Business leaders—and the association meeting planners who are planning their annual conferences—are facing confusing and confounding times. In the quest to find answers, associations are focusing on content over celebrity when it comes to booking keynote speakers.

Over the past year or so, Bernie Swain, chairman of the Washington Speakers Bureau has noted a shift toward speakers in three broad areas: world affairs, current events, and business. About 85 percent of his speakers are being booked in those areas, up at least 20 percent from a few years ago. Meanwhile, say Swain and other experts, the popularity of motivational, inspirational, athlete, and celebrity speakers is decreasing.

Why the shift? During times of adversity, people are looking to make positive changes to adapt to the changing environment.

From politics to the economy, from technology to demographics, association members face tough new questions and challenges both at home and abroad. Speakers who offer business insight and in-depth information beyond the media sound bites or headlines provide the most value to today's meeting attendees.

They want innovation, ideas, and strategies to survive in the present economy and grow in the future, says Swain.

When the economy is healthy, it's just the opposite. “We tend to be very superficial about how we look at things,” he says. “Why change when things are going well? If it works, don't touch it.” Three or four years ago, he says, association planners wanted big-name speakers to attract attendees. They weren't overly concerned with the content of the speech.

Now, that big name better say something that's relevant to the audience and helps them in their field or they're not interested. “Today planners say, ‘I need to bring in a Bill Clinton or a Tony Blair, and I need them to talk about this,’” says Swain.

Tom Neilssen, chief executive officer at BrightSight Group, Princeton, N.J., agrees. During the 1990s and most of the 2000s, keynote content was secondary because, for the most part, businesses were doing well. “It's always nice if the audience can recognize the name of the speaker, but in the end, it really is about content over celebrity,” says Neilssen. “Many organizations are recognizing that if they are going to bring a speaker into their meeting and take up 60 minutes or two hours of their attendees' time, the message better help the attendee become a bit smarter, a bit better at what they need to do to navigate these challenging times.”

Five years ago, Michael Frick rarely got requests for economists as speakers. “All of a sudden, they are the hottest group,” says Frick, president at Speakers Platform in San Francisco.

And the economy itself remains a hot topic — especially, says Swain, when speakers “talk about how to get something good out of this economy.” Business leaders, innovators, and visionaries who can help attendees succeed in their jobs are all in high demand, speaking on topics such as innovation, leadership, marketing, and globalization.

Ethics is another hot topic, according to Frick, because of a general breakdown in the trust of institutions, such as government, big business, and Wall Street. Associations with members who are dealing with this consumer uprising and issues of mistrust are looking for speakers to address those concerns.

And this being a particularly volatile mid-term election season, politics is hot right now. However, experts caution association planners to book politicians and political analysts carefully. With a big-name political speaker, you always run the risk of alienating a portion of the audience, so make sure you know your audience, says Frank Candy, president, American Speakers Bureau, Orlando. “Some members might be ecstatic while others might boo them out of the room.”

One way to mitigate that risk is to follow another trend: political roundtables or panel discussions where two or more media or political analysts discuss the issues from the right, left, and center.

Diversity, generational dynamics, and social media also are high-interest topics now. “Speakers and associations alike have to make decisions about what — if any — social media presence they want in meetings, says Andrea Gold, president, Gold Stars Speakers Bureau, Tucson, Ariz.

It's not just social media, says Candy, but technology in general that people want to know about. “Most of the technology that will affect our daily lives in the next 30 years has not been invented yet,” he says.

“Associations are definitely more concerned in general with budgeting for speakers,” Gold says. “Some groups have not skimped. Others have made drastic cuts in their speaker budgets. I have not found a predictable pattern yet among associations.”

Swain says associations aren't moving away from the big-name speakers with direct relevance, but he is seeing them cut back on the number of speakers. Where a few years ago they might book three name speakers, now it's one or two.

In addition to budgets, associations are concerned about accountability, says Frick, with members wanting return on investment. Rather than spend $100,000 on a blockbuster speaker, members would rather see money spent on two or three lesser-known but more compelling presenters.

For a small addition to their fee, keynote speakers can be asked to moderate panels, present workshops, host awards presentations, do a breakout session, or emcee and speak at small VIP sessions, says Tracey Adams, senior account executive at Speak Inc. in San Diego. This way, the association saves on travel expenses. Some associations are even asking speakers to do pre-event webinars, perhaps to promote the upcoming presentation at the live meeting.

Several bureaus say they are seeing an increase in short-term bookings.

For planners, it comes down to efficiency, productivity, and profitability — getting the right speaker who delivers the most ROI.

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