2026 NSA Carolinas Annual Banquet
June 12–13, 2026 · Raleigh, NC
Join us for our biggest event of the year — a weekend celebrating our chapter's success, investing in your craft, and connecting with the speaking community you call home.
Friday, June 12 — Awards Gala & Dinner
Raleigh (Venue TBA - we are excited to announce soon!)
Kick off the weekend with an elegant evening celebrating everything our chapter has accomplished this year. Enjoy a buffet dinner, one complimentary drink ticket, and a night filled with recognition, community, and the kind of conversations that only happen when great speakers get in a room together.
The evening will include:
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Celebration of all we have accomplished this year!
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Time (and photos! ) with your NSA Carolinas speaker friends
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Presentation of this year's chapter awards
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Recognition and send-off for our outgoing board members
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Welcome to our incoming board and the new chapter year
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A delicious dinner ️ and a celebration drink ticket
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Registration does not include hotel accommodations, but our team is working on securing a discounted room block and will communicate ASAP.
This is a night to dress up, slow down, and celebrate. We hope you'll join us!
Full weekend (Friday and Saturday) pricing:
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Member: $200
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Non-member: $250
Friday-ONLY ticket prices:
Saturday, June 13 — Professional Development Day
Raleigh (Venue TBD)
Saturday is all about your speaker business. Spend the day in rich, small-group conversations with fellow chapter members and invited experts, organized around our four chapter pillars: Eloquence, Ethics, Enterprise, and Expertise.
Each pillar hosts two roundtables, and you'll have the opportunity to attend three sessions of your choosing throughout the day — 45-minute deep dives designed to generate real takeaways you can put to work immediately.
Lunch is included.
Roundtable topics – you’ll get to pick THREE!
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Pillar
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Table A
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Table B
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Eloquence
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Your signature story
Every speaker has a story that does the heavy lifting — the one that earns trust, shifts perspective, and stays with an audience long after the event ends. Is yours working as hard as it should? We'll explore how to sharpen the structure, deepen the emotional truth, and make sure your signature story still reflects who you are today.
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From good to unforgettable
Technical skill gets you booked. Presence gets you rebooked. What separates a competent keynote from one that people talk about on the drive home — and how do you close that gap intentionally? We'll dig into the specific choices that elevate a strong talk into a transformational experience.
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Ethics
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AI & authenticity
How do you use AI tools in your business — for content, proposals, social media — without losing your voice or misrepresenting your process to clients? Where do you draw the line, and how do you communicate that line to the people who hire you?
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Pricing integrity
Do you charge what you're worth, or do you discount in ways that undercut your peers and signal low value? How do you hold your fee even when a client pushes back, and what does that say about how you value your own work?
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Enterprise
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Your referral ecosystem
Referrals don't happen by accident. They happen because you've built relationships where the right people think of you first, trust you enough to put their name behind you, and know exactly who to send your way. How do you build and nurture that ecosystem deliberately — and how do you make it easy for people to refer you?
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Systems that scale
At some point, running your speaking business out of your inbox stops working. What does a sustainable back-end actually look like — CRM, follow-up sequences, contracts, invoicing, content repurposing — and how do you build it without overcomplicating it? We'll talk about what's worth systematizing and what you can let go of.
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Expertise
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Engagement that earns attention
Audiences today are distracted, overstimulated, and quietly skeptical. How do you earn their attention from the first thirty seconds and hold it through to the close? We'll explore specific, practical techniques for creating the kind of engagement that makes a room feel alive — and makes event planners want to bring you back.
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The close that converts
Whether you're selling from the stage, driving attendees to a next step, or simply trying to make sure your message sticks, your call to action is the moment everything either lands or evaporates. What makes a CTA feel natural rather than pushy, and how do you build toward it from the very first line of your talk?
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Saturday schedule:
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9:00 AM — Registration & morning refreshments
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9:30 AM — Welcome address, incoming chapter president
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10:00 AM — Roundtable session 1 (45 minutes)
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10:45 AM — Short break
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11:00 AM — Roundtable session 2 (45 minutes)
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11:45 AM — Lunch
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12:15 PM — Roundtable session 3 (45 minutes)
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1:00 PM — Big-group share & closing remarks
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2:00 PM — Adjourn
Saturday ticket prices:
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Member: $50
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Non-member: $85
Sponsorship Opportunities
Do you have a service or product that would be beneficial for speakers, coaches and consultants to know about? If so, consider sponsorship for our annual banquet event and program! Details available HERE ... please email info@nsacarolinas.org to secure your sponsorship or for more details.
NSA Carolinas aligns with the National Speakers Association policies for Code of Ethics, Civility and Professional Conduct. By registering for any of our events you are also agreeing to adhere to these national standards to uphold the highest standards of professionalism!
If you have questions or any special needs or accommodations that we can support you with, please let us know! We look forward to seeing everyone on June 12th and 13th!
