Who owns the rights to audiotaped or videotaped lectures?

One of the big issues among genealogy lecturers in recent years has been the poor relations between conference audio taper, Repeat Performances and the speakrs it has taped. In my role as VP of the Genealogical Speakers Guild I heeard from several speakers about their concerns during the negotiations, which seem to have failed in the end. So I was interested in this message from Tom Terrific, a motivations speaker on this topic. Tom wrote,

Risk and Hope: The Program Planner’s Headache

Inspiration from an old barn.
On the highway north from home enroute to a speaking engagement I passed a farm so close to the road I could read easily the farm name on the barn: Risk and Hope. I smiled, because it sums up farming on the northern great plains so concisely. Later that night, homeward bound from a rather unhappy event where numbers failed to meet the program planner’s dreams, I passed the farm again and pondered anew the message in the name for people like that program planner, How do we reduce Risk and increase Hope for the program planner?

Can’t Afford the Speaker Fee?

Here’s a common problem for genealogical societies. They want a popular speaker for an event, but cannot afford the expensive fee. What can you offer the speaker to reduce the fee?

The Genealogy Clinic

I spotted a notice in a British genealogical publication that some noted professional genealogist was holding a surgery at a certain time or place. I smiled. My English cousins speak as peculiar a language as my American nieces and nephews, just not the same language. A surgery is an event where you can visit a specialist and discuss a problem or issue. In North American English we often use the term “clinic” the same way.

So what is a Genealogy Clinic and how could it be used?

Negotiating Speaking Fees: The Speakers View

 

Recently, on the Genealogical Speakers Guild list I posed some questions about speakers fees. I was curious about how flexible speakers were on their fees, knowing that a good one hour lecture represents and investment of 50 hours work -time that could be used serving paying clients. And thus a four lecture seminar means a 200 hour investment. At $25 per hour thats a $5000 investment. Speakers were asked if they would barter for part of the fee. I was surprised at the large number of respondants who reduced fees, and how few mentioned bartering for some of the fee. But its the desenters, the speakers who would not budge on fees that made most sense to me.

Negotiating With Speakers

Meet Marsh William Hambrook (1805-1874)  my immigrant ancestor, and by necessity, a pretty fair hand at negotiating a deal, especially to obtain a good horse. Those bargaining skills  are often neglected in our credit card society but are very useful if you are shopping for talented speakers, workshop leaders etc for your library or  genealogical society. Here’s what I mean.

Apprentice Adventures #6

Spent almost three hours with the apprentice on Wednesday. She’s really pumped up from her reading and studies. She’s been finishing an excellent course, “Researching in the Family history Center” developed by Dr. Penny Christensen for the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and has come back every day excited by new discoveries. And while this was great, she was excited to tell me about reading Helen F.M. Leary’s “Problem Analyses and Research Plans” chapter 14 in Elizabeth Shown Mills, Professional Genealogy: A manual for researchers, writers, editors, lecturers and librarians. (Genealogical Publishing, 2001) .  Let me tell you a bit about what she experienced.

Prime the Pump

Here’s a piece of advice for genealogy speakers that may surpise you. When you find a column, article, or blog in an area similar to your expertise, you should write to the author and compliment them. one speaker reports that she begun doing this in earnest and was astounded at the results. The key, apparently, is to sincerely compliment them on something they’ve said, and offer to be a resource for them. However, you need to remain humble. Don’t promote yourself, your book, Web site or blog.

More Reasons to Blog about Your Speaking Engagements

Here are a few more reasons for you to write a glowing review of every lecture or workshop you deliver.

Content generation. By making notes about each speech and recording them on your blog, you are managing your content for future speeches and books. One speaker told me, “I can’t tell you how many times I referred back to old post-speech blog postings to help me with a current project.” I find that intriguing .

Attract new customers. When people read about how you helped a certain genealogy or historical organization, they’re going to say, “Hmmm…I wonder if he could do that for my group? Maybe I should give him a call…” And you’d better believe getting folks to call you about speaking is a whole lot better than making a cold call.

Customer service. By blogging about your speech, the venue, the client and the audience, you compliment your customer. think about that for a moment. Be sure to email your meeting planner contact and invite him/her to read the glowing post. And be sure to link to the host’s web site. It’s the best thank-you note in the world.

Credibility and celebrity. Blogging your lectures results in more credibility for you as a speaker, and enhanced celebrity status when you incorporate all these blogging ideas, especially if other blogs/Web sites link to your post.

So what do you think? I think I need more of these links back to my clients!

 

 

Ryan Taylor: Gentleman, Scholar and Friend

Last Sunday my friend Ronald “Ryan’ Taylor left his Toronto hotel and was not seen by his friends agani. It is believed that the body pulled from the Niagara river on the US side is Ryan. I learned the news on monday, tuesday and wednesday from Ryan’s friends across the continent. I was devasted again each day. Ryan was my friend.