Organise and Host Speaking Events or Conferences

Speaking events are meetings in which many people gather in order to talk about ideas or problems related to a particular topic. Start your own business organizing speaking events or conferences.

Starting out
The best way to start out in this business is to choose a topic, particularly one you are familiar with, find a venue and then find guest speakers. You can then host an event monthly or twice a month if it is a small affair. Let’s say your topic is IT, and then every event can deal with a different item related to IT.

Then you have to find guest speakers, which is not too difficult as speaking engagements allow speakers to position themselves as leaders in their field, so they will use it as a business tool. These events are also good for networking.

The best venue starting out is to choose an intimate place, like a comedy club that accommodates a limited amount of people and plan around that. The place must not cost too much to rent as you will have other expenses such as refreshments as well (unless you can find a sponsor for that).

Business model
The best business model is to find a corporate sponsor to sponsor your events. In exchange you will have to have their branding at the venue. The sponsor has to be related to your topic. While large conferences are able to charge an entry fee, starting out you going to offer free entry as you will have to tell your sponsor how many people are going to be there.

Besides sponsorships you can also sell advertising space within the venue or space where companies can demo products.

If you run a speaking events business you can also branch out into business networking events as the same equipment (projectors, sound) can be used for both types of events.

More Information
Organizing A Public Speaking Engagement
Organising a Conference? Here are 10 Things the Speakers Want You to Keep in Mind
12 Professional Speaker And Public Event Planning Tips