Event Strategy Coaching That Turns Every Keynote and Conference Into Business Development, Not Just Stage Time
Strategic Speaker Growth
Event Strategy Coaching
What You Walk Away With
- Leads you can actually follow up on, not a stack of business cards
- Market insight on where the industry is actually headed
- Partnerships worth pursuing after the event, not just during it
- Customer insights telling you how organizations make decisions on speakers and training, who makes them, and how best to get your foot in the door.
- Competitive intelligence on who else is in the room and what they’re pitching
- Pricing signal on what the market’s really paying right now
- Content for your next keynote, pulled from what you just heard in the room
Every one of these is a Connected-pillar opportunity: information you can only get by being physically in the room, and only if you went in with a plan to capture it.
The Problem
You invest thousands of dollars and days you don’t get back to attend industry events and speaking engagements. You speak. You network. You collect cards. Then you fly home, and the leads go cold, the connections fade, and six months later you can’t point to a dollar it produced.
Is that a charisma problem? No. It’s an execution problem: nobody built a plan for before, during, and after the room.
Two Scenarios, One Strategic Framework
If you’re speaking at the event:
You’re the show, at least for a window after the keynote (assuming it goes well). You’ll be busy. Some of that attention is a great fit for your business. Some isn’t.
The problem? Your time gets chewed up by whoever’s closest, not whoever matters most. Serendipity isn’t scalable.
The opportunity? Build the plan before the keynote, not just after it. If the right people are in one room at the same time, that’s leverage, but only if you know who they are before you walk in.
If you’re attending (not speaking):
No pre-talk nerves, no post-talk obligations. You have full control of your time.
Used well, that time can inform your leads, your partnerships, your suppliers, your pricing, even your next keynote topic. Used badly, it’s just a nicer version of scrolling LinkedIn in a blazer.
Either way, you need the same two things: a plan for who you’re targeting, and a system for capturing what you learn. That’s what this session builds.
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This Is For You If:
You have a keynote booked and want to turn stage time into systematic business development (not just applause and business cards)
OR
You’re attending a high-stakes industry event where the right relationships could change your business trajectory
Either way, you want:
- Strategic preparation, not winging it
- Systematic clarity, not generic networking tips
- A concrete plan, not vague advice
The Cost of Not Executing
Let’s talk about what a missed connection actually costs you, because it’s easy to underestimate a plan you never built.
94% of marketers say their own company fails to turn event leads into real opportunities. That’s the trade show and exhibitor world, not the keynote circuit specifically, but the pattern holds wherever a room full of the right people meets for a few hours and then scatters.
Is that a marketing budget problem? No. It’s a follow-up problem, and if the room had the right people in it, that’s real money walking out the door with them.
Here’s the part that should sting a little: 72% of attendees say they’re more likely to buy from (or hire, or refer) someone they actually met in person, not someone who emails them cold three weeks later. Those “near miss” moments? Those are costing you.
And converting a lead you already made face-to-face is about 38% cheaper than winning the same relationship through outbound sales calls alone. You already paid for that advantage: the flight, the hotel, the time away from your business. The relationship is the expensive part, and you already have it.
For most speakers, one connection is worth thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars. Followed properly over its lifetime, that same connection can be worth hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions. So: are you confident you’re reaching everyone in the room who matters?
How Event Strategy Coaching Works
Step 1: Event Strategy Session (90 Minutes) — $399.90
We map your specific event: who’s likely to be in the room, what you’re trying to walk away with, and what “worked” actually looks like for you.
If you’re keynoting, we cover how to maximize the post-talk window, identify key attendees, and build systematic follow-up.
If you’re attending, we identify high-value targets, design logistics that create opportunities, and set up your information-capture system.
You leave with an actual plan, not a chat and a to-do list you’ll ignore.
Step 2: Ongoing Support (if you want it)
For events where 90 minutes of planning isn’t enough, i.e. multi-day conferences, a major keynote, a launch. I can stay involved before, during, and after the show. Scope and pricing depend on what the event actually needs, and I’ll send a simple proposal, not a 500-page document, once we know.
Why the Methodology Works
I’m Jonathan Dunnett, a Council of Competitive Intelligence Fellow with 18+ years applying intelligence methodology to business development across industries.
The frameworks I use aren’t generic networking tips. They’re intelligence-gathering and relationship-building methods built for high-stakes environments, competitive business intelligence, corporate strategy, and now, events, where understanding your stakeholders accurately, before you act, is the difference between winning and losing.
The proof? Fortune 500 companies run intelligence and follow-up systems before they ever walk into a room. You’re applying the same discipline to your speaking business, just without the enterprise budget or large team behind it.
18+
Years of Experience
Years applying competitive intelligence methodology to business development: the same frameworks that help you understand who matters before you walk into the room.
75+
Events
Events organized, including the first TEDx Moncton, so I understand both sides of the speaker-organizer relationship.
100+
Clients
100+ companies who I have taught how to plan, execute and follow-up events to have higher return on investment and time at events.
I bring a dual perspective: I’ve organized events, and I’ve coached speakers on how to make the most of them. I know what event organizers are actually looking for, because I’ve been one.
What a recent client said after her first combined speaker and exhibitor event
He did not just give me general advice. He helped me build an actual plan I could execute, asked smart questions, challenged my thinking in helpful ways, and gave me tools that made me feel much more prepared and confident walking into the experience. As someone new to this side of events, I felt supported, clear, and far more ready because of his guidance.
Sheryl Raphael Whitaker, ICF-ACC · Keynote Speaker
Amazon #1 Bestselling Author, It Starts With Joy