Contacting conference organisers directly: how a speaker agency reaches conferences without a call for papers

You reach the organiser of a conference without a call for papers by emailing the person who runs the programme with a talk proposal that fits the conference topic. A call for papers is the public announcement through which a conference collects talk proposals. Many association meetings and industry conferences skip it and invite their speakers instead. For experts from these sectors the route onto the stage therefore runs through direct outreach. This article describes the work a speaker agency does along the way, from finding the right person through timing to shaping the offer.

Why do many conferences have no call for papers?

Many conferences have no call for papers because their organisers prefer to build the programme themselves and invite speakers directly. A programme committee, the group that decides on the talks at a conference, then makes its own selection and approaches speakers. At an association's specialist meeting this often sits with a technical committee, at an industry conference with the event team of the hosting company. If you come from industry or the association world and want to reach such a stage, direct outreach is the only way in without a public call. How the route through a public call works is described in the guide to the call for papers.

Our conference database gives an idea of the proportions: of around 22,700 conferences, around 1,500 had an open call on the reference date. Many more announce theirs at other times of the year, and a large share fills its programme with no call at all. These conferences can only be reached by approaching the people who run the programme directly. How a list of such conferences comes together is shown in How do I find the conferences that fit my topic?.

Who do I write to at a conference without a call for papers?

You write to the person responsible for the programme, and that person rarely appears on the home page. At an association they sit on a technical committee or in the head office, at a company in the event team. Some organisers hand the organisation to an event agency, which then builds the programme.

An agency identifies this person afresh for each conference. It reads the programme pages of past editions and looks for names on the advisory board and among the moderators. The legal notice and professional networks show whether the role is still filled. The result is a verified name with a role. This research can hardly be standardised, because every conference distributes its responsibilities differently.

A general address such as info@ usually lands with registration or sponsorship, and the person there sells slots. A conversation with them quickly ends at a package with a price, as the article Sponsored talks and pay to speak describes. If you want to offer a talk for the editorially curated programme, you need the name from programme planning.

When should an email reach the organiser?

In our experience an email should arrive four to eight months before the conference, during the phase in which the programme is planned. Without a call and its deadline, the timing follows from the organiser's planning. The programme takes shape before the main promotion, because the promotion works with the names of the speakers. An email that arrives only after the programme has been published usually finds no free slot.

An agency therefore works backwards from the conference: when does the next edition take place, when was the last programme published, and when does planning start at this organiser? At associations, committee meetings often play a part, because decisions are taken on fixed dates. From this data a calendar with follow-up dates emerges for every conference on the list, and the email is written for the window that is open there at the moment.

For the organiser, an email during the planning phase is a relief, provided it fits the programme. Programme leads look for speakers with practical experience, and if you offer a concrete topic at this stage, you save them part of their own research.

What belongs in a speaker enquiry by email?

A speaker enquiry needs a subject line naming topic and conference, an opening sentence that refers to the conference, a concrete talk offer, evidence of your practice and a clear request. A programme lead receives enquiries from speakers offering themselves and from service providers who want to sell slots, and reads each one asking what the audience gets out of it.

The subject line decides whether the email gets opened, and it works when it carries the name of the conference and the topic. The opening sentence shows that you know the conference, for instance by referring to a focus of the last edition. The talk offer is phrased in the terms the conference's audience uses to describe its own work, and it refers to a format the conference already runs. The evidence names the practice you speak from, with a short bio and ideally a link to a recording. The request closes with a concrete next step, usually a short call.

If you describe your own offering instead, the email is read as advertising, as the article Expert talk or sales pitch shows. An email that introduces your company over five paragraphs before any topic appears ends up on the pile of sales enquiries.

In email mode this produces a standard email whose opening is adapted for each conference. Ten to fifteen such emails per week are possible once the conference list is in place. For the most important conferences in a field, the agency writes each email individually and over several hours, two to three per quarter. A conference where your future clients sit deserves this effort more than a broad mailing.

You approve the talk and abstracts, the short descriptions of the talk, once before the start. The emails are written on that basis in your name, and your expertise remains the substance of every offer.

Following up: what silence means and how it resolves

Organisers often take weeks to answer enquiries without a call. Silence can mean that the programme is already full, that the email went unread or that the responsibility has changed hands. An agency therefore follows up and checks along the way whether the person is still the right one, just as the article Following up after a call for papers describes for the case with a call. If no answer comes, the conference goes back on the follow-up list for the next planning round.

No agency can guarantee an acceptance, because the person responsible for the programme decides. An agency determines whom it writes to, when and with which topic, and keeps to the follow-up dates that an expert's day job leaves no time for.

What an agency costs for this, and what pay to speak means by comparison

Stage Starter takes this work off your hands: we find the right conferences and the contact person, write the email and send it in your name. After that we follow up and support you all the way to the stage. For experts from industry and the association world we start in email mode, because that is where most conferences work without a call. The collaboration starts from €990 net per month, and if you want a written roadmap first, you begin with the Speaker Audit from €2,000 net, which is credited when you book the agency.

A single pay-to-speak slot quickly costs €10,000 or more, as much as around ten months of collaboration from €990 net, during which an agency keeps working on new conferences. A bought slot is a single appearance, while ongoing outreach reaches many conferences.