 Okay, so doesn't show up for their address. Yeah, that ranks pretty high on a meeting planners stress scale But you have a plan B. Don't you and that's what we're gonna talk about today or some ideas that you can use the next time That your speaker doesn't show up for your event Hey, it's Leanne from conference source net and folks we've all been there when we've attended conferences and a speaker just doesn't show up for one reason or another be it traffic Or airline delays or illness But we're in this interesting time right now in meeting planning where Unconventional event design now becomes the norm So we're able to take some liberties and really create some interesting opportunities when we find ourselves with an Unexpected gap in our programming. So that's what we're gonna look at today Or just five really quick and easy things that you can create as a plan B in case one of your speakers doesn't show up Idea number one create a panel discussion It wouldn't take much for you to rearrange the stage and have five chairs up there with some microphones And all of a sudden start an engaging panel discussion now again If you're going to plan for this in advance Approach those panelists in advance even approach a moderator with a list of questions So that this is something that can almost be slotted in Seamlessly now you can do this in a breakout room as well But it's a great fit for a keynote session if your keynote address doesn't show up idea number two create a networking opportunity now I did a blog post and video about positive Networking you can view the video up here But again turning a room around to create some pods for networking And even kind of throwing a discussion point out to the crowd to talk about while they're meeting with one another We all complain that we don't get enough time to network at these busy conferences So now we've created this opportunity right in the middle of the event for your delegates to use idea number three Facilitated round tables now similar to number one This is something you want to prep in advance But if you can identify some hot topics and then have each round table a moderator that can facilitate dialogue around that hot topic and leave it with delegates to find a Place where they want to discuss and they can move to different tables throughout the session to see what people are talking about I know we've done this at our conferences And it is wildly successful because you can drift in and out of conversations as you like and you can attend Sessions for as long as you want or attend topics for as long as you want at a facilitated round table idea number four identify popular sessions and make room Sometimes you don't even have to create new programming to fill this void You've already got strong programming in fact You might have some sessions that are so overattended or in demand that you can Nicely ask that session speaker if they can do a repeat session in that time slot So if that fits with your timing, that's a brilliant way to get the content that people want out to more delegates Idea number five similar to number four if you now have a large room that you can accommodate more delegates Just condense two of those sessions into one room and have that speaker speak to a larger audience Again, you need to play with that one and see if it's good for a larger audience But maybe you can bring one of the conference's most popular sessions into the keynote room and have them deliver something right from the main stage now programming is such a controversial topic in our industry and in fact one of the best posts I've ever seen on this topic was done by event MB and if you want to check out that post Please do visit the blog post for this video because there's a link to an article that even then MB did about Challenging the way we think about our programming so it's not even the mechanics of how but more the mechanics of why so I encourage you to read that article So meeting planners, I'd love to hear from you What ideas do you have for your plan B if a speaker doesn't show up for your event? Would you share them with the community here? So while it's tempting to go completely postal the next time your keynote speaker is stuck in traffic Not to fear me meeting planner We've got some ideas and we've got you covered and if you need more Stress-reducing ideas to help you with your day hop on over to conference source net Look for the meeting planning category and we've got articles in there that we're building on all the time just for you Thanks for watching this week's video everyone. Have a great week. Bye for now