As a Meeting Planner, much time, thought and attention is given to you and your Team as you go through the selection process in search of your Keynote Speaker for your upcoming Conference. Certainly a Professional Speaker is needed, and much is expected as well. Once that selection is made, a deep sigh of relief and excitement occurs as the contracts are signed.

As you go through the process as you select Professional Speakers for your Break-Out Sessions, much time, thought and consideration is needed here as well. Often, your Break-Out Speakers can determine whether your attendees find the Conference a worthwhile investment of their time, or if the Conference was little more than a nice diversion from their day-to-day activities.

The Break-Out Sessions, and the Speakers you select for them, are where your attending Team Members roll up their sleeves so to speak. This is where they can delve into the material presented and the thoughts offered up for discussion. This is where they can interact and learn from their colleagues and get real tangibles results to the problems they face and can take back to their office or territory to implement as soon as they get back home.

If the right Break-Out Speaker is selected for that Break-Out Session, that is.

The opportunity for your attending Members or Employee Teams to share their knowledge, experience and ideas in a professional setting is invaluable. To share and learn from that experience, your Break-Out Session must be interactive and lead by a Speaker who will not only allow that process to unfold, but also to thrive.

Few Speakers will create that Environment of Engagement. Most will run a lecture format where they feel like the workshop and its content is all about them. Most will feel that since they are running the workshop, that they are the star and the center of attention.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Members and Employee Teams come to your meeting to learn, and primarily learn from each other. They want real life answers to real life issues, and those answers will most often come from your Members and your Employee Teams, not from the Speaker in the front of the room.

To ensure that your Break-Out Sessions deliver their biggest bang for the buck, be sure to hire a Speaker that will allow that to happen. You and your Team Members will benefit long after your event has come to a successful conclusion.