In my previous job I had to set up a speaker to present at a big annual event. Normally I would contact viable presenters weeks in advance. Although we already had everything in place, right before the big day our speaker notified me that he would no longer be able to attend. It was too short notice for me to go through the same process to find a new speaker, so I thought it might be easier to leverage our original speaker’s network. I asked him to refer a few contacts who might be willing, able and fit to speak at the event, and he did. I spent the entire day reaching out to the referrals on his list and was able to convince a local person to present for us. Because he hadn’t worked with us before, I prepared a number of speaking points for him, shared the program outline and suggested a quick practice run prior to the presentation. Everything went smoothly and the event was a success.
