# Speaker Agency for Financial Services and Fintechs

Author: Marin Niehues, Stage Starter · Published: 2026-03-10
Topic: Speaker Agency (https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/topic/speaker-agency/)
Source: https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/speaker-agency-for-financial-services-fintech/

A speaker agency for financial services and fintechs researches suitable conferences and develops the talk and abstracts for you. It submits in your name and takes you all the way to the stage. The aim is a slot as a speaker at a fintech conference or another specialist event in the industry, in front of people who may later become clients. An abstract is the short description of a planned talk, on which a programme committee, the jury of a conference, decides. This article shows which stages the finance industry has, how compliance approval works, what an agency takes off your hands and what it costs: the collaboration starts from €990 net per month.

**Financial services firms and fintechs reach their future clients on two kinds of stage: technology and fintech conferences with open calls, and industry and association conferences that fill their programme mostly by invitation. An agency experienced in both routes takes all the work off your hands, from research to follow-up.**

## Why the finance industry needs its own answer to the agency question

Anyone selling consulting, software or a service in finance usually offers something that is hard to explain in an advert and that asks the buyer for trust. That applies to advisers to banks as much as to fintech founders: before deciding, the buyer wants to see that someone understands their field. A professional conference offers that opportunity, because the audience consists of people who have to solve a problem in that field, and a talk demonstrates competence through a concrete example.

At banks and insurers several people usually have a say in purchases, for example from the business unit and IT, often joined by procurement. The buying center model, which Frederick Webster and Yoram Wind described in the early 1970s, distinguishes roles in such a group such as users, influencers, deciders, buyers and gatekeepers. How such a group works is described in the article on the [buying center in B2B](/en/blog/buying-centre-b2b/). A talk can reach several of these roles in the same room, and an appearance keeps working when someone mentions your name inside their company afterwards.

Advisers and founders in this industry have full calendars, and the work for a conference appearance is spread over months: finding conferences, meeting deadlines, writing abstracts, following up. Our conference database covers about 22,700 conferences and, on the reference date, about 1,500 open calls for papers, the public announcements with which conferences collect talk proposals, and each of these calls has its own deadline.

## Which fintech conferences and finance stages are there?

The stages of the finance industry fall into four types: fintech and payments conferences, banking days and banking congresses, insurance days, and technology conferences with a finance focus. Anyone who wants to speak at a fintech conference therefore finds suitable stages more widely spread than the term suggests. A talk on payments or fraud detection fits a technology stage as well as a finance stage, and anyone who searches only for finance conferences misses some of the rooms where their target audience sits.

Two well-known examples show the range. Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam, one of the large conferences for payments and fintech, collects sessions through an open call for content. Euro Finance Week in Frankfurt, a conference week for the banking and financial markets sector, fills its programme mostly through invitations and partnerships. Between these two poles lie the industry days of associations as well as professional conferences on single topics such as regulation or risk management.

**The field we submit in**
- about 22,700 | conferences in our conference database
- about 1,500 | open calls for papers on the reference date
- up to 19 per cent | acceptances per conference for our clients

## Two routes onto the stage: open call and direct approach

The first route runs through the call for papers. Many technology and fintech conferences advertise their speaking slots publicly, and a submission in winter often leads to an appearance in spring.

Our own figures show how high the chance per submission is. We have submitted 2,189 abstracts for clients, of which 1,374 have been decided: 94 were accepted and 1,280 rejected, which is about 7 per cent per abstract. We reach up to 19 per cent per conference, because we often submit several abstracts per conference, while 5 per cent at most is typical in the market at this volume of submissions. How to read these rates is explained in the article on the [acceptance rate for calls for papers](/en/blog/call-for-papers-acceptance-rate/).

The second route runs through direct approach. Industry and association conferences in finance fill their programme mostly by invitation, and there it matters that an organiser knows you and your topic before planning the programme. How to reach such organisers is described in the article [Writing to organisers directly](/en/blog/contact-conference-organisers-directly/).

## What do I need to consider for compliance and approval of talks at banks?

At banks and insurers an external talk needs approval from the internal functions, usually communications and compliance, before it is submitted, and you plan this approval once for the talk and its abstracts. The review checks whether the talk contains confidential information, whether client examples respect banking secrecy and data protection, and whether statements about products count as advertising. For investment services firms in Germany, information to clients including marketing communications must be fair, clear and not misleading (Section 63 (6) WpHG). Under the European Market Abuse Regulation, listed companies also make sure that no talk touches on inside information. This article provides an overview and does not constitute legal advice.

For the finance industry, the single approval at Stage Starter therefore has a practical advantage. The talk with its abstracts goes through communications and compliance once and does not have to be resubmitted for every conference, and adaptations to individual forms stay within the approved content. We clarify your company's internal rules before the start, so that the approval process does not cost you a deadline.

## What a speaker agency does for financial services firms

[Stage Starter takes this work off your hands: we find the right calls, write the submission and submit it](/en/). Before that we develop the talk and abstracts with you, and afterwards we follow up and accompany you to the stage, including through a direct approach to the organiser at conferences without a call. From you we need your expertise and one approval: you approve the talk and abstracts once before the start, after which we submit without every single submission landing on your desk. You hold the conversations after the appearance yourself, because that is where a contact turns into an assignment or not. The services and models of agencies as a whole are set out in the [speaker agency guide](/en/blog/speaker-agency-guide/).

**What working together asks of you**
One conversation at the start, in which your expertise and your examples are put on the table, and a single approval of talk and abstracts. After that we get in touch when we have questions, and you receive reports on submissions and results.

Developing the talk takes time, because the topic has to be cut so that a programme committee sees a gain for its audience in it. A talk about a product has little chance on a professional stage, while a talk about a problem of the audience has a far better one. Topics that go down well at finance conferences are those banks and insurers are currently having to rebuild: artificial intelligence in lending and fraud detection, real-time payments, the implementation of new regulation such as the European rules on digital operational resilience (DORA), sustainability in lending and the replacement of old core banking systems.

## What working together costs and what a purchased slot costs

At Stage Starter the collaboration starts from €990 net per month. If you would like a written roadmap first, you begin with the Speaker Audit from €2,000 net, which is credited when you book the agency. There are also offers in which an organiser sells speaking slots: at finance conferences pay to speak quickly costs €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot, as much as about ten months of agency work. Sponsored sessions are often not labelled in the programme, but a professional audience recognises them by their content.

**Three routes onto a stage in the finance industry**
Criterion | Submit yourself | Pay to speak | Stage Starter
Who does the work | you, alongside daily business | you, with a purchased slot as the result | we do, from research to accompanying you
What it costs | days of your working time each month | 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 | purchase as a sponsorship package | submission and outreach in your name
Pays off most when | your calendar has room for research and follow-up, with the time cost counted in | you want to buy a single appearance | your time is short, the order value high and a professional audience the goal

Which pricing models exist on the market and what a monthly fee should include is covered in the article [What does a speaker agency cost?](/en/blog/speaker-agency-cost/). No agency can guarantee an acceptance, because the programme committee of each conference decides.

## For whom the model pays off most

The model pays off most for advisers and fintech founders who want to win B2B clients and whose assignments are large enough that a single new client covers a year of monthly fees, which together come to €11,880 net over twelve months. Professional conferences reach decision-makers in companies, and this audience makes the route so effective for B2B providers with a high order value. Anyone who prefers to submit themselves chooses the more laborious alternative and does best to count the days that research and follow-up take as a cost.

**Financial services firms and fintechs get onto conference stages as speakers by two routes: through open calls at technology and fintech conferences and through direct approach at industry and association conferences. A speaker agency takes over the work behind this from €990 net per month, and the talk and abstracts go through your approval and that of your compliance function only once.**

**Sources**
- Frederick E. Webster and Yoram Wind: A General Model for Understanding Organizational Buying Behavior, journal article in the Journal of Marketing, 1972
- Federal Republic of Germany: Gesetz über den Wertpapierhandel (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz, WpHG), section 63 (6), statute, 1994
- European Parliament and Council of the EU: Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on market abuse (Market Abuse Regulation, MAR), regulation, 2014
- European Parliament and Council of the EU: Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA), regulation, 2022

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a speaker agency specifically for financial services?

Yes, Stage Starter gets financial services firms and fintechs onto the stages of their industry, with the aim of winning B2B clients there. We research the right conferences and develop the talk and abstracts. Then we submit in your name and accompany you to the stage.

### How do I get to speak at a fintech conference?

You get onto a fintech conference through a call for papers, which many conferences advertise publicly, or through a direct approach to the organiser. Your proposal has to solve a problem of the audience, and the deadline decides whether you can still take part in this edition.

### Which fintech conferences are there?

There are fintech and payments conferences, banking days and banking congresses, insurance days and technology conferences with a finance focus. Well-known examples are Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam with an open call for content and Euro Finance Week in Frankfurt, which fills its programme mostly by invitation.

### Which topics go down well at finance conferences?

Topics go down well that banks and insurers are currently having to implement, such as artificial intelligence in lending and fraud detection, real-time payments or the implementation of new regulation such as DORA. Programme committees choose talks that shed light on a problem with experience from real projects.

### What do I need to consider for compliance and approval of talks at banks?

At banks an external talk needs approval from communications and compliance before it is submitted. At Stage Starter the talk with its abstracts goes through this approval once and does not have to be resubmitted for every conference.

### May a bank employee talk about products at conferences?

A bank employee may talk about products if internal approval has been given and no statement is misleading. At professional conferences, though, a talk about a problem of the audience achieves more than a product presentation, which programme committees and listeners file as advertising.

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

At Stage Starter the collaboration starts from €990 net per month, and the Speaker Audit costs from €2,000 net. A purchased speaking slot at finance conferences, by contrast, quickly costs €10,000 or more.

### Do I have to pay to speak at a finance conference?

No, at professional conferences with an open call a programme committee decides on the slots without selling them. With pay to speak the speaker buys the slot, usually as a sponsorship package, and quickly pays €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot.

For financial services firms and fintechs, what counts in choosing an agency is whether it knows both routes onto the stage, discloses its figures and organises approval so that it fits your company's internal processes. What this looks like for your topic is something we clarify in a [first conversation](/en/erstgespraech/).