As a part of our sit-down with Naif Productions CEO, Annette Naif, we covered some of the trending speaking topics that are forecasted to be major talking points for our keynote speakers in 2021.
Annette Naif: What are the most popular event speaking topics that get requested? That’s a good start.
Jennifer Best: Sure, so we do across the board, and there’s a lot of different topics. I would say the biggest are probably motivational, business, and leadership as you would expect, but there are two trends that are happening right now that I think are interesting to watch. The first one is diversity. Diversity, equity and inclusion, or diversity as a topic also relating to people of color, BIPOC, AAPI, different categories, and classifications.
And I think, what’s really interesting is that not only are people discussing diversity as a topic, but we’re seeing a range of people getting requested to speak, that are of different colors, races, backgrounds, ages, and orientations. And so, I think that is really where the magic is. It’s not necessarily talking about diversity, it’s talking with a diverse panel of people and bringing diversity in to talk about, say leadership or motivation.
The other thing too — it’s probably not going to be a surprise — is mental health. I mean, we’re all coming out of this socially distanced experience. A lot of people are working from home or have done that for the first time. And there’s going to be a lot of mental health issues that need to be addressed for years to come as a result.
And things that normally exist kind of in the market now — there’s addiction, PTSD — different topics like that are always going to be relevant. But I think they’re going to become even more important because we’re coming out of this stay-at-home order, and we’re coming out of social distancing. And so, there’s going to be a lot of focus on mental health, I think, coming up, and we’re starting to see some of that as well.
Annette: Yeah, what I’m finding is, mindset is big right now because for a lot of people, their careers got messed up or their businesses are failing, and mindset motivation is a big thing right now. I talked a lot about that to my planners, and lots of them are focused on trying to keep their mindsets right.
Jennifer: Absolutely, all the motivation you can give and get is crucial. I mean, you definitely need to be able to be sustainable. A lot of people faced hardships and losses, and it’s important not to gloss that over these challenges. It’s important to just address those issues, or else it’s just going to stay. I think that it’s going to be really interesting to sort of see how we came together and continue to keep mental health in the discussion and support everybody. I think it’ll be something to watch.
For additional event planning resources, visit: aaespeakers.com/event-planning-resources