For an in-person event coming up, I discovered the client wasn’t expecting my “Quiz Show”, but, instead, a keynote. These are very different services.

I had been requesting a call with the client who the booker said was very busy and tough to nail down.

If I had arrived at the conference expecting to perform my interactive Quiz Show, which is comedy and trivia, and was asked present one of my keynotes, could I have shifted gears on the fly? Yes. But, the potential for the event to be a stellar success would have been compromised.

We only discovered the miscommunication in email exchanges as I was trying to schedule the call. In the end, once we had our meeting, the client was so excited about my Quiz Show for their audience that we changed the program. While they’re getting the show I was erroneously prepping in the first place, a planned Quiz Show is a lot less stressful for event planners than getting one by surprise.

PRO-TIP: Personally speak with the talent you hire for every event.

It might seem unnecessary to schedule a “client-call” when you’re hiring a seasoned pro as the host, entertainer, or speaker for an event. The above anecdote is an example of why I think it’s a recipe for disaster to skip this 20-minute meeting.

Plus, whether you’re planning an event internally, or for another organization, a “client-call” involves the people responsible for booking the talent and the people responsible for the audience who will experience the talent. Every time.

Surprisingly, this kind of “client-call” is something that, as the talent, I’m the one pushing to arrange. Early in my career, event bookers were insistent that I make myself available to have a meeting with the client in advance of any show. I was never reluctant – this is a crucial aspect of a successful program. I’d prefer, in fact, that they also attend.

Time constraints, or past work history together, can suggest this is a make-work, and it may end up being so. For the less common instances when fragmented planning or miscommunication create potential pitfalls in delivering a successful program, the extra time is worth it.

Even when a pre-event meeting has not taken place, the result is most often still fantastic. To achieve success 10/10 instead of 9/10, for me, an opportunity to speak directly with the people responsible for the booking and the audience is the gold standard.

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