Standing out from the crowd in a highly competitive environment is a huge challenge. In today's competitive climate - and with the downturn in the economy continuing - marketing and public relations efforts should take the forefront to demonstrate continued viability of the company.

Many companies have recognized the value of holding seminars at which their executives and partners make presentations. The problem with these seminars is that more often than not the speakers are preaching to the choir. The attendees are often from current customers or clients or are already familiar with the company.

What companies should do is expose their expertise and technologies to prospective, not current, customers. How do you accomplish this objective? By speaking at public forums produced by other organizations - at conferences, seminars and forums held by independent associations, professional and industry trade groups, academic institutions and think tanks.

Speaking opportunities for executives represent a strong marketing, public relations and business development tool for the following reasons:

• Attendees get to learn about a company's expertise first-hand and can interact directly with the speaker immediately before or after the presentation. An attendee asking for a business card can be the first step to obtaining a customer. Analysts and press in attendance also present opportunities for add-on exposure.
• They enable your company to gain increased visibility in industry sectors or other areas where you may need greater exposure. The topic can be an established application or technology where the company speaks from a position of strength and is known as a "go-to" company for a particular area. Or it can be an application or technology that is just getting off the ground or at an early stage in its development and needs some fast exposure.
• The company gains advertising by having its name and the executive speaker's name published in the agenda of thousands of brochures and promotional announcements mailed or e-mailed by the event organizers.

Here are some steps your company can take to get its executives out on the speaking circuit.

1. Decide which product or application areas the company should be targeting for increased visibility. In concert with this step, make sure that there are executives in those areas committed to the idea of making public presentations. Some will resist the idea of taking time away from other business activities, so first make sure that you have their full support. If the conference organizer invites an executive to speak only to be turned down, the chances of being invited back are greatly reduced, especially if it occurs with any frequency.

2. Get the right speaker on board. Proposed speakers should be experienced executives and, preferably, experienced speakers. Small companies should nominate their CEO or chief technology officer. Large companies can also nominate staff at the director or manager level, depending on the criteria of the speaking opportunity.

3. Speak to the right audience. Thoroughly research the events for which your company can be proposed as speakers, as solo presenters or as panelists. To maximize the time and expense associated with speaking, you'll need to choose diligently. Identify speaking engagements where the audience represents the type of customers in the types of industries that your company wants to speak to. Decide if your company should speak at only high-profile events or if, for example, speaking to a local chapter of a key industry association would also be of great value. Seek out speaking opportunities with event organizers that would be open to having your company submit speaker proposals, such as independent conference or trade show companies and newly formed associations.

4. Develop an aggressive speaker placement program. It's fine to evaluate unsolicited speaking opportunities, but having someone dedicated to the task who will aggressively identify opportunities, develop relationships with event organizers and write and submit speaker proposals, should lead to an increase in the frequency of speaking engagements and thus increased visibility for both the executives participating in the program and the company as a whole.

5. Decide on the geographic area to target for speaking engagements - locally, regionally, nationally or even internationally.

6. Create high-impact presentations. Audiences want to acquire actionable information they can take back to their companies. A solid, informative presentation that covers applications or technologies and is not product or company-specific will create instant credibility and obviate a sales pitch. A presentation that turns out to be sales pitch represents the kiss of death and will ensure low evaluations by the audience.

7. Learn the process for submitting a speaker proposal to the event organizer. Carefully follow the format established by the organizer for writing a presentation abstract, submitting bios and speaker expertise, previous speaking experience information, and meeting the proposal deadline date. Make sure you tailor the information to each speaking opportunity and the audience that will hear the presentation.

8. Follow up continuously and persistently with the event organizer. Since you will often be competing with several other companies for the same speaking slot, it is wise to follow through.

There are many places to look for speaking opportunities. There are hundreds of major conferences held across the country on dozens of subjects. Speaking opportunities can come from events in different forms, from stand-alone conferences to trade show conferences to small forums with specialized, targeted audiences to college and university-sponsored events.

Local and regional events can include chapters of associations. Or they can be one-day workshops held by independent event organizers or specialized conference producers.

Attending conferences is just as popular a vehicle for networking and education in Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin and South America, and the Middle East as they are in the United States. So if your company is looking to expand its client base overseas, speaking at conferences is an excellent way to gain increased exposure.

By developing an effective speaker placement program for your company, you will have taken a big step in meeting your company's marketing, public relations, and business development objectives.