Every CAB in the land is looking for ways to stretch the student activities budget to its limits. As the country goes, so goes the campus. Believe it or not, your speaker can help. By coordinating a few things in advance and taking a few minutes to work with the speaker or their rep, you might be able to cut a pretty sweet deal. Try throwing a few of the ideas below into your standard negotiations and over the course of a budget year you'll see the difference. Book waaaay in advance - The further the better. This has several advantages. Number one, like everyone else as speakers grow in knowledge and experience they tend to raise … [Read more...]

Getting people to show up to your campus event, or almost any event for that matter, is an age-old marketing conundrum - on campus or off. But these days, a seven pound computer can turn you into an 800-pound desktop gorilla if you know the marketing steps to take that are right at  your fingertips. A click here and a click there and student, novice or pro, you can have the word streaming to hundreds of desktops near you. Okay. Here's where the warning flag goes up! An 800-pound gorilla can be a real nuisance, so he'd better be housebroken. In other words, there's a fine line between aggressive marketing and spamming so tread lightly - … [Read more...]

Because your students sit in classes much of the day, attracting a crowd to your lecture or speaker-based event can pose an extra challenge for your campus activities board. Whether you're on the student activities staff or you're a volunteer student leader you can use all the help you can get to make your events worth the fees most college speakers charge. Even facing this challenge, most activities boards overlook the most qualified expert on their team - THE SPEAKER themselves! Believe it or not your speaker cares whether or not you get a good turn-out for your event. Believe me when I tell you that because a standing-room-only … [Read more...]

In the speaking business there's a school of thought that says you always tell your audience everything three times. How do you do that without being redundant? 1) You tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em 2) You tell 'em, and 3) You tell 'em what you told 'em! No, that's not just a clever line in a movie or the punchline to a joke. It really works when you want to drive home your message and make it stick. If you have access to a student email list on your campus, you can put this same strategy to efficient use. By composing a three-part email campaign to promote your campus lecture or event everybody will get the details about your … [Read more...]