Meeting & Event Design

4 Top Speaker Trends for 2023

December 20, 2022

Who’s going to be a big draw on the main stage next year? Prevue reached out to a top speakers bureau exec to find out the latest speaker trends for 2023.

As any event planner knows, keynote speakers can make or break a meeting. The opening speaker sets the tone for everything to follow, so it’s vital to ensure you get the right person, the right topic, the right style and the right level of engagement. And, like everything else, it changes from year to year, so the hot speaker of 2022 may be more lukewarm by the time January 2023 rolls around.

So what are the hottest trends in speakers for the coming year? Prevue reached out to Jaki Baskow, Owner/Founder of Baskow Talent LLC/Las Vegas Speakers Bureau, who with her team has been sourcing talent for 45 years in one of the world’s hottest convention markets, to find out what speaker trends she’s spotting for the coming year.

Companies seeking speakers that can help them embrace, educate, engage and retain employees. “Franchise companies in particular are concerned about their employees and looking to find ways to embrace them,” she says. Baskow adds that companies also are concerned about newly onboarded employees who need to learn about the company, the products, and other locations. “Companies want their employees passionate about their jobs and more knowledgeable about their products.”
More demand for executive and leadership training. “Executives feel they need more training in order to properly get the employees engaged,” she says. Among the speakers in this niche she is seeing high demand for in 2023 is Eric Boles, President of The Game Changers, who shares his insights and strategies on leadership, culture change, team dynamics and peak performance with corporate, education, government, healthcare, manufacturing and financial services organizations and associations. Another top talent for 2023 in this area is Waldo Waldman, whose keynotes and seminars promote high-performing cultures based on accountability, preparation, teamwork and trust. A member of the Speaker Hall of Fame, Waldman leverages his real-world military, sales and business experience into a transformational program that empowers leaders to take action and produce results.
Motivational speakers continue to be hot. While most, if not all, professional keynote speakers strive to inspire their audiences and motivate them to change their behavior for the better, look for the trend to be super-charged in 2023. Baskow mentions as one example Nick Santonastasso, who has opened for master-inspirer Anthony Robbins. Santonastasso “engages the audience by helping them find positive outlooks on negative situations and releasing their anger,” she says. “Nick is one of the most inspiring speakers I have seen in the last 10 years. He received 11 standing ovations at a recent realty convention.”
Engaging with the audience. While the word “engagement” is in danger of becoming the next “pivot” in terms of words that are so ubiquitous they begin to lose meaning, presenters that interact and engage with their audiences are a white-hot speaker trend for 2023, Baskow says. For example, “The People’s Shark” Daymond John, a self-made multimillionaire, Founder and CEO of fashion powerhouse FUBU and star of ABC’s business reality TV show Shark Tank, shares his rags-to-riches story, plus tips on negotiating, improving employee morale, increasing productivity and optimizing staff talents in a rousing keynote presentation. Then he conducts an interactive think tank with the audience to help them put the skills they learn to use, Baskow says.