How to find a speaker agency: what marks a good agency for conference talks

A good speaker agency for experts submits on the expert's behalf through calls for papers and publishes its volumes and results, and it refuses to sell paid stage slots. With a call for papers, a conference publicly advertises its speaking slots, and this route also opens conference stages to specialists without a famous name. Anyone looking for a speaker agency finds very different providers online, all with the same word in their name. This article sets out seven criteria for judging an offer and describes the warning signs. At the end comes the place of Stage Starter among them.

The seven criteria for a good speaker agency:

1. Client: the agency works on behalf of the expert and is paid by them.
2. Sector fit: it names conferences in your field where it has experience.
3. Disclosed numbers: it states submissions, decisions and acceptances, along with where they come from.
4. Approvals: talk and abstracts go out only after your approval.
5. Contract length: the term lasts until the first decisions arrive, and pending submissions are provided for.
6. Price: the price is fixed before or in the first conversation, together with what it covers.
7. Paid slots: it sells no stage slots and promises no appearances.

Whom does a speaker agency work for, and who pays it?

A speaker agency works for whoever pays it, and the word covers two business models with opposite clients. A speaker bureau books well-known names for organisers' corporate events and takes a share of their fees. A speaker agency for experts works on behalf of the expert, who wants to win B2B clients through appearances at industry conferences. At an industry conference, specialists from one sector listen to talks about their own field, so the audience consists of people with a concrete professional problem. The article Speaker agency or speaker bureau describes how the two roles differ, and the guide to speaker agencies gives an overview of all services and models.

When the expert is the client, the agency stays in business only for as long as they see results. Organisers pay agencies to fill their programmes, and sellers of stage slots earn from the sale of the slot itself. An expert who wants clients needs the first arrangement, and a single question in the first call tests for it: who pays you, and for what?

Sector fit: where the agency has experience

Conferences fill their programme in two ways: through public calls for papers and through invitation and personal approach. Association and industry conferences use the second route more often, and where there is no call, we approach the organisers directly.

A good agency therefore says openly which conferences its experience lies in. A provider that promises "all sectors" but cannot name a single conference in its own field cannot give you reliable information about your sector. If you work as a consultant in mechanical engineering, logistics or healthcare, ask for examples from that world, and you will learn whether the agency has access there or would have to build it first.

Which numbers should a speaker agency disclose?

A speaker agency should disclose how many abstracts it has submitted, how many of them have been decided and how many were accepted. An abstract is the short description of a planned talk, which a programme committee reads before it decides on a place in the programme. An agency that takes on clients while keeping the acceptance rate to itself leaves you to decide without a basis. Whoever names the rate makes itself measurable, and that is how you recognise a serious provider. Stage Starter publishes its own numbers from its submissions for clients here.

The rate per conference is higher because we often submit several abstracts to one conference and a single acceptance is enough: in our submissions for clients we reach up to 19 per cent per conference, while 5 per cent at most is typical in the market at this volume of submissions. Of the 2,189 abstracts, 1,374 are decided and the remaining 815 are still running, since many conferences reply only weeks or months after their call has closed.

This gives you a test for every offer. An agency that promises you 100 per cent acceptance cannot prove it, and an agency that quotes numbers without saying where they come from has not yet disclosed volumes and results honestly. How to read testimonials and reviews of agencies is shown in Speaker agency experiences.

The expert's role and sign-off

Even with a done-for-you service, the expert remains the sender. The agency researches conferences and develops the talk and the abstracts, after which it submits and follows up. Expertise, point of view and examples come from the expert's practice, and the expert approves whatever goes to a programme committee in their name.

At Stage Starter you approve the talk and the abstracts once before the start, and afterwards we submit in your name without every single submission landing on your desk again. An abstract that sounds like boilerplate is noticed by the programme committee and costs the proposal its chance, which is why good abstracts come out of a conversation with you. An honest agency puts your time at one conversation at the start and approvals with the occasional query in between.

Contract length and notice period

The results of submission work show up with a delay, because weeks often pass between a submission and the conference's reply, and the appearance follows months later. The collaboration should therefore run long enough for the first decisions to arrive.

A fair offer says before signing whether it can be cancelled monthly or has a fixed term, and it settles what happens to submissions still pending when the contract ends. Ask also what you may do with the abstracts and talk texts afterwards, since they contain your knowledge.

How much does a speaker agency for experts cost?

A speaker agency for experts usually charges a fixed monthly fee, at Stage Starter from €990 net per month for the whole submission operation. A serious agency names its price before the first conversation, or at the latest during it. A price "on request" makes offers impossible to compare, so ask for a figure in the first conversation and then for what it covers.

Besides the amount, the type of price matters. Speaker bureaus take a commission on fees, according to the industry usually 20 to 30 per cent of the fee. Agencies that submit for the expert charge a monthly fee or a success fee per acceptance, and providers that sell slots charge a fixed price per stage place. Equally important is what the price covers: from conference research and abstracts through submission and follow-up to support on the way to the stage. Settle as well who pays travel costs and what applies if a conference charges attendance fees.

Pay to speak: when a stage has been bought

With pay to speak, the speaker pays the organiser money for the speaking slot, usually as part of a sponsorship package, and that quickly costs €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot. A related form is the sponsored talk, a talk that a company buys as a sponsor of the conference. Sponsored sessions are often not labelled in the programme, and a talk that a specialist audience classes as advertising loses weight there. The article Do speakers have to pay for the stage? explains both forms in detail.

An agency that sells stage slots earns from the slot itself, and so it has little interest in your earning that slot through an open call. You can test this by asking about an appearance by one of its clients and how it came about: if the answer is a call for papers or an invitation, the agency is working towards your goal.

How do you spot a dubious speaker agency?

You spot a dubious speaker agency by a promise of a fixed number of appearances, or an advance payment for "guaranteed" stage slots, because the conference's programme committee alone decides on acceptance. Missing numbers on its own submissions and a price only on request are warning signs as well. A website with a catalogue of famous speakers and an enquiry form for organisers reveals the agency's role, since it courts organisers. When several of these features coincide, the agency works for someone other than you, even if its website suggests the opposite.

Where Stage Starter stands

Stage Starter is a speaker agency for experts and sets out its own work against the seven criteria: we work on behalf of the expert, we submit through calls for papers and approach organisers without a call directly, we sell no stage slots, and we have published our numbers above. Stage Starter takes this work off your hands: we find the right calls, write the submission and submit it in your name, follow up and support you all the way to the stage. What comes from you is your expertise and your approval. The entry price is also stated openly: the collaboration starts from €990 net per month, and the Speaker Audit beforehand costs from €2,000 net.

From criteria to decision

You choose an agency best by measuring the offer against the seven points once more after the first conversation, and again after the first months against the numbers it shows you for your own submissions. How Stage Starter would work on your topic, we settle in a first conversation.