# Speaker agency for CEOs and founders: conference stages without losing time

Author: Marin Niehues, Stage Starter · Published: 2026-04-14
Topic: Speaker Agency (https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/topic/speaker-agency/)
Source: https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/speaker-agency-for-ceos-and-founders/

A speaker agency for CEOs and founders takes on research, submission and follow-up, so that only the time for the talk itself is left for you. For a managing director, the bottleneck with conference talks is the calendar: the talk takes one day, while the work before it is spread over months and competes with appointments that concern the daily business. Anyone who speaks at a professional conference as a founder or CEO gives the company a face in front of specialists among whom future clients are sitting. This article shows what work lies behind such a talk, which part an agency takes over and which part stays with you.

**One day is enough for a CEO's talk, while the work before it is spread over months. This preparatory work can be handed to an agency, and the talk and the conversations afterwards stay with you.**

## How do I become a conference speaker as a CEO?

As a CEO you become a conference speaker by submitting a talk proposal or by being invited by the organiser. Many professional conferences fill their programme through a call for papers, the public announcement with which a conference collects talk proposals. Such a proposal is called an abstract and briefly describes what you want to talk about and what the audience will take away. A programme committee, the group at the conference that reads and selects the proposals, decides on inclusion. For a CEO, this means there is no talk without a submitted proposal, and a proposal only enters the selection if it arrives before the deadline. Association and industry conferences more often fill their programme by invitation, and there the route begins with an email to the people responsible for the programme.

The work behind it falls into six stages. First a talk topic has to emerge that a programme committee finds interesting for its audience, then come the abstracts. The search for conferences runs in parallel and has to be kept up to date, because deadlines shift and new calls appear. Every submission goes through its own form, after that following up requires patience, and after an acceptance someone coordinates technology and slot with the organiser.

## How much time does a conference talk cost a CEO?

With an agency, a conference talk costs you a few conversations at the start and one approval, a few hours in total before the start, plus two to three travel days per talk and the preparation of the talk. If you do it yourself, the whole submission workload comes on top. In our own submissions for clients, around 7 per cent of abstracts are accepted, and per conference we reach up to 19 per cent, while 5 per cent at most is typical in the market at this volume of submissions. A submission operation that reliably produces talks reaches at least a hundred submissions to around twenty conferences in the first month and at least fifty a month after that.

With finished, standardised abstracts, fifteen to twenty submissions in one day are realistic, so the sending alone takes five to seven days in the first month and around three days a month after that. Including preparation and follow-up, the full operation costs around 25 to 35 hours a month according to our experience. Anyone who cannot clear this time in one block spreads it over spare hours, and then deadlines pass. The detailed calculation is in [how much time does a conference programme with a speaker agency cost you?](/en/blog/speaker-agency-time-commitment/).

**A CEO's time requirement at a glance**
- 2 to 3 days | travel days per talk in another city, excluding preparation
- 25 to 35 hours | a month for the full operation if you do it yourself
- 1 approval | of talk and abstracts before the start at Stage Starter

Preparing for the talk itself stays with you. That includes polishing the talk, one or two rehearsals in front of an audience and agreeing technology and running order with the organiser, which we prepare for you.

## Is a conference talk worth it for a CEO?

A conference talk is worth it for a CEO because it shows the company to an audience that includes future clients, and because a single assignment from it can cover the costs of a whole year. A CEO on stage always speaks for the company as well. The audience at a professional conference consists of people with a professional problem, and whoever explains a solution to them is remembered as the head of a company that understands this problem. Larger B2B purchases are usually decided by a group from several functions, and a talk often reaches several people from the same company at once.

The visibility extends beyond the room and strengthens the company's brand. Conferences publish their programme and speaker profiles on their website, where your name appears next to your company's name, and such pages usually remain available after the conference. How expert authority arises in B2B and what the stage contributes is set out in [what is thought leadership in B2B, and what does the stage have to do with it?](/en/blog/thought-leadership-b2b/).

**A CEO on stage gives the company a face in front of the professional audience, one that listeners remember when they later look for a supplier.**

Suitable topics for a CEO come from running the company and from the market of its clients: a decision the company has made, a change in the industry or a problem its clients share. Programme committees select such talks when they give the audience something usable, and they filter out company presentations early.

## Preparation within your own team: where delegating to assistants and marketing ends

The obvious move is to hand the work to an assistant or to marketing. For deadlines and forms that works well. An abstract, however, emerges from the speaker's expertise and stance, and a programme committee recognises a text that sounds like boilerplate. An assistant would need an in-depth conversation with you for it, and marketing would first have to get to know the conference landscape.

Then there is the operation over months. Replies from conferences often arrive weeks after the call has closed, and anyone following up on the side leaves acceptances on the table that a second contact could still have secured. If several executives are to speak, this work grows with each person, and how such a programme for the whole leadership team is set up is described in [corporate speaking as a programme](/en/blog/corporate-speaking-programme/).

## Pay to speak: one purchased slot against a whole operation

Anyone with money and little time finds an offer on the market that seems to combine both. With pay to speak, an organiser sells speaking slots, usually as a sponsorship package or for a speaker fee, and that quickly costs €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot. The time saved is real, because the selection process falls away. Sponsored sessions are often not labelled in the programme, yet professional audiences recognise them by their content as soon as the talk sounds like a sales pitch. What to bear in mind is described in [sponsored talks and pay to speak: do I have to pay for the stage as a speaker?](/en/blog/do-speakers-have-to-pay-for-the-stage/)

Against a single purchased slot, an agency offers a monthly fee for the whole operation. Twelve months from €990 net add up to €11,880 net, and for that a whole year of submission work runs across many conferences instead of a talk at one.

**Three routes to a conference talk from a CEO's point of view**
Criterion | Submitting yourself | Pay to speak | Stage Starter
CEO's time | 25 to 35 hours a month for the full operation | the talk itself and its preparation | a few conversations and one approval of talk and abstracts before the start
What it costs | working time for you and your team | quickly €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot | from €990 net per month for the whole operation
How the slot comes about | submission through calls for papers | purchase from the organiser | submission through calls for papers and direct approach, in your name
Who does the work | you or your team | the organiser sells, you prepare | Stage Starter, from research to accompanying you on stage

## Speaker agency for CEOs: what it takes on and what stays with you

A speaker agency takes on all the work before the talk for CEOs. This is the work [Stage Starter](/en/) takes on for you: we find the right calls, write the submission and submit it. We develop the talk and abstracts with you, you approve both once before the start, and after that we submit without every submission landing on your desk. Then we follow up and accompany you to the stage. Where a conference fills its programme by invitation and personal approach, as many association and industry conferences do, we approach the organiser directly. How such a collaboration is structured overall is shown in the [guide to speaker agencies](/en/blog/speaker-agency-guide/).

You give the talk yourself, and you also hold the conversations afterwards yourself. A one-day talk in another city costs two travel days, or three with a long journey or an evening before. With one to three talks in the first year that is two to nine days, and with four to six talks later on eight to eighteen. Preparing the talk comes on top and is counted separately.

The collaboration starts from €990 net per month. Anyone who wants a written roadmap first starts with the Speaker Audit from €2,000 net, which is credited if you later commission the agency.

**What stays with you**
Your expertise and the one-time approval of talk and abstracts before the start stay with you. Added to that are the talk itself and the conversations afterwards.

## Who the model pays off for most

The model pays off most for CEOs with little free time, high order values and the ambition to speak in front of professional audiences. If one client won brings in more than €11,880 net in revenue, a single assignment covers a year of fees in this example, and such an assignment is worth more than any fee a professional conference would pay. Anyone who submits alone chooses the more demanding alternative and pays with calendar time that is missing from the daily business. The example calculation can be transferred to your company's client value.

**A speaker agency for CEOs and founders takes the submission work up to the stage off your hands and leaves you the talk and the conversations afterwards. At Stage Starter that starts from €990 net per month, while a single purchased speaking slot quickly costs €10,000 or more.**

**Sources**
The acceptance rates come from Stage Starter's analysis of our own submissions for clients. Submission volumes, daily output, hours per month and travel days per talk are experience values from our work.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I become a conference speaker as a CEO?

You submit a talk proposal to a professional conference as soon as it publishes a call for papers, or the organiser invites you. An agency takes on the submission, and you approve the talk and abstracts once before the start. No agency can guarantee an acceptance, because the programme committee decides.

### How much time does a talk cost a CEO?

With an agency, a talk costs a few conversations and one approval before the start, plus two to three travel days per talk and the preparation. If you do it yourself, around 25 to 35 hours a month for submitting, list maintenance and follow-up come on top, according to our experience.

### Should I speak myself as a founder or send an employee?

When the CEO speaks, the audience perceives the company as a whole, and conversation partners in the room know they are talking to a decision-maker. An employee with practical knowledge is a good addition and frees up your calendar, so both routes exist side by side.

### What does a speaker agency for CEOs cost?

At Stage Starter the collaboration starts from €990 net per month. The Speaker Audit in advance costs from €2,000 net, which is credited when you commission the agency. Pay to speak quickly costs €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot.

### Is a conference talk worth it for a CEO?

A conference talk is worth it for a CEO when the room is full of people who could become clients. With a high order value, a single assignment from this audience covers the costs of a whole year. The CEO holds the conversations afterwards as a decision-maker among equals.

### What does a CEO talk do for the company's brand?

A CEO talk gives the company a face in front of specialists in its industry and links the company name with a topic. The programme and speaker profile remain available on the conference website. Recordings and posts about the talk carry the effect further.

### Which topics suit a talk by a CEO?

Suitable topics for a CEO are decisions from running the company, changes in the industry and problems the company's clients share. What matters is that the audience takes away something usable. A company presentation fails with the programme committee.

### Can someone write the talk for the CEO?

An agency develops the talk and abstracts from conversations with the CEO, so that content and stance come from them. At Stage Starter this is part of the start of the collaboration. The CEO gives the talk personally and approves it beforehand.

### How do you get several executives onto conferences?

You get several executives onto conferences through a corporate speaking programme in which each person has their own topic and their own target conferences. The agency runs the submissions for all of them in parallel. This creates a coordinated presence for the leadership team.

## How to measure an offer

The CEO provides expertise and approval, gives the talk and holds the conversations afterwards, while research, forms and follow-up lie with an agency. Anyone evaluating an agency takes this division as the yardstick and asks to see every stage in the offer. Whether your topic suits open calls or a direct approach is something we clarify with you in an [initial consultation](/en/erstgespraech/).