By Sheila Graham

Tammy and I have been speaking at conferences and retreats for several years now, and we have been warmly welcomed and treated well. And we’ve talked to many other guest speakers. If you’re new at planning women’s events, here are tips on how to "shepherd" your speakers.

Speakers a good night’s rest before speaking—especially if they have to fly across several time zones. It’s helpful to consider that while planning your event.

As much as a speaker might enjoy partying at the retreat or conference, she most often needs to get some sleep. If possible place speakers in rooms away from noisy common areas. If possible, provide each guest speaker with a private room. If that’s not economically feasible, Tammy and I have roomed together many times and even bunked in with other speakers, but it’s nice to have private space for going over our notes, meditation and prayer.

Communicate with your speakers. Let them know all you can about their audience, how many to expect and what subjects people would be interested in. Inform them ahead of time if they will be speaking in a nice hotel or a youth camp in the woods and what the weather will be like. Let each speaker know what other speakers are covering, so she won’t be duplicating efforts.

Also, no surprises. Let your speaker know if she will be expected to begin or end with prayer, or announce a break in the meeting. If you want your speaker to "say a few words" at dinner, let her know ahead of time.

Prepare good introductions for your speakers. Find out information about them ahead of time, such as who they are, where they’re from and what they do. Make your intro brief but long enough to sell your speaker to the audience.

When choosing staff, provide guest speakers with a shepherd. The shepherd’s job description includes checking with the hotel to be sure the speaker’s room is ready, picking her up at the airport if necessary or greeting her when she arrives, showing her where the meeting room is so she can check the setup.

The shepherd will make sure the speaker is introduced to all key people involved in the event, provide the speaker with water at the lectern, be available if handouts need to be distributed, check on any equipment needs and have emergency supplies such as aspirin, safety pins, scotch tape, scissors, even a pair of panty hose. After your retreat or conference is over, the shepherd makes sure the speaker has a ride to the airport (in time to catch her flight!). Has the speaker eaten? Is the hotel bill settled? These can also be responsibilities of the shepherd.Last, but not least, along with your thank-you note, make sure your speaker gets feedback from the event.

If you plan to give your speaker a gift, consider gift certificates from places such as Barnes and Noble. Gift certificates are a great way to say thank you because they're easy to carry home on an airplane!

For more information on planning meetings, call Christian Leaders, Authors & Speakers Services at 1-800-CLASS-71, from whose resources many of the ideas for this article were taken.