How to Hire a Speaker for Graduation

Graduation is a special time of reflection as students review their educational accomplishments, friendships, good times and other aspects of their time in school. Graduation is a symbol of the completion of one stage of life and the advancement to the next. At the graduation ceremony, high schools, colleges and universities hire graduation speakers to inspire and challenge students. When you hire a good graduation speaker, you are making one final investment in the education and preparation of the students. Read on to learn how to hire a speaker for graduation.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Contract
• Deposit
• Accommodations and travel arrangements

1. Find out what the budget is to hire a graduation speaker. If you have to help set the budget, use the budgets for the previous two years as a starting point.
2. Decide whether there is a certain topic or theme the graduation speaker should address. Depending on the type of school, the speaker may need to be successful in a certain field. For example, the graduation speaker for a performing arts school probably shouldn't run an oil drilling business. A performing arts school would want to use an actor, musician, writer, sculptor or other artist.
3. Look for alumni from your school who have achieved a measure of success in their lives.
4. Consult a company working with a pool of speakers who could speak at your graduation ceremony, such as All-American Speakers Bureau (see Resources below).
5. Determine whether the speaker should provide more entertaining, motivational, political, educational or practical information during the speech. Public speakers specialize in a wide range of information and delivery styles.
6. Review the credentials of each graduation speaker you consider hiring. In today's world, students will research the speaker on the Internet to find out who she is and what she has accomplished.
7. Call the references for the potential speakers. You need to find out how easy the speakers are to work with and how they communicate with an audience like yours.
8. Book the graduation speaker early to make sure you get your first choice. You may need to sign a contract and pay any required deposits to hire a graduation speaker.
9. Set up accommodations and travel arrangements for the guest speaker several months before the graduation ceremony.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to keep this year's budget in the same ballpark as budgets from the previous years. The budget for the speaker will have to be approved by a group of people who probably won't allow a 30 percent increase over last year's budget.
• Talk to other educational institutions similar to yours to find out who they use for graduation ceremonies.