How to prepare speakers for a live event without chasing documents

Ask for less, ask once, and make the asking automatic. Most chasing exists because speakers are asked for things they cannot easily provide, at a time that does not suit them, through a channel that loses replies. Reduce the ask to what you genuinely need, send it from the system that holds their session, and let the reminders be automatic rather than a job on someone's list.

Start by cutting the list. Most speaker forms ask for material that is never used, and every unnecessary field is a reason not to reply today.

Confirmed availability

The session time and date, acknowledged. Everything else is worthless without this.

Name as it should appear

For the lower-third, the agenda and the signage. Ask once, use everywhere.

A biography, short

Give a word count and an example. "A short bio" produces either two lines or two pages.

A headshot

With the minimum dimensions stated. Most re-requests are about resolution, and stating it up front removes the second round.

Slides, if any

With a genuine deadline and a stated reason for it. "By Friday so we can test it on the screen" gets a better response rate than "by Friday".

The timing matters more than the wording. A request that arrives when a speaker cannot act on it becomes an email they intend to return to, which is the same as an email they did not read.

Ask for confirmation and the name at the point of invitation, when they are already thinking about you. Ask for the biography and headshot once the session is confirmed and public — the incentive is obvious then. Ask for slides last, with a deadline tied to a real technical step rather than an arbitrary date.

A proportion will not respond regardless of how good your process is. Senior speakers, in particular, often have someone else handling their diary and no visibility of your emails at all.

Plan for the non-responder. They are not an exception; they are a category.

Practically: have a default for every field. A house-style biography drafted from their public profile, ready to be corrected. A placeholder lower-third with just their name and organisation. A slot in the running order that works with no slides. Then a single, direct, personal message close to the event — not a fifth automated reminder, which they have already learned to ignore.

EventBlok builds the speaker preparation pack against the session itself, so what a speaker is asked for is tied to the slot they are actually in, and what comes back lands on the record the agenda and showflow already read. A speaker sees their own time, room, who introduces them and when to arrive, rather than a generic brief.

The reasoning behind that approach is in a better way to prepare speakers for the room.

Founder, EventBlok. Live, hybrid and broadcast producer, showcaller and technical director, in production since 1996.

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