Site Launch: Greater Talent Network – A Streamlined Speakers Bureau Interface

Announcing GreaterTalent.com!

We are proud to announce the launch of one of our latest projects, GreaterTalent.com! GTN has been a leading speakers bureau for over 30 years bringing quality, exclusive keynote figures to companies and organizations worldwide. With a robust search, compelling imagery, integrated video and a refined design, the new website celebrates GTN’s biggest asset, their speakers!

About GTN

Founded in 1982, GTN began by promoting avant-garde, cultural icons like Hunter S. Thompson, Abbie Hoffman, and Timothy Leary. Over the years, GTN and CEO/Founder, Don Epstein, have been able to recognize rising talent on the cusp of their careers, ensuring that GTN remains at the cutting edge of their industry. Today, GTN represents some of the best speakers from Best-Selling Authors to Sports Heroes, Health and Wellness experts to Technology Innovators, and everything in-between.

The Details

When imagining the new GTN site, we had to approach it a little differently than other projects we’ve worked on in the past. Their product is not a tangible object and it’s more than just a service they provide–it’s the experiences that GTN speakers bring to events and audiences. So we had to think about how their previous site was showcasing their speakers and services and what we could do to improve upon and refine it. Focusing on a combination of elements from ecommerce catalogs, social media profiles, and marketing landing pages allows the new interface to highlight the renowned speakers, bringing their stories to life.

Greater Talent Network homepage with background video.

Straight away when you land on the homepage you get a glimpse into the experiences GTN facilitates with the big background video. The use of large videos not only works well to show off their speakers in action but also sets them apart from other companies in this field.

In addition to showcasing their speakers through imagery and videos, the other key feature we needed was improving speaker searchability for a more efficient strategy. Not only did the searching process need to provide relevant results to the end user quickly, but the experience should be easy to navigate. To accomplish this, we implemented a real-time ajax search that displays all matching speaker names in a dropdown as you type to easily narrow down your search. If you’re not sure who you’re looking for you can also filter by speaker category and talk topics to browse a selection of speakers that will best match your event needs.

Real-time ajax search field lets you find speakers fast.

Each speaker at GTN is unique and has their own story to tell, so it was important that profiles be flexible with what content they are able to display. With a combination of WordPress meta fields for things such as talk topics and videos, and our page builder plugin, Mesh, we were able to give speaker profiles a consistent layout but still retain the ability to customize content per speaker.

Speaker profiles are customizable with Mesh.

Learn more about Greater Talent Network and check out all the acclaimed figures they represent over on their new WordPress website!

Visit GreaterTalent.com

Eric Beltram

“The challenge. Bring order to the whole, through design.” No matter what aspect of his life it is, Eric strives to take complex problems and find the most simple solution.