Welcome to the presener application page.
Thanks for coming to find out more about speaking or being a panelist at the Caribbean Strategy Conference 2022. At this point, you should have garnered the basics about the event from the participant’s perspective by reading the What Is It?, How Does it Work? and How Does it Apply to Me? Pages.
You should also understand that, in addition to fee-based tickets, we also offer limited free passes to certain content and session.
But full understanding of the above may have spurred another question: “What can I gain as a speaker?”
Your Opportunity
The virtual conference takes place on June 23-25, 2022. Anyone in the world can access the event from the Internet on their laptop, tablet or phone. Full registration to all live and pre-recorded sessions requires the purchase of a ticket, but there are free passes to certain events and pre-recorded content. Ticket holders receive a package of video recordings of all pre-recorded and live events.
We have approximately 5,000 possible attendees on our mailing lists. While it’s difficult to predict the number of registrants and actual attendees, every person on our lists will be invited to attend as a paid ticket customer or free pass holder. The latter will be allowed to attend les than 10% of all the sessions.
As one of over 30 speakers, presenters or panelists, we consider you to be a member of the team which is co-producing a specific transformation for each participant. Our goal is ambitious:
- to leave being inspired to create a breakthrough strategy
- to learn how to conduct all the steps to create a game-changing strategic plan
As you may imagine, this requires more than just an information dump. Given the busy nature of senior managers and board members in our target audience, how do we engage each person so that distractions don’t take them away?
We are offering a number of ways for attendees to engage with each other, but the centerpiece is the time they spend with you via your pre-recorded content, or live presence. We’ll show you ways to be as compelling as possible, so they not only get value, but want more of it.
However, you should know: we don’t prepay our speakers. Instead, we offer a commission agreement based on ticket sales to members of their audience who register using a unique link that only you posses. After someone registers, they are linked to your account in our system, and if they purchase a ticket within 30 days, your account is automatically credited with 30% of the sale. After a week or two, a deposit is made straight to your account. (We use a system called Gumroad which allows this to happen.)
How do we know this approach works? This is the sixth virtual, 3-day event we are conducting since 2020 and have paid out thousands in commissions to our speakers. But even if it works perfectly, you still need to determine: “How can participation as a panelist and/or presenter help me reach my goals?
Your Goals
For just a moment, we’d like you to consider both your personal and commercial goals.
Personal goals include the challenge of presenting your thinking to a savvy audience. They’ll want more than basic, introductory ideas they can get elsewhere. In addition, they’ll expect you to speak to the challenge of local implementation, given the significant cultural differences between strategic planning in the Caribbean and other parts of the world. Stepping up to speak at the Caribbean Strategy Conference is no ordinary, everyday undertaking.
Commercial goals may require more thought. What specific measurable results can you commit to accomplishing? Do you want sales of a program? Or more leads for planning meetings? Or expert partners across the region? Or a bump in your professional reputation? All the above?
The reason to be clear is that when you complete the application you’ll be asked to choose to engage in certain activities, each of which is designed to accomplish specific goals. You’ll need a strategy to make the most of this opportunity.
At the moment, you may not be clear how you want to participate. Here are your choices.
- prepare a pre-recorded video. These are available for 36 hours each to ticket-holders, and included in their package of replays
- join a live panel. These real-time sessions include Q&A interactions with a live audience. You could be a member of the panel or the moderator.
- deliver an interactive session. In the face-to-face world these are called speeches! The best sessions include engagement with the audience from start to finish, making them challenging.
But above all, beyond the mechanics, we want to help you showcase your best ideas.
Over the years you have been thinking about topics related to strategic planning, and even sharing them with your friends. But you haven’t had an audience of smart leaders to share with. In this conference, we want you to escape the “hear this before” feeling that audience members have when they only see conventional wisdom, stale cliches or tired memes. We’ll suggest ways to grab their attention and hold it, regardless of the communication mode you’re using.
Beyond these main activities, there are a host of others you can use to engage members of the audience, such as:
- attending the event live as an active audience member during presentations on Airmeet.
- meeting other participants during Networking Sessions, in “table mode” on Airmeet.
- bringing your personal audience to the event so that your followers respond when you engage.
- joining the 24 hour per day event chat. (We may use the Volley app, and continue its use after the conference.)
- making a list of speakers you want to meet.
If you use these items skillfully, you’ll meet more of your personal and commercial goals. But it does take preparation. You may not be immediately familiar with all aspects of these five strategies. There’s a learning curve. After hosting hundreds of speakers, we have seen many make the most of the opportunity, while others floundered due to lack of foresight and advanced skill.
Virtual presenting has its own skillset, which must be mastered to meet your goals.
Do you have an idea of the topic you want to tackle? You may already be prepared to apply to speak! Even if you are sure you know, take a moment to read over our page of recommended topics.