Ramblings

When you book a celebrity you initially think it will be a simple process: you soon realise it is not. Here are three key things you should think about when before you start the process of booking on a celebrity.

Timeframe

The timescale you have available is the first thing you think about when you book a celebrity. If you have got your heart set on a certain celebrity, then you will need to put the wheels in motion for their booking as early as possible. This will make sure the celebrity is available on the date you want.

There is nothing more disappointing than requesting a celebrity for a certain date and then being told they are unavailable. If you are going to book a celebrity, contact their agency before you have set a concrete date for the event.

Thinking About Budget

When you book a celebrity, keep a realistic budget in mind. You want to put on a spectacular event, but you don’t want to bankrupt yourself in the process. You might want to consider a similar celebrity to the one you originally earmarked but costs slightly less.

Shop around to different agencies for different quotes if you have got more than one celebrity in mind. It could result in you getting a better deal.

Audience

Booking a celebrity purely on personal preference is risky. Just because you enjoy them, doesn’t mean they are suitable for your audience. Have a chat with the agency about your requirements and see what they recommend. Pleasing your audience should be your main priority.

The safest bet with a diverse audience is a middle of the road celebrity. Risking offence is a dangerous game.

Graduation ceremonies at university are very proud moments for those receiving their degree and the parents or friends who accompany them. The work put in to achieving a degree means walking into a successful career, job prospects that a non-graduate could have or a life changing experience at the very least. The ceremony should celebrate the achievements of the attendees, and well chosen keynote speakers are one of the best ways that this can be done.

Now this may sound like snobbery, but I do not believe that a keynote speaker should be invited to speak at a graduation ceremony if they have not experienced the same academic life as those receiving their degree. Going straight into a job after leaving school is a life completely different than if you choose to go to university for three or four years, and keynote speakers will not be able to relate with their audience if they have not gone through the same experiences.

University life makes you more independent. You are faced with situation where you might be forced to live with people you do not get along with, you have to make new sets of friends and you have to be financially organised to be able to budget your loan or get a part time job to help with living costs. All of these things can only be learnt whilst at university.

When you decide to go into a proper job straight after leaving school, most people still live with their parents for a few months, even years and they have their washing done for them and meals cooked, you have a stable wage which university students do not have and if you do move out you choose the people you are living with. Because unlike the many preconceptions about university students, the majority do not have financial help from their parents, they do it by themselves.

So when it comes to the time when graduation organisers are planning the day, the keynote speakers should be checked to see if they have been to university. Otherwise their audience will be given a speech that has not resonance with their own lives for the past three years.