If you are planning a conference, leadership retreat, association meeting, or company event in Salt Lake City or Park City, choosing the keynote speaker is not simply a matter of filling an hour on the agenda.
The right keynote can give people a shared language, help an important idea finally land, and change what they do when they return to work. The wrong one may be entertaining in the moment and almost completely forgotten by Monday.
So, before searching another list of Utah motivational speakers, begin with a more useful question:
What does your audience need to believe, understand, or do next?
If you are already considering me for your event, you can see my keynote topics, experience, and Salt Lake City availability on my Salt Lake City keynote speaker page. If you are still deciding what kind of speaker you need, the five questions below will help you make a better choice.
Five questions to ask before choosing a keynote speaker
1. What should be different after the keynote?
Applause is gratifying. It is not the outcome.
A useful keynote begins with the change you want to create. Perhaps your leaders need to communicate complex ideas more clearly. Perhaps people need to trust one another faster, move through change, take responsibility, or turn agreement into meaningful action.
Define that outcome before you choose the speaker. It changes the conversation from “Who would be impressive?” to “Who can help us create what this moment requires?”
2. Does the speaker actually do what they teach?
Many people teach public speaking. Fewer consistently step onto consequential stages and do it at a world-class level.
I have spoken on TED and TEDx stages, coached speakers for more than 35 TED and TEDx events, and worked with leaders whose words carry real weight. I trained all the active NASA astronauts. GE Aerospace continues to bring me back because precision is not limited to engineering—words matter.
That matters to me. I do not want to coach from the sidelines. I want my clients and audiences to know that I understand the courage, preparation, uncertainty, and presence required when it is your turn to stand up and deliver.
3. Can the speaker respect a sophisticated audience?
Technically accomplished people do not need to “dumb down” their expertise. They need more of their expertise to land.
The strongest keynote speakers can make complex ideas accessible without making intelligent people feel patronized. They help an audience see something important more clearly while respecting what those people already know.
That is especially important for audiences of executives, scientists, engineers, physicians, founders, and other experts. They will recognize empty inspiration immediately. They want substance, humanity, and something useful enough to take back into the real world.
4. Will the experience fit this audience and this moment?
A keynote should not feel as though the speaker changed the client logo on the first slide and delivered the same talk they gave yesterday.
The central ideas may be well tested, but the experience should be shaped around the people in the room: what they are navigating, the language they use, what leadership is asking of them, and what is at stake.
Ask how the speaker prepares, how the keynote will connect to the purpose of the gathering, and whether the experience can extend into a workshop, executive conversation, facilitated question-and-answer session, or fireside chat when that would create more value.
5. Will the audience still be using it after the applause?
Inspiration matters. But inspiration without a practical way forward evaporates quickly.
Look for ideas people can remember, language they can repeat, and practices they can use in the conversations that follow. The best keynote becomes part of the organization’s shared vocabulary. People refer back to it in meetings. Leaders use it when the stakes rise. It keeps working long after the stage is empty.
Why booking a Salt Lake City keynote speaker can be an advantage
I grew up in Salt Lake City. My father co-founded the Utah Opera Company with Glade Peterson. After years in Los Angeles and San Francisco, my wife Sharon and I returned to Salt Lake City to raise our son, Johnny, near family, the mountains, and the desert we love. Today I live near the University of Utah.
Salt Lake City is my home base, but my work is national and international. That combination gives local event planners access to a globally experienced speaker without having to fly that experience in.
A local base can also create useful flexibility. Depending on the event, I may combine a keynote with a workshop, an executive session, a leadership conversation, or a facilitated question-and-answer session. I also host the podcast Live Like a Leader and can bring out the brilliance and personality of your senior leaders in a fireside-chat format.
The Neurobiology of Influence
Why Communicating With Human Beings Is Not Logical. It’s BIO-logical.
Highly effective, technically competent leaders become vastly better speakers, communicators, and leaders when they understand the neurobiology of human communication.
Before people fully evaluate your reasoning, their nervous systems are already responding to whether you feel credible, authentic, safe, and worth following. This keynote helps leaders understand that biology and use it ethically—to earn trust, make complex ideas easier to understand and remember, and inspire meaningful action.
It is science-grounded, story-driven, deeply human, and designed to give your audience an experience they will still be using long after the applause.
You can explore this and my other programs on the John Bates keynote speaking page.
A practical next step for your Salt Lake City event
Before contacting any speaker, write down three things:
- Who will be in the room?
- What is happening in their world right now?
- What do they need to believe, understand, or do when the keynote is over?
Those answers will make every speaker conversation more productive. They will also make it much easier to recognize the right fit.
Frequently asked questions
Does John Bates speak outside Utah?
Yes. John speaks and works with leaders throughout the United States and internationally. Salt Lake City is his home base, and he is available globally.
Can John combine a keynote with another event format?
Depending on the event, John may combine a keynote with a workshop, executive session, leadership conversation, facilitated question-and-answer session, or fireside chat.
What kinds of audiences are the best fit?
John is an especially strong fit for accomplished leaders, experts, founders, scientists, engineers, physicians, and technical teams whose ideas and communication carry consequential weight.
How do I check John’s availability?
Visit the Salt Lake City keynote speaker page for keynote details and the availability inquiry form.
