• Make sure your guest knows exactly what you want - a talk, a slide show, a question-and-answer session, or whatever.
• Does he need a fee, or expenses? You do need to know this early on. Some charge a fee, some do not. Your Region expenses may not run to a fee.
• Having agreed a date, discuss the time at which you hope he can start. This may depend on the distance he has to travel and the timing of his return, journey.
• Start on time. There is nothing worse for a speaker than having to begin his talk an hour later
  than planned. It means he arrives home at 2a.m.!
• If you have Region business before the lecture allow good time for it and inform your members of both start' times - the business and the lecture.
• Make sure you provide clear instructions on how to reach the venue. A map helps, and if the venue is in a town, very clear instructions with the map, and may help.
• Quite a few Clubs/Regions offer me accommodation and a days fishing, this is a nice gesture, always appreciated, even if you are not able to take it up due to work commitments.
• Projectors can be a nightmare! My advice is to avoid those with a circular vertical slide holder.
  Most speakers have their slides in circular horizontal cassettes, or straight cassettes and loading up those vertical ones takes an age. Alternatively, the speaker may want to use their own, ask.
• ALWAYS have a spare bulb. On at least a dozen occasions now the bulb has blown just as preparations for the lecture are under way. It can leave you more or less 'stranded'!
• ALWAYS have an extension cable.
• It is sensible for the host, or one of the team, to arrive early at the venue, set up, and check the
  equipment.
• Get the equipment set up BEFORE, the speaker arrives.
• It is quite a good idea to discuss with the speaker his carousel preferences, so it may be possible to kick -off without having to transfer slides.
• If the speaker has come straight from work he may not have eaten. Ensure you can provide him with food, either before or after the event.
• Most regions use pub or club rooms. It is absolutely vital that the room is quiet, and completely
  self-contained. Noise from somebody else's bar is quite unacceptable. I will not speak under
  such circumstances nowadays, having done so many times in the past.
• A related matter concerns noise from the audience. It is the host's/ chairman's job to make sure that his audience does not chatter amongst themselves when the speaker is performing. It is the height of bad manners, and the disturbance disrupts the speakers flow. Remember also that some speakers may be new to the task. Make it as easy as possible for them.
• Provide a pointer, for the screen.
• Make sure you have a screen.
• Make sure you acquaint the guest with the normal format for the evening. Do you have a break?
• Do you hold a raffle?
• Numbers -I have lectured to as few as 4 (in Swindon some years ago) and as many as 550 (in Kent). Organisers should advertise as widely as possible. It's not enough to tell only your own members. Put it in the local paper, local radio, Ceefax if possible, local tackle shops, national angling newspapers (Pike and Predator too). In other words make a serious effort, and make it in good time.
• Ensure that the room itself is organised before the audience gets there.
• Finally, I have found it a great help if someone is detailed to set me on the right road home, after the evening. There's nothing worse than spending half an hour trying to find your way out of town.

  (The originally version of this appeared in Issue No. 84 of Pikelines May 1999)

PAC of GB - Taking Care of Your Visiting Speaker: Updated 02/11/09