President's Message
by Shayna Stillman

Dear Members,

I’m writing this message just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. and it seems like a good time to think about the many reasons I have to give thanks.

I am very grateful for the wonderful staff we have to support our organization. Our Executive Director Jim Montoya and his associate Pam Bernard do an excellent job of keeping our association on track. They keep us informed and work to ensure the value of membership in IASB. Thank you Jim and Pam.

I am grateful for an active and thoughtful Board of Governors who generously gives their time and effort toward advancing our association and our industry. Thank you to our Board of Governors – Rich Gibbons, Kelly Eger, Kiela Hine, Duane Ward, Rich Tiller and Karen Kendig.

I traveled to Ft. Worth, TX this month to meet with Gail Davis who is our Convention Chair for the 2007 IASB Convention. I am very grateful to Gail for all her work toward creating what I know will be an outstanding program. Please mark your calendar now for April 26-28, 2007 and plan on being in Ft. Worth. You do not want to miss this meeting!

Theresa Beenken continues to do a great job as editor of our newsletter - now a monthly communication that keeps us all better informed. Thank you Theresa!!

As we enter this season of holidays I hope that however you celebrate yours will be happy, festive and safe. Please know your membership is greatly appreciated. Together we are advancing our industry to higher levels of professionalism.

All the best!
Shayna

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Theresa Beenken,
Global Speakers Agency

2006-07 IASB BUREAU SURVEY – RESULTS – BUREAU DEMOGRAPHICS

Are we so very different…or much the same after all? Thanks to all the members who responded to the IASB Bureau Survey. We continued this year’s survey with a section on Bureau Demographics, to better understand benchmarking within bureaus. We were encouraged that over 45 bureaus responded to the survey, resulting in 35%.

A typical IASB member with respect to bureau demographics appears as follows:

1. Been in business for more than 15 years
2. Based in North America
3. Has 1-5 employees
4. Confirms 100-500 engagements a year
5. Compensates sales staff with salary + commission
6. Compensates senior staff between $50,000 - $70,000

How do you benchmark your bureau against this? Are you within or outside of the common parameters? What can we learn from one another?

Here are more specific results:

• Our membership is made up of bureaus with great longevity in the industry. More than 50% of respondents have been in business 15+ years.
• Most bureaus are made up of just a few team members. 37% of respondents had 2-3 making up the business. An additional 20% had 4-5. The 3rd highest single grouping of employee numbers was in the very high range – 11% had 35 or more employees.
• A full 75% of bureaus confirm between 100 – 500 engagements annually. The remaining 25% confirm between 500 – 2000.
• 57% of bureaus compensate sales staff with salary + commission. 28% compensate at 100% commission.
• Average compensation of senior staff members had a wide range. 34% compensated at $40,000 - $60,000, 32% at $60,000 - $100,000 and another 34% compensated at between $100,000 -$125,000+.

Survey results often give rise to additional questions, for greater clarification. Here are a few ideas for consideration or discussion as a result of the Speaker Representation Survey:

• Should we further recognize differences between bureaus and their needs with IASB offerings and education? Clearly there are different types of bureaus in our industry when it comes to staff – small 3-4 person bureaus and larger 20+ person bureaus
• It would be interesting to be able to cross-reference profitability between the larger and smaller bureaus…
• We could make an assumption that the smaller bureaus are also the ones with lower booking numbers and lower compensation and conversely larger bureaus with higher compensation and higher booking numbers, though the results don’t cross reference this, as it is a confidential survey.
• Based on average annual bookings, our bureau respondents are responsible for an approximate total of 21,500 engagements. Using our previous survey results of the majority of speaker fees at an average $7500, we are confirming approximately. $161,250,000 in business a year. (Very raw numbers…would need to further research to come to a better sense)
• A full 96% of bureau respondents are based in North America. Does that reflect our industry or do we need to reach out for members in other countries? Are there more business opportunities outside of North America?

Some of the questions and considerations above hinge on more information, such as: cross-referencing longevity, pay structures, number of staff, marketing investments and more. There’s much to learn from each other in sharing information. How can we be more successful? Respond to future versions of the 2006-07 IASB Bureau Survey and find out.

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Joe Heaps - eSpeakers
Announcing…IASB TalentScout! A new service provided by eSpeakers and IASB

Many of you are probably aware; eSpeakers launched a new service called the IASB Talent Scout. You’ve probably been getting these Talent Scout emails for the last few months. This has been a concept that was suggested to us at the IASB convention a few years ago. We developed the technology and partnered with IASB to release the IASB Talent Scout service to its members. We’ve been IASB’s technology partner for the past 3 years now -- helping bureaus deal with information overload by getting the right technology to the right people at the right time, all written by eSpeakers technology staff.

The Talent Scout service introduces established speakers with new content, and emerging speakers who may be valuable additions to the inventory you offer your meeting planner customers. The Talent Scout service does not cost you anything; it’s a free service from eSpeakers and IASB.

Each Talent Scout email presents a single speaker, with their fee range, topics, complete bio, and links to deeper information if you're interested. You'll be able to see at a glance how long the speaker has been in the business and how much they speak. Best of all you'll be just one mouse click away from watching their streaming video if you choose. There's never been a faster way to find out if a speaker will be a valuable addition to your business.

We hope that you'll encourage speakers to use this mechanism instead of putting together physical media kits that cost them a lot of dollars to send and cost you a lot of time to process. Talent Scout is an electronic media kit that cost the speakers not even ¼ of a physical media kit. eSpeakers and IASB will be creating a new Talent Scout website where all IASB members can refer speakers to for review. This website will launch in the next few months. Once live, we’d encourage you to refer speakers to it as much as possible to help build it.

How often will you be receiving Talent Scout emails? Because we value your time, we've set policies that ensure you won't ever be deluged:

* The fastest that you'll ever receive Talent Scouts is 1 every 4 business days; there may often be longer space between them, but there won't ever be less
* You'll never see the same speaker twice in a year
* If you'd prefer not to scout for new talent, you can easily opt-out by clicking a link at the bottom of every email
* We've even got plans for a future enhancement that will let you receive only Talent Scouts about speakers whose subject or experience level matches what you request

The response from the speaking market has been tremendous. We have a long list of customers who have their information waiting in line to send to you. So, watch for your next Talent Scout in your inbox, and please let me know if there are other ways we can help you grow your bureau business. You may reach me at jheaps@espeakers.com or call (888) 377-3214.

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Membership News/Please Welcome Our Newest Members

Powell Kohne Associates, LLC
Ms. Blanche Powell
Ms. Maggie Kohne
Springfield, VA
703-866-9307
blanche@powellkohneassociates.com
maggie@powellkohneassociates.com

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Nando Parrado, Opening Speaker for the IASB 21st Annual Convention

Nando Parrado, international best selling author and speaker, will be the opening speaker for the IASB 21st Annual Convention, April 26-28, 2007. The convention will be held in Fort Worth, Texas.

Nando’s book, Miracle in the Andes, was published on May 9, 2006, and debuted as number 10 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience this true story of triumph of the human spirit.

In addition you will have the opportunity to hear from Clyde Fessler. Former vice president of Business Development for Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Clyde played an integral part in their dramatic turnaround.

But that’s not all, we will have a Star Wars type panel to answer the question: What will A Speakers Bureau Look Like in 2012: Who Wins? Who Looses?

All this and more, don’t miss this terrific opportunity. The 2007 Convention theme is “Imagine-Lead-Connect.”

For hotel reservations contact the Renaissance Worthington Hotel at 800-468-3571. The room rate is $163.00 (single/double) plus tax.