Audience Research asks who is hosting first. The step after that is where you fix its guess.

The screen reminds you that getting the industry right matters more than anything else on it. It is one of the two required fields, and the form's own hint tells you to be specific.

"Healthcare" is a world. "Regional hospital billing teams" is a room. The research half of a briefing asks what the people in that world worry about and what language they use. A vague industry gives you a vague answer to both. If the lookup came back with something broad, narrow it before you do anything else.

Fix the room, then add what only you know

The lookup fills in four things for you: the organization, the industry, the audience, and the location. It does not know your talk. These fields are yours:

1. Your topic. One line on what you are speaking about.
2. What you want them to leave with. The change you are after, not the title of the session.
3. Notes from the organizer. There is room here to paste a whole email. If the organizer told you anything about the room, put it in. It is the one input in the form that comes from a person who has actually met these people.

The audience box deserves a second look too. The form's hint asks for roles, seniority, and how many. "Managers" is weak. "Forty first-line supervisors, most with under five years in the role" gives the research something to work with.

The pages it will read are listed for you

If the lookup found sources, the review screen shows them under Pages we'll read, each one a link that opens in a new tab. The list is read-only. You do not have to go and dig up your client's website and paste it in, because the tool already has it.

You can still use the list. Click through two or three. If one is about a different organization with a similar name, you have just confirmed the lookup went wrong, and you can use Look someone else up to go back and try again.

Check one more thing before you press the button

Generate the briefing uses one of your briefings for the month. If your speaker profile is still empty, a warning appears next to the button saying so. The report will cover the room but none of your own material.

You can generate anyway. But the warning links to the profile, and writing it first takes a couple of minutes. The reasoning is laid out in why audience research is only as specific as your speaker profile.

A two-minute check

1. Type the host, press Look them up, and read the note at the top, caveat included.
2. Rewrite the industry until it names a specific group of people.
3. Replace any vague audience description with roles, seniority, and a headcount.
4. Add your topic, your outcome, and the organizer's email.
5. Open a couple of the listed pages. Go back if they are the wrong organization.
6. Press Generate the briefing.

When the report comes back, what its three kinds of claims mean covers how to treat each one on stage.

• audience
• preparation
• event brief

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