Business Networking For Dummies

Chapter 10

Breezing Through the Ten-Minute Speaker Slot

In This chapter

Understanding why you want to volunteer to be the guest speaker

Identifying the best presentations and crafting one for yourself

Recognising what not to do – even if you think it’s right

They say that talk is cheap, but actually, the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and your passion to a select and supportive audience is priceless.

Handled correctly, the opportunity to speak in front of your networking group is potentially the biggest opportunity that networking offers – not least because many members choose to avoid it.

In this chapter, you set up a strategy for turning yourself into one of the sought-after speakers with a reputation for delivering engaging, enjoyable and educational presentations.

Recognising the Opportunity

When I first started going networking, as a fresh-faced 30-something with no business experience (as opposed to the weathered 40-something with many experiences best described as ‘character forming’ who’s currently writing this chapter), I noticed that the groups had speakers at each event.

At the end of each event, an interesting mixture of persuasion, begging and blackmail took ...