A cool 20 lakh for a 90-mins session!
The need for talkathon magicians who can mesmerize audiences with ex tempore wordsmithery and real-life experiences has surged.
By Moinak Mitra & Ambika Naithani , TNN |
IT’S talk time, folks! And this time, it revolves around keynote speakers. India Inc is making a beeline to rope in speakers who can make an impact. As the number of events hosted by the companies is on rise every year, the need for talkathon magicians who can mesmerize audiences with ex tempore wordsmithery and real-life experiences has surged. While there’s an acute shortage of homegrown speakers for 90-minute sessions, India Inc doesn’t seem to mind flying down top-notch international names – authors, sportsmen and management gurus . From Intel to Infosys, Metlife to Microsoft, Satyam to Castrol, keynote speakers, both domestic and international, are hot property. And for the record, fees of keynote speakers, such as Shiv Khera, Santhosh Babu, Harsha Bhogle, Piyush Pandey, Pradeep Almadi, Kevin Freiberg and a host of professors from B-Schools vary from anywhere between Rs 25,000 to Rs 20 lakh for a one-and-a half to two-hour session. Tune right in.
It was a balmy July morning in Penang where Infosys hosted its annual Finnacle conclave this year, attended by over 180 top management people. The company called Kevin Freiberg, the author of Nuts & Guts, to address the gathering on the flattening of the world in sync with the IT major’s ‘flat world’ campaign. Freiberg’s motivation speech peppered with global illustrations was greeted with thunderous applause. The author charges about $50,000 for a 90-minute wrap.
Keynote speaking is becoming one of the key elements of corporate events today. “Even companies like Castrol and Metlife are looking for speakers who can make an impact among audiences,” says Showtime Events’ managing director Michael Menezes. Keynote speakers set the tone for any conference and are necessary for closing the event because “people should walk away with an experience , otherwise the content is lost,” observes India’s premier keynote speaker Shiv Khera. “We take around 90 minutes for edutainment while the audience walks away with value-addition and an actionable item,” he adds. On an average, Khera charges Rs 3.75 lakh-Rs 5 lakh per session.
Infosys is not alone as a rash of IT companies, consultancies and banking and financial sector firms are scouting for external speakers to set the tone for a 2-3 day event, or even a day-long offsite. “Companies like GE, most BPOs and banks are increasingly making use of keynote speakers. Banks are using speakers to get their customers on to a common platform since they sell multiple financial products nowadays,” says relationship management firm RAMS’ managing director Sameer Muthreja.
Take the case of another IT behemoth, Satyam Computers. Until now, it has invited a host of diverse speakers from author Robin Sharma to Arun Shourie, Anu Aga to Harsha Bogle, Boman Irani to Brahma Kumaris and even doctors who deal with AIDS-infected patients. “Since there are 42,000 employees , and while a select group can attend the live workshop, we record the sessions for the others to use. On an average, we have about two speakers a month,” says Satyam Learning Centre assistant vicepresident Renu Khanna. “The employees are so bogged down by routine tasks, these speakers are a welcome change for them,” she adds.
The trend seems to have really caught the fancy of the likes of Intel, Microsoft and Dell over the last six months. “Intel has nearly 200 channel partners, and speakers are necessary whenever the company hosts an event for them,” claims Promodom Communications’ Sanddeep Kapur. In Microsoft, there’s no event without a speaker and “whenever speakers bring their own apparatus, they charge more,” contends Microsoft’s marketing manager Sukhesh Madan. So how does the company choose its speaker ? “It really depends on the composition of the gathering. Say, for a gathering of high-end channel partners, we would call top speakers,” he adds. As keynote speaking comes of age in India, homegrown corporates walk the talk, literally.
It was a balmy July morning in Penang where Infosys hosted its annual Finnacle conclave this year, attended by over 180 top management people. The company called Kevin Freiberg, the author of Nuts & Guts, to address the gathering on the flattening of the world in sync with the IT major’s ‘flat world’ campaign. Freiberg’s motivation speech peppered with global illustrations was greeted with thunderous applause. The author charges about $50,000 for a 90-minute wrap.
Keynote speaking is becoming one of the key elements of corporate events today. “Even companies like Castrol and Metlife are looking for speakers who can make an impact among audiences,” says Showtime Events’ managing director Michael Menezes. Keynote speakers set the tone for any conference and are necessary for closing the event because “people should walk away with an experience , otherwise the content is lost,” observes India’s premier keynote speaker Shiv Khera. “We take around 90 minutes for edutainment while the audience walks away with value-addition and an actionable item,” he adds. On an average, Khera charges Rs 3.75 lakh-Rs 5 lakh per session.
Infosys is not alone as a rash of IT companies, consultancies and banking and financial sector firms are scouting for external speakers to set the tone for a 2-3 day event, or even a day-long offsite. “Companies like GE, most BPOs and banks are increasingly making use of keynote speakers. Banks are using speakers to get their customers on to a common platform since they sell multiple financial products nowadays,” says relationship management firm RAMS’ managing director Sameer Muthreja.
Take the case of another IT behemoth, Satyam Computers. Until now, it has invited a host of diverse speakers from author Robin Sharma to Arun Shourie, Anu Aga to Harsha Bogle, Boman Irani to Brahma Kumaris and even doctors who deal with AIDS-infected patients. “Since there are 42,000 employees , and while a select group can attend the live workshop, we record the sessions for the others to use. On an average, we have about two speakers a month,” says Satyam Learning Centre assistant vicepresident Renu Khanna. “The employees are so bogged down by routine tasks, these speakers are a welcome change for them,” she adds.
The trend seems to have really caught the fancy of the likes of Intel, Microsoft and Dell over the last six months. “Intel has nearly 200 channel partners, and speakers are necessary whenever the company hosts an event for them,” claims Promodom Communications’ Sanddeep Kapur. In Microsoft, there’s no event without a speaker and “whenever speakers bring their own apparatus, they charge more,” contends Microsoft’s marketing manager Sukhesh Madan. So how does the company choose its speaker ? “It really depends on the composition of the gathering. Say, for a gathering of high-end channel partners, we would call top speakers,” he adds. As keynote speaking comes of age in India, homegrown corporates walk the talk, literally.
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