Speak at One Event This QuarterOne Event 19 October 2026 · 3 min read · 425 reads
Marketing · Communication · Business
Speak at One Event This Quarter One Event
One talk on a stage can do more than months of posts. Pick a small event, choose a topic and follow up well.
A post is easy to scroll past. A person standing in front of thirty people for ten minutes is hard to forget.
Speaking at an event does something posts cannot. The room is quiet. People came to listen. They see how you think, how you
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answer
questions
and
whether
you
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craft.
That
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lot
of
trust
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short
time.
The goal here is small: one talk, this quarter. Not a keynote at a huge conference. Think smaller.
Start small on purpose
Look near home first. Industry meetups, trade associations, small business groups, local colleges, chambers of commerce, coworking spaces. Many of these run regular events and look for speakers. Their audience is small, which is good for a first talk. You get practice, and the people there are often exactly your kind of customer.
Make a short list of five places. Check each one's website or social page for upcoming dates and a contact person.
Choose a topic people can use
The topic should help the audience, not sell to them. A good test: could someone in the room do something useful tomorrow because of what you said?
- Pick one problem your customers struggle with.
- Teach one way to solve it, with a real example.
- Keep it to three points. Ten minutes is short.
For instance, a bookkeeper might give a talk called "Three Money Mistakes New Shop Owners Make." That is an invented example, only to show the style. It is specific, it helps, and it shows the speaker knows the area.
Send a short pitch
Organisers are busy. Keep your message to five lines: who you are, your talk title, what the audience will learn, how long it takes, and why you are a good fit. Offer to adapt it. Attach nothing heavy.
If you hear nothing in a week, send one polite follow-up. Then try the next place on your list.
List five eventsMeetups and groups
Choose one topicUseful, three points
Send a short pitchFive lines
Book the dateThen rehearse
After the talk
Most of the value comes after you step off the stage. Do these things within two days.
- Thank the organiser and ask if they would like you back.
- Share your slides or a one-page summary with the attendees.
- Connect with the people you spoke to, with a short note that mentions something from the chat.
- Turn the talk into content: a post, a short video, a few lines from the best point.
Keep your ask light, too. A line like "If it would help, I'm happy to talk with anyone who wants to go deeper" is enough. The talk is there to be useful first. Sales come later, from people who liked what they heard.
Notes help too. Write down which questions came up. Those are your next ten ideas.
If you are nervous
Many people are. Practise out loud three times. Time yourself. Start with a clear first sentence and know your last one. For many speakers, nerves ease once they get going.
A few more small helps. Ask a friend to listen to one run-through and tell you where they got lost. Arrive early so you can see the room and the screen. Bring one example or short story for each point, because stories tend to stick better than lists. And if you forget a line, pause, take a breath and carry on. The audience rarely notices.
What I take from this
Speaking is trust in a fast form. I like that it starts small: a local room, one clear topic, one useful idea. A good ten minutes for thirty right people beats posting into the void.
Try this week: Write your five-event list and the title of your talk. Send one pitch before Friday.
Sources
This piece is an original how-to. It does not rely on outside research or statistics.
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