The foundation to every great blog, event/conference, magazine, book or speech is content. Everything rises and falls on it. Without good content you can’t attract or connect with a faithful audience. Now, I’ve read a lot of good blogs, been to a lot of good conferences, read a lot of good books and have heard a lot of good speeches, but what separates a good speech from a great one? What distinguishes between a good conference from a life changing one? The answer is simple: Content. Great content is developed because the writer or speaker understands three things: voice, niche, and audience.

When getting ready to produce a conference/event, what is the process to explore first? Which speaker(s) to invite. Why is that? Because the speaker(s) will bring the content, set the tone, and engage the audience. But, then more questions come, who’s the audience? What’s the topic or theme that will help shape the content for the speaker? And, finally, which speaker would be the best fit for this audience and why? Inviting high impact speakers that not only can bring great content, but also deliver it in a creative and engaging way will be key in how your event brand will be defined weeks, months and even years later.

I’ve noticed that young leaders including myself, have often times struggled with identifying which appropriate content is well suited for what audience. And, the reason this happens is because when young leaders are still discovering their own voice and niche it’s often times hard to lead others no matter what context it’s through. So, before you start crafting content through any context: event/conference producing, blogging, book writing, sermon or speech development, here’s a few things to keep in mind.

• Know how God wired you and begin to explore your passions; great content will always come out of that
• Develop beta content and watch to see who responds and relates with it
• In developing beta content, you will begin to find your voice and discover your writing and/or speaking style
• Within discovering your voice; you will begin to identify which age, profession or industry demographics you can target
• Also, while discovering your voice and content style, you will quickly begin to relate and be drawn to other leaders, authors, speakers and events who fit within your writing or speaking style/flavor
• After discovering your voice and relating with other leaders, authors, speakers and events that you’re automatically drawn to, you will begin to notice that those influences will have a big impact on your leadership style and personality

Your Thoughts?