Writing a Great Session Description

A great speaking session description should:

• Immediately resonate with the audience’s challenge
• Create a sense of intrigue and excitement
• Strike a balance between helping them understand what the solution is, without them believing they already can solve the problem without seeing the session.
• Challenge the audience’s existing approach.
• Feel approachable

We have a format we use to create session descriptions (so far it’s been successful, but input and feedback from you would be great.)

The Title & Subtitle

We prefer session titles that solve the problem or immediately challenge the audience to think. I also like descriptive subtitles or tag lines that expand on the idea. For example:

INSPIRED: How brilliant brands create a sudden urge to act.

Bigger Success. Less Content: How smart marketers deliver outsized results will less stuff.

The Loyalty Loop: The small things that add up to big revenue.

The Power of Different: Stop telling me you’re different. Start Showing me.

The Problem

In order to get the audience’s attention we want them to immediately identify with the problem our session is going to solve. This means we should clearly and rapidly state the problem. Get their heads nodding. I want them to say to themselves, “man, I have this exact issue or concern.” For example:

Bigger Success. Less Content.
How smart marketers deliver outsized results with less stuff.

Let’s face it. One of the most difficult aspects of executing a consistently successful content marketing strategy is keeping up with creating ALL that content. Guess what? You don’t have to (I guarantee it.)

The goal is for them to immediately want a solution. Now, we tease the solution and the speaker:

The Solution

Now, it’s time to solve the problem. What are the big ideas and the examples you’re going to use. Break down the things I’m going to learn. Get me excited about the speaker. For Example:

Inspired: How excellent digital marketing creates a sudden urge to act!

[THE PROBLEM] We’re splendid at inspiring people to click. We create great content and smart creative. We target specific audiences, and it works. But what if we went big? [THE SOLUTION] Much bigger. What happens when you think like a television executive?

[THE EXCITEMENT] In this exhilarating hour-long presentation, author and former television producer Andrew Davis will teach us the [THE SOLUTION] five secrets to creating content that inspires demand. [THE SOLUTION] You’ll learn how to use Google Trends to measure your impact in the market. He’ll encourage you to own the entire consumer journey and show how to short-circuit the ‘search.’

You’ll walk away ready to create your own Moments of Inspiration: moments that inspire your customers to act in predictable and repeatable ways that drive big revenue.

Are you ready to be inspired?

The Tease

We like to end each session description with a soft call to action. Something that recalls the session description and invites the audience to attend in an obtuse way. Tease them!

Another Perspective

My friend, Tamsen Webster, wrote a great article on this as well.