Keynote Goals: Application vs. Inspiration

I’ve noticed a shift in many of our recent planning calls. Meeting planners still want an engaging speaker who can tell a great story, command a stage and create energy in the room. Increasingly, however, I’m hearing words like applicable, actionable, tools, learning, takeaways and change. The question is becoming less about whether the audience will enjoy the keynote and more about what people will actually do differently because they heard it. Planners want attendees to be able to take something back to work and use it on Monday.

That’s especially true when an organization is trying to address a specific performance or knowledge gap. Maybe the sales team is missing its goals, an industry is experiencing major disruption, or leaders need to navigate significant organizational change. Maybe AI, cybersecurity, innovation or customer experience has suddenly moved from an interesting topic to an immediate business priority. Those situations create an opportunity for a speaker to provide practical tools, tips, formulas, frameworks and specific ideas that attendees can apply to the challenges they’re facing. In those cases, the keynote needs to accomplish more than simply creating a memorable hour.

Speakers should also think about how they can extend the life of their message beyond the stage. A memorable exercise, workbook, brief action plan, book, toolkit or even a well-designed place for attendees to capture their notes can turn a 60-minute keynote into something that continues after everyone goes home. The best takeaway doesn’t necessarily need to be complicated. It simply needs to give the audience a way to remember the message and put it into action. If the planner is hiring a speaker to help create change, the value of the keynote should not disappear when the ballroom doors close.

That doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up on the traditional inspirational keynote. In fact, I love a great inspirational speech, and there are times when inspiration is exactly what an audience needs. Every audience member experiences an inspirational story through their own unique lens because we’ve all faced different challenges, experienced different setbacks and persevered through different circumstances. A story may profoundly affect one person while someone sitting two seats away thinks, “That was fascinating, but I’ve never experienced anything like that.” That’s okay because inspiration is inherently personal.

The key is understanding when inspiration serves the event best.

Imagine an audience that has spent an entire day absorbing industry information, technical training, company initiatives, serious business news and new processes. They’ve been thinking, taking notes and being given things they need to go home and do all day long. Sometimes the last thing they need is another 14-point action plan. A great inspirational keynote can give that audience permission to sit back, listen, laugh, think and feel something.

The same can be true for company celebrations, recognition programs, fundraising events and other occasions where creating an emotional experience may be more important than teaching another business skill. That’s why I don’t think the decision should simply be, “Do we want a motivational speaker or a business speaker?” Instead, ask what you’re trying to gain from the keynote, where it falls in the agenda and what the audience will be feeling when the speaker takes the stage. Is there a significant skill or performance gap that needs to be addressed right now? Are you trying to keep people engaged at the end of a long conference when early flights home are calling?

Ultimately, are you asking the audience to learn something, think differently or feel something? The very best keynotes can accomplish pieces of all three, but rarely do they accomplish all three equally well. Meeting planners should decide which outcome matters most and then find the speaker who is best equipped to deliver it. That’s a much better starting point than choosing a topic simply because it’s popular or selecting a speaker because their video looks impressive. Know what you need the keynote to accomplish before deciding who belongs on the stage.