Finding & Organizing Speakers

Setting up a well-attended talk on your campus is not difficult, but it does require some advanced planning. This list will walk you through the basic steps. Be sure to start a couple months in advance.

Step 1: Find a speaker & set a date

There are a number of ways to go about finding a speaker. If your organization is on a tight budget, consider asking a well-known faculty member who is knowledgeable about energy issues to speak. Or see if there is any alumni connection that you could use.

Environmental non-profit organizations, such as the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and others often have someone on their staff who would be willing to speak. Another good resource is the Greenhouse Speakers Network, which is a database of speakers on global warming.

More high-profile speakers will be more difficult to book, and you would have to start earlier. A short list of renowned energy speakers follow, but contact our energy team for more ideas:

Amory Lovins: founder of Rocky Mountain Institute
Bill McKibben: journalist and author of The End of Nature
Ross Gelbspan: journalist and author of The Heat is On
Bill McDonough: architect and founder of McDonough-Braungart Design Company
David Orr: environmental studies professor (Oberlin) and author of Earth in Mind
Adam Werbach: founder of the SSC

Try to set the date during a week when there aren’t a lot of other events going on at your campus and students don’t have a lot of exams coming up. However, you may have to be flexible about the exact date since speakers usually have busy schedules.

Another option is to check with the SSC Speakers Bureau. We are in the process of developing a network of activists who are willing to go speak at other schools about campaigns they have won in the past. It is a work in progress, but check it out on the Conservation Department page.

Step 2: Reserve a location

Don’t wait until the last minute and find out that there’s no room of the appropriate size on the date that you need! To find out how to reserve a location, talk to someone you know who has planned an event before. Or you may be able to find out who is in charge of scheduling rooms for the university or the building you want by looking on your school’s website.

Step 3: Secure funding

A speaker, unless it’s a professor at your school, will most likely charge some sort of honorarium. For a high-profile speaker, this can be in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. Be prepared. Also, expect to pay travel expenses and make sure you’ve arranged for someone to pick up the speaker at the airport or train station. You may need to find a place for the person to spend the night; this means either paying for a hotel room or finding some sort of on-campus housing if that’s acceptable to the speaker.

If your organization is on a tight budget, look for sources of funding at your university. Approach other organizations, including possibly the student government, to see if they would be willing to co-sponsor the event and contribute some money. There may also be funds for special events that you can apply for money from. Approach academic departments, such as the Environmental Studies department, for funding too.

Step 4: Publicize, publicize, publicize!

Starting a week or two in advance, get the word out! Publicize via email lists, ads in the school and town papers, flyers, posters, etc, etc.

Step 5: Wrapping up

Make sure you thank the speaker, take care of expenses and help clean up the event site. This will make everyone happy and allow for good connections if you want to bring another speaker in the future.

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