they had any idea what happened to him. About an hour after we got to the airport we finally got someone to tell us that he never got on the plane. After more inquiry to see if he had for some reason switched flights (he didn't) and after checking voice mail to see if he had let us know he wouldn't be there (he didn't) we drove home.

Then I spent about an hour trying to get him on the phone. Here's a little tidbit: most people who answer phones at VALinux don't even know who he is, and those who do don't have ANY idea how to get in touch with him.

I finally gave up and went to class. Later (much later) that afternoon, we finally got an email from him. His explanation was that he "forgot", but that if we would buy another ticket for him he still MIGHT be able to make it. This was about 16 hours before the symposium was scheduled to start. Even if we could have gotten tickets at that point, we wouldn't be able to afford them.

Being the honest people we are, we notified everyone that ESR would in fact not be attending. As a result, there are still 90 T-Shirts left over (anyone want to buy one?).

[Luckily, another person involved in the event (thanks Andy!) got a hold of someone to fill in (who did a great job), which combined with the rest of the talks we had made a great conference.]

Only pay for his trip, eh? Let's see:
Plane tickets: $350
T-Shirts: $400 - $100 for the t-shirts we actually sold
Other: ~$150
PLUS at least two people wasting 10 hours combined just on ESR arrangements.

What did we get? Not a damn thing. I'm still out $400.

Thanks a lot ESR.

The antidote

[Eck]

There's a group in Michigan (Ann Arbor), which I miss very much now that I've moved away, with a meeting format that goes a LONG way to overcoming most of the problems you've cited. They're a smallish group, but still get some great presenters. The format is:

• "Welcome and Abuse of New Members"
  • (This is an opportunity for the moderator to welcome new members; the "abuse" has been a joking misnomer all the years I've gone...)
• Administrivia (getting announcements and logistics out of the way)
• The Question Session
  • Note: Important point! No answers are allowed yet. The questions are written up on a whiteboard or flipchart.
• Presentation
  • Generally an invited speaker.
  • Generally followed by a break for pop & cookies.
• Answer Session
  • Now the questions get answered. This has two really good effects: First, everyone has gotten to ponder the questions, if subconsciously, all during the presentation. Second, people interested in the questions have extra incentive to stick around for the presentation, even if it doesn't closely match their interests. The latter point goes a long way in giving the group a good reputation with presenters.
• "Rumors and Innuendo" and the gradual disintigration of the meeting...
• Lastly, a lot of the group go to a post-meeting chat at a local bar.

Now I've just gotta get a similar group started in the town where I've moved...