The speaking world is full of forms and contracts – the two most important are the contract that you will fax to the meeting planner you have accepted and the preprogram questionnaire that you send to the planner before the event.
Your credibility is at stake with each of these documents – they must be very professional.
This is an example reservation contract:
Reservation contract
____________________________________________ (ABC
Corporation) has agreed to hire ________________ (speaker)
to speak at the convention at ______________ (time) [19659002] _____________________________ (location) on
_______________ (date.
Policies for deposit and cancellations:
o A 50% deposit is required upon returning the signed contract.
o In case of cancellation Ms. Speaker will rebook the program from the program
o a mutually favorable date without penalty. Due to possible loss of revenue to the speaker, a penalty that is non-refundable will be charged less than 30 days prior to the event if this date is canceled.
Travel and accommodation:
o All rates are as stated, plus travel expenses. Ms. Speaker books the full air tickets and the costs are billed after the program is completed. The flight price is always proportional when the itinerary involves several customers.
o The accommodation, meals and transport by road are invoiced directly to your organization.
Support Material:
o Please note that speaker materials, written, oral or visual, are copyrighted and may not be used or reproduced without the written consent of the speaker.
o Handouts of participants are invoiced separately.
Audio / Visual
o No recording, audio or video can be made without the
prior written permission of the speaker.
o The speaker reserves the right to make books available
and A / V materials for sale or viewing purposes to the participants with the approval of the customer.
Although it is the standard practice that the customer covers travel and accommodation costs, some speakers ask a fixed amount to cover expenses where travel is involved. It ensures less paperwork and is something that the customer can process in advance in the budget.
I recommend a fixed fee policy because it means that payment for expenses is included in the final check you receive on the day of your speaking engagements.
Another advantage of having a fixed tariff policy is that there is no
unpleasant surprises for the customer long after the event is over and they receive
a colossal bill for expenses.
No matter how you decide to handle expenses, it is important to inform customers in advance and be consistent with each customer.
After recruitment, you must send the customer a pre-program questionnaire to help you adapt your speech to the needs of this particular group. This questionnaire must relate to matters such as confirming time, date and location of your speech, Calendar of the program, or other speakers before or after your speech present, Theme of the conference, expected number of attendees and other information you will help do a better job on the stage.
Professional contracts will make your work much easier and make you look professional – what you are of course!