Out with the old, and in with the new. It’s a brave new year for all of us, and it’s important that we start as we mean to finish. Start this first quarter strong with a professional speaker to motivate you and your employees and remind them of what success really means.

Planning any event is stressful. From organizing the guest list to finding the best motivational speakers, you can’t relax until long after the last guest has left and you’ve received the last thank you email or card. Whether it’s the first or just the most recent in a long string of events you’ve set up, you always need to bring your A-game. To help you, we’ve drawn up this list of tips and tricks to up your game and ensure you create a memorable event with minimal stress.

We have all experienced great events and conferences that end on a somewhat disappointing note. The keynote speaker’s presentation may have been informative, electrifying and thought provoking, but if the question and answer session that follows falls flat, it can cast a shadow over what was an otherwise successful undertaking.

Online personas like bloggers, Twitter users and even specialized digital journalists have succeeded at building an audience and credibility completely within the digital realm, which gives them a level of influence on a variety of topics - influence that some would consider even greater than mass media. And while having the right industry or niche influencers at your event will inevitably get you some good attention and word-of-mouth marketing, how do you go about getting the attention of these key influencers?

It’s no secret that social media has revolutionized the way top motivational speakers connect to and interact with their audiences. The expectation around communication from public figures is greater than it used to be - fans really relish instant responses and engagement from speakers. After all, it’s not just about speaking at the event that matters, it’s also about connecting with audiences before and after the presentation has closed.

When planning a major event, making decisions based on the potential return on investment is a critical part of the process. Anybody who works in this industry knows a conference operates just like any business, especially large-scale events with substantial budgets, thousands of attendees, and many key stakeholders. Here are a few ways you can achieve a high ROI from your next event.

It’s not every day you hear about a 14-year-old entrepreneur. Founder of Braigo Labs Inc., a “humanely optimized” technology company, Shubham Banerjee is the youngest entrepreneur ever to receive venture capital funding. Not only is he considered Silicon Valley’s youngest entrepreneur, his success story has been recognized on both national and international fronts.  

From searching for the right speaker to nailing down the logistics of a speaker’s travel, planning a large-scale event is no easy feat. Often times event and meeting planners take on this task on their own, only to come to realize it was a much larger undertaking then they had planned for. As a professional services firm in the global lecture industry that has placed thousands of speakers all over the world, we house some of the most experienced event planners that continue to define our distinctive event planning process as world class. Here are some of the most common mistakes we see made during the DIY event planning process as it relates to speakers.

The Honorable Newt Gingrich is one of the most highly sought-after thought-leaders on today’s speaking circuit. From his title as best-selling author 14 times over, to his former role as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich engages international audiences with his illuminating ideas and perennial world vision. Having had years and years of personal and professional experience in business, politics and the economy under his belt, you’re not only getting a keynote speaker, but a complete “Gingrich Experience.” Read on to see how Newt Gingrich’s experiences resonate with audiences worldwide on an educational and inspirational level.  

It is no surprise that the higher education system is a major talking point regarding the upcoming American election. However, the candidates greatly differ on how they plan to change the industry, and there is much debate about the best way to solve the problem. 

Should higher education be more nationalized, or should higher education be like Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Krauthammer was quoted saying, “I think there are things that ought to be organic and independent and higher education is one of them.” Changes will be made, but which changes will be determined by the party that wins the election in 2016. These are the top 5 ways in which colleges and universities could be affected in the future.