College of Arts and Sciences

Introducing Guest Speakers

Speaker Introduction: EGO Conference

  • Read & review your guest speaker's book well in advance. 
    • If you need assistance with the book, visit WIU's Malpass Library to see if it's available via interlibrary loan. If unavailable, consult with our Departmental Chair, Dr. Marjorie Allison.
    • Read and took notes on the book.
    • Prepared a ~2.5 double-spaced page (~5 minute) introduction, mainly noting their credentials and summarizing key parts of her book.
  • Submitted introduction to various EGO members and faculty advisor for review and revision suggestions.
  • Met with your guest for dinner before the conference.

 Best Practices For Prep

3 Weeks Ahead: Contact your speaker by email to introduce yourself and ask questions about what to include in the introduction a few weeks before the conference.

  • Ask for all links they wish to have promoted in relation to the event
  • Ask for comprehensive needs list for A/V needs, and check with University Technology to ensure the room can accommodate all hardware, software, apps, internet feeds, etc.
  • Ask your speaker to please send a HI RESOLUTION PHOTO to you and forward it to university relations as soon as possible for the press kit
  • Consider asking university relations for a brief media training to hone your soft skills, boost your vita, and help get to know our WIU university relations professionals
  • View all your presenter's digital materials to ensure they work, you have access to them, can load the presentation and put everything on a backup flash drive

The Night Before: It is incredibly important to have met the speaker before introducing him/her.

  • Discuss the introduction with the speaker with enough time afterwards to revise based on his/her preferences.
  • Practice saying their preferred name, title, credentials
  • Have your speaker's thank you note the night before and have your team sign it. Include the number for university relations in case they have questions about the news coverage.
  • Load up your speaker's digital files on the A/V equipment if possible.
  • Prepare Nametags for all leaders and speakers
  • Prepare sign-in sheet.

Press Kit Final Checklist

Your official "Press Kit" for the conference should include, for each speaker/topic;

  1. A high resolution photo suitable for publishing in newspapers submitted to University Relations
  2. The speakers/books/topic one page bios/summaries in PDF for easy download
  3. Contact Sheet - List all persons able to answer questions about this conference for quotes, comments, filler for news releases, including:
    • Correct Name Spellings
    • major or credentials
    • hometown (so their hometown newspaper can be contacted and promote it)
    • links to relevant blogs, websites, other resources
  4. Put all items in a folder. Compress the folder, and send copies to all presenters, faculty advisor, DGSE, and University Relations.