There is a place for the keynote. A well-chosen speaker raises the energy in a room and gives a programme a moment people talk about afterwards.
But a keynote cannot do the work of a facilitator. Facilitation is the harder, quieter craft of getting a group to say the thing nobody wants to say first, and then holding them to what they decided.
When we source resource persons for a programme, we are matching on three things: whether they have actually done the work, whether they can run a room that disagrees, and whether they will prepare properly for your context rather than delivering their standard set.
The best programmes usually have both. One voice to lift the room, and one to do the work.
